Business Reporter
GWERU-BASED gold and antimony miner Aquarium Trading has been placed under provisional liquidation due to mismanagement and shareholder disputes, according to court papers. Mr Knowledge Hofisi of Aurifin Capital Private Limited was appointed provisional liquidator after Tamira Overseas SA, the 48 percent shareholder in the gold mining company, successfully applied for provisional liquidation at the Bulawayo High Court.
In the court papers, Tamira, which bought the stake in the company in May last year, said Aquarium was running at a loss due to mismanagement and shareholder disputes.
As such, the company was failing to meet its obligations said to be close to $350 000.
Further, Tamira, which is claiming to have invested $3,5 million into the business, said the mine was a perennial loss maker, having incurred $1,7 million loss in the last two years.
Aquarium owns one gold and four antimony mines.
Antimony is used as a hardening alloy for lead, especially storage batteries and cable sheaths. It is also used in bearing metal, type metal, solder, collapsible tubes and foil, sheet and pipes.
“It is apparent that the respondent (Aquarium) is badly mismanaged and has flouted various provisions of the laws of Zimbabwe,” said Tamira.
“The disputes at shareholder level obviously affect the business of the company, its funding and profitability.
“These laws have (also) hindered completion of certain statutory requirements arising from Exchange Control, Zimbabwe Investment Authority and the country’s empowerment laws.”
Tamira added that Aquarium cannot be expected to cater for its current obligations amounting to close to $350 000, neither is it expected to repay the loans it advanced to the company amounting to about $2,5 million.
This was apart from the $750 000 it might have to repay in respect of the purchase of its shares, it said.
“(The) applicant submits that the respondent can’t trade profitably or trade itself out of indebtedness. In fact, it is insolvent. There is no proof that the respondent has any sustainable mineral reserve.
“In fact, applicant considers that it might have been hoodwinked in respect of such reserves. There is no credible geological report,” it said.
Mr Hofisi said investigations into the operations of the company have already commenced.
“At the moment, I cannot say much but we have already begun our investigations and we will be updating stakeholders, using the proper channels in due course,” he said.
Other shareholders in Aquarium include Sandra Magdalene van Rooyen with 37 percent, Taleb Mohammed with 12 percent and Tru Brethren Private Ltd with three percent.
Taleb Mohammed was the majority shareholder until May last year before offloading 48 percent to Tamira. Aquarium chief executive Taleb Mohamed was recently fired on allegations of failing to account for the funds invested into the company.