| Thu 28 May 2009, 8:55 | | TAW - Tawana - Annual General Meeting: Chairman`s address |
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TAW
TAW
TAW - Tawana - Annual General Meeting: Chairman`s address
Tawana Resources NL
(Incorporated in Australia)
(Registration number ACN 085 166 721)
Share code on the JSE Limited: TAW
ISIN: AU000000TAW7
Share code on the Australian Stock Exchange Limited: TAW
ISIN: AU000000TAW7
("Tawana" or "the Company")
Tawana Resources N.L. Annual General Meeting
Chairman`s Address
Welcome to the Annual General Meeting of Tawana Resources. My name is Neil
Barrie, and I am the Executive Chairman of the company.
It has been an extraordinary year for all world economies and Tawana has had its
fair share of testing times, particularly in relation to the ongoing sourcing of
capital, the ability to attract satisfactory joint venture partners into our
projects and importantly, the need to trim our sails to survive this financial
storm.
As mentioned in my numerous releases over the past 6 to 9 months, our clear
focus has been on attempting to get Kareevlei into trial mining and to
capitalise on the significant upside that we feel is inherent in our Orapa
tenements in Botswana.
We signed a binding agreement in South Africa in October that would see us sell
26% of Kareevlei to earn approximately AUD$1.8M. This capital injection would
have certainly allowed us to get Kareevlei going as a trial mine and
importantly, recapitalise the company and allow us to turn our attentions to the
highly promising Orapa project in Botswana. Unfortunately the purchaser
defaulted and we have obtained judgement against them in the High Court of South
Africa.
We entered into a joint venture in early 2008 with a group in Botswana which was
to earn a 51% equity in BK24 by virtue of undertaking significant bulk sampling.
We were concerned that the joint venture agreement entered into by previous
management was over generous and not tightly performance based. The joint
venture partners clearly did not perform and we have moved quickly to secure
total ownership of the project by cancelling the joint venture. We are in
discussion with numerous parties in South Africa, Botswana and the UK who have
expressed interest in participating in this exciting project.
In order to trim our sails to meet the economic times, I moved quickly on
appointment to the role of Executive Chairman to cut corporate overheads by 95%.
This unfortunately has meant that the majority of our South African and all of
our Australian employees were made redundant and our expensive head office in
Wilson Street with its soil analysis laboratory was leased out to other parties
and allowed us to exit from any ongoing financial responsibilities.
Most recently, we have been involved in the potential sale of our interest in
Rakana our minority coal and manganese exploration interests in South Africa. As
you may be aware, our interest in Rakana is held in a joint venture with our
Black Empowerment Partners in South Africa and it is felt that a sale of this
asset is prudent to allow us to recapitalise your company and move forward. We
hope to have this finalised within the next few days.
Despite these exceptionally difficult times, I am pleased to report that your
company still maintains a suite of quality mineral assets and renewed enthusiasm
and focus on the tasks at hand.
We remain extremely positive about the potential for Kareevlei. We are aiming to
commence trial mining through a joint venture with a group of mining contractors
in the near future. We feel it prudent to work with mining contractors as they
can bring exceptionally tight economies to projects, thereby substantially
reducing our operational and hence financial risk.
We believe that Orapa in Botswana is a potential company maker.
I am very cognisant that the share price of our company has been under a great
deal of pressure for a long time. I hope that our strategies which clearly focus
on getting Tawana to a mining house situation will see an improved share market
performance and strong capital markets` interest in a company which I believe
has outstanding potential.
In closing, I would like to sincerely thank my fellow Directors, Brian Phillips,
Euan Luff and Nonkqubela Mazwai and our South African subsidiary director Adrian
Horwitz for their untiring support and stewardship.
We look forward to a much improved 2009.
Thank you for your attendance and support.
Neil Barrie
Executive Chairman
28 May 2009
Sponsor
PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance (Pty) Ltd
Date: 28/05/2009 08:55:01 Produced by the JSE SENS Department.
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