“The basis for provisioning under South Africa’s draft NEMA regulations simply does not accurately reflect the actual or likely sums needed to discharge such liabilities.  It is precisely because these sums are considered to be artificial, and arbitrarily inflated, that the draft has remained under review since 2015.  This is an industry-wide matter in South Africa, so the regulations on which the Boatman report apparently draws its conclusion are far from being finalised,” Anglo American group head: corporate communications James Wyatt-Tilby said in a written response to Mining Weekly.

 

The Telegraph reports that a 39-page dossier by Boatman states that future coal sales have been overstated and environmental liabilities understated.

According to a report written by Oliver Gill, The Telegraph’s chief business correspondent on June 5, Boatman’s estimates that the environmental liabilities of Thungela could be three times greater than currently reported and more than the value of the entire company.

 

Anglo has demerged its thermal coal operations into Thungela.

 

Mining Weekly had not received response from Thungela at the time of going to press.

 

Boatman states on its website that the report has been prepared for information purposes only and should not be considered under any circumstances to be investment advice.