KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (June 29): Fortress Minerals Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Selangor Dredging Bhd, said the resumption of mining activity by its wholly-owned subsidiary Fortress Mining Sdn Bhd (FMSB) will be delayed again due to the Malaysian government’s recent decision to maintain its Covid-19 pandemic-driven nationwide total lockdown under Phase 1 of the National Recovery Plan or Pelan Pemulihan Negara (PPN) beyond. Fortress Minerals chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Seri Ivan Chee Yew Fei said in a statement to Singapore Exchange Ltd yesterday that the group, which operates iron ore mines in Terengganu’s Bukit Besi, is unable to quantify and determine the extent of the financial impact of the lockdown on the company’s earnings for the financial year ending February 28, 2022. (FY22).
Fortress Minerals, according to Chee, “will continue to have in place the appropriate health, hygiene, and distancing procedures” to keep its employees safe and assure complete operations until the absolute lockdown is released.
“The board will continue to watch the evolving situation and will issue appropriate announcements as and when material developments occur,” he said.
According to the latest update from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), the iron and steel industries are among the manufacturing and manufacturing-related services industries that are permitted to operate in a “warm idle” state.
“As a result, the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, namely FMSB, is permitted to operate its mining operations in a ‘warm idle’ condition during the effective time, i.e. with a 10% worker capacity, as defined in MITI’s notification on May 30, 2021, subject to MITI’s permission,” he said.
According to Chee, FMSB received such approval from MITI on May 30, 2021.
“As of the date of this release (June 28, 2021), MITI had made no revisions or changes to the list of manufacturing and manufacturing-related services sectors that were allowed to operate in a “warm idle” mode throughout the prolonged effective time. As a result, unless MITI revises the list and/or its regulations, FMSB will retain its mining activities in a ‘warm idle’ state for the duration of the extended effective period “he stated
According to Selangor Dredging’s most recent annual report, the property developer owns a 31 percent share in Fortress Minerals through its 100 percent-owned SDB Mining Sdn Bhd.
As of today’s writing, Selangor Dredging shares were not trading on Bursa Malaysia.
Selangor Dredging had a market value of around RM281.25 million at its last closing share price of 66 sen, based on its 426.13 million issued shares. Continue reading
