Liberty Coal, the owner and operator of the Optimum Colliery (previously Optimum Coal Mine) in Mpumalanga, together with its ultimate owner, Daniel McGowan, have over the course of a little more than a week been subjected to an onslaught of publication and republication of baseless and defamatory information disseminated to the media on 15 May 2025 by small-cap JSE-listed chrome miner Mantengu Mining Limited, its chief executive officer Michael Miller, and Mantengu’s public relations adviser, Janine Mills, in the form of inter alia Mantengu’s widely-distributed “summary” of alleged criminal complaints against them and others, SENS announcements and radio interviews.
The aforesaid persons have recklessly accused Liberty Coal and Mr McGowan, among others including the JSE, of malicious, conspiratorial and fraudulent manipulation of Mantengu’s share price, in a dishonest effort to explain a dire decline in Mantengu’s share price performance.
Each and every allegation of wrongdoing levied against Liberty Coal and Mr McGowan is unsupported by any facts or evidence, ill-conceived and intended to cause harm and damage to their reputations, businesses and commercial interests. In the circumstances, Liberty Coal has launched formal legal proceedings for defamation in which, among other things, it seeks to hold them jointly and severally liable for damages in the sum of R250 million, whilst reserving its rights to claim any patrimonial loss it may yet incur.
