BlackGold says bribery allegations won't affect operations, financials

SINGAPORE - BlackGold Natural Resources on Monday evening (Aug 27) said it was not aware of any suspension of its Riau-1 Project project, and has not been notified of any suspension.

It also does not expect bribery allegations surrounding the project to have any impact on its existing mining operations, as the group's operations have been, and are currently focused on the production of coal for sale to its existing customers only, and not for the Riau-1 Project.

The group's financials are also not expected to be impacted by any revocation of the project.

The coal miner was responding to queries from the Singapore Exchange over the company's July announcement about bribery allegations surrounding two individuals related to its Riau-1 Project, in the amount of about 4.8 billion rupiah (about S$448,600).

BlackGold also acknowledged that Johanes Budisutrisno Kotjo, one of the two alleged individuals, is the uncle of James Rijanto, the group's chief investment officer, but said that both the board and Mr Rijanto were not aware of the bribery allegations before anti-corruption government agency Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi's press statement.

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