British mineral exploration and development company Afferro Mining Inc. and Russian steelmaker Severstal have announced that they have agreed to further delay the closing of the sale of Afferro's 38.5 percent minority interest in the Putu iron ore project in Liberia to Severstal's indirect subsidiary Lybica Holding B.V., due to ongoing tax talks with Liberia's finance ministry.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, the ministry claimed that Lybica should withhold tax at the rate of 15 percent upon payment of the purchase price of the transaction. However, Afferro and Severstal have stated that such a tax is not applicable to the transaction.
Afferro and Severstal have agreed to delay the closing of the sale until April 4, 2012.