19 December 2008
	Two for the price of one By Matthew Hill

Buy one, get one free. That's what new oil play SacOil is offering investors who get in before 2008 is out. The company will give them one share in subsidiary Pioneer Coal for each SacOil share they hold. SacOil (formerly Samroc) plans to spin this company off with a separate JSE listing in the first quarter. The oil hopeful is creating Pioneer to house and develop coal prospecting rights it's acquiring from ANC national executive committee member Thaba Mufamadi, and Ofhani Phaswana. These prospecting rights are in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu Natal. Pioneer is also evaluating acquiring certain producing coal assets, director Robin Vela says. The company will be majority black-owned, and Vela says it will list in the first quarter of 2009. Board members will include Mufamadi, Phaswana, Vela and Bird, as well as former Gold Fields Coal (which Anglo Coal bought in 1998) executives Barbara Day and Rob Adey. Indications are that Pioneer Coal will be looking to raise R200m early next year to fund exploration, due to start in the first quarter of 2009. Vela says production will come relatively quickly thereafter as the resources are shallow. This could happen as early as the third or fourth quarter, if things go according to plan. He's reluctant to give production forecasts as it's still early days.