Johannesburg — THE Sishen Iron Ore mineral rights case is set to become an angry, drawn-out affair, with Imperial Crown Trading yesterday countering allegations that it had fraudulently copied Kumba 's applications.

Yesterday it emerged that Imperial may claim that its own application for prospecting rights at Sishen had been manipulated.

News reports over the past week that Kumba intended to claim its application for residual mineral rights at the Sishen mine were "fraudulently copied" by Imperial were confirmed yesterday when Kumba's legal team released legal documents after requests under the Promotion of Access to Information Act. The supplementary affidavits to its initial submissions contain what appears to be convincing evidence that Imperial's application was drawn up using at least part of Kumba's application, submitted a day early on April 30 last year.

Yesterday, Imperial MD Jagdish Parekh said he was "shocked at some of the claims, including the distortions involved in them", adding only that the company would submit its responding arguments soon.

Kumba's supplementary affidavits confirm recent news reports that the basis on which the company claimed Imperial had falsified its documentation arose out of certain tell-tale signs that are evident from title deeds which Imperial submitted as part of its bid.

The title deeds in Imperial's application are apparently photocopies. In various places where the official stamp authenticating the title deeds appears in Kumba's set of documents, this area has been crudely obscured in Imperial's set, the supplementary affidavits suggest.

In addition, in some of the photocopied documents, text from the reverse side of the document is faintly visible, and these images demonstrate that the documents were copied from Kumba's set.

Sources suggest, however, that this is unlikely to be the end of this aspect of the dispute. Kumba will need to demonstrate that the documents that it suggests make up Imperial's application are in fact those that were actually submitted.

Kumba's officials, by their own admission, had unauthorised access to Imperial's files.

The heated allegations and counter allegations suggest the case may take longer to get to court than expected, perhaps starting only in the second half of next year. The contested nature of the case may complicate the interim iron-ore supply agreement reached between Kumba and ArcelorMittal SA, which has made an R800m offer for Imperial.