Goldplat Plc said April 4 that it plans to start legal proceedings against Rand Refinery Pty. Ltd. to recover the payment of 13.5 million South African rand in allegedly unpaid invoices after rejecting Rand Refinery's proposal to settle a dispute over a silver processing agreement.

Goldplat CEO Gerard Kisbey-Green said, "We cannot accept a settlement proposal which implies that we owe Rand Refinery anything and will therefore be initiating legal proceedings immediately."

The London-listed company noted that despite completing a thorough independent investigation into the project that was jointly commissioned by both parties, the company was still unable to reach an agreement with Rand Refinery.

Goldplat added it has taken steps to mitigate what it calls "single refiner risk" and assured shareholders that the dispute will have no effect on the group's ability to have material processed and metal refined.