Resolutions to dismiss directors rejected

Atrum Coal’s shareholders have voted down two resolutions from company founder and former director, Gino D’Anna, which aimed to remove two of the company’s directors.

At an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on 1 April, shareholders holding 59.3% of the company’s stock voted against the resolutions, which would have removed Steven Boulton and Cameron Vorias, from the board.

“The shareholders did not support this action from Mr D’Anna,” said Bob Bell, Atrum’s Executive Chairman. “As previously stated, the company has benefitted from the input from both Mr Vorias and Mr Boulton since there appointments and will continue to do so into the future.”

Before the vote, Bell had criticised the calling of the EGM as an “unnecessary distraction of management and board attention that would been better put to use in the affairs of the company.”

Bell was also scathing of the resolutions, noting that since D’Anna had resigned from the Atrum board last year, he “has not been involved in any meeting of the board” and is “therefore not in a position to comment on the individual contributions of Mr Vorias and Mr Boulton.”

The EGM was the latest spat in a dispute between D’Anna and co-founder of Atrum, Russell Moran, and the current board. D’Anna and Moran were forced out of the company last year after alleged misconduct, although both retain significant shareholdings.

In March, D’Anna and Moran announced their new company, BC Anthracite, had been awarded 36 coal licences in the anthracite fields of British Columbia, Canada, adjacent to Atrum Coal’s existing Groundhog project. That move prompted legal action from Atrum Coal.

Away from the boardroom shenanigans, Atrum Coal announced that it has settled a promissory note payable to Anglo Pacific Group, which had a balance of US$1.4 million at the end of March. The note was settled through payment of US$0.6 million and the granting of a new royalty.

“We are pleased to have settled the Anglo Pacific promissory note in a manner that conserves the company’s current cash reserves,” said Bell.

Edited by Jonathan Rowland.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/exploration-and-development/05042016/resolutions-to-dismiss-directors-rejected-2016-522/