Mr Craig Williams president & CEO of Equinox Minerals and three others have resigned from the board of directors with immediate effect, barely days after accepting to be bought off by competitor miner, Barrick Gold Corporation for a value USD 7.7 billion.
Mr William and three other board members, Mr David McAusland, Mr David Mosher, Mr Jim Pantelidis and Mr Tony Reeves tendered their resignation from the board of directors with immediate effect. No reasons were given for their stepping out of the board team.
In a statement released on June 3rd 2011, Mr Williams and three others have opted out of the company board team for unspecified reasons, prompting the company to appoint Mr Rick McCreary, Mr Jamie Sokalsky, Mr Kelvin Dushnisky and Mr Rob Krcmarov have been appointed to the Board as replacements. Ms Jennifer Mazin has been appointed as the Assistant Company Secretary. Additionally, management of the company decided to trim the number of board members to six from seven directors.
Mr Williams in reacting to his resignation from the board of directors complimented the board for its outstanding contribution which along with the Company's dedicated management team have built Equinox into a leading global mining company. He said that the Company that I co founded with the late Dr Bruce Nisbet in 1993 has evolved from a USD 10 million junior explorer to a major copper miner valued at over USD 7 billion. A credit to all involved in driving Equinox over the last 18 years. I offer my sincere thanks to all who have worked with me over those exciting and stimulating years..
Recently, Barrick Gold won the bid to buy off 100%, Equinox Minerals Limited, owners of Lumwana open pit Copper Mines in Zambia’s Solwezi in north western province where the company invested more than USD 1 billion to date to ensure its sustainability.
Equinox has since stated that following the satisfaction of all conditions to the offer by Barrick Gold Corporation to acquire all of the common shares in Equinox at a price of CAD 8.15 per share by way of takeover bid it decided to make some changes following the departure of some board members.
As per report, in Zambia, the sale of Equinox Minerals to Barrick Gold Corporation has raised some concerns from local people where the Greenfield mine is situated. A member of the Kapijimpanga royal establishment argued that Zambian President Rupiah Banda’s government did not respect the people of North Western Province for allowing the 100% purchase of Lumwana mine by Canada’s Barrick Gold.
Mr Davies Kapijimpanga said that it was wrong for the government to allow the transaction that will see the total purchase of Lumwana Copper Mine by Barrick Gold Corporation of Canada as part of the takeover of Equinox Minerals Limited. This issue is worrying us as a people coming from the North Western Province. The fact that government has surrendered even the little shares it had in Equinox Minerals shows that the new owners will just come with impunity.
He said that there was no way a government could relinquish even the small shares it held in the mining company. What if Barrick Gold Corporation says we have no need for these employees, therefore we will fire all of them? What will be the benefit of the local people in that area? Already there are no benefits, so shall we just continue to give away our minerals for free? He contended that the local municipality, Solwezi Council was not benefiting, as it should from the mining sector.
Mr Kapijimpanga said that “Solwezi is supposed to be the richest town in the country because Zambia has been rated the second-biggest mining nation in the world. Solwezi should be collecting about US$15 million annually from the mines, considering the huge profits Kansanshi and other mines make.”
Last week the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission granted final conditional authorization to the proposed acquisition of 100% shareholding of Equinox Minerals Limited by Barrick Gold Corporation on condition among others that Barrick Gold does not assume the 2.28% share owned by ZCCM IH and that the company should honor the subsisting agreements that Lumwana Copper Mines had entered into with the local smelter, local suppliers to the mine and other third line industries.
(Filed by Mr Kapembwa Sinkamba SteelGuru Correspondent Zambia)
