Miningweekly cited Mr Wesley Voorheis chairperson of Hudbay assaying that the newly installed board of directors of HudBay Minerals will call a meeting of shareholders before the end of June, to present its view of the base metals miner's situation and map out plans for the way forward.
An increasingly acrimonious battle between the outgoing directors and 11% shareholder SRM Global Master Fund came to a head on last Monday evening, when HudBay announced that its entire board had resigned and been replaced by a slate nominated by SRM.
The outgoing board opted to make the announcement early, after receiving preliminary results from a proxy vote on the issue and cancelled a meeting of shareholders that was scheduled for last Wednesday.
Mr Voorheis said that instead, the new board will hold its first meeting on last Wednesday morning.
Colin Benner interim CEO of HudBay, who stepped into the top spot last week to replace Mr Allen Palmiere resigned on last Monday and was replaced by SRM's choice for the position, Mr Peter Jones.
Mr Jones, who had a reputation for a cautious management style, led the copper and zinc producer until early 2007, when Mr Palmiere was appointed.
Mr Voorheis said that there are no current plans for any further changes to the senior management.
He said that “The CEO will conduct his own review and determine what, if anything he wants to do about making changes. As of right now, there are no plans or intentions to make any changes but that could of course change as events evolve.”
He added that the new leadership will spend the next few months familiarizing itself with the ins and outs of the company and will report to shareholders before mid year. At that meeting we will talk to them about where we are at and where we intend to go.
Mr Voorheis said that the fact that shareholders were able to block the Lundin deal, even though HudBay claimed it was not required to hold a vote, and then express their disapproval strongly enough to replace the board is a not insignificant accomplishment for shareholder rights.
He said that “I think that this is one of the few occasions in the recent past where shareholders have fairly significantly decided that they wanted to do it differently.
He added that “And so, for the new board, I think we all feel a sense of obligation and responsibility not only to the Hudbay shareholders, but shareholders generally.”
(Sourced from Miningwekly.com)
