The Detour Lake mine
Fresh from a week of public disagreements with hedge fund Paulson & Co, Ontario miner Detour Gold on Friday issued a statement detailing the “next steps” in building value for its shareholders, addressing issues around potential offers, an update on the CEO search and enhancements to the board.
The company, which is under pressure from Paulson to overhaul its board and put up the business for sale, said that it would replace two existing members with new appointments who have operational expertise in large-scale openpit mining and with experience in corporate social responsibility, including First National engagement.
The appointments will be made in the “near future”, Detour said in a statement.
Detour also disclosed that it has had in place a special committee with a history of evaluating value-creating opportunities since inception. “Over the years, the special committee has been active as required and, whenever the company was approached, approved the signing of confidentially agreements and considered various strategic alternatives. During those periods, no offers to purchase the company’s shares emerged.”
On Wednesday, Paulson issued a media statement saying that a gold mining major had approached Detour about potentially acquiring the firm, information which Detour dismissed and described as “highly misleading”.
Detour said that the special committee would remain focused on implementing the 2018 life of mine plan for Detour Lake, announced in June, and that it review and evaluate strategic avenues for the company, including acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures, the sale of the company, strategic investments and capital raisings.
Detour further reiterated its support for Michael Kenyon as interim CEO and Frazer Bourchier as COO, but said that it would conduct a skills and needs search for a candidate to take the company into its next chapter.
“We are committed to improving upon Detour Lake's past operational performance by making the changes needed to ensure it becomes a consistently profitable operation and giving our new COO, Frazer Bourchier, the time and support he needs to execute. Further enhancing our Board with additional operational expertise and providing shareholders with background on our Special Committee demonstrates that the Board has always been, and remains, committed to creating long-term value for all shareholders,” said chairperson Alex Morrison.