PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior iron-ore developer Kogi Iron on Tuesday announced plans to reorganise company activities, resulting in the closure of the Perth office and the resignation of MD Iggy Tan and CFO Shane Volk.
The current weak capital markets and the limited availability of funding for exploration and development companies had prompted the iron-ore developer to look at minimising costs.
As part of the reorganisation, Kogi started a process to review the size, composition and skill set of its current board, to ensure that it reflected available resources and complemented the proposed work programme.
Tan and Volk, who is also company secretary, have agreed to step down with immediate effect, with nonexecutive director Brian King taking over the day-to-day activities of the company.
The remaining nonexecutive directors have also agreed to suspend the payments of their quarterly board fees, effective from January 1, while all other Perth-based employees have been released.
Company chairperson Ian Burston would also take a more active role in the company.
Meanwhile, Burston told shareholders that the company would continue in its pursuit to develop the Agbaja fines project, in Nigeria.
A prefeasibility study found that the Agbaja operation had the capacity to support a five-million-tonne-a-year operation, with a mine life of 21 years, for a capital investment of $497-million.
Burston said that Kogi would continue its engagement with steel mills, iron-ore buyers, traders and potential customers to increase awareness around the project, and to consolidate the understanding of the project.
“It is the company’s intention to also highlight to potential investors the iron-ore deposits in those parts of the company’s existing exploration licences not addressed in the prefeasibility study,” he added.