Kingsgate chair tears into challenger Metal Tiger

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Ross Smyth-Kirk, the chairperson of Australian miner Kingsgate Consolidated, had strong words for shareholder Metal Tiger and its CEO, Michael McNeilly, this week, slamming the UK firm’s call for a boardroom coup as an “opportunistic attempt to steal” the assets of the company.

Metal Tiger, which has a 6.7% interest in Kingsgate, last week called for a meeting to remove three directors of the embattled miner, which is in arbitration proceedings with Thailand over the 2016 closure of its Chatree gold mine.

In an address delivered at Kingsgate’s annual general meeting on Thursday, Smyth-Kirk ripped into Metal Tiger, saying the company had a “motley portfolio of rather insignificant assets”, and that the UK firm believed its applications for exploration licences in northern Thailand made it an expert on that country.

Smyth-Kirk, however, said that he doubt Metal Tiger’s Thailand prospects would progress into production and that if they do, they would be liable for royalties of up to 30%, in accordance with a new Minerals Act.

“Metal Tiger has not spelt out any specifics as to what it might do if it got control, preferring to talk in generalisations. Undoubtedly, the company is inundated with people telling them they can fix Kingsgate’s problems if they can get control. Interestingly, Thailand is awash with people that can ‘fix’ your problems. We’ve met most of them. For those who are young and lacking in relevant experience it can be a real costly and dangerous experience at that,” he said.

The 70-year old Smyth-Kirk said that age and longevity were the “real asset” when negotiating in Thailand.

He stressed to shareholders that the miner’s board was determined to restore value to the company. “When we achieve results from our legal actions, which we fully expect to do, shareholder benefits will be at the forefront.”

Kingsgate announced early in November that it had been unable to reach a settlement with the government of Thailand, despite months of negotiations. The miner has moved to start arbitration under the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement to try and recover losses that it had incurred following the closure of the Chatree mine. The mine was closed under an executive power in December 2016, reportedly owing to environmental and health concerns.

In terms of the Australian Corporations Act, a shareholder with at least 5% of the votes is allowed to request that the board convene and hold a shareholder meeting.

Metal Tiger is seeking the removal of Smyth-Kirk, Sharon Skeggs and Peter Warren as directors of Kingsgate, leaving only Peter Alexander on the board. The company wants them replaced by Richard Warburton, McNeilly, Terence Grammer, Mark Potter and Neville Bergin.

McNeilly said previously that the firm believed Kingsgate was in “urgent need” of a board renewal, pointing out that the incumbent board had overseen a “massive of destruction” of shareholder value.