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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Two boards battle for Bison Gold Dissident board appeals to court for standing
John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press Archives Bison Gold�s CEO has resigned as an internal coup unfurls. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store
A mineral exploration company on the verge of producing an important resource estimate for its property in the gold-rich Rice Lake region of Manitoba is in the midst of a full-blown palace coup.
A former senior manager of Bison Gold Resources Inc. has appealed to Ontario Superior Court to have the court confirm a dissident slate of directors that the company's board refused to acknowledge at its annual meeting in Toronto last week.
Prior to the meeting, Amir Mousavi, who was Bison's chief financial officer and vice-president of corporate development, filed a dissident proxy circular in an attempt to replace the company-nominated board of directors.
The dissident circular states "dissident shareholders have no confidence in the existing board of directors of Bison Gold and believe that the Bison Gold's future is in jeopardy."
It goes on to allege Bison CEO Lucas Ewart had failed to lead the company and its stock price had fallen 75 per cent since Ewart was awarded a lucrative employment contract in February 2011, paying him close to $600,000 in 2011 plus an additional $134,600 in bonuses this year.
"This performance bonus was awarded while the corporation had minimal funds available in the hard-dollar corporate treasury," the dissident circular states.
It notes travel and promotional expenses in 2011 were almost triple what they'd been the previous year.
Mousavi claimed to have attracted sufficient support to oust the old board, but the chairman disallowed the proxy support at the annual meeting, claiming those shareholders were "confused as to who they were voting for."
The alleged confusion was said to have been created because Mousavi was originally on the company's slate of board nominees as well as the dissident slate.
Mousavi was fired two days after the thwarted dissident proxy action and the company announced this week that Ewart has resigned as CEO but will stay on in a limited advisory capacity.
Linda Lassonde, a member of the newly elected board of directors of Bison Gold and the company's spokesperson, was unavailable for comment.
Mousavi said, "We intend to have the court confirm the votes validly cast in favour of our nominees. There was no justification for the incumbent board to disallow the votes of the majority of the shareholders who voted at the meeting."
In addition to Mousavi, the proposed dissident board included the company's vice-president of exploration and a former chair of the board of directors.
Last year, the company raised about $4 million and completed an extensive drilling program at its site about 26 kilometres south of Bissett.
An official with the provincial mines branch said there are expectations the resource estimate on the Bison property, expected in August or September, will be good.
"There has been some good results in those central Manitoba properties," he said.
Bison Gold's property is close to San Gold's gold mine and mill infrastructure and would generally be considered an attractive property if in fact resource estimates suggest there are sufficient prospects. Gold has been mined from the region for more than 80 years.
Bison's shares (BGE-X) closed down four cents or 30 per cent to nine cents on Thursday.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 6, 2012 B4
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