March 29, 2024

Mount Kellett seeking new directors at Baja

VANCOUVER – Mount Kellett Capital Management LP, which has accused the board and management of Baja Mining Corp. of failing to represent shareholders, is seeking to have two new independent directors added to the company’s board.

The investment manager, which holds a 19.9 per cent stake in Baja Mining Corp., said Friday that it is concerned that the board and management have become distracted with their own personal agendas and enrichment.

Mount Kellett wants to see its own managing director Stephen Lehner and Lorie Waisberg, a corporate director, added to the seven-member board.

The firm wants replace directors Gerald Prosalendis and Giles Baynham or, failing that, increase the size of the board to nine members.

In a shareholder presentation Friday, Mount Kellett said shareholder pressure has resulted in only partial and reversible changes at the company.

“The risk of value destruction is great whether through ill-conceived or self-interested transactions and financings or through unwarranted personal enrichment,” the investment manager said.

Baja is building the Boleo copper-cobalt-zinc-manganese mine in Mexico. Copper production at the mine is expected to start in 2013.

For its part, Baja Mining has accused Mount Kellett of a creeping takeover of the company, something the investment firm has denied.

“Mount Kellett’s desire for control is not surprising — Mount Kellett knows the value your board is creating for all shareholders by developing Baja’s Boleo project, and wants to capture more of that value for itself,” Baja chairman Giles Baynham wrote in a letter to shareholders.

Baja shares were down a penny at $ 1.06 in trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday.

Local news from metronews.ca/vancouver

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