Northwest Copper aims for talks with dissident shareholder
Northwest Copper Corp. [NWST-TSXV] has postponed its annual meeting, ahead of possible talks with a dissident shareholder.
The move comes after the company said it had been notified that the dissident shareholder intends to propose a slate of six nominees for the company’s board of directors at this year’s annual meeting. The meeting was originally scheduled for June 23, 2023. It will now take place on September 6, 2023. “The specific time and location of the AGM are not yet determined but will be announced when the company files its management information circular and related proxy materials in connection with the AGM,’’ the company said.
It went on to say that it has decided that it is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders to postpone the AGM as the company believes it will allow for the appropriate consideration of the proposed slate of directions put forward by the dissident shareholder.
Specifically, it said the postponement of the AGM will allow for:
- A detailed review of the experience and qualifications of the dissident nominees.
- The preparation of a management information circular that will fully inform shareholders about the important voting decisions that they face.
- A determination by the board as to whether there might be an opportunity to have further discussions with the dissident that avoids the distraction and expense of a proxy contest.
Northwest Copper is a new diversified copper-gold explorer and developer with a pipeline of projects in British Columbia.
The company is the product of the merger of Serengeti Resources and Sun Metals Corp. and is led by Peter Ball, a geologist who previously spend 13 years with Newmont Corp., [NGT-TSX, NEM-NYSE], the world’s leading gold producer,
The transaction was designed to consolidate the contiguous copper-gold exploration and development assets that included Serengeti’s Kwanika project and Sun Metals’ Stardust project. Both of these assets are expected to benefit from operational synergies as they are advanced with a combined development strategy.
At the time of the merger deal, Serengeti was advancing its Kwanika copper-gold project in partnership with POSCO DAEWOOD and exploring its extensive portfolio of properties in north-central B.C.
It hoped to complete a pre-feasibility study at Kwanika that would examine the viability of a proposed open-pit and bulk underground copper-gold mine. However, the company didn’t have the funds to carry out that plan.
Back in early January, 2023, Northwest said a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) has outlined a project that would aim to mine approximately 96 million tonnes of material in a combination of open pit and underground operations from the 100%-owned Kwanika and Stardust deposits. The PEA contemplates a 22,000 tonnes per day process plant, producing high-quality copper concentrate with significant gold and silver by-product credits.
The PEA envisages initial capital of $567.9 million with a construction period of two years.
On May 26, 2023, Northwest Copper shares closed at 19.5 cents and currently trade in a 52-week range of 57 cents and 19 cents.