LONDON (Alliance News) - Nyota Minerals Ltd said Monday, non-executive Directors Norman Ling and Neil Maclachlan have retired from the board, as previously announced, as shareholders vote against remuneration plan.
The gold exploration and development company said the departures are integral to the company's strategy of reducing costs following the sale of a 75% interest in the major Tulu Kapi gold site to KEFI Minerals PLC in December.
Nyota said the board now consists of just three people including its Chief Executive Richard Chase.
The company also said that at its Annual General Meeting on Monday while all other resolutions previously announced were passed, a resolution to adopt the company's planned remuneration report, although not binding, was not passed.
The remuneration report sets out a range of matters relating to the remuneration of the company's key management personnel for the year ending June 30 2013 including a USD381,320 payment to Chief Executive Richard Chase, including through shares and options and a USD254,673 payment to Former Technical Director Martyn Churchouse, including through shares and options.
Nyota said that steps have already been taken in the current year to address remuneration concerns including reducing the Board to three persons and agreeing in January to a material reduction in salary for the Chief Executive Officer and fees for other Directors.
The news comes after Nyota announced last week that its pretax loss narrowed in the first-half of its financial year as administrative expenses dropped significantly, but said it needs to raise new funds in the first-half of 2014 for the development of its projects.
Nyota said it will need to raise funds in the first-half of 2014 in order to pay for ongoing costs at Tulu Kapi and to continue its exploration programme. It said it may decide not to fund its pro-rata share of Tulu Kapi, but will suffer dilution of its shareholding as a result.
"We may drop off our 25% interest in Tulu Kapi moving forward to focus on the Northern Blocks and other assets, but it definitely will not be for twelve months because I'll be giving away too much value," Chief Executive Chase told Alliance News on Thursday. "At this point we are not out to sell KEFI stock and I think we'll have an idea of our funding plans in the next few weeks."
The company ran into trouble in 2013 regarding its Tulu Kapi project. It announced its first ore reserve of 16.9 million tonnes at 1.82 grams per tonne for 1 million ounces of gold early in the year, but the gold price declined and the company's balance sheet meant that it struggled to find a joint venture partner to develop the site.
In December, the company sold a 75% stake in the Tulu Kapi site to KEFI Minerals PLC for cash and the issue of KEFI shares to Nyota, leaving the company with a 25% direct interest and a roughly 34% beneficial interest in the project, taking into account its holding in KEFI shares.
Nyota Minerals shares were trading down 23.5% to 0.306 pence Monday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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