http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/australias-intrepid-defends-bid-to-reclaim-indonesia-gold-project/
Australia’s Intrepid Defends Bid to Reclaim Indonesia Gold Project By Sonali Paul on 10:54 am May 14, 2013. Category Business, Commodities, Corporate News Tags: Australian miner, Indonesia mining, Intrepid Mines, Tujuh Bukit mine Melbourne. Australia’s Intrepid Mines urged shareholders to reject a bid to oust the board on Tuesday but offered no new information on how it plans to try to win back an 80 percent interest in a huge copper and gold prospect in Indonesia. Intrepid set a June 20 date for a vote on whether to boot five directors — a vote that has been proposed by new shareholder Quantum Pacific, which says it is better placed than the current team to win back rights to the Tujuh Bukit project. Intrepid was evicted from Tujuh Bukit last July and is fighting its ex-partners, Indo Multi Niaga (IMN) and its successor company PT Bumi Sukses Indo (BSI), to secure rights to the project, which potentially holds 30 million ounces of gold and 19 billion pounds of copper. It is unclear how much support Quantum Pacific, which owns 5.4 percent of Intrepid, has won so far from other shareholders. Intrepid’s two biggest institutional shareholders in Australia, Taurus Funds Management and Acorn Capital, which own about 16 percent of Intrepid, are supporting the current board against Quantum Pacific. Quantum wants to talk Quantum Pacific partner Greg Mazur wants to install himself as chief executive to lead an effort to negotiate with BSI, rather than pursue the existing board’s strategy of going through Indonesia’s courts. The fund argues that it has had positive feedback that the new Indonesian shareholders are willing to enter into a commercial negotiation. “The Quantum ‘solution’ does not provide any certainty on a resolution to the Tujuh Bukit imbroglio,” Intrepid Chairman Ian McMaster told shareholders in a notice for the vote. Intrepid reiterated it would pursue all legal avenues while also trying to reach a commercial resolution to secure its rights over the project, and said its directors had far more experience in Indonesia and on mine projects than anyone that Quantum Pacific wanted to appoint to the board. “Contrary to suggestions that we are wasteful with our funds, we will continue to preserve our monies so that when ownership issues are settled, the Project can be advanced in an appropriate manner,” McMaster said. The company is one of several that have run into disputes over ownership of mining projects and confrontations with powerful businessmen in Indonesia after funding exploration work on potentially lucrative assets. The Tujuh Bukit project was so promising that two years ago Intrepid was worth more than $1 billion. Its shares have slumped nearly 90 percent since then, after Intrepid’s workers were kicked off the site last July and IMN transferred ownership of the mining license to BSI. Intrepid shares rose 12 percent to 25.7 cents on Tuesday outpacing a 0.2 percent rise in the broader market. Reuters [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
