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Botoulas steps down as BRC DiamondCore CEO
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Mon, 30 Jun 2008
[miningmx.com] -- THEO Botoulas is stepping down as chief executive of BRC DiamondCore but will continue to offer his services as a consultant to the company which plans to raise C$1.5m in a rights issue.
Chief financial officer Craig Campbell is also stepping down from his position and will be replaced in the interim by Brian Scallan. Danie Van Der Merwe is promoted to be chief operating officer from head of the South African operations.
"Mr. Botoulas will continue in his position as CEO of the Company until a new CEO
is appointed by the Board, which is expected to occur shortly," the company said in a statement.
"Mr. Botoulas will continue to be associated with the Company as a consultant to optimise the empowerment structure and work with the empowerment groups to attract new opportunities to the Company," it said.
One market watcher said the development was
intriguing.
"I was always under the impression that Theo was the great mining guru in that company. It's going to be very interesting to see who they replace him with," he said.
Botoulas will remain actively involved with the company, said chairman Simon Village.
"The new role for Theo will be a tremendous support for the empowerment group and should deliver new opportunities for the Company," he said.
"We believe that the announced restructuring will also lead to improved dynamics within the organization which will benefit all stakeholders and allow us to realise the full potential of the Company's portfolio of projects," he added.
BRC DiamondCore is proposing to raise C$1.5m in a private placement of a million shares to fund its exploration programmes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa.
BRC DiamondCore has approached the Johannesburg High Court for an order declaring the empowerment agreement with former
partner Sefalana Mineral Resources to be void.
This follows BRC’s action last October when it declared the BEE agreement to be void as, “a direct consequence of the Sefalana consortium not having met the conditions precedent to the preference share agreement as well as other provisions.”
The BRC shares that had been issued to Sefalana “were recovered and cancelled pursuant to a deemed offer clause in the agreement.”
Sefalana has said it would defend the action and counter-claim against BRC.
The BRC share price has collapsed in the wake of the Sefalana dispute and is currently trading on the JSE at around R11 compared with R36 in mid-February.
That has put the company in a difficult position. It needs to raise money to repay loans as well as fund on-going exploration work in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) but the weakness of the share price severely limits the options open to management.
BRC has to pay back loans
totalling C$6m to shareholder Banro Corporation by the end of July.
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