www.miningmx.com | diamonds BRC DiamondCore shareholders ditch Botoulas

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Theo Botoulas, CEO BRC DiamondCore

� Botoulas steps down as BRC DiamondCore CEO
� BRC DiamondCore sells more large stones
� BRC DiamondCore sues former BEE partner
� BRC DiamondCore gets Rio Tinto on board
� Sefalana to sue BRC DiamondCore

� JSE:DIAMONDCORP PLC:
1100c

BRC DiamondCore shareholders ditch Botoulas
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Mon, 30 Jun 2008

[miningmx.com] -- BRC DiamondCore's Canadian shareholders want someone with international experience, who can raise finances in a difficult market. Theo Botoulas is not that man because he�s seen as too South Africa-focused.

In a surprise announcement on Monday, BRC said Botoulas, who founded DiamondCore, and chief financial officer Craig Campbell were quitting their positions, making way for a team that could turn the company to rights.

Botoulas, who appears to have gone to ground, could not be reached for comment, but BRC chairman Simon Village said the founder of DiamondCore would remain as a consultant to the company to ensure it meets its black economic empowerment requirements.

exclusively South African in their experience

Major shareholders in the company want to see it take the next step now that the integration of BRC and DiamondCore is wrapped up and advance what Botoulas has built up over the past five years.

�It needs to take on a bit more of an international approach and the major shareholders feel they need a new executive team to do that and unlock the value built up in both companies,� Village told Miningmx.

�You can see that was something that wasn�t transpiring and I think with the changes that we�ve proposed that will come through,� he said, stressing that it was a shareholder action and not a management or board decision.

The share price has come off 71% from a 12-month high of R36 on the JSE in early February mainly because of the fallout with its empowerment partner Sefalana and as junior companies fall out of investors' favour.

It is an inopportune time to have a weak share price because the company needs to raise exploration and development capital in a market that has become extremely difficult for junior exploration companies to generate funding.

A new chief executive should be named in the �next few weeks,� Village said.

An international approach would entail the company looking to markets offshore to raise funds towards its exploration and development capital, something shareholders felt Botoulas and Campbell weren�t able to pull off, he said.

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BRC has listings on the Toronto main board as well as the JSE, but financing will be sought outside South Africa.

�South Africa has been able to support DiamondCore�s growth to where it is. We don�t believe South African investors and their appetite for exploration companies is going to be the future driver of the business,� Village said.

�Theo and Craig are both, I would say, exclusively South African in their experience and I think we need to bring in an international dimension.�

South African investors in the company are understood to be deeply unhappy about Botoulas's departure. The two new appointments are also South Africans, but Village said they had worked in other African countries.

Among the new appointments is Danie van der Merwe, who is a former Trans Hex employee and worked with Botoulas setting up DiamondCore, as chief operating officer. Brian Scallan is the new interim chief financial officer. Both come with the international experience the offshore shareholders prize.

Scallan has worked with Standard Corporate Merchant Bank and organised $850m of financing for Nikanor. He�s also worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where BRC has a large exploration play, part of it in a joint venture with Rio Tinto.

�We believe having a new team that has a bit more accessibility to that international (financing) arena would serve the company well,� Village said.

The fallout between BRC and its disputed South African empowerment partner Sefalana had nothing to do with Botoulas�s departure, he said. BRC has applied to the courts to make void the Sefalana agreement.

Botoulas will work with the company to bring in empowerment partners and ensure the South African operations comply with statutory requirements on black participation. He will also oversee a resolution to the Sefalana matter �before moving on,� Village said.

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