Lang wins Valerie proxy fight

Vancouver – Frank Lang managed to stave off a contentious proxy fight as shareholders voted almost two-to-one to keep his management team at the helm of Valerie Gold Resources (VLG-V).

Less than half the 12.5 million eligible shares were voted at Valerie Gold’s annual general meeting held on Jan 30, 2002. Frank Lang, Valerie Gold’s president, and his slate of five directors received 3.6 million shares, while the dissident groups’ six directors tallied 1.9 million shares. Despite the clear majority, the meeting was not with out animosity. A representive from the group of dissident shareholders objected to the meeting and the vote on the basis that Valerie management tabled only 5 directors, instead of the required six as stated in the proxy circular.

The fight began in early January, when Atna Resources (ATN-T) formed a limited partnership called Valerie Good Corporate Governance and tabled a dissident proxy circular aimed at removing Valerie Gold’s board of directors. Atna, which holds 750,000 shares, or 6%, of Valerie Gold’s stock, put up $150,000 to finance the fight (T.N.M., Jan. 14-20/02).

The limited partnership, which was formed in mid-December 2001 in the Northwest Territories, accuses Valerie Gold’s current management of poor corporate governance, lack of good business judgement, and multiple conflicts of interest.

David Watkins, president of Atna and nominated director for Valerie Gold, continued to hammer away at the issue of interest free loans handed out by Valerie Gold to Lang Mining, a private management group headed by Frank Lang. According to Watkins, loans of up to $570,000 have been made to management, without interest charges, without a repayment schedule and without security as collateral. Watkins strongly requested that these loans be paid back immediately in cash.

Lang responded by stating that all the financial transactions are a matter of public record and that the meeting was only to address the election of directors for the company. Management of Valerie Gold has stated through out the proxy fight that Atna just wanted to gain control of its $2.9 million treasury through the back door.

Now that the management issue is settled it is expected that the Valerie Good Governance Partnership will dissolve and that the 750,000 Valerie Gold shares will be returned to Atna. In the next few weeks, Valerie Gold is expected to start drilling the Crystal Lake diamond property in Manitoba and is currently working several early-stage platinum-palladium properties in northern Ontario. Valerie Gold also holds the Walker Lane gold property in Nevada’s Mineral Cty., the right to earn a 60% stake in the Starlight diamond property in Manitoba and an original $1.5-million equity stake, now valued at about $500,000, in Northern Orion Explorations (NNO-T).