Acadia faces proxy battle

Shareholders of Acadia Mineral Ventures (TSE) will decide the fate of the company at a special meeting scheduled for May 4. They can either accept a slate of five directors including Arthur Brown, chairman, president and CEO of Hecla Mining (NYSE), or they can opt for a 3-member slate proposed by a group of dissidents. That could then lead to the delisting of the company’s shares on The Toronto Stock Exchange and the collapse of a deal with Hecla’s Canadian subsidiary, Hecla Mining Co. of Canada.

The group of dissident shareholders are Bruce Orsini, Lincoln Torrance and Douglas Allen, principals of Richmond Gulf, a company which acquired a 14% interest in Acadia last fall.

In a letter in February to Acadia President Donald Smith, the TSE warns that if any nominees or representatives of Richmond Gulf are elected to Acadia’s board, the TSE’s filing committee would convene to consider delisting the company.

Also, the TSE has not accepted notice of the acquisition of Acadia shares by Richmond Gulf.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated stock deal, Orsini has been charged by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) for violating the Ontario Securities Act. The case is scheduled to be heard July 24.

Orsini’s role in a recent $1.2- million sale of shares in Permanent Acceptance, a company with no income, is also the subject of an OSC inquiry set for Oct. 29.

Both situations could provide sufficient grounds for the TSE to delist Acadia should Torrance and Allen be elected to the Acadia board as proposed.

Hecla has also stated it will cancel an agreement in principle with Acadia should the dissident directors be elected.

That agreement would see Hecla transfer all of its Canadian mineral interests to Acadia in exchange for nine million Acadia shares to be issued at 40 cents per share. Also, Hecla would spend $5.2 million over the next two years on Acadia’s properties and make cash payments of $900,000 to Acadia in relation to its Mooseland property in Nova Scotia.

Acadia has about $1.5 million in its treasury.