Tournigan shareholders ask pointed questions

Anticipating trouble, Tournigan was prepared for the worst. Standing at the back of the meeting room was a burly, uniformed, security guard and off to the side a video camera recorded the proceedings. Only registered shareholders with a colored voting card were allowed to speak at the meeting.

One individual, who claimed to be a shareholder, posed a question but was asked to sit down because he didn’t have a voting card. But that didn’t deter a female shareholder with a card from asking the same question, much to the amusement of those attending.

Noting that Tournigan’s financial statements had been approved by the board, the woman argued they were incomplete because they didn’t include results from its placer mining operation in Papua New Guinea.

A representative from Coopers and Lybrand, an accounting firm, confirmed that results from the joint venture were not available when the financial statements were made up; and he seemed to think the financial year-end for the Papua New Guinea joint venture was Oct 31. Queried whether the Vancouver Stock Exchange had approved the joint venture, the company’s solicitor said both the original and amended agreements were approved by the exchange.

Claiming to speak for minority shareholders, Charles Bawlf demanded to know why shareholders at last year’s annual general meeting were not told about the decision to invest $1 million in the Outland joint venture in Papua New Guinea. But Hembling insisted the investment was discussed. And he denied the investment had “gone down the pipe” although he admitted the project was a failure “because of a third world government changing power which made placer mining exclusive to Papua New Guineans.” (At the end of the meeting he handed out a Wall St. Journal article on the problems mining companies are having with native groups in Papua New Guinea which apparently was the case with Tournigan).

Hembling confirmed that most of the paid for equipment from the operation has been shipped to Alaska and he predicted in two years it “will be producing.” Regarding Tournigan’s decision to accept a 5% net profits interest in the Premier Gold project rather than maintain a 30% interest in just part of the project, Hembling insisted it was a better deal because it included more property than they had discussed with Westmin in 1987. Tournigan also lost an important bargaining chip when B.C. Hydro agreed to supply power to the mine site. A power source existed on Tournigan’s property which was feasible to develop, he noted.

]]>