Alta Copper Agrees With Shareholder Fortescue to Rejig Board

By Robb M. Stewart

Alta Copper has agreed with major investor Fortescue to shake up its board, including handing chief executive duties to Executive Chairman Giulio Bonifacio.

It marks a move by the Australian miner to take a more active role at Alta Copper, after it exercised a pre-emptive right late last year to buy shares in a private placement and keep its stake in the company at slightly more than 25%.

Alta said Tuesday that Joanne Freeze has retired from her role as president and CEO of the Canadian company, though she will continue to have a consulting role. Freeze founded Alta in 2000 and has led its efforts to develop the Canariaco copper discovery in Peru into one of the largest deposits of the metal in the Americas not held by a major mining company.

Following Alta's annual shareholders meeting last month, Freeze and fellow board directors Miguel Inchaustegui, Steven Latimer and Sean Waller offered to step down after each had a greater number of investor votes withheld than in support of them.

Vancouver-based Alta said that following that meeting, and after discussions with Fortescue, it was mutually agreed the company's seven member board be reconstituted with five directors including Bonifacio and Fortescue nominees and employees Andrew Hamilton and Christine Nicolau. Robert McDonald, a Cambridge-educated economist and Peru native, has been appointed to the board as an independent director.

Alta said Dale Found will continue in his role as chief financial officer.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 23, 2024 09:10 ET (13:10 GMT)

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