Heron, Sprott seal ceasefire

Just weeks after Canadian shareholders challenged its current board, shares in Heron Resources were driven up 13 per cent on news that a peace deal had been arranged.

The Heron board has agreed Eastbourne Capital Management partner Borden Putnam III will join as a non-executive director, and now plans to hold the previously triggered spill meeting on February 12.

Current chairman Craig Readhead will also opt not to renominate as chair, to resolve differences in the definition of independent between Canadian and Australian law.

In exchange, Canadian investment group Sprott Resource Lending Partnership, which had led the putsch, will withdraw a motion to appoint three new directors to the board.

Sprott will support the re-election of Ian Buchhorn, Stephen Dennis and Craig Readhead as directors at the meeting.

Heron said it had been in discussions with major shareholders to build a deal that would have strong support across the company’s register, and would pursue further consideration of its board composition after the meeting.

The company, which is developing a copper-zinc project south of Goulburn in NSW, received almost 70 per cent opposition to its remuneration report among votes cast when its AGM was held last month.

The company traded at 13 cents per share at the time of writing.