Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Palmiere resigns at HudBay Minerals

HudBay Minerals is a mining company working copper and zinc deposits especially in Manitobe. It trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Its chief executive, Allen Palmiere, has resigned in the face of shareholder discontent resulting from a failed effort to acquire Lundin Mining, another Toronto-listed compamy, last year.

SRM Global Master Fund LP is seeking to replace the whole board at HudBay, and a special meeting has been called for March 25 at SRM's request for the purpose of this vote.

The official announcement of Palmiere's departure says the usual nice things: "The Board of Directors thanks Allen for his service to HudBay, first as chairman, then as chief executive officer and director." But there is no effort to answer the obvious question: why?

SRM doesn't call the shots yet, surely, so its discontent can't be the only operating factor here. Did Palmiere jump or was he pushed?

Let's get the Sccoby-Doo gang to work on this mystery. Maybe the new interim CEO, Colin Benner, will end up telling them "I would have gotten away with it too, if not for you meddling kids!"

Probably not. I'm just free associating.

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