Page 7 - Bauxite Resources Annual Report 2013

Left to right: Peter Canterbury CEO, John Sibly Non-Executive Director, Yang Chenghai Non-Executive Director, Luke Atkins Non-Executive Director,
Zhan Qingwei Non-Executive Director, Sam Middlemas Company Secretary, Rob Nash Chairman. Absent Neil Lithgow Non-Executive Director.
Your Board remains of the view that for the foreseeable future
the preservation of the Company’s cash resources is of the
utmost importance. The Board is keen to ensure that where
money is spent, it is spent in a disciplined way that is accretive
of value to shareholders.
The Company’s strategic focus from now is to:
• cut back on the greenfields exploration of its large
tenement package by focussing and limiting any future
exploration to those areas which the Company has
identified as highly prospective;
• rationalise its tenement holdings to ensure that only those
that are highly prospective are kept thereby reducing the
total tenement expenditure obligations;
• focus on strategies to monetise for shareholders the
substantial bauxite resources that the Company and its JV
partners have established over the last two or three years;
• keep expenditure disciplined and focussed with a view to
preserving its substantial cash resources; and
• to be open to any mining investment/acquisition
opportunities that may be presented to the Company if
(and only if) they are assessed to have substantial value
enhancement for shareholders.
Earlier this year, the Board appointed our new Chief Executive
Officer, Peter Canterbury, who commenced with the Company
in May 2013. Peter brings to the Company some 20 years
of experience in the Bauxite and Alumina industry. Peter has
considerable commercial acumen and your Board is confident
that he is well qualified to pursue and bring to fruition our
strategic objectives.
The Board believes that its executives and employees interests
should be aligned as closely as possible to shareholder
interests. It is for that reason that management personnel
of the Company were not offered salary increases this year
but rather it is proposed, subject to shareholder approval,
that they will be granted Share Performance Rights under
the newly proposed Performance Rights Plan. I encourage
shareholders to support this proposal.
An important matter which the Board addressed following last
years’ AGM has been the level of remuneration being paid
to its non-executive directors. The total remuneration now
being paid to the Board has reduced by $230,000 per annum
as a result of reduced directors’ fees and the reduction of the
number of Board members by one. A number of the Board of
the Company also sit on Joint Venture committees and on the
Board of the Bauxite Alumina Joint Venture Company.
I am also very pleased that both Yankuang Group and HD
Mining have nominated new nominees to the Board of the
Company who are both Perth based, namely Qingwei Zhan
and Chenghai (David) Yang. Both Mr Zhan and Dr Yang
are well known to the Board, having acted as locally based
alternate directors on the Board for some time.
I wish to record my sincere appreciation to Mr Barry Carbon AM
who was Chairman of the Company for nearly four years until
his retirement on 9th August 2013. The Board is grateful for
Barry’s leadership and commitment to the Company over that
period and for his wise counsel and steady hand during some
of the more challenging periods we faced. I also thank the
other retiring directors Mr Yan Jitai and Mr Ding Feng for their
contributions to the Company.
On behalf of your Board I thank our shareholders for your
support over the past year. Your Board looks forward to
supporting our executive team in making real progress
towards the achievement of our strategic goals to enhance
real shareholder value over the next 12 months.
Yours sincerely
Robert Nash
Chairman
Annual Report 2013 Bauxite Resources 5