The board of directors of Adamus Resources Ltd. has appointed Mr. Isaac Ackun, as the Acting Managing Director, to steer its affairs. The appointment which takes effect from February 3, 2023, follows the ruling in the Supreme Court of Western Australia delivered on 22st December, by Honourable Justice Tottle, which established clear legal ownership of the company.
Isaac Ackun who currently serves as the Head of Operations and Technical Services for BCM Ghana, comes to this job, with a wealth of experience and a proven track record, in the mining industry, across Africa. The board has expressed its confidence in his ability to take Adamus out of its current precarious situation, and failing operations at its Nzema (Western Region) mine site. It is expected that the board will be asking for a forensic audit to be undertaken, to establish where the problems have arisen, and what has led to the challenges now being faced by Adamus Resources.
The judgement itself, comes after protracted litigation over who actually controlled Adamus, which Ms Angela List (estranged wife of Paul List CEO of BCM) had taken sole control over, despite the fact that it was bought with funds from BCM Ghana Ltd. The case went to court after Ms. List had removed the appointed Director of Adamus Resources, and appointed others in his place.
In the narrative of Reasons, Honourable Justice Tottle scathingly noted that in ‘April and May 2021 Ms List took steps to obtain control of BCM Investments and expropriate Mr List’s interest in it’. The learned judge, described these steps as being purported meetings to; reduce the number of shares held by Rowntry Trading Ltd (the company which held Mr List’s shares) from 50 to 20 shares, and to pass a resolution purportedly forfeiting Rowntry’s shares. All this was done without Mr List being informed.
The court noted that despite arguments made by Ms List that she was the Managing Director of BCM Investments, the entity that purchased Adamus with funds from BCM Ghana, that no such position existed. According to the Supreme Court, ‘there were no day-to-day operations of BCM Investments to be managed by a managing director’ and that ‘Ms List’s participation in the management of those businesses is more readily characterised as involving the discharge of her duties as the Director(Finance & Administration) of the BCM Group, and the discharge of her duties as a director of the operating companies than as the exercise of the implied authority of the managing director of BCM Investments’.
It further found that she did not have the authority to remove the appointed Director of Adamus Resources, and that she had purported to amend the articles of incorporation of BCM Investments to change its name to Nguvu Holdings Ltd, in her sole name and registered the company in the Office of the Registrar of Corporations in Nevis. It was at this time that Mr List commenced proceedings in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and on 9 November 2021 obtained an ex parte injunction, restraining Ms List from taking any step in the management of BCM Investments.
In his opinion an objective assessment would conclude that she was conducting negotiations in her capacity as a senior executive of the BCM Group, and the capacity in which she was employed; ‘the characterization of Managing Director is adopted to advance Ms List’s interests in her dispute with Mr List rather than one which reflects the reality’; and that similar conclusions applied to all transactions with Avion (Tabakoto Mines in Mali), Talos, (Oweri Mines) and Amalgamated, (Sanu Resources).
Adamus Resources expects the Ghanaian courts to respect the findings in Western Australia, and previously in the West Indies, and with the case now resolved, at the apex courts of both and their laws taking their jurisprudence, from the same source, they are confident the matter has been concluded.
The company will have to deal with a number of concerns at its Adamus, Nzema site, occasioned by problems with the current management, but are confident that with the new team in place, there will be an improvement in its operations, and relationship with the local community which have in recent times, been fraught with challenges.
