Shares in Sundance Resources remained suspended again yesterday after confirmation that the company’s board and a number of advisers had died in a plane crash in West Africa.
At the same time, former chairman, George Jones, has resumed to the role of chairman of Sundance, replacing the late Geoff Wedlock, who was also chairman of associated iron ore company, Gindalbie Minerals.
Mr Jones said that an advisory group comprising himself, lawyer Michael Blackiston and venture capital expert Adam Rankine-Wilson will offer themselves to Sundance shareholders for approval to begin rebuilding the board.
And former BHP boss, Brian Gilbertson would replace Mr Wedlock as chairman of another miner, Jupiter Mines, which is subject to an offer from a company Mr Gilbertson chairs.
Sundance’s chief financial officer, Peter Canterbury, assumed the role of acting chief executive officer on Monday.
"I’m determined to rebuild the board," Mr Jones told Fairfax Radio yesterday.
"I feel a responsibility to the company, to the people there and the people that have been lost, that we continue."
AAP said Mr Jones also told ABC Radio that it was important Sundance continued out of respect for the deceased.
"I’ve built that board before and I’m confident that it … can be done," Mr Jones said.
"The management of the company with the exception of (chief executive) Don Lewis is still intact.
""I don’t downplay the importance of the people we’ve lost, but the company must go on and this project can be made very successful.
"The company has a very strong balance sheet and the iron ore project … is a vast deposit of many billions of tonnes.
"It is the largest non-developed iron ore project not owned by a major company and Sundance has got a terrific future."
Mr Jones stepped down as chairman of Sundance and associated company Gindalbie Metals Ltd in August of 2009 to allow him to take a six-month break to rehabilitate from a medical operation.
But he remained on the board of both companies as a non-executive director.
The companies abandoned a merger in 2007 and it’s not known whether Gindalbie executives plan to take seats on Sundance’s board.
Mr Wedlock was a non-executive director of Gindalbie since February 2008, and the company’s non-executive chairman since July 2009.
Operations at the company’s Mbalam project in Cameroon have been suspended until further notice.
Sundance shares last traded at 13c.
Gindalbie meanwhile is busy with Chinese partner Ansteel in bring its WA iron ore project into production.
On Monday a $US1.2 billion loan facility with the China Development Bank was signed to finance the two companies $US2 billion Karara Iron Ore Project in WA.
"Karara is a new-generation magnetite mine that is taking low grade iron ore, turning it a premium iron ore product and creating a new market for our natural resources. Along the way we are making enormous investments in common-user infrastructure, supporting communities, creating jobs and paying taxes and royalties," Gindalbie said on Monday.
"The 12-year Karara Project Loan Facility is being provided on competitive commercial terms principally by the China Development Bank and Bank of China with Ansteel providing a 100% parent company guarantee."
Karara Iron Ore Project is located 225 kilometres east of Geraldton in WA, where it will deliver initial production of Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) hematite in mid-2011 to be followed by production of high grade magnetite concentrate and blast furnace quality pellets in the second half of 2011. Karara is being developed through a 50:50 Joint Venture with Ansteel.
Gindalbie shares fell 3.6%, or 4.5c, yesterday to $1.21.
