Perth-based Gunson Resources has become the latest junior mining company to cut pay rates and boardroom numbers in a trend demonstrating the increasingly difficult operating environment for the sector.
A review of the company's business strategy undertaken by Azure Capital has advised reducing both remuneration and the number of board members from four to three.
Non-executive director Peter Harley will take early retirement as a result, while the company’s inaugural managing director David Harley is likely to leave the company once a replacement is found.
He had been planning to step down from the role once his current contract expired next year.
The ongoing salary for the managing director and fees paid to the chief financial officer and the project manager on Gunson’s flagship mineral sands project will all be reduced under the recommendations.
Directors fees will be cut by 25 per cent and payment suspended.
Chairman David Craig said the changes should encourage shareholders to oppose a resolution, to be put to a meeting later this month, for the immediate removal of David Harley as a director of the company.
“If the resolution is passed, the company will immediately lose the services of its managing director at a critical time…such an outcome will hamper implementation of the company’s strategy,” Mr Craig said in a letter to shareholders.
The Gunson announcement follows Hodges Resources’ board restructure, which saw the resignation of non-executive chairman Christopher Eves.
The board restructure was part of a range of cost-reduction strategies including reduced exploration and project expenditure as well as cutting administrative cost burdens.
Galaxy Resources announced that, after a cost review, four of its ten directors would not stand for re-election.
The comany has suspended its shares while it seeks to complete a capital raising or financing.
