A former director of Kin Mining has failed to garner the support of shareholders to take back control of the troubled gold explorer.

At Thursday’s AGM shareholders voted down the eviction of the current directors and the appointment of David Sproule, Christopher Johnston and John Kamara as replacements.

Stockhead is seeking comment from Kin on the outcome of the AGM.

Shares slipped over 5 per cent on Friday morning to an intra-day low of 7.4c.

Mr Sproule stepped down earlier this year after former chairman Terrence Grammer, along with former non-executive director Marvyn Fitton and Orbit Drilling, called for him to be ousted.

In October, Mr Sproule and his associates served Kin with a “249D notice” calling for the removal of the current board.

The move came after Kin halted construction of its Leonora gold project in Western Australia because of cost overruns.

In a letter that was emailed to shareholders and seen by Stockhead, Mr Sproule, Mr Johnston and Mr Kamara said the construction program was “rudely interrupted” when another large shareholder initiated the push to have Mr Sproule evicted.

They said this also led Don Harper, the managing director at the time, to quit.

Mr Harper told Stockhead shortly after he tendered his resignation that he quit because he lost the support of the board while attempting to keep Mr Sproule from being booted out.

Mr Sproule and Mr Harper were the two men leading the construction works for the Leonora project, according to the shareholder group.

“Cost blowouts, and unfounded concerns about the reliability of the definitive feasibility study persuaded the board to scale back then stop construction works,” Mr Sproule, Mr Johnston and Mr Kamara said in their letter.

“This proved to be the first of a series of bad decisions.”

Kin Mining’s sliding share price has been a point of contention for several other shareholders.

The share price has tumbled over 72 per cent since April to a 52-week low of 6.9c in mid-October.

KIN Mining (ASX:KIN) shares over the past year.
KIN Mining (ASX:KIN) shares over the past year.

Xuan Pham, one unhappy shareholder who had been trying to get answers from Kin, said it seemed that the start of the decline in Kin’s share price was the decision to halt the construction of the Leonora project.

Mr Pham wanted Kin to publicly release the boardroom minutes outlining the decision to halt the construction of the project.

Mr Pham, who along with several family members and friends owns 4 million shares — or about 0.9 per cent of Kin — told Stockhead earlier this month that he feels like the company is not being completely open and transparent with shareholders.

“Currently I, family and relatives, and friends are losing a substantial amount of money in our Kin investment,” he said.

Mr Pham estimates the losses to amount to “well over $200k”.

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