(Alliance News) - SolGold PLC on Friday noted that, at its annual general meeting on Thursday, 34% of shares cast were against the election of Interim Chief Executive Officer Scott Caldwell to the board of directors, while six other resolutions received less than 70% support.

SolGold said "certain major shareholders" were the reason for not all resolutions passing with at least 80%.

SolGold is a Brisbane, Australia-based developer of copper-gold deposits in Ecuador. Its largest shareholders are BHP Group Ltd and Newcrest Mining Ltd, each of which are in interested in 12%, according to Morningstar.

In November 2021, SolGold defied calls from BHP for an entire board re-election. It had said BHP had been actively canvassing certain shareholders and members of the board seeking to persuade the board that each director should stand for re-election at the AGM that year.

SolGold on Friday said that 42% of shares cast were against the re-election of James Clare, 36% against re-electing Nicholas Mather, and 39% against electing Dan Vujcic. All three are non-executive directors.

Further, 31% of shares cast were against authority to allot shares, 33% against disapplying pre-emption rights and 33% against a further disapplication of pre-emption rights.

"If the shares held directly and indirectly by certain major shareholders were excluded, all resolutions would have passed with over 80% of the votes cast in favour of the resolutions," SolGold commented.

SolGold shares were up 0.5% at 16.08 pence each on Friday afternoon in London. Since the start of 2022, its shares have fallen 43%.

By Tom Budszus, Alliance News reporter

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