Global Lithium director Dianmin Chen has rubbished Chinese control concerns he says were raised behind his back to the nation’s foreign ownership umpire, speaking after the AGM.
Global Lithium Resources non-executive director Dianmin Chen has rubbished Chinese control concerns he says were raised behind his back to the nation’s foreign ownership umpire, speaking after the lithium explorer's annual general meeting.
The lithium project developer held its highly anticipated, and long-delayed, AGM on Thursday afternoon following a six-month long boardroom brawl escalated to both the nation's Takeovers Panel and Foreign Investment Review Board over claims of undisclosed Chinese influence.
On the morning of the meeting, chairman Ron Mitchell and director Matthew Allen tendered their shock resignations. Hoping to fill their seats at the table was shareholder Leon Zhu and David Sun, whose election to the board was subject to the blessing of shareholders.
The boardroom battle first broke out when Mr Zhu, through his property firm Sincerity Developments, moved to oust two directors who later voluntarily resigned, cap the board at three and throw himself into the mix back in August.
Global Lithium then moved to push back its AGM until today to partly deal with “potential breaches” of foreign control rules it raised with FIRB, citing concerns it might lose control of the company and its Manna lithium project near Kalgoorlie.
GL1 also escalated concerns around “associated parties” attempting to muscle in on the board to the Takeovers Panel. GL1 named Mr Chen as one of the alleged associated parties in its application, which was twice turned down by the umpire to intervene.
In bowing out of conducting proceedings, the panel likened the matter shareholder activism rather than a group of shareholders coming together in an attempt to take control of the board.
The boardroom blue comes against the backdrop of critical minerals being seen as increasingly important to Australia's national interest, alike other countries trying to solidify local supply chains.
Last year Treasurer Jim Chalmers ordered Yuxiao Fund, a Chinese linked investor, and four associates to divest their shareholdings in rare earths explorer Northern Minerals in a move described as protecting the country's national interest.
China has a stronghold on the production and processing of critical minerals like lithium and rare earths, commodities used in electric vehicles, renewable and defence technologies.
Speaking on the sidelines of the AGM, Mr Chen dismissed claims of a Chinese-linked attempt to take control of the company.
“I’m an Australian citizen for over 25 years, I think it's a bigger issue in the community,” he said.
Mr Chen declared he and the board of the critical minerals hopeful would act in the national interest.
“Of course, because we are an Australian company,” he said.
The director said he was “fully excluded from the process” of raising concerns to the Foreign Investment Review Board.
When asked why, Mr Chen said it was because he “didn’t agree with them, because there is no such FIRB issue. You can see we are all Australian.”
Mr Chen and Mr Zhu are Australian citizens, while Mr Sun holds permanent residency.
During the meeting, shareholders vented frustration over the drawn-out process involving legal avenues to delay the AGM.
One shareholder was unimpressed by the use of shareholder funds to date. When asked about the legal bill, Mr Chen said he was not yet aware of the total.
Mr Zhu owns a 6.9 per cent stake in Global Lithium through Sincerity. Chinese downstream battery materials player Canmax owns 9.5 per cent of GL1.
Mineral Resources and Hancock Prospecting are both shareholders on the register.
