The ugly stoush that saw the founders of Atrum Coal forfeit shares once worth more than $60 million has also cost the founders hundreds of thousands of dollars in applications for their latest corporate venture.
Russell Moran, who founded Atrum Coal alongside his business partner Gino D’Anna, confirmed that substantial funding commitments to their new lithium exploration venture MetalsTech would no longer materialise due to ongoing disputes from their Atrum days.
Mr Moran and Mr D’Anna helped drive Atrum from 20c a share to more than $2 a share, only to later find themselves in a messy dispute with their fellow directors and a powerful lending syndicate headed by prominent Perth businessmen Rod Jones and Craig Burton.
The lending syndicate late last year took control of 30 million Atrum shares formerly held by Mr Moran and Mr D’Anna, with Mr Burton subsequently joining the Atrum board.
Mr Moran said MetalsTech — which is slated to list on the ASX by early February — would now no longer accept applications from several key people connected to Atrum.
While he would not name the parties that would no longer support MetalsTech, The Australian had previously reported that Atrum chairman James Chisholm and Jeremy Bond’s Terra Capital had committed to invest in the new venture.
“Some of the recent acrimony has spilt out and we’ve put a line through some of those people, probably on a mutual basis,” he said. “If we’ve got guys who want to participate because they’re going to flip us or they’re going to use it as influence in some other dispute, then we have to insulate ourselves from that. We can’t have those shareholders in the business.”
The various disputes between Atrum, the lending syndicate and Mr Moran are also at risk of spilling into the courts amid ongoing threats of legal actions.
“I think all the parties — myself, the lenders and the company — have all probably got grievances,” he said. “It’s probably a Mexican standoff as to who pulls the trigger first, but I imagine that whoever does, every man and his dog will be countersuing them.”
Despite the loss of some applications, Mr Moran said MetalsTech would comfortably meet the minimum $4 million fundraising target ahead of the IPO.
The lithium sector remains buoyant, as demonstrated by the letter of intent signed by little-known junior Birimian to sell its early stage lithium discovery in Mali to Chinese interests for $107.5 million.
Mr Moran believes MetalsTech’s lithium prospects in Quebec can deliver the highest hard-rock lithium grades ever seen on the ASX.
ATU Price at posting:
57.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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