Paul Garvey, http://www.miningnews.net/StoryView.asp?StoryID=62693
Thursday, 27 July 2006

THE nominated advisor (Nomad) and proposed new auditor of Rusina Mining have both threatened to quit the company should resolutions put forward by former managing director Vladimir Nikolaenko be passed at specially convened shareholders’ meetings next month.

The saga between Nikolaenko and the current board of Rusina took on a new twist after Beaumont Cornish - the Nomad that administers the Alternative Investment Market shares of the dual-listed company - said it would resign from its position should Nikolaenko’s proposal to appoint Bradley Moore as a director of Rusina be approved by company shareholders.

As per AIM guidelines, a company without a Nomad is automatically suspended from the board and the listing cancelled altogether if a replacement Nomad cannot be found within a required period.

Last year, Reefton Mining - which is presently chaired by Moore - had its AIM listing cancelled after it failed to secure a replacement Nomad. The company’s previous Nomad had resigned from its position after an Australian Securities and Investment Commission started an investigation into Reefton.

Meanwhile, KPMG has indicated it will withdraw its consent to act as auditor for Rusina should current Rusina directors Gordon Getley, Julian Tambyrajah and David Hands lose their positions at next month’s vote.

The developments came as Rusina announced it would now hold a second shareholders’ meeting on August 25 - in addition to the previously announced meeting on August 23 - to consider another proposal from Nikolaenko, this time for the appointment of Moore to the board.

The previous meeting called by Nikolaenko will see shareholders vote on the former managing director’s proposal to remove Getley, Tambyrajah and Hands from their Rusina roles.

Nikolaenko, who owns more than 5% of Rusina’s issued capital through several entities, called for the meetings as pursuant to Section 249F of the Corporations Act 2001.

In his letter calling for the appointment of Moore, Nikolaenko said the current Reefton chairman and non-executive director of Adultshop.com was involved in a de facto relationship with Nikolaenko’s daughter, making Moore and Nikolaenko related parties. Nikolaenko said he did not consider the fact he and Moore were related parties an impairment to Moore’s ability to
add to the board’s skills.

Tambyrajah, Rusina’s chief financial officer, told MiningNews.net the potential loss of the company’s Nomad and AIM listing would be a major setback for the company’s ambition of bringing the Acoje platinum-chromite deposit in the Philippines into operation.

“Securing an AIM listing was a goal we had had for some time, and losing that would be quite a blow for the company as it would take away from our capital-raising capacity,” he said.

Shares in Rusina were down 0.5c (2.9%) at 17c in midday trade.