Santana on collision course with Central Otago council over "false" endorsement claim

The claim was firmly denied today by Central Otago mayor Tamah Alley, who went to considerable lengths yesterday to seperate an annual $1.25 million council road access agreement from approving the mine project.

In our main image (above) Santana published the signing yesterday of the council’s road access agreement between CODC CEO Peter Kelly (left) and Santana CEO Damian Spring (right). The image was taken by Santana.

Mr Kelly has been involved in extensive negotiations with Santana, under delegated authority, after a number of public excluded meetings held by CODC councillors. The council has declined to disclose to Crux the full nature, decision making or extent of Mr Kelly’s delegated authority to sign deals with Santana.

In fact the council has been highly critical of the mine project in their official submissions to the Fast Track approval panel that is due to start their hearing later this month based on an expected, extended hearing duration increased from Santana’s 30 - 60 day preference to 140 days from the Otago Regional Council and the CODC.

The council’s submission to the Fast Track panel included the following points in connection with Santana:

• The council received presentations and high-level updates, but requests for materials and early access to draft technical documents were not always met.

• CODC repeatedly sought a description of the proposal, a draft application/AEE, and key technical reports to brief its own experts.

• Delays occurred due to non-disclosure agreements and confirmation of expert names.

• Technical documents were released progressively and represented only a subset of the final application.

• Information provided by the applicant only partially addressed CODC’s requests.

• Requests for CODC experts to meet or visit the site with the applicant’s experts could not always be accommodated.

• This limited the extent to which issues could be identified, tested, and narrowed.

Crux has been in contact today wth Santana who have so far not responded to questions around the ‘endorsement” claim.

The claim was still live on LinkedIn and the company website at 2.00 pm today - February 3.

• Still published on LinkedIn and the company website - the '“endorsement” claim denied by Central Otago’s mayor.

The NZ share trading platform Sharesies told Crux today that there were 18,620 Santana shareholders with them via the NZX - and just 4,025 shareholders via the ASX in Australia.

Crux understands that the NZX Santana listing is subsidiary to the “parent” ASX listing in terms of regulations around the accuracy of information released to shareholders. Both the ASX and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission regulate the market and have a number of steps they can take to enforce those regulations in order to protect shareholders.

The ASX provided this initial comment to Crux a short time ago.

ASX does not comment on individual listed entities or their circumstances. These are matters for the company and its shareholders.

ASX’s role is to operate the market and ensure all participants comply with the relevant rules and disclosure obligations.

Crux will update this developing story as soon as new information is obtained.