Page 48 Page 48 By Kevin V incent Major changes are likely in store for Detour Gold Corporation in 2019 now that the company s highly pub lic boardroom battle is in its rearview mirror The company is poised to shift gears downsize the head ofce struc ture and concentrate on retooling daily operations A confdential source with direct knowledge of DGC s recent develop ments told Mining Life that the com pany s struggles are on the ground at its northern Ontario gold mine not the corporate boardroom of Detour s downtown T oronto ofces although the two are inter connected It boils down to management the source told Mining Life Right up until this big shareholder fght the mine has been operated as if it is still under construction still in the build ing phase W ell it s not The source went on to suggest that costcontrol measures are substan dard Specifcally the source identi fed the process plant as one of the primary elements of the operation that needs to be addressed The problem is that you have an op eration that is silodriven Each de partment is running its own little em pire making decisions that impact the company s overall proftability They haven t made the transition from a building mentality to an operating one said the source All of that seems pale by compari son to the drama that unfolded in late 2018 as hedge fund manager John Paulson the head of Paulson Co Inc waged a battle to reshape DGC s board In midDecember Detour Gold Corp interim CEO Michael Kenyon resigned following a vote that saw shareholders side with Paulson in an extended proxy war Five Paulsonnominated directors were approved including two who had also been endorsed by Detour as well as four others from a slate put forth by Detour T oday s outcome represents a major victory for all of Detour s sharehold ers Paulson said in a statement W e support Detour Gold s new board of directors and believe that our investment is now in the capable hands of experienced independent and professional directors he added Five previous Detour directors in cluding Kenyon were removed as a result of the vote James Gowans a Detour pick was appointed chairman of the board W ith the distraction of the proxy contest now behind us I welcome our new directors and look forward to working with them to recruit a new CEO and build value for all share holders Gowans said in a statement As engaging as the boardroom dra ma might have been to investors and stockwatchers the real issues are back at the mine There s an old boys club attitude up there said Mining Life s source It s slowly being phased out and if the new board does what they need to do they will fnd the right individu als to run the mine and get their costs back in line where they should be The source goes on to say that the three distinct mine phases building operating and closing are not in proper focus When the right oper ating people are in place individuals who understand how to break down those silos then you will see a dra matic diference It looks like that is going to be the new board s priority and a lot of stakeholders are going to appreciate that newfound stability Productivity is key the source add ed Y ou have an environment where the building phase mentality still dominates That needs to change Detour Gold produced about 571000 ounces of gold last year Detour Gold Corp is the 100 owner of the Detour Gold Mine one of Canada s lar gest open pit gold operations which is lo cated north of Cochrane John Paulson whose hedge fund Paulson Co owns 57 per cent of the company complained about abysmal returns at the T orontobased miner including a 70 per cent fall in market capitalization since July 2016 Detour Gold poised to shift gears Page 48