Global Lithium chief tight-lipped about reasons behind sudden departure of chairman Geoff Jones

Geoff Jones has abruptly stepped down as the chairman of Global Lithium, but the lithium aspirant’s boss insists the former GR Engineering managing director is leaving on “good terms”.

Global Lithium emerged from a trading halt on Wednesday to inform the market that Mr Jones had resigned as non-executive chairman of the Company “effective immediately”.

The West Australian flagged his departure on Tuesday after Global Lithium dived into a trading halt, with sources close to the matter divulging the board changes were tied to an evolving saga at AVZ Minerals.

To fill the board void left by Mr Jones’ departure Global’s managing director Ron Mitchell is now the company’s executive chairman and non-executive director Dianmin Chen steps up as executive director.

In a statement to The West, Mr Mitchell declined to respond to queries about the purported AVZ links.

“We won’t comment on Geoff’s resignation however he leaves the company on good terms,” he said.

“The board changes are aimed at streamlining the decision-making process at board level and ensuring we have full technical accountability as we move towards finalisation of the Manna lithium project definitive feasibility study this year.”

It is uncommon for a company to go into a trading halt prior to a board change announcement.

But Mr Mitchell refuted that suggestion.

“We don’t believe it is unusual,” he said.

“The company’s board needed time to structure the transition and confirm the details that are required for executive appointments.”

Last month Subiaco-registered Resource Capital Investments lobbed an offer to buy up the shares held by AVZ’s institutional investors for 1¢ apiece.

AVZ’s board told shareholders not to “surrender” their shares to the “opportunistic and inadequate” Resource Capital Investments’ offer.

“The offer is an attempt to acquire control of the board of directors of AVZ and the Manono project, without paying fair value to shareholders,” AVZ said in a statement at the time.

AVZ was removed from the ASX in May after being worth $2.7 billion in its heyday.

Filings to the corporate regulator revealed that Michael Carrick and Mr Jones are the directors of Resources Capital.

Mr Jones joined the Global Lithium board in May last year having previously served as the boss of ASX-listed GR Engineering Services for nearly a decade.

He has also held board roles at Ausgold, Firefly Resources and Azumah Resources.

Mr Jones did not respond to The West’s request for comment.

Global Lithium owns the Manna project 100km east of Kalgoorlie and the Marble Bar project 15km north-east of the namesake town in the Pilbara.

Manna is its key focus and the company aims to make a final investment decision on the development next year.

Shares in Global Lithium finished the day up 1.9 per cent to 27¢. The former market darling has lost nearly 85 per cent of its value over the past year.