‘Board is backing me’: Chris Ellison casts doubt on cutting ties with Mineral Resources

Chris Ellison urged MinRes shareholders to move on from his various misdeeds, flip-flopped on whether he’d stay on at the firm he founded, and contradicted a past statement he made about leadership succession.

Mr Ellison fronted analysts and shareholders on Wednesday morning with MinRes’ share price in freefall after revealing a whopping $807 million half-year loss on Tuesday evening.

MinRes’ woeful financial state has been compounded by the well-publicised corporate governance failures of Mr Ellison, which included the MinRes chief running a tax evasion scheme and misusing company resources for his own benefit.

The Kiwi native on Wednesday tried to consign his “issues” to the past.

“Look for me, personally, the issues that I’ve faced over the last six months, we’re done on them,” Mr Ellison said.

“They’re behind me and I’m finished, they’re behind the business, the board’s provided clarity on the market where it stands. I don’t think we can be any more clearer.

“They (the MinRes board) are backing me to move the business forward, and the board and I are clearly in lockstep our focus on creating value for our shareholders alone. Subject to all things being normal and people getting positive on us again, I’ve put the past behind me . . . and I’ve told you operationally where I’m taking it.”

MinRes said Mr Ellison would step down as managing director by the middle of next year after the corporate governance scandal first came to light in October.

But rumours have swirled that Mr Ellison, who is the largest MinRes shareholder, will remain at the company he founded in some leadership capacity.

When quizzed by analysts if he planned to stay on at MinRes in some substantive capacity, Mr Ellison appeared to confirm he was keen to remain involved.

“My intention is to retain my shareholding once we do the (CEO) transition,” he said.

“I believe strongly in this business. I love it. I started at my lounge room, and I’ve said openly, I’m available to the board to support this business in whatever way necessary going forward.”

But the MinRes founder then seemed to change his tune when asked about the succession plan during a media call.

“Look . . . let’s get the new chairman on board, and let’s go through the process and just see what they think is necessary,” he said.

“You know, sometimes having an ex-MD hanging around is more interference than good.

“I’m available to support that transition in whatever way.”

The company has previously stated a new chair will pick Mr Ellison’s successor. On Wednesday, MinRes chief financial officer Mark Wilson said the company expects to make an announcement on a new chair to replace James McClements by “June quarter at the latest”.

On an operational level also had a “tough” six months, Mr Ellison said, and then minutes later said all the “negative talk” about the business was “annoying”.

He said lithium prices were “in the toilet”, which has gutted MinRes’ profitability.

On top of the lithium woes, festering problems at the 147km privately-owned haul road that links the company’s most important iron ore mining operation to port is making investors even more nervous.

Heavy rainfall in the Pilbara over the past month has forced MinRes to resurface the whole road, adding more strain to the company’s debt-laden balance sheet and forcing a production cut at the Onslow Iron operation.

Mr Ellison said MinRes had got Onslow Iron “95 per cent” right and blamed bad luck with Mother Nature for the haul road’s latest issues.

“I mean, we’ve had no cyclones last year, this year as luck would have it . . . we’ve had five, how lucky can you get?” he said sarcastically.

“We have the solution (to the haul road) and we are building it. So please don’t turn into civil engineers and panic, just stay out there as analysts, and we’ll be able to do what we always do.”