"The company has been embroiled in a proxy battle with Sun Valley Investments over the past several weeks and the vote resulted in the election of three dissident nominees to its board of directors," Red Cloud Securities said July 21.
Three Canagold-proposed nominees, Bradford Cooke, Martin Burian, and Deepak Malhorta, ultimately resigned from the board and decided not to stand for election.
The "dissident" nominees elected included Sofia Bianchi as the new chair, Dr Carmen Letton, and Andrew Trow, Red Cloud said.
Canagold nominees Kadri Dagdelen and Scott Eldridge were also elected.
"We are excited for the future of this new Canagold and remain focused on creating shareholder value," Bianchi said.
Red Cloud said it believes the Sun Valley nominees should bring valuable skills and knowledge to the company.
"Ultimately, our view of CCM and New Polaris has not changed due to the change in control, and we believe the refreshed board, with new, well-qualified directors, will likely be a net benefit for Canagold," it said.
North-western British Columbia located New Polaris is Canagold's core asset. The past-producing, high-grade, 1.1 million ounce gold mine underwent a preliminary economic assessment in 2019 which viewed an 80,000oz/year underground mine that could produce dore gold bars at site.
"Although we believe Sun Valley's plan for New Polaris is not substantially different from the plan already being executed by management, we are encouraged to now see target dates associated with key development milestones," Red Cloud said.
These include immediately trending a feasibility study, initiating permitting in Q2 2023, and recommencing drilling in the second half of this year, it said.
"As New Polaris is one of the highest-grade Au development projects in the world, we believe that its development pathway is clear, and that management is well positioned to advance it towards production," Red Cloud said.
Canagold's share price was C$0.285 (US$0.23) on July 21. The company has a market capitalization of C$24.67 million.
Red Cloud has a target share price of C$1.85 for Canagold.
