Former speaker Boehner earns a cool million on Arizona mining deal
John Boehner was second in the line of United States presidential succession as Speaker of the House (Republican, Ohio January 5, 2011 – October 29, 2015).
Almost a year to the day after Boehner joined the board of directors of Arizona Mining ("Arizona"), a Canadian junior mining company developing a base metals project near Tucson, he's walking away with a cool million dollar payday (Canadian), assuming Aussie miner South32's proposed $2.1 billion cash acquisition of Arizona closes. Judging from today's strong trading volume in the shares of Arizona on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the deal is likely to close.
Boehner held 250,000 share purchase options in Arizona with a strike-price of $2.12 per share according to Arizona's Management Information Circular filed on SEDAR May 11, 2018, worth $1,020,000 Canadian dollars at a $6.20 takeoever price. The American dollar has been strong of late leaving Boehner with approximately USD $775,000 after converting to US Dollars, before taxes.
It was likely relatively easy money for the former defacto king of the Republican party. Being a director of a Canadian public company isn't necessarily time consuming. A few quarterly calls can suffice barring significant corporate action. Regardless, he was probably headhunted for the heft his name brought to the company as well as his help advising on regulatory issues.
Boehner's haul is a distance from Arizona founder Richard Warke, a fabulously successful Vancouver mining entrepreneur. Mr. Warke held nearly 88 million shares of Arizona, worth $545.5 million at $6.20 per Arizona share. Not to mention controlling a 2% royalty on the company's flagship project for an extra payday in perpetuity as long as the mine is in production. Mr. Warke previously built and sold Augusta Resource Corp for more than $650 million in 2014 and Ventana Gold for $1.3 billion in 2011. He is currently the president and CEO of Titan Mining, which has re-started the Empire State zinc mine in New York State.
Public office can take a heavy toll on politicians. Bill Clinton said he was $16 million in debt when he left the White House. So you can understand why Boehner would have gotten involved with the winning startup mining company.
Arizona Mining is a rare junior mining success story. The former penny stock discovered one of the world's top base metal mining projects. Early shareholders have been rewarded with returns of 5000%+.
CEO.CA is a community of investors and speculators with a focus on junior mining and Canadian penny stocks like Arizona Mining (https://ceo.ca/AZ)
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
(By Tommy Humphreys)