TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Shares in Vancouver-based South American Silver (SAS) spiked on Tuesday after the company on Monday announced that founder Ralph Fitch had been reappointed to the position of president and CEO, replacing Phillip Brodie-Hall.

Brodie-Hall had served as interim president and CEO since August 2012, after SAS had its main mining operation nationalised in Bolivia.

Fitch said Brodie-Hall came into the role of president and CEO in the immediate aftermath of the Malku Khota expropriation.

The dispute arose as a result of acts of the Bolivian government, including the issuance of Supreme Decree No 1308 on August 1, 2012, which revoked mining concessions held by Compañía Minera Malku Khota, a fully owned subsidiary of SAS.

SAS said it was a protected investor under the bilateral investment treaty between the UK and Bolivia, and the actions of the Bolivian government were in violation of that treaty and of international law.

Bolivia had been involved in over 15 ‘nationalisations’, the majority of which took place after President Evo Morales came to office. A number of the cases had reached negotiated settlements and at least five others were pending.

“He [Brodie-Hall] has done an excellent job in the role and has led the company very capably through a difficult transitional phase. The company is well-positioned to extract full value from Malku Khota through its strong, third-party funded arbitration claim against Bolivia and is now very lean and refocused on creating additional shareholder value through exploration and development of its key projects.

“We are very fortunate to have had the services of Brodie-Hall and are sorry to see him go. The board and management appreciate his efforts and wish him every success in his future endeavours,” Fitch said.

SAS said it was looking forward to its shareholder meeting scheduled for Monday, when it expected to approve the plan of arrangement through which it would acquire High Desert Gold Corp. (HDGC).

It is noteworthy that the share prices of both SAS and HDGC had doubled since the transaction was announced on October 21.

“I believe this shows that shareholders understand the significant additional value that has been added to the company by putting the near-term, near-surface, likely heap-leachable Gold Springs gold/silver deposit, located in the safe and mining-friendly jurisdictions within Nevada and Utah, together with the right team and funding.

“From discussions with shareholders, it is clearly also important that the plan of arrangement splits the outstanding shares of SAS into two classes of shares. This allows shareholders who wish to invest in the outcome of the Malku Khota arbitration to purchase the SAS.B shares (Class B) and those who want to focus on the outcome of continuing exploration and development of both the Gold Springs project and the longer-term Escalones porphyry copper/gold project, in Chile, can hold the SAS common shares (Class A),” Fitch said.

The TSX had conditionally approved the arrangement, including the listing of the Class B Shares to be issued.

SAS’s TSX-listed shares on Tuesday rose as high as C$1.38 on Tuesday, before settling at C$1.20 apiece.