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Statement of Corporate Governance Practices
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The board of directors (the “Board”) of
Patricia Mining Corp. (the “Company”) is ultimately responsible for
supervising the management of the business and affairs of the Company
and, in doing so, is required to act in the best interests of the
Company. The board of directors discharges, in part, its responsibility
directly and through the Audit Committee and the Compensation Committee.
The board of directors meets regularly to review the business operations
and financial results of the Company. Meetings of the board of directors
include regular meetings with management to review and discuss specific
aspects of the operations of the Company.
Specific responsibilities of the board
of directors include:
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reviewing and approving the
Company’s strategic and operating plans;
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reviewing and approving
significant operational and financial matters and providing
direction to management on these matters;
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reviewing and identifying the
principal risks of the Company’s business and ensuring
implementation of appropriate systems to manage these risks;
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reviewing and approving corporate
objectives and goals applicable to senior management of the Company
and assessing and monitoring the performance of senior management;
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involvement in the hiring and
replacement of the senior management of the Company and succession
planning for senior management personnel; and,
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and assessing the Company’s
internal controls and management information systems.
The board of directors of the Company
considers sound corporate governance practices to be essential to the
effective operation and success of the Company and that these practices
are reviewed regularly to ensure that they are appropriate. A
description of the Company’s corporate governance practices follows.This
Statement of Corporate Governance Practices has been prepared by the
Corporate Governance Committee and approved by the Board of the Company.
The TSX Venture Exchange requires that
this Statement of Corporate Governance Practices describe the corporate
governance practices of the Company with reference to a specific set of
guidelines adopted by the TSX (the “TSX Guidelines”) to assist listed
companies in their approach to corporate governance. The text in italics
which follows sets out the recommendations of the TSX Guidelines. The
non-italicized text describes the Company’s corporate governance
practices and provides an explanation for differences between such
practices and the guidelines contained in the TSX Guidelines.
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The board of directors of every
corporation should explicitly assume responsibility for the
stewardship of the corporation and as part of the overall
stewardship responsibility, should assume responsibility for the
following matters:
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adoption of a strategic
planning process;
The Board periodically reviews and
approves the strategic plan by which the Company determines its
mission, vision, business, objectives and strategy. To do so, the
Board takes into account business opportunities and risks for the
Company as well as business plans concerning its major operations.
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the identification of the
principal risks of the corporation’s business and ensuring the
implementation of appropriate systems to manage these risks;
The Board, through the Audit
Committee, reviews and identifies the Company’s principal risks and
manages these risks through appraisal of management’s practices on
an ongoing basis.
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succession planning,
including appointing, training and monitoring senior management;
The Board analyzes the candidacy
for, and approves the appointment of, the Officers and sees to their
training, coaching and succession planning. The Board periodically
reviews the profile of Officers who possess the required
competencies to hold senior management positions at the Company, as
well as the Company’s succession plan, and determines development
needs, as applicable. Furthermore, the Board expects management to
report in a complete, accurate and timely manner on all of the
company’s activities and on any questions that it considers to be of
significant importance to the Company and its shareholders.
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communications policy for
the corporation;
The Board, through and with the
assistance of senior management, has established a communications
policy to ensure consistency in the manner that communications with
shareholders and the public are managed. In addition, all press
releases of the Company are reviewed by the Company’s Board. The
Board believes that the Company’s communications policy has been
established in accordance with the relevant disclosure requirements
under applicable securities laws.
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the integrity of the
corporation’s internal control and management information
systems.
The Board, through its Audit
Committee has the responsibility to oversee the integrity of
internal controls to manage information systems with respect to
financial matters. The Audit Committee, in conjunction with
management, has established internal controls and management
information systems with respect to other operations matters. The
Audit Committee meets with the Company’s external auditors at least
annually.
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The board of directors of every
corporation should be constituted with a majority of individuals who
qualify as unrelated directors. An unrelated director is a director
who is independent of management and is free from any interest and
any business or other relationship which could, or could reasonably
be perceived to, materially interfere with the director’s ability to
act with a view to the best interests of the corporation, other than
interests and relationships arising from shareholding. A related
director is a director who is not an unrelated director. If the
corporation has a significant shareholder, in addition to a majority
of unrelated directors, the board should include a number of
directors who do not have interests in or relationships with either
the corporation or the significant shareholder and which fairly
reflects the investment in the corporation by shareholders other
than the significant shareholder. A significant shareholder is a
shareholder with the ability to exercise a majority of the votes for
the election of the board of directors.
The Board is currently comprised of
four (4) directors, (3) of whom are considered unrelated directors.
The Company does not have a significant shareholder within the
meaning of the TSX Report. No member of management is considered a
significant shareholder as management’s shareholdings, in aggregate,
are less than 15%, and no individual member of management owns more
than 10%, of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company.
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The application of the
definition of “unrelated director” to the circumstances of each
individual director should be the responsibility of the board which
will be required to disclose on an annual basis whether the board
has a majority of unrelated directors or, in the case of a
corporation with a significant shareholder, whether the board is
constituted with the appropriate number of directors which are not
related to either the corporation or the significant shareholder.
Management directors are related directors. The board will also be
required to disclose on an annual basis the analysis of the
application of the principles supporting this conclusion.
Chris Chadder is the only related
director. None of the remaining directors nor their associates have
entered into any material contracts with the Company or received
material remuneration from the Company (other than stock options and
directors fees).
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The board of directors of every
corporation should appoint a committee of directors composed
exclusively of outside, i.e. non-management, directors, a majority
of whom are unrelated directors, with the responsibility for
proposing to the full board new nominees to the board and for
assessing directors on an ongoing basis.
The Board as a whole is
responsible for making recommendations as to the composition of the
Board, identifying new nominees and assessing the qualifications of
directors. Due to the relatively small size of the Board, a
Nomination Committee has not been formed at this time.
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Every board of directors should
implement a process to be carried out by the nominating committee or
other appropriate committee for assessing the effectiveness of the
board as a whole, the committees of the board and the contribution
of individual directors.
The Board as a whole monitors the
effectiveness of the relationship between management and the Board,
the effectiveness of Board operations, the operations of the
committees of the Board as well as of individual directors, to
recommend improvements to each of the above.
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Every corporation, as an
integral element of the process for appointing new directors, should
provide an orientation and education program for new recruits to the
board.
New directors of the company are
provided with comprehensive information about the Company. They have
the opportunity to meet and participate in work sessions with
management of the company and to obtain insight into the operations
of the Company and its affiliates.
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Every board of directors should
examine its size and, with a view to determining the impact of the
number upon effectiveness, undertake, where appropriate, a program
to reduce the number of directors to a number which facilitates more
effective decision-making.
The Board has determined that the
size of the Board is appropriate for the Company at this time and
offers the flexibility to respond quickly to corporate opportunities
and challenges as they arise from time to time. The Board as
currently constituted brings together a mix of skills, backgrounds
and attitudes that the board considers appropriate for the
stewardship of the Company.
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The board of directors should
review the adequacy and form of the compensation of directors and
ensure the compensation realistically reflects the responsibilities
and risk involved in being an effective director.
The Compensation Committee, among
other things, has the authority and responsibility for making
recommendations to the Board of Directors relating to the
compensation of Members of the Board of Directors.
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Committees of the board of
directors should generally be composed of outside directors, a
majority of whom are unrelated directors, although some board
committees, such as the executive committee, may include one or more
inside directors. An inside director is a director who is an officer
or employee of the corporation or of any of its affiliates.
Set out below is the composition
of the current committees of the Board. The right-hand column
entitled “Status” represents the Board’s characterization of each of
the members:
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Committee |
Member |
Status |
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Audit Committee |
Bruce Reid |
Outside-unrelated |
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|
James White |
Outside-unrelated |
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Richard Sutcliffe |
Outside-unrelated |
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Compensation Committee |
Bruce Reid |
Outside-unrelated |
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James White |
Outside-unrelated |
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Every board of directors should
expressly assume responsibility for, or assign to a committee of
directors the general responsibility for, developing the
corporation’s approach to governance issues. This committee would,
amongst other things, be responsible for the corporation’s response
to these governance guidelines.
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The Board is responsible for the
adoption and implementation of appropriate corporate governance
practices and procedures and ensuring compliance, to the extent
practicable, with the guidelines set forth in the TSX Report.
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The board of directors,
together with the CEO, should develop position descriptions for the
board and for the CEO, involving the definition of the limits to
management’s responsibilities. In addition, the board should approve
or develop the corporate objectives which the CEO is responsible for
meeting.
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The responsibilities of the Board
and management to act with due care in the best interests of the
Company are well defined by law and both management and the Board
recognize their respective duties and obligations. Corporate
objectives are reviewed by the Board from time to time throughout
the year.
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Every board of directors should
have in place appropriate structures and procedures to ensure that
the board can function independently of management. An appropriate
structure would be to (i) appoint a chair of the board who is not a
member of management with responsibility to ensure the board
discharges its responsibilities or (ii) adopt alternate means such
as assigning this responsibility to a committee of the board or to a
director, sometimes referred to as the “lead director”. Appropriate
procedures may involve the board meeting on a regular basis without
management present or may involve expressly assigning the
responsibility for administering the board’s relationship to
management to a committee of the board.
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The Board has appointed Richard H.
Sutcliffe as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Dr. Sutcliffe holds
no executive office with the Company or its affiliates. In his
capacity as Chairman of the Board, Dr. Sutcliffe ensures that the
Board carries out its responsibilities effectively and assures that
the Board meets on a regular basis without management’s presence.
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The audit committee of every
board of directors should be composed only of outside directors. The
roles and responsibilities of the audit committee should be
specifically defined so as to provide appropriate guidance to the
internal and external auditors to discuss and review specific issues
as appropriate. The audit committee duties should include oversight
responsibility for management reporting on internal control. While
it is management’s responsibility to design and implement an
effective system of internal control, it is the responsibility of
the audit committee to ensure that management has done so.
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17. All members of the Audit
Committee are outside and unrelated directors.
The Audit Committee reviews the audited annual and unaudited interim
financial statements of the Company and makes recommendations to the
Board with respect to such statements. The Audit Committee met 4
times in fiscal 2006 and once following the completion of the 2006
fiscal year to receive the auditor’s report on the financial
statements of the Company for the 2006 fiscal year. The Audit
Committee also makes recommendations to the Board regarding the
appointment of independent auditors, reviews the nature and scope of
the annual audit as proposed by the Company’s auditors and
management, and reviews with management the risks inherent in the
Company’s business and the risk management programs relating
thereto. The Audit Committee also reviews with the Company’s
auditors and management the adequacy of the internal accounting
control procedures and systems. The Audit Committee members have
direct access to the independent auditors. The Company does not have
an internal audit department nor does it feel that one is currently
required. The members of the Audit Committee are Bruce Reid, James
White and Richard Sutcliffe.
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The board of directors should
implement a system which enables an individual director to engage an
outside adviser at the expense of the corporation in appropriate
circumstances. The engagement of the outside advisor should be
subject to the approval of an appropriate committee of the board.
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Subject to prior approval of the
Board, any individual director or committee of the Board is entitled
to retain outside advisors or consultants at the expense of the
Company in order to fulfill his fiduciary obligations as a director
or to comply with applicable statutory or regulatory requirements.
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