Whitehaven intends to seek compulsory acquisition of all remaining ordinary shares it has not acquired under the offer.
Whitehaven will also seek to de-list Coalworks from the Australian Securities Exchange.
Firek and chairman Wayne Mitchell were criticised by major shareholder Macquarie for not progressing the company’s coal development projects at Ferndale, Vickery South and Oaklands quickly enough.
Macquarie called for a special shareholder’s meeting to oust the two directors and replace them with their nominees.
It was subsequently withdrawn once Whitehaven’s bid gained shareholder acceptance.
Firek – who was appointed Coalworks CEO in June 2005 – has been involved in coal exploration, mining and processing industry at operational and executive levels for over 20 years.
He was a group leader at the CSIRO, developing clean coal technologies and had also worked as a United Nations expert on coal, oil and gas projects in Europe and Africa.
Firek was a foundation director of three publicly listed companies and is currently a director of the $500 million publicly listed company Gujarat NRE Coking Coal and two Gujarat subsidiaries.
He was project director at Memtec, following which he joined Pancontinental Mining where he was research and development manager involved in mineral resources projects including base and precious metals, uranium and the development and commissioning of a $220 million magnesia production facility near Rockhampton in Queensland.
He worked onsite during construction and commissioning for 12 months.
Firek was a director of mineral residue processing group Hydromet Technologies and was a founding executive director of the listed company Allegiance Mining that later discovered Tasmania’s largest nickel sulphide deposit.
Firek is being replaced by Garry Wayling, who was appointed interim chief financial officer for Aston Resources in November 2011.
Since Aston merged with Whitehaven in early 2012, Wayling continues to work within the group assisting with the integration of the businesses.
He has held partnership roles at Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young, retiring from the partnership in 2010 after more than 35 years in the professional accounting sector.
