Some shareholders yesterday suggested that Beaconsfield Gold NL should have been the manager of the mine, rather than joint venture partner Allstate Exploration NL.

Allstate went into administration in 2001 and owes tens of millions of dollars to Macquarie Bank.

Allstate shareholder Jeff Knapp said investors had previously raised concerns about the control of the company and its governance, saying there was only one administrator, one mine manager and one director.

Fellow Allstate shareholder Will Matthews, who is also an investor in Beaconsfield Gold, said there would have been an extra layer of management if Beaconsfield Gold was managing the mine.

“If Beaconsfield Gold had taken over the mine, as I understand it, on the board of directors of Beaconsfield Gold there are two senior mining engineers, and ... I think the chief executive of Beaconsfield Gold is also a senior mining engineer,” he said.

“You would have had two layers of extra mine experience to discuss issues about ‘well should we be going into a dangerous area where there has been a rock fall?’.”

Miner Larry Knight, 44, was killed in a rock fall at the Beaconsfield mine in northern Tasmania on April 25.

Todd Russell and Brant Webb were trapped underground for 14 days.

Beaconsfield Gold said Wednesday that it planned to carry out a share placement that would put it in a position to acquire the 51.51 per cent of the mine it does not own from operator Allstate “should that interest become available”.

Beaconsfield company secretary Brian Coulter, however, said the company was just preparing itself in case Allstate’s stake did come up for sale.

Also last week, Macquarie Bank chief executive Allan Moss denied that the bank now effectively ran the Beaconsfield mine.

Mr Moss said Allstate was controlled by an administrator and Macquarie had never at any stage been anything other than a banker.