Alberta Oilsands (TSX-V:AOS) added 9% on Wednesday, after a group of "concerned shareholders" said they are filing a dissident circular and are in the process of mailing to shareholders of the tiny bitumen explorer a letter demanding the resignation of the board.

The concerned shareholders say they have "been finally moved to action as AOS has consistently failed to perform over the past several years both in any real development of its assets, or in maintaining its share price."

Alberta Oilsands first acquired its Clearwater leases in the Athabasca area nearly five years ago in July 2007 and "while companies sitting with adjacent properties have witnessed as much as 10-fold increases in value (Athabasca Oil Corporation and Sunshine Oilsands Ltd. being two examples), AOS shareholders have suffered a tremendous erosion of value," the group maintains.

The group then goes on to say that "the current board are not aligned with the interests of AOS' shareholders, as they have taken excessive compensation without personally investing in the Company, hence are incentivized only to continue to draw large salaries, without regard to building the share price of the company."

The group has nominated seven directors and things will come to a head at the upcoming annual and special meeting of shareholders scheduled for June 28, 2012. As is the norm with proxy fights these days the concerned shareholders have also set up a website – http://www.saveaos.com – to further their cause.

In early afternoon trade Alberta Oilsands added 1.5c on the Toronto venture board bringing its market value to $27 million. The counter is still showing losses for 2012 – it is down 5% year to date and is worth a third less than a year ago.

Many projects in the oil sands are in danger of being scrapped or scaled down as the price Alberta producers receive per barrel continues to fall. According to new research by Wood Mackenzie "break-even costs for building new steam-driven projects are in the $65-$70 a barrel range and mining developments need at least $90-$100 oil."

The group then goes on to say that "the current board are not aligned with the interests of AOS' shareholders, as they have taken excessive compensation without personally investing in the Company, hence are incentivized only to continue to draw large salaries, without regard to building the share price of the company."

I share the sentiment and outrage of the AOS shareholders realizing that the time for change at Shore Gold is now. Ken MacNeill and his management team have mislead their shareholders for over 4+ years, promoting milestone dates that were missed and changed over and over and over again as they moved toward a production decision for their first mine, the Star Diamond Project, originally promoted for the end of 2008 (still waiting). Ken and his management team are the only ones that have continued to make much more money than they are worth as they continued to see increases in their pay even as Shore Gold's share value depreciated as a result of their actions. Same old, same old is not good enough.

They lost the trust of their shareholders, their partner on the Joint Venture side, and the market that they are capable of meeting any milestone dates that they promote... as a result the share price of our mutual investment in Shore Gold has been allowed to be manipulated down to levels we have not seen since the last century. If you agree that we must send a strong message to Ken MacNeill that we are not going to take it anymore please follow the instructions from smallblock's post of June 7th. TIA Too late to maill your proxy now but... very easy to vote on line. Please find the information below.

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