Document:

aec_ex101.htm

Exhibit 10.1

 

AMENDING AGREEMENT NO. 4

(MERGER AGREEMENT AND PLAN OF MERGER)

 

THIS AMENDING AGREEMENT AND CONSENT is made as of March 14, 2011

 

BETWEEN:

 

MAINLAND RESOURCES, INC., a company existing under the laws of the State of Nevada, USA

 

(“Mainland”)

 

AND:

 

AMERICAN EXPLORATION CORPORATION, a company existing under the laws of the State of Nevada, USA

 

(“American Exploration”)

 

WHEREAS:

 

(A) Mainland and American Exploration (each a “Party” and, together, the “Parties”) have entered into a Merger Agreement and Plan of Merger dated March 22, 2010, as amended by a Letter Agreement dated July 28, 2010, as further amended by an Amending Agreement dated September 7, 2010 and an Amending Agreement dated December 23, 2010 (as so amended, the “Merger Agreement”) which, subject to certain conditions, contemplates a merger between the Parties to be effected pursuant to Chapters 78 (Private Corporations) and 92A – Mergers, Conversions, Exchanges and Domestications, of the Nevada Revised Statutes, with Mainland as the surviving corporation;

 

(B) Section 7.1 of the Merger Agreement provides for the amendment of the Merger Agreement in accordance with the terms set forth therein;

 

(C) The Merger Agreement is subject to termination by either Party under Section 7.3 of the Merger Agreement if certain conditions specified in the Merger Agreement are not satisfied at or before the “Termination Date”, which is defined in Section 1.1 of the Merger Agreement to mean March 31, 2011, or such later date as may be mutually agreed by the Parties;  and

 

(D) The Parties wish to amend the terms of the Merger Agreement to extend the Termination Date as described in this Agreement.

 

THIS AGREEMENT WITNESSES that in consideration of the respective covenants and agreements herein contained, the Parties hereto covenant and agree as follows:

 

Certain Definitions

 

1. Capitalized terms not otherwise herein defined shall have the meaning ascribed to them in the Merger Agreement.

 

  

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Termination Date

 

2. Section 1.1 of the Merger Agreement is hereby amended to replace “March 31, 2011” with “May 31, 2011” in the definition of “Termination Date”.

 

Amendment

 

3. Except as expressly amended hereby, the Merger Agreement is in all respects ratified and confirmed and all the terms, conditions, and provisions thereof shall remain in full force and effect as of the date hereof.

 

Effect of Amendment

 

4. This Amendment shall form a part of the Merger Agreement for all purposes, and each Party thereto and hereto shall be bound hereby. From and after the execution of this Amendment by the Parties hereto, any reference to the Merger Agreement shall be deemed a reference to the Merger Agreement as amended hereby.

 

Acknowledgement of Grant of Additional Options by American Exploration

 

5. The Parties hereby acknowledge and agree that:

 

(a) American Exploration intends to grant 50,000 stock options (each, an “Option”) to each of Harbance Dhaliwal and Manmohan Minhas in their respective capacities as directors of American Exploration;

 

(b) each Option will entitle the holder to purchase one share of common stock in the capital of American Exploration for a period of 10 years;

 

(c) each Option will be granted at an exercise price that will be determined with reference to the market price of American Exploration’s common stock on the date of grant, and is currently expected to be approximately $0.13 per share;

 

(d) the Options will be exchangeable for Mainland Exchange Options in accordance with section 2.2(d) of the Merger Agreement; provided, however, that, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Merger Agreement, each such Mainland Exchange Option will be exercisable at an exercise price of $0.52; and

 

(e) for greater certainty, all other Mainland Exchange Options issued in accordance with section 2.2(d) of the Merger Agreement will be exercisable at an exercise price of $1.50 per share.

 

Acknowledgement of Grant of Options to Steven Harding by Mainland

 

6. American Exploration hereby acknowledges and agrees that, on February 2, 2011, Mainland granted 1,350,000 stock options to Steven Harding in connection with his engagement as a consulting geologist on Mainland’s Buena Vista project located in Jefferson County, Mississippi.  Each option is exercisable for a period of 10 years, at an exercise price of $0.75 per share.

 

Outstanding Securities of American Exploration

 

7. The Parties acknowledge and agree that, as of the date hereof, American Exploration has issued and outstanding:

 

  

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(a) 60,273,333 shares of common stock;

 

(b) 250,000 common stock purchase warrants; and

 

(c) 2,450,000 common stock options (which number, for greater certainty, excludes the 100,000 Options referred to in Section 5(a) above).

 

Entire Agreement

 

6. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the Parties, and supersedes every previous agreement, communication, expectation, negotiation, representation or understanding, whether oral or written, express or implied, statutory or otherwise between the Parties, with respect to the subject matter of this Agreement.  Nothing in this Section 6 will limit or restrict the effectiveness and validity of any document with respect to the subject matter of this Agreement that is executed and delivered contemporaneously with or pursuant to this Agreement.

 

Governing Laws

 

7. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of British Columbia and the laws of Canada applicable therein and shall be treated in all respects as a British Columbia contract.

 

Counterparts

 

8. This Agreement may be executed in any number of counterparts, in original form or by facsimile, each of which will together, for all purposes, constitute one and the same instrument, binding on the Parties, and each of which will together be deemed to be an original, notwithstanding that each Party is not a signatory to the same counterpart.

 

Headings

 

9. The descriptive headings of the several Sections of this Amendment were formulated, used and inserted in this Amendment for convenience only and shall not be deemed to affect the meaning or construction of any of the provisions hereof.

 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF this Agreement has been executed by the Parties effective as of the day and year first above written.

 

	 	MAINLAND RESOURCES, INC.	 	 	AMERICAN EXPLORATION CORPORATION	 
	 	 	 	 	 	 
	By:   	
/s/

	 	By: 	
/s/ Steven Harding

	 
	 	
Name:  William D. Thomas

	 	 	
Name: Steven Harding

	 
	 	
Title: Chief Financial Officer

	 	 	
Title:  President and CEO

	 

 

  

3exhibit_10-1.htm

  

  

  

	
  

	
                           EXHIBIT 10.1(b)

	
  

	
EIGHTH AMENDMENT TO EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT

Whereas, heretofore, under date of May 12, 2004, Adams Resources & Energy, Inc. (“ARE”) and Frank T. “Chip” Webster (“Webster”) entered into that certain Employment Agreement bearing that date, which Employment Agreement provided for the employment of Webster by ARE subject to the terms and conditions as set forth; and

Whereas, said Employment Agreement was amended by that certain Amendment to Employment Agreement (“First Amendment”), dated May 18, 2005 by and between ARE and Webster.

Whereas, said Employment Agreement was amended by that certain Second Amendment to Employment Agreement (“Second Amendment”) dated May 19, 2006, by and between ARE and Webster.

Whereas, said Employment Agreement was amended by that certain Third Amendment to Employment Agreement (“Third Amendment”) dated March 1, 2007, by and between ARE and Webster.

Whereas, said Employment Agreement was amended by that certain Fourth Amendment to Employment Agreement (“Fourth Amendment”) dated December 17, 2007, by and between ARE and Webster.

Whereas, said Employment Agreement was amended by that certain Fifth Amendment to Employment Agreement (“Fifth Amendment”) dated September 20, 2008, by and between ARE and Webster.

Whereas, said Employment Agreement was amended by that certain Sixth Amendment to Employment Agreement (“Sixth Amendment”) dated December 23, 2008, by and between ARE and Webster.

Whereas, said Employment Agreement was amended by that certain Seventh Amendment to Employment Agreement (“Seventh Amendment”) dated December 8, 2009, by and between ARE and Webster.

Whereas, the Employment Agreement, the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Third Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, the Sixth Amendment, and the Seventh Amendment (collectively “Agreement”) are now in full force and effect and ARE and Webster mutually desire to hereby modify and amend said Agreement to the extent and in the manner hereinafter specified.

Now, therefore ARE and Webster do hereby mutually agree that Section 1.(a) of the Agreement be and the same is hereby amended to hereafter be and read as follows:

  

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Section 1. (a) ARE hereby employs Webster as its President and Chief Operating Officer and Webster hereby accepts such employment for the time period beginning May 14, 2004, and ending May 13, 2014, subject to earlier termination as hereinafter set forth (the "Term"). Anything herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding, ARE shall have the unilateral right to terminate Webster's employment at any time during the Term with or without cause.

ARE and Webster do hereby mutually agree that Section 5. (a) of the Agreement be and the same hereby is amended  by adding the following sentence to the end of Section  5(a):

In the event the term of this Agreement is extended beyond May 13, 2013, the base salary for the year May 14, 2013 to May 13, 2014, shall be the base salary which was paid to Webster in the final year of the term as set out in the Agreement.

Said Agreement, as hereby amended, shall continue in full force and effect subject to all of its terms and provisions and ARE and Webster do hereby agree and declare that the Agreement as amended, is binding upon each party and is a valid and subsisting Agreement.

Executed the _6th_ day of __December__, 2010.

                   ADAMS RESOURCES & ENERGY, INC.

                                        By_/s/K. S. Adams, Jr.__________________

                       K. S. Adams, Jr.

                      Chairman of the Board and

                    Chief Executive Officer

	
  

	
                       /s/Frank T. “Chip” Webster_________

                      Frank T. "Chip" Webster

                       President and Chief Operating Officer

  

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