Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of investors who purchased Compass Minerals International, Inc. (“Compass” or the “Company”) (NYSE: CMP) common stock between October 31, 2017 and November 18, 2018, inclusive (the “Class Period”). Compass investors have until December 20, 2022 to file a lead plaintiff motion.

Investors suffering losses on their Compass investments are encouraged to contact the Law Offices of Howard G. Smith to discuss their legal rights in this class action at 888-638-4847 or by email to howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com.

On September 23, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that Compass had been ordered to pay $12 million to settle charges for “misleading investors” by repeatedly assuring that a technology update at its most significant salt mine, Goderich, was “on track to materially reduce costs and boost its operating results starting in 2018.” In reality, costs at the mine were increasing, substantially undermining the projected savings. Further, the SEC noted that Compass overstated the amount of salt it was able to produce.

The complaint filed in this class action alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (1) Goderich’s new continuous mining and continuous haulage (“CMCH”) mining system resulted in the Company incurring additional operating costs rather than cost savings. Cost overages were blamed on one-off items, such as a mine ceiling collapse incident, to hide operating costs associated with the CMCH upgrade; (2) Goderich’s new CMCH mining system was unable to produce targeted levels of salt during this period. The Company’s salt production consistently fell below internal expectations and was less than one-half of the salt it needed to produce to generate the anticipated cost savings; (3) the purported annual salt production capacity for Goderich of eight million tons was significantly overstated. Although Goderich had been able to produce nearly eight million tons of salt annually using drill-and-blast mining, Goderich was discontinuing that method of producing salt, and the CMCH system was not capable of mining that level of salt during this period; (4) the purported anticipated annual cost savings attributed to the new CMCH mining system were significantly overstated. Even at targeted production levels, Goderich’s CMCH mining system was expected to generate significantly less than the $30 million in annual cost savings the Company had represented to investors; (5) the purported realized cost savings attributed to the new CMCH mining system were significantly overstated. Cost savings generated by other unrelated projects at Goderich were attributed to the CMCH upgrade; and (6) as a result, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.

If you purchased Compass securities, have information or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020, by telephone at (215) 638-4847, toll-free at (888) 638-4847, or by email to howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com, or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com.

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