Hudbay Minerals announced Tuesday that Waterton Resource Management, a resource investment firm and significant shareholder currently waging a proxy battle with Hudbay, has commenced legal proceedings against the company for allegedly spreading misrepresentations about the firm in a management information circular sent out on April 4.

Hudbay’s circular makes several claims about Waterton, saying that the firm has a “track record of value destruction,” that it was “disingenuous and cannot be trusted” and that it had a secret agenda that it didn’t wish to reveal publicly.

In its own circular sent out Monday, Waterton stated that Hudbay “[fell] short of even the most basic standards of professionalism” and that the chairman and board were acting “childish.” More seriously, however, the firm also alleged that Hudbay accused Waterton of attempting to hurt Hudbay’s share price by seeding an article that appeared in Bloomberg in October 2018 in order to purchase more shares of the company.