Keep up with the latest executive movements across the mining sector, featuring Mineral Resources (MinRes), Strandline Resources, Leo Lithium and more.
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MinRes has made two independent non-executive director appointments this week, with former Australian cricketer Justin Langer and respected senior Noongar woman Colleen Hayward joining the company.
Langer had an international cricket career from 1993 until 2007, and after serving in various coaching roles, was appointed head coach of the Australian men’s cricket team in 2018, a role he remained in until 2022.
MinRes chair James McClements said Langer would add valuable experience to the board.
“As MinRes expands and develops, we believe that bringing in a breadth of expertise and knowledge is key to our success,” he said.
“Justin’s outstanding leadership experience will further enhance our focus on people and culture, which is critical as we continue to expand our workforce to execute on our significant growth strategy.”
Hayward has more than 35 years’ experience developing and leading programs to support and empower Indigenous people in Western Australia.
She has won a host of awards during her career, including the 2006 Premier of Western Australia’s prestigious Multicultural Ambassador’s Award and the 2008 National NAIDOC Aboriginal Person of the Year Award.
Haywood’s appointment furthers MinRes’ desire to diversify its board.
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Phil Russo has joined Toubani Resources as its chief executive officer, with Danny Callow to transition to executive chair.
It comes after Toubani’s ASX listing in November where the company sought to appoint an Australian-based chief executive officer with broad corporate, project development and capital markets experience.
This will enable Toubani to increase its profile in Australia and globally, and help unlock the exploration potential across the company’s Kobada gold project in Mali.
Russo said he was keen to get stuck in.
“Feasibility-level projects with the mineral resource and ore reserve estimates of the Kobada project are rare in the gold sector,” he said. “Even rarer for projects of this size and scale are those with the potential for significant resource growth.
“Kobada’s potential for expansion outside the current mineral resource, as well as for new regional discoveries, is very clear.”
Russo’s appointment also sees non-executive chair Jan-Erik Back move to a non-executive director role.
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Strandline Resources has made several executive appointments as the company continues to ramp up its Coburn mineral sands operation in WA.
Former BGC executive director Belinda Murray has been appointed as head of commercial and strategic developments, while former Iluka Resources and Fortescue Future Industries legal manager Jamie Cann has been appointed as general counsel, head of risk and compliance and joint company secretary.
Strandline managing director Luke Graham said Murray and Cann’s appointments further enables the Coburn project.
“Their knowledge and specialist hands-on experience in commercial, legal, governance, business strategy and sustainability matters will complement our existing team and help the company to continue to transition smoothly into operations at Coburn, as well as pursuing further our strategic growth,” he said.
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Leo Lithium has appointed experienced mining executive Tim Richards as its new chief operating officer.
Richards brings more than 20 years’ mining experience to Leo and arrives as the company looks to elevate its Goulamina lithium project in Mali into production in the next 18 months.
“Tim brings strong operational experience in West Africa and extensive technical expertise,” Leo Lithium managing director Simon Hay said.
“The timing of Tim’s commencement is ideal as we look to bring forward revenue with the DSO (direct shipping ore) opportunity to be actively pursued in 2023.”