News

Keep up with the latest executive movements across the mining sector, featuring Karora Resources, Kairos Minerals, KGL Resources and more.  

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Former chief executive officer (CEO) of Kirkland Lake Gold, Tony Makuch, has joined the Karora Resources team as a special advisor.

During his time at Kirkland Lake, Makuch led the company’s transformation, boosting its annual gold production from 315,000 ounces to more than 1.4 million ounces. Kirkland Lake’s market capitalisation jumped from $1 billion to $13 billion in the process.

The new appointment comes as Karora looks to increase the gold production from its integrated Beta Hunt gold mine and Higginsville gold operations in Western Australia to between 185,000–205,000 ounces by 2024.

Karora CEO and chair Paul A Huet was thrilled to have someone of Makuch’s ilk join the company.

“I am thrilled to welcome Makuch to the Karora team,” he said. “Having worked with Tony personally in the past, I am honoured we will have his guidance as we move forward.

“Tony has a strong track record of growing mining companies, as demonstrated during his extremely successful tenure leading Kirkland Lake as CEO from 2016 until its merger with Agnico in early 2022.”

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Gold and lithium explorer Kairos Minerals has appointed Peter Turner as its new managing director and Klaus Echof as its non-executive chair.

With more than 25 years’ experience in the resources sector, Turner has worked for the likes of Perseus Mining, Placer Dome Asia Pacific, Delta Gold, and Goldbelt Resources, and led exploration projects in Western Australia, Africa, the Middle East and South-East Asia.

Eckhof was the founder and executive chair of AVZ Minerals, a company focused on developing the Manono project, one of the world’s largest undeveloped lithium deposits located in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). At the time of writing, AVZ had a market capitalisation of $2.75 billion.

Turner and Eckhof will play important roles in the continued development of Kairos’ Mt York and Roe Hills projects in WA.

“With an already substantial resource base at Mt York, we will apply smart exploration with the aim of growing the resource significantly. It is a large mineralised system in a tier-one location,” Turner said.

“We are equally excited by the lithium potential of Kairos’ Roe Hills project in what is a highly prospective place for find fertile LCT (lithium-caesium-tantalum) pegmatites. We have a huge land holding with promising lithium-in-soil anomalies waiting to be drilled.”

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Jeff Gerard has joined KGL Resources as an independent non-executive director. Gerard has more than 40 years’ experience in various technical, operational, commercial and executive management roles in the resources industry.

Gerard has been chief operating officer of Xstrata Coal South Africa in the past, where he coordinated greenfield and brownfield project developments, managing the feasibility studies, approvals and construction of a range of projects.

While at Glencore, he led operational integrity and performance reviews for the McArthur River mine in Northern Territory, Katanga and Mutanda copper assets in the DRC, and Kazzinc in Kazakhstan.

KGL chairman Peter Hay said Gerard would be key to finalising the company’s feasibility study for its Jervois copper project in the NT and bringing the project into production.

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Helix Resources has appointed Dr Kylie Prendergast as a non-executive director. Prendergast brings with her more than 25 years’ experience in the international resources sector.

Working across many different jurisdictions, Prendergast has played key roles in business development, project technical and economic evaluation, and commercial management of mining projects.

Prendergast is currently partner of Petram Capital, a private equity principal investor, and chief executive officer of Kina Copper & Gold. She has also held senior leadership roles with Felix Gold, Mawarid Mining, Batu Mining, and Gold Fields St Ives.

Helix managing director Mike Rosenstreich said Prendergast arrived at an important time as the company advances its copper projects in the Cobar region of New South Wales.

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Monger Gold has announced the resignation of Romy Hersham from its board and appointed Yehoshua (Shuie) Gestetner as interim independent director in Hersham’s place.

With a strong background in management consulting, strategic development and fundraising, Gestetner has been a global investor for nearly a decade and was instrumental in launching an Australian business-to-business technology business.

Having recently acquired the Scotty lithium project in Nevada, US, Monger Gold said it was searching for a new director with significant experience in the lithium space. The company has already shortlisted several candidates for the role.

Monger Gold is also developing its Mt Monger North and South gold projects in WA.