– UK, London – Greatland Gold plc (LON: GGP), the precious and base metals exploration and development company, today announced the appointment of Shaun Day to its Board of Directors as CEO, effective on 8 February 2021, succeeding Gervaise Heddle, who is leaving the Company.
“It is a measure of our growing reputation as a business that we are able to attract high-quality people to Greatland, and I am delighted to welcome Shaun to our Board as our CEO. Shaun brings extensive industry and regional experience as well as capital markets expertise and is a great addition to our strong management team. During his five years at Northern Star, one of Australia’s largest gold miners, Shaun helped take the company from a similar size as Greatland to an approximate A$8bn market capitalisation, demonstrating his all-round expertise and suitability for the role. We look forward to working with him and benefitting from his extensive experience.” said Board Chairman, Alex Borrelli.
He added: “On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Gervaise for his tireless commitment and outstanding contribution to the development and success of Greatland. Gervaise joined the business in May 2016 and was instrumental in the acquisition of the Havieron project and securing the subsequent Farm-in and Joint Venture Agreements with Newcrest. Under his leadership, the team at Greatland has delivered exceptional value creation for shareholders. He leaves Greatland in a strong financial position and with a clear strategy in place for the potential development of Havieron towards commercial production. He goes with our warm wishes and we hope he achieves equal success in all his future endeavours.”
Gervaise Heddle will remain on the Board and part of the Executive team until 12 March 2021 to ensure a smooth transition.
Gervaise Heddle, the current CEO, commented: “It has been a privilege to serve as Chief Executive Officer of Greatland and I have truly enjoyed working with our incredible team over the past four years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues with whom I have had the pleasure of working and who have provided so much inspiration. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved together.
“With Havieron now at a key inflexion point, with both an Initial Inferred Mineral Resource estimate in place and, subject to required approvals, the construction of the box cut and decline due to commence shortly, I feel now is the natural point for me to hand over the running of the Company to someone who can progress it to the next level. It gives me great confidence to welcome Shaun as my successor. Shaun brings the necessary large-scale mining pedigree and is highly respected in the industry with a track record of building major mining companies. He has my full support as the right person to take Greatland forward on the next leg of its exciting journey.”
About Shaun Day
Shaun Day is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years of experience in executive and financial positions across mining and infrastructure, investment banking and international accounting firms. He spent five years (2014-2019) as CFO of Northern Star Resources Limited, an ASX100 company and a global-scale Australian gold producer, where he oversaw the company’s market capitalisation expansion from AU$700m to AU$8bn. As CFO of Northern Star, Shaun was part of the executive team that led the acquisition and funding of the Pogo Gold Mine, and the divestment of the Plutonic gold mine. Before Northern Star, Shaun spent five years as CFO of top 50 SGX listed Sakari Resources Limited, one of Indonesia’s leading thermal coal exporters. He leaves his position as CFO at AIM and ASX listed Salt Lake Potash Ltd to join Greatland.
Shaun also has considerable capital markets experience with a track record of leading successful transactions including M&A of publicly listed companies, farm-in agreements and raising capital. As CFO of Sakari and before this at Straits Resources Limited, Shaun led numerous transactions including acquisitions and divestments, financing activities and commercial farm-in agreements. Notably, he led the IPO of Sakari on the Singaporean Stock Exchange for US$325m, ultimately achieving a sale price of US$2.0bn when the company was taken over by the Thailand state-owned enterprise PTT.
Shaun Day, Incoming CEO, said: “I am delighted to take on the role of Chief Executive Officer of Greatland. Under the leadership of Gervaise, the remarkable progress at the Havieron Joint Venture over the past two years has created a strong platform for future growth. I look forward to working closely with the Board, the Greatland team and our key partners as we continue to drive forward a multi-pronged growth strategy and realise further value for shareholders.”
About Greatland Gold plc
Greatland Gold plc is a London Stock Exchange AIM-listed natural resource exploration and development company with a current focus on precious and base metals. The Company has six main projects; four situated in Western Australia and two in Tasmania.
In March 2019, Greatland signed a Farm-in Agreement with Newcrest Operations Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Newcrest Mining Limited (ASX: NCM), to explore and develop Greatland’s Havieron gold-copper deposit in the Paterson region of Western Australia. The Havieron Project is operated by Newcrest under a Joint Venture Agreement with Greatland Gold plc. Newcrest can earn up to a 70% joint venture interest through the total expenditure of US$65 million and the completion of a series of exploration and development milestones in a four-stage farm-in over a six-year period that commenced in March 2019. Newcrest may acquire an additional 5% interest at the end of the farm-in period at fair market value.
The Joint Venture Agreement includes tolling principles reflecting the intention of the parties that, subject to a successful exploration program and feasibility study and a positive decision to mine, the resulting joint venture mineralised material will be processed at Telfer, located 45km west of Havieron.
Greatland is seeking to identify large mineral deposits in areas that have not been subject to extensive exploration previously. It is widely recognised that the next generation of large deposits will come from such under-explored areas and Greatland is applying advanced exploration techniques to investigate several carefully selected targets within its focused licence portfolio.
The Company is also actively investigating a range of new opportunities in precious and strategic metals and will update the market on new opportunities as and when appropriate.
For more information: https://www.greatlandgold.com/
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