Rio Tinto appointed Stephen McIntosh as the acting group executive, technology and innovation to succeed Greg Lilleyman, who will leave the company after 25 years of service. He has been with Rio Tinto for almost 30 years working on projects in more than 45 countries. Most recently, he was head of exploration.
Anglo American appointed Ruben Fernandes as CEO in Brazil. He will also lead the Iron Ore Brazil business (Minas-Rio). Pedro Borrego, who has served as interim CEO of Iron Ore Brazil since November 2015, will assist Fernandes with the transition over the coming months, prior to taking up a new role based at Anglo American’s London headquarters.
New Millennium Iron Corp. appointed Howard Lutley as nonexecutive chair of the board of directors. Lutley joined the board in November 2015 and succeeds Lee C. G. Nichols, a co-founder of NML, director and chair since August 2003.
Dominion Diamond Corp. announced that Robert Gannicott has retired as chairman and Jim Gowans has been appointed as nonexecutive chairman of the board of directors. Gannicott will remain as a director of the company. Gowans is currently president and CEO for Arizona Mining Inc.
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| Stephen McIntosh | Ruben Fernandes | Howard Lutley | Jim Gowans |
Seabridge Gold appointed Gary A. Sugar as an independent director. He served for 32 years with RBC Capital Markets, including 24 years as a managing director. Prior to his career in investment banking, he worked for the mining industry in various roles ranging from corporate development to field geologist. He currently serves as a director of Stillwater Mining Co.
IC Potash Corp. appointed Mehdi Azodi interim CEO. Azodi served as the company’s director of investor relations since 2013. He replaced Randy Foote, who is retiring.
Orbite Technologies Inc. appointed Charles Taschereau as vice president and COO. Taschereau joins the company from Congo Equipment S.A.R.L. where he was CEO.
Pilbara Minerals announced that CEO Ken Brinsden has been appointed to the board and will now hold the dual roles of managing director and CEO.
Noront Resources Ltd. announced the addition of Ryan Weston as vice president, exploration. Most recently, he was chief geologist for Carlisle Goldfields and as senior geologist for Cliffs Natural Resources.
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| Mehdi Azodi | Charles Taschereau | Ken Brinsden | Ryan Weston |
Centaur Holdings Ltd. appointed Wesley Grogor to group head of mining operations. He will be based in Dubai and will oversee the resources and mining operations. Prior to joining Centaur, he had his own mining services and management business in South Africa with an in-house team of engineers and commercial/technical specialists.
UC RUSAL appointed Scott States as president of RUSAL America Corp. States joins RUSAL from Century Aluminum Co. where he was vice president of procurement and logistics. He will replace Sergey Bubnov, who has successfully lead the company’s sales activities in America over the last eight years.
Premier Gold Mines Ltd. has retained the services of Charles Ronkos and Peter Mah as consulting senior technical advisors. Most recently, Ronkos was senior vice president, exploration, at Goldcorp. Most recently, Mah held the position of COO and president of Avanti Kitsault Mining Ltd., Alloycorp Inc.
ALROSA Vice President Andrey Polyakov has been elected president of the World Diamond Council (WDC). He has served as vice president of the WDC since 2015.
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| Wesley Grogor | Scott States | Dr. Chris Twigge-Molecey | Graham Clow |
Dr. Chris Twigge-Molecey, a senior advisor at Hatch Ltd., where he has worked for 43 years, was presented with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) Distinguished Service Award. His technical contributions have included management of technology development programs, as well as the design and commissioning of full scale metallurgical plants. He leads the development of Hatch business in several overseas markets including Russia, Chile and China.
Graham Clow, chairman and principal mining engineer with RPA Inc., was awarded the Vale Medal for Meritorious Contributions to Mining for his dedicated service to the mining industry in operations and evaluation with particular emphasis on ore reserve estimation, productivity, and northern mining. A senior mining executive with more than 42 years of experience, with particular emphasis on mineral resources and reserves and economic assessments of projects and operations worldwide, he advises listed companies on technical disclosure and controls through IPO’s, listing documents, financings, and other interactions with regulators. As part of this practice, he has advised most of the major institutions involved in debt and equity financings for the mining industry.
Anne Gent, Dominique Girard, Andy Randell and David Stein received the CIM–Bedford Canadian Young Mining Leaders Awards. Gent works for Cameco Corp. as a senior environmental scientist. Girard is vice president, Nunavut operations, a position he has held since January. He began his career with Agnico Eagle in 2000 as a metallurgical engineer at the LaRonde mine. Since then, he has held a number of key positions including general manager at the Meadowbank mine, mill superintendent at the Kittila mine. Randell is a professional geologist based in Vancouver. He established Strata GeoData Services in 2012, focused on a new crowd-consulting concept, Hive. Stein is president and CEO of Aberdeen International. Over the past six years, he has overseen all major transactions for Aberdeen. Most recently, Stein led the acquisition of African Thunder Platinum’s assets in South Africa on behalf of Aberdeen and the acquisition of the Sal de Los Angeles lithium project in Argentina.
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| Anne Gent | Dominique Girard | Andy Randell | David Stein |
MineWare appointed Mark Baker, one of the founding fathers of autonomous haulage systems, to its board of directors. He held dual board roles at Modular and Komatsu America Corp. before founding Checkmark Consulting. He is also a founding principal of Phoenix Drill Control and is a senior partner at Flow Partners.
Tomas Kuta was appointed senior vice president for Volvo Construction Equipment. Working for Volvo CE since 1997 and has held a variety of senior management roles. Tiffany Cheng has been appointed as the new global director of external communications at Volvo CE. Prior to this, she was global director of internal communications, a position she has held since 2012.
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| Tomas Kuta | Tiffany Cheng |
