Following a sharp drop shortly after trading began, shares in AIM-listed gold explorer Greatland Gold (GGP:AIM) gained 2.3% to 33.2p after appointing a new CEO to take it to the ‘next level’.
Shaun Day, who is currently chief financial officer of fellow AIM-listed miner Salt Lake Potash (SO4:AIM), will take over from Gervaise Heddle in February.
The appointment comes after a phenomenal year for the £1.2 billion market cap company, which has seen its share price shoot up well over 1,000% under Heddle’s leadership, in part due to the rising gold price but also due to the discoveries it has made - mostly notably its flagship Haverion project in the Paterson region of Western Australia.
‘KEY INFLECTION POINT’
But Heddle said that with Havieron at a ‘key inflection point? 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.’
Last week saw a major milestone for Greatland as it announced an initial inferred resource estimate of 4.2 million ounces on a gold equivalent basis at Havieron, above analyst expectations of 3.75 million ounces.
Heddle said his successor Day will ‘bring the necessary large-scale mining pedigree’ to take the company forward from where it is now, adding that he is ‘highly respected in the industry with a track record of building major mining companies.’
‘HIGH QUALITY’ APPOINTMENT
Day will join Greatland after spending five years between 2014 and 2019 as CFO of Northern Star, a large cap Australian gold producer, where he oversaw the company’s market cap expansion from AU$700 million to AU$8 billion. Before that he spent five years as CFO of Sakari Resources, one of Indonesia’s biggest thermal coal exporters.
Chairman Alex Borrelli it is a measure of the firm’s ‘growing reputation as a business’ that it is able to attract ‘high-quality people’ like Day, and pointed to his ‘extensive industry and regional experience’ as well as his capital markets expertise.
Borrelli said, ‘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$8 billion market capitalisation, demonstrating his all-round expertise and suitability for the role. We look forward to working with him and benefiting from his extensive experience.’
As part of his appointment, Day will be granted five million performance options on commencement of employment. Each each option will have a 25p exercise price, a three-year vesting period and a life of five years from grant date.
