LONDON (Alliance News) - Highland Gold Mining Ltd Friday said it has appointed Denis Alexandrov as its new chief executive, replacing outgoing CEO Valery Oyf, who will remain on the board as a non-executive director.
Denis Alexandrov will be appointed chief executive of Highland's Moscow-based management company, Russdragmet LLC, taking charge of Highland's operations in Russia and Kyrgyzstan.
Highland Gold produces gold from the Mnogovershinnoye, Novoshirokinskoye and Belaya Gora assets in Russia, where it also has three development assets and two exploration assets.
The new chief most recently served as CEO and director of New York-listed Auriant Mining AB, a Swedish company focused on gold production in Russia. Prior to that, he worked as managing director at A1 Investment Co and chief financial officer at Arlan Investment Co, both of which had substantial holdings in the mining industry.
Alexandrov was Highland's finance director between 2003 and 2006, but will now step up to lead Highland as he tries to navigate the company to success after it reported a huge fall in pretax profit in the first six months of 2015 due to gold prices falling by around 10% year-on-year.
The miner reported pretax profit of USD16.6 million in the first half, a dramatic fall from USD29.4 million a year earlier as revenue dropped to USD130.7 million from USD142.2 million, leading Highland to lower its interim dividend to GBP0.020 per share from GBP0.025 per share.
Highland shares were trading up 2.3% to 56.0 pence per share on Friday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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