29 Jul 2010 07:00
29 July 2010
AVOCET MINING PLC
BOARD APPOINTMENT - FURTHER DISCLOSURE
Further to the announcement made yesterday, Avocet Mining PLC ("Avocet" or the "Company") is pleased to provide additional information regarding Brett Richards following his appointment as Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect.
Brett Allan Richards (age 46) has been working with Avocet in the capacity of Interim CEO since 1 June 2010 and previously as Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs since June 2009. Prior to that, he held various senior management positions in a variety of mining and metals companies over a 25 year career. Most recently Brett was a senior vice-president of Katanga Mining Limited from 2005 to 2009, and prior to that was in senior management roles at Kinross Gold and Co-Steel Inc., both in Toronto. Brett is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering Technology and has an Executive MBA from the Johnson School of Business at Cornell University, New York.
Details of the companies and partnerships of which Mr. Richards has been a director or partner in the last five years are set out below:
| Current Directorships and Partnerships | Former Directorships and Partnerships
|
| None | Kamoto Copper Company (DRC) |
|
| Kamoto Operating Limited (DRC) |
Brett holds 512,125 ordinary Avocet shares, and on 12 November 2009 was awarded 250,000 options at an exercise price of 90.75 pence.
There is no further information to disclose in relation to Brett's appointment pursuant to Schedule 2, paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies.
| For further information please contact: | |||||
| Avocet Mining PLC | Buchanan Communications | Ambrian Partners Limited | J.P. Morgan Cazenove | Arctic Securities | First Securities |
| Financial PR Consultants | NOMAD and Joint Broker | Lead Broker | Financial Adviser | Financial Adviser | |
| Brett Richards, CEO Mike Norris, FD Hans-Arne L'orange, EVP Business Development & Investor Relations | Bobby Morse Katharine Sutton | Richard Brown Richard Greenfield | Michael Wentworth-Stanley Anish Patel | Arne Wenger Kim Galtung Døsvig | Stein Hansen Eirik Lilledahl |
| +44 20 7766 7676 | +44 20 7466 5000 +44 7802 875227 | +44 20 7634 4700 | +44 20 7588 2828 | +47 21013100 | +47 2323 8000 |
| www.avocet.co.uk | www.buchanan.uk.com | www.ambrian.com | www.jpmcazenove.com | www.arcticsec.no | www.first.no |
Notes to Editors
Avocet Mining PLC ("Avocet" or "the Company") is a gold mining company listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (Ticker: AVM.L) and the Oslo Børs (Ticker: AVM.OL). The Company's principal activities are gold mining and exploration in Burkina Faso (as 90 per cent owner of the Inata gold mine), Malaysia (as 100 per cent owner of the Penjom gold mine, the country's largest gold producer) and Indonesia as 80 per cent owner of the North Lanut gold mine and Bakan project in North Sulawesi).
The Company recently announced that it had initiated exploration within the Inata mining licence area and in the surrounding Bélahouro district with the objective of significantly increasing Inata's resource and reserve base as well as investigating the highly prospective Souma Trend, located 20 km from the Inata mill. The Company has a number of other advanced exploration projects in West Africa and South East Asia.
Background to operations
Inata has a resource of 1.7 million ounces and reserves of 932,000 ounces. Inata poured first gold in December 2009 and has now reached a production rate in excess of 11,000 ounces per month. Other assets in West Africa include exploration licences in Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali (the most advanced being the Tri-K gold exploration project in Guinea with a resource of 666,500 ounces).
Penjom is Malaysia's largest gold mine and was developed by Avocet in an area of historic alluvial mining. The mine is located in Pahang State, approximately 120 km north of the country's capital, Kuala Lumpur.
North Lanut in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, was developed by Avocet from the exploration stage and has produced over 270,000 ounces since it was commissioned in 2004. North Lanut is located within a Contract of Work which includes exploration and mining rights over approximately 50,000 hectares in an area highly prospective for gold. Avocet holds an 80 per cent interest and an Indonesian company, PT Lebong Tandai, owns the remaining 20 per cent.