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Elemental Minerals names new leadership, plans recapitalisation

Last updated: 02:00 23 Nov 2015 GMT, First published: 01:00 23 Nov 2015 GMT

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Elemental Minerals (ASX:ELM) has  appointed David Hathorn and Sean Bennett in the roles of non-executive chairman and managing director, respectively.

Tom Borman and John Sanders have stepped down as chairman and chief executive, respectively, and as directors of the company in order to pursue other business interests.

Borman and Sanders, however, will remain available to assist the newly appointed chairman and managing director to ensure a smooth handover and transition.

Michael Golding has also resigned as a non-executive director.

Hathorn is CEO of FTSE 100 global packaging and paper company the Mondi Group (market cap: US$10.7 billion) and a veteran of mining giant Anglo American, where he served on the group executive committee and as an executive director.

“I have been following the company closely now for several years and believe Elemental offers a world class Potash resource,” Hathorn said.

“Kola alone has approximately 1 billion tons of resource, with over 152 million tons of already proven reserves. Added to this, the fact that the Kola Mine is expected to have one of the lowest Opex costs globally, it is difficult not to be excited.”

Bennett, meanwhile, has served as CEO of UBS South African and head of Sub-Saharan Africa as well as co-head of HSBC Global Banking for Africa.

He has more than 20 years’ experience in advising a wide range of companies, state owned enterprises and governments, including a number of large mining houses such as BHP Billiton, South32 and Sibanye.

The leadership changes coincide with a trading halt request by Elemental pending an announcement related to a material recapitalisation by Wednesday.


Analysis

These two nominations represent an important enhancement of Elemental leadership knowhow ahead of major project development milestones for Kola.

Hathorn is well placed to participate in Elemental’s develop, having observed the company for years and noting insightfully that its projects outside of Kola were estimated to have even larger deposits with lower-cost profiles.

Bennett’s commercial and financial expertise (particularly in Africa) makes him an ideal person to lead a team in creating significant shareholder value and delivering financing and commercial milestones for Kola, which is located in the Republic of Congo.

Elemental’s share price has improved 54% since the beginning of September to A$0.20.


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