URU Metals (LON:URU) has confirmed the appointment of John Zorbas as chief executive.
The resource entrepreneur is also chairman of NWT Uranium Corporation and CEO of Mercom Oil Sands as well as being a director of both ZorCorp Capital and Starline Capital.
URU chairman David Subotic said: "I am delighted to welcome John to the team and I am confident that his extensive high level experience in the exploration and development sector will prove invaluable as we refine our strategy and focus our attentions on the development of URU Metals' key assets.”
It has two lead projects: a giant nickel deposit in South Africa and oil shale acreage in Sweden that also contains uranium.
It recently raised just over £800,000 that will help it develop the Zebediela nickel asset in South Africa’s mining-focused Limpopo Province.
At 1.5bn of indicated and inferred resources, the deposit is shaping up to be a world-class asset.
If this low-grade, high tonnage operation was in production today at the 25,000 tonnes of nickel a year forecast in the preliminary economic assessment it would be the world’s 12th largest mine.
There are 485mln tonnes at 0.245% nickel in the higher-confidence indicated category and 1.15bn at 0.248% ‘inferred’.
Moving north from South Africa, the AIM listed mining exploration specialist has a second potential company-maker in its Narke shale oil acreage in Sweden, which is also host to one of the world largest unproven uranium deposits.
It produced oil in the 1940s and ‘50s, but closed when a fall in the price of oil rendered it uneconomic.
It is known to contain 500mln barrels of crude and there may even be gas – although this has yet to be confirmed.