Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd (LON:CGH)

Chaarat aims to create value for its shareholders, employees and communities from its high quality gold and mineral deposits in the Kyrgyz Republic by building relationships based on trust and operating to the best environmental, social and employment standards.

The Chaarat Gold Project is located on the Tien Shan Gold Belt in the north-west of the Kyrgyz Republic. The project has a defined resource of 6.4Moz within two mineralised zones, Tulkubash oxide zone and Kyzyltash sulphide zone. Chaarat’s strategy is to build a leading Central Asia and FSU gold company through organic growth and selective M&A.

The Tulkubash oxide resources contains 1,054koz at 0.84g/t within a 2km trend and is suitable for recovery through a low-cost heap leach plant by 2020 and designed to produce c.100koz of gold and generate c.US$40-60 million per annum (based on US$1,300/oz gold price). The development of Tulkubash and the heap leach plant will be the first stage of development, in parallel with an aggressive exploration programme to add resources and enhance oxide mine plan ahead of first gold pour and to develop long term mineral potential.

The Kyzyltash sulphide resources contains 5,377koz at 3.75g/t within a 3km trend. The development of the large, high grade Kyzyltash ore body will be the second stage of Chaarat’s strategy. The refractory gold deposit is amenable to pre-oxidation and cyanidation recovery with the potential to produce 200-200koz of gold and generate free cash flow of US$150-200 million per annum (based on US$1,300/oz gold price).

Martin Andersson
Non-Executive Chairman
Appointment:  1 October 2016
Past roles
A graduate of the Stockholm School of Economics and HEC Paris, Martin worked in mergers and acquisitions at Booz Allen Hamilton and advised the Russian Government on its privatization programme. In 1993 he co-founded Brunswick Brokerage – a Moscow based investment bank that was later sold to UBS – initially holding the position of CEO and from 1999 as Chairman of the joint venture, Brunswick UBS Warburg. Between 2006 and 2013 he was a shareholder and served on the Board of Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK), one of the largest thermal coal producers in Russia.

Brings to the Board
Martin first invested in Chaarat in 2011 and he intends to be a long term and supportive shareholder. He brings to the Board his significant experience of Russia and the region and his contacts from an extensive network.

He is a member of Chaarat’s Audit Committee and the Business Development Committee.

Other commitments
Martin manages an active portfolio with an interest in real estate, financial services and information technology. He is currently a director of Brunswick Real Estate S.A.R.L., Cabo Delgado Investments Limited and Central Atlantic Investment Holding LLC.

Robert D Benbow
Chief Executive Officer
Appointment:  10 July 2017
Bob’s primary responsibility is to develop and build the Tulkubash Project and oversee mining operations once in production. During his 30 year career Bob has worked with junior exploration companies to bring them into production and transform them into operating companies. He has taken three green field gold developments into production and from 2007 he served as the Vice President and Country Manager of Alacer Gold Corp.’s Çöpler Gold Mine in Eastern Turkey which has produced over 1 million ounces as one of the lowest cost producers in the world.

Bob built a team of expatriates and Turkish nationals to execute the successful start-up of Çöpler, which was initially developed as an open pit heap leach operation. The Çöpler mine is now moving into development of the refractory ore contained within the deposit. The two similar stages in Chaarat’s development will benefit directly from Bob’s relevant experience.

Brings to the Board

Experience of capital markets and junior listed companies combined with depth of experience in all aspects of the finance function.

Richard Rae
Senior Independent Non-Executive Director
Appointment:  10 December 2013
Past roles
As a managing director of ABN AMRO, Richard was responsible for the team engaged in research, sales and trading of Mid and SmallCap equities. In this role and before that as Head of UK Smaller Companies Research & Sales, he managed the liaison with the corporate broking and financial advisory departments.

Brings to the Board
Richard is an experienced City professional who brings his contacts and in depth understanding of the equity markets to the Board of Chaarat which will assist in the Company’s engagement and communication with its shareholders.

A Chartered Accountant, Richard is Chairman of both Chaarat’s Audit and Remuneration Committees.

Other commitments
He is a non-executive Director and member of the Audit Committee of Aberforth Smaller Companies Investment Trust plc, the largest investment trust within the UK Smaller Company sector and blur Group PLC.

Dorian Nicol
Non-Executive Director
Appointment:  13 November 2017
Past roles
Dorian (known as Dusty) has a broad industry experience at every stage of the mining process – from exploration to construction and development and management of mines – during his 40 year career. He has built multi-disciplinary teams in a variety of cultures. Dusty will be instrumental in working together with the CEO and the management team in realising the potential of Chaarat’s plans for the Chaarat Deposit, both in terms of the construction program for the heap leach operation as well as further exploration of the Tulkubash oxides. His experience with refractory ore will be invaluable to Chaarat when the oxide resource is in production and the Company seeks to expand further and develop the very substantial Kyzyltash refractory ore resource.

Brings to the Board
A hands on approach to support the exploration and construction of the Tulkubash Project and subsequent development of the Chaarat deposit.

Other commitments
President and CEO of Azarga Metals Corp

Martin Wiwen-Nilsson
Non-Executive Director
Appointment:  1 October 2016
Past roles
Martin Wiwen-Nilsson spent 21 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was a Partner from 2008 to 2015. During his time there he held leadership positions in, amongst others, the global emerging markets business, the global commodities business and the global sovereign wealth fund business. He served on a number of executive committees, including the Investment Banking Operating Committee and the Growth Market Operating Committee.

Brings to the Board
A unrivalled list of contacts from his Goldman Sachs connections and a pragmatic approach to investor engagement.

He is a member of Chaarat’s Remuneration Committee.

Other commitments
As a director of Brunswick Real Estate S.A.R.L he is closely associated with Martin Andersson.

Gordon Wylie
Non-Executive Director
Appointment:  13 November 2017
Past roles
During his seven years as a member of AngloGold Ashanti’s senior management team, Gordon was responsible for their global exploration programme, part of which included moving into new prospective, higher risk geographical regions. Gordon has been non-executive Chairman of Lydian International since its inception where he has overcome the challenges involved in moving an exploration company on to becoming a development company with a clear path towards production. Lydian is constructing a mine at the Amulsar open pit, heap leach gold project in Armenia. He is also familiar with Endeavour Financial who are assisting with Chaarat’s financing.

Brings to the Board
More than 41 years in the mining industry and directly relevant experience of growing companies from exploration to production.

Other commitments (non executive)
Chairman of Lydian International.

Artem Volynets
Non-Executive Director
Appointment:  26 March 2018
Past roles
Artem Volynets has more than 20 years’ experience in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and senior corporate management roles. He led private and public transactions worth more than US$30bn and managed leading businesses in the metals and mining industry.
From 2003 to 2013 Artem was a key executive in the Russian aluminium and energy industries, including CEO of En+ Group, Deputy CEO and Director for Corporate Strategy at UC RUSAL, and SVP Strategy at SUAL International. Artem worked on the key transactions in the sector over this period, including the three-way US$20bn+ merger of Rusal, SUAL and the aluminium assets of Glencore to create UC Rusal; the acquisition of a 25% stake in Norilsk Nickel (US$10bn+) and the IPO of UC RUSAL on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (US$2bn). From 2009 to 2010 he served as Chairman of the International Aluminium Institute.
From 1997 to 2003, Artem was a management consultant and corporate finance advisor with Monitor Group in London. Artem studied at Georgetown University, INSEAD, the American University in Washington, DC and the Moscow State University.

Brings to the Board
Artem’s M&A, capital markets and top executive experience in the mining sector, combined with his global industry and investor connections in Russia and Asia will be invaluable as we progress with the Chaarat Project and plan our further growth.

Other commitments
He founded ACG Amur Capital Group Ltd in 2014, as an advisory and investment management firm.

Peter Carter
Chief Operating Officer
Appointment:  February 2018
Peter brings over 30 years experience in open pit engineering, mine management and project development to Chaarat and will be instrumental in the development of the Tulkubash heap leach project.

His experience includes leadership roles in the construction and operation of the Kumtor and Boroo gold mines in Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia. bringing direct experience operating in Central Asia.

Peter was also involved with the fast-track development of the Karma heap leach project in Burkina Faso, which was successfully developed by Truegold prior to its acquisition by Endeavour Mining in 2016.

Pete Gardner
Chief Financial Officer
Appointment:  December 2017
A Chartered Accountant and qualified Corporate Finance professional, Pete’s experience will be invaluable as the Company transitions from its current stage of development to becoming a gold producing company. He joined Chaarat’s senior management team in October 2017.

From 2009 to 2016, Pete was Finance Director of Amara Mining plc until its sale to Perseus Mining Limited.

His immediate priorities will be to lead the already well advanced project finance process for the construction of the Tulkubash Heap Leach Project, in conjunction with the Chairman Martin Andersson and Endeavour Financial, and enhance Investor Relations activities.

He will also be working with Linda Naylor, the Finance Director, and the finance team on upgrading the financial reporting systems to ensure these meet all necessary requirements in the transition from exploration to construction and production.

Frank K. Fenne
Head of Geology
Frank will oversee the expansion and development of the Tulkubash oxide resource to provide an optimized feasibility study. He will manage the collection and interpretation of geologic data to meet JORC reporting standards. Frank will also manage the exploration of the extensive area of prospective ground within the Chaarat licenses.

Frank is a graduate of the University of California with a B.S. in geology followed by a M.S. from the University of Idaho. He brings to the company over 30 years of experience in exploration, project development, and mine operations. He has managed exploration and development projects in the western U.S., Mexico, and in the Philippines. As the Vice President of Exploration for Vista Gold Corp., he planned and managed a staged development drilling program in Australia that resulted in 5.5 Moz Au in reported reserves and added 6.5 Moz Au in total resources. As Technical Services Manager at the Kinross Round Mountain Mine, he developed plans and managed feasibility studies that resulted in a pit expansion that added five years of mine life and 2.4 million ounces to reserves.

Alexander Novak
Chairman Chaarat Zaav
Alex is a graduate of the Kazakh Polytechnic Institute. He has assisted companies investing in the Kyrgyz Republic in various aspects of finance, administration and representation with the authorities since 2000. He has more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of business management in Central Asia including negotiations with governmental institutions, contractors, preparation of development plans, monitoring of operations and public relations.

Davron Vakhabov
General Director Chaarat Zaav
Davron is a Project Management Professional and holds an Executive MBA degree from the University of Sheffield. Davron brings over 10 years of extensive international contracting and projects management experience which include various project management positions in Alacer Gold Corp’s Çöpler Gold Mine where he was a part of original mine construction and then was responsible for all plant and heap leach pad expansion projects. Prior to joining Chaarat, Davron held a position of an area manager responsible for infrastructure at Lydian International’s Amulsar Gold Project in Armenia.

Turat Usubaliev
Deputy General Director Chaarat Zaav
Turat graduated in Geological Prospecting from the Frunze Polytechnical Institute, (now the Kyrgyz Mining Metallurgical Institute) in 1989. He has over twenty years of geological experience in Kyrgyzstan and joined Chaarat originally in 2007.

He began his career in 1989 as the Jerooy Exploration Group’s Geologist and joined their expedition in the north of Kyrgyzstan. He went on to work as a geologist on the Jerooy Gold Project. Following the completion of his MSc at the Shimane University in Japan, where he carried out research into mineral compositions in the Jerooy region, Turat continued his work in Kyrgyzstan with Kumtor Operating Company. During his six years with the company he progressed to the role of Chief Geologist, before accepting a new role, that of Senior Geologist, with Frontier Mining in 2004, managing their explorations in Kazakhstan. He returned to Kyrgyzstan in 2006 to work as Chief Geologist on the Jerooy Gold Mine before joining Chaarat. He accepted a position as Vice-President of Centerra Gold in Toronto in 2012 and returned to Chaarat in August 2013 as Deputy General Director with responsibility for community relations.

Enquiries
+44 (0) 20 7499 2612
[email protected]
www.chaarat.com

Chaarat Zaav
10th floor, Victory Business Centre
103 Ibraimov Street
Bishkek
Kyrgyz Republic 720011
Switchboard: +996 312 976100
Fax: +996 312 976900