SolGold (LON:SOLG) has hired experienced junior mining specialist Alan Martin as its new chief executive.
Martin, who comes with over 20 years’ experience in the Australian resources industry, is himself a significant investor in SolGold with just over 9mln shares, having invested US$200,000 in the recent placing.
There will be a four-month probationary period for Malcolm Norris’s successor, who has spent the last five years at Australia’s Colonial First State Global Asset Management, focusing on the junior mining space.
SolGold, which digs for gold in Ecuador, said Nicholas Mather will remain as an executive director for 12 to 24 months to ensure a smooth changeover.
Martin said: “I am very much looking forward to the challenge of leading and growing SolGold together with its existing management team.”
He added that he believes SolGold has the potential to be worth more than US$1bn given the “world-class” copper-gold deposit at its Cascabel project in Ecuador.
As well as Cascabel, the group has a portfolio of projects in the Solomon Islands and Queensland Australia.