Matador Mining Ltd (ASX:MZZ) has boosted its technical expertise with the appointment of highly experienced geologist Warren Potma as its new fulltime exploration manager.
Potma's more than 25 years of experience specialising in structural geology (MSc), geochemistry and geometallurgy will help position the company to deliver on its target of identifying new discoveries across the Cape Ray tenements in Canada while continuing to grow existing resources.
Geology experience
His most recent position was as a principal geologist for CSA Global, where he provided specialist consulting services to exploration and mining companies across four continents.
In this role, he was able to contribute to mineral resource growth and exploration success through maximising the value of, and integration of, large complex geological datasets.
Potma said it was the opportunity for ‘significant’ greenfield discoveries along the underexplored Cape Ray shear zone that attracted him to Matador.
He holds a Master’s in structural geology from Monash University and is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
“Opportunities for new discoveries”
He said: “The vast majority of the 120-kilometre-long tenement package that Matador owns has seen no drilling and the only effective bedrock sampling has been rock chip sampling in the limited areas of outcrop.
“I see the real opportunity for new discoveries in the areas where there is shallow glacial till cover that has obscured most of the prospective trend along the Cape Ray Shear, which makes up the vast majority of the package.
“Combining industry best-practice techniques with the newly acquired high-resolution ground and airborne magnetics to map the geological structures undercover, will provide Matador with a quantitative 3D mineral system targeting model to unlock the next generation of discoveries along the Cape Ray Shear Zone.”
Previous experience
Prior to his time at CSA Global, Potma was exploration manager for Hot Chili Ltd (ASX:HCH), an ASX-listed company with a portfolio of projects in Chile.
During his tenure with Hot Chili, the exploration team delivered a 250% increase in the Productora project’s global mineral resource, made the maiden porphyry copper discovery for the project (Alice Deposit) and delineated an 8-kilometre-long porphyry alteration system.
While at Hot Chili, the team also defined a maiden ore reserve and provided the geological and geo-metallurgical inputs required for the Productora pre-feasibility study.
Prior to this, Potma held the position of exploration manager for Silver Swan Group/Caravel Minerals, which followed eight years with the CSIRO where he led the Mineral Systems and Targeting applied research stream that focused on developing and applying exploration technologies and methodologies across the Australian exploration and mining sector.