Bellevue Gold Ltd (ASX:BGL) (OTCMKTS:BELGF) has taken another step towards production with highly-experienced mining executive Rod Jacobs appointed to the newly-created role of project director.
Jacobs, who was a lead independent consultant on the Bellevue feasibility study, has held senior operating roles with IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO) and Doray Minerals.
He is a qualified mining engineer with more than 30 years’ operational and senior management experience.
In these roles, he has overseen major project studies, permitting, site operations, merger and acquisition activity, and project management.
“A fantastic addition”
Bellevue managing director Steve Parsons said Jacobs’ extensive experience would be invaluable as the company ramped up development and, ultimately, production.
He said: “Rod is a fantastic addition to what is already a superb team.
“He brings a wealth of project experience and knowledge which will be a huge asset as we move into construction, commissioning and production.
“As we have always stated, great projects attract great people. This is a great project and we have a great team of people to maximise our enormous opportunity.”
Drive optimisation
At Bellevue, Jacobs will drive optimisation of the recently-released feasibility study and construction of the required infrastructure to bring the high-grade Bellevue Gold Project, which has a global mineral resource of 2.4 million ounces at 10 g/t, into production.
Jacobs has undertaken asset evaluation, led project developments and managed steady-state operations in both open-cut and underground scenarios and has also utilised a variety of mining and processing methods across many commodities, including gold, base metals and mineral sands.
Operational experience
While serving as chief operating officer at Doray, he led the transition of the Deflector Gold-Copper Project into full operation.
Through numerous studies and improvement projects, Deflector output was continually increased without material capital expenditure.
In parallel, the mineral resource and ore reserve inventories were materially increased, resulting in a much-improved life of mine duration and total production.
During his time as a development manager at IGO Ltd, then known as Independence Group, which followed the acquisition of the Nova Nickel Project from Sirius Resources, Jacobs managed the optimisation study which resulted in a 30 per cent increase in project NPV.