Amarillo Gold Corporation (CVE:AGC) (OTCQB:AGCBF) announced it had appointed veteran mining engineer Paulo Serpa as its new country manager in Brazil.
Serpa will succeed Arão Portugal as country manager for the Toronto-based company’s Brazilian subsidiaries when Portugal retires at the end of September, according to a statement.
Portugal will remain active with the company and serve as special adviser to CEO Mike Mutchler, Amarillo told shareholders.
READ: Amarillo Gold ends 1Q with C$40.7M in cash to advance Posse gold project towards production
“We expect this to be a smooth transition,” Mutchler said in a statement. “Paulo will build on the strong foundation set by Arão and lead the construction phase of our flagship Posse Gold Project at Mara Rosa. In addition to Paulo, we’ve made several other key hires in Brazil, where we are building a strong operating team in anticipation of making a construction decision.”
Serpa has nearly 35 years of experience in the mining industry developing mines. He was most recently Director of South America Institutional Affairs for Imerys, a French multinational company that produces and processes industrial minerals, where he worked on 24 industrial mine sites.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire Amarillo team, I’d like to thank Arao for his leadership,” said Mutchler. “Arão was instrumental in acquiring our License to Install for Posse, securing several critical contracts for the developing Posse, and strengthening our team in Brazil. We wish him well in his retirement, even as we continue to access his considerable experience and expertise as we build Amarillo into Brazil's next gold producer.”
Amarillo’s Posse project is on the company’s Mara Rosa Property in Goiás State. A 2020 definitive feasibility study outlined a resource of 32 million tonnes at 1.1 grams per ton gold for a total of 1.2 million ounces in the high-confidence measured and indicated category. The project is anticipated to produce 102,000 gold ounces per year in its first four years and have an average annual gold production of 84,000 ounces based on an initial 10-year mine life.
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