South Star Battery Metals Corp announced the retirement of Dave McMillan as chairman and member of the company’s board on April 15, 2022, while naming longtime board member Marc P Leduc as the new chairman.
The Vancouver, British Columbia-based battery metals project developer said Leduc has been a board member since 2019.
In a statement, South Star CEO Richard Pearce said: "We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Dave for his hard work, dedication and distinguished service over the years and wish him all the success and happiness in his retirement.”
He added: “He has been a staunch supporter of South Star since its inception and our success today is largely dependent on his tireless efforts."
Meanwhile, Pearce noted that Leduc will be a “a big help to the team and a real positive for the company."
“His wealth of project development, construction and operational experience is going to be an important resource in assisting the company in moving Santa Cruz into production and scaling operations as well as advancing the Alabama project through the development phases to a capital allocation decision,” said Pearce.
Leduc is a mining engineer and geologist with over 30 years of experience involving all aspects of the development, operations, planning and evaluation of mining projects, including over 20 years in Latin America. He has been the CEO of Luna Gold Corp (TSX:LGC)., operator of the Aurizona mine in Brazil, from 2015 to 2016.
According to the company, Leduc also led the team restarting the Castle Mountain mine in southwest United States and served as COO and interim CEO of NewCastle Gold Ltd (TSX-V:NCA). Both companies were merged in 2017 to form Equinox Gold (TSX:EQX) Corp, where he served as the Executive Vice President of US Operations after the merger.
Leduc is currently COO of Kore Mining Limited and has demonstrated a proven ability to unlock the maximum value in mining assets through his experience in the design and construction of large mines, heap leach and tailings facilities. He has global experience in the areas of complex metallurgy, site water management, heap leach planning and the use of innovative solutions to solve environmental concerns.
He holds a B.Sc. (Honors) in Mining Engineering from Queen's University and a B.Sc. in Geology from the University of Ottawa.
Streaming transaction
Separately, the company provided a disclosure regarding the security package surrounding its binding streaming agreement with Sprott Private Resource Streaming and Royalty Corp for the Santa Cruz Graphite project in Brazil, to supplement the disclosure in its press release dated April 5, 2022.
The obligations of the company's affiliate, South Star Graphite Canada Corp (SSGCC), under the promissory note and agreement have been guaranteed by the company pursuant to a limited recourse guarantee, following which recourse against the company is limited to certain collateral subject to the initial share pledges.
South Star Battery Metals said the company's (and its affiliates') obligations are secured by a pledge by the company of the shares of its direct wholly owned subsidiaries —South Star Graphite Canada and Brasil Graphite Corp (BGC) — in favor of Sprott.
The obligations under the agreement will be further guaranteed following a guarantee from each of Brazil Grafite Mineracao Ltda (BGM), the indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of the company that holds the project, and BGC, and further secured by a pledge of the shares of BGM and certain assets of BGM (including real property) relating to the project.
South Star’s Santa Cruz Graphite project in southern Bahia, Brazil is the first of a series of battery metals projects that will be put into production. Brazil is the second-largest graphite-producing region in the world with more than 80 years of continuous mining.
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