Southern Gold Ltd (ASX:SAU) has appointed experienced resources executive Robert Smillie as its new CEO and managing director to drive company strategy.
Smillie, who officially took the reins on May 9, has been Southern Gold’s exploration manager in South Korea since July 5, 2021, and has demonstrated strong leadership in administration and team building of the company’s Korean team.
Southern Gold chairman Greg Boulton AM said of the appointment “After an executive search it was decided by the board that Robert Smillie was the best person to lead us forward in the years ahead.
"Having our managing director based in South Korea will provide further focus to both be successful in evaluating our projects and subject to the prospecting result, commence drilling this year.
"The discovery of high-grade precious metal deposits in South Korea that is a low-risk jurisdiction, secure tenure and a history of gold production provides an outstanding opportunity for Robert to lead Southern Gold to success.
“Robert’s drive, leadership and experience in complex jurisdictions coupled with his natural empathy for people places him in an ideal position to take over the reins as CEO and managing director”.
The new CEO’s 32 years of experience should prove invaluable as he brings significant epithermal gold exploration knowledge to the company and is particularly familiar with Asia and South Korea, particularly as South Korea remains SAU’s primary focus as it looks to expand project and seek new strategic investment/project prospects for gold and copper.
Smillie’s previous senior roles include exploration and country management for companies such as Ok Tedi Mining in Papua New Guinea, the National Petroleum and Mining Authority in Timor-Leste and Calibre Mining in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and OceanaGold Ltd at projects in New Zealand and the Philippines.
New SAU CEO Robert Smillie.
Focused on exploration success
“I am extremely pleased with my appointment as CEO and managing director of Southern Gold and the opportunity to lead the company to exploration success in South Korea. The appointment is a strong endorsement by the board for the exploration strategy I implemented with the team since moving to South Korea six months ago,” Smillie said.
“Having the CEO position based in-country will now allow for maximum effort and resources to be focused towards successful execution of our exploration program in this incredibly prospective country.
"As an exploration geologist first and foremost, I will be a very field-focused and hands-on CEO and will continue working closely alongside our recently appointed and highly experienced chief geologist Scott Randall, fresh from exploration success in New Zealand which has strong geological parallels to South Korea.
“I am delighted with the progress of our post-winter winter field campaign currently underway, already resulting in new, highly encouraging licence applications being added to our growing exploration portfolio.
“Our program is strongly geoscience-driven, with an emphasis on utilising information that can be obtained exploring in and around many of the abandoned mines and mineral occurrences that are scattered across the country. This approach is allowing us to get a deeper understanding of the type and scale of mineralised systems and controls on mineralisation.
"As a result, we have developed effective targeting strategies for building our exploration portfolio that we can add to our most promising existing projects. This increasing geologic understanding will also result in prioritising of detailed follow-up fieldwork for working up new targets for drill testing.
“I am also pleased by the recent announcement by Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd (LSE:BMV) (BMV) that they have secured funding to advance towards gold production in South Korea.
"To assist in achieving the funding package, as a major shareholder of BMV, Southern Gold’s sale of 50 million BMV shares will result in approximately $0.9 million that will be directed towards our exploration activities.
"With our remaining shareholding of 150 million BMV shares currently in 12-month lock-in, I look forward to an increase of our shareholding value which has a current market valuation of $5.8 million.
“The company continues to monitor and evaluate potential precious metal and copper projects in Australia that could add value to a wider portfolio for the company in addition to our commitment in South Korea."