1st Jul 2015 07:00
1 July 2015
Weatherly International Plc
("Weatherly" or the "Company")
Board Changes
Further to the Company's previous announcement of 8 May 2015, Weatherly advises that Rod Webster has retired as CEO of the company. He will continue to work with the Company as a Director in a development role.
Craig Thomas has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer and has joined the Board of Directors of Weatherly.
In addition, two further new appointments have been made to the Board of Directors, Krzysztof Szymczak, Managing Director of Logiman (Pty) Ltd ("Logiman"), and Raymond Jenner, Portfolio Director of Orion Resource Partners (USA) LP, have joined the Board of Weatherly.
John Bryant, Chairman, commented:
"We thank Rod for his commitment to the Company, bringing it to its current stage of development as a copper producer with strong foundations for growth.
"I am delighted that Craig has accepted the invitation to become CEO. He joined the team as COO in 2010 and has been an integral part of Weatherly's development. I am sure he will be an excellent CEO."
Craig Thomas, CEO, commented:
"This is an exciting time for Weatherly. We have a new management team focused on ramping Tschudi production to a rate of 17,000 tonnes per annum before the end of this calendar year. As the Company moves forward, we will build upon Tschudi as a foundation, and maximise shareholder value from the rest of our portfolio."
Additional information on Craig Raymond Thomas (age 48)
Mr Thomas is an Australian mining engineer with over 25 years of experience, including key leadership roles up to General Manager level in the development and operation of mines in Africa, Papua New Guinea and Australia, with companies including Lihir Gold, IamGold, Placer Dome, Western Metals and Mt Isa Mines. For the last 5 years he has served as Chief Operating Officer for Weatherly based in Namibia and Managing Director of the Namibian subsidiaries.
Mr Thomas holds 4,842,105 ordinary shares in Weatherly representing approximately 0.5 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital. In addition, Mr Thomas holds 4.8 million options of which 2.0 million are fully vested and exercisable at a price of 3.2p until August 2020, and 2.8 million vest over a 3 year period on meeting certain performance criteria and will be exercisable at a price of 3.38p until October 2024.
Current Directorships / Partnerships | Directorships / Partnerships within the last 5 years |
Weatherly Mining NamibiaLimited | None |
Ongopolo Mining Limited Tschudi Mining (pty) Limited China Africa Resources Namibia (pty) Limited
|
Additional information on Krzysztof Szymczak (age 35)
Mr Szymczak holds an Honours degree in Engineering from Wits University and is a founding member of Logiman. Mr Szymczak has managed multidiscipline process plant projects for various mining houses such as Anglo American Platinum, Lonmin, Paladin Energy, Goldfields, and Sudor Coal amongst others.
Mr Szymczak is currently Managing Director and a shareholder of Logiman. Logiman currently is contracted by Weatherly under an EPC contract for the construction of the processing plant at Tschudi. In addition, Logiman currently holds 120,914,832 ordinary shares in Weatherly representing approximately 11.4 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital.
Current Directorships / Partnerships | Directorships / Partnerships within the last 5 years |
Logiman (Pty) Ltd | None |
KS Civil Consulting Engineers CC |
Additional information on Raymond Wayne Jenner (age 64)
Mr Jenner is a Chartered Accountant and has been a Portfolio Manager at Orion Resource Partners (USA) LP ("ORP") since 2011. Before 2011, Mr. Jenner was the Chief Financial Officer of International Royalty Corporation, Nord Pacific Limited and Nord Resources Corporation. Previously, he was the Vice President and Treasurer of Echo Bay Mines for 14 years, one of the world's largest gold mining and exploration companies. Mr. Jenner has long-term expertise in mining corporate finance, structuring mining investments and capital raising, having been involved in the raising of over $1 billion in debt and equity capital. Mr. Jenner earned a BSc. in Physics and a BComm (Honors) in Management Science from the University of Saskatchewan.
ORP is manager of the Orion Mine Finance (Master) Fund 1 LP which currently holds 260,778,350 ordinary shares in Weatherly, representing approximately 24.6 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital. In addition, Orion Mine Finance (Master) Fund 1 LP provides the Tschudi debt financing.
Current Directorships / Partnerships | Directorships / Partnerships within the last 5 years |
Orion Mine Finance GP 1 Limited | None |
Orion Mine Finance GP 2 Limited | |
Orion Mine Finance Management 1 Limited |
The information detailed above is disclosed in accordance with Rule 17 and Schedule Two (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies. Except for the information disclosed in this announcement, there is no other information which falls to be disclosed under these rules.
For further information please contact:
Weatherly International Plc +44 (0) 20 7936 9910
Craig Thomas, Chief Executive Officer
Kevin Ellis, CFO and Company Secretary
RFC Ambrian Limited +44 (0) 20 3440 6800
(Nominated Adviser & Broker)
Samantha Harrison / John van Eeghen
Finncap +44 (0) 20 7220 0500
(Joint Broker)
Joanna Weaving
Blytheweigh +44 (0) 20 7138 3204
(Financial PR)Tim Blythe / Camilla Horsfall / Megan Ray
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Weatherly International Plc