In a sign that Galena Mining is switching gears into development and production mode, the company has appointed former Paladin Energy Chief Executive Officer Alex Molyneux as its Managing Director.
Mr Molyneux will join the company officially as a director and Managing Director with effect from the 1st of September 2018.
Current Chief Executive Officer Ed Turner will remain with Galena in the role of General Manager of Geology and Exploration from that date.
Galena Non-Executive Chairman Adrian Byass said: “I am very excited Alex has agreed to join us and lead the team. He has substantial experience in major mine development and has run complex 1,000 person plus public mining companies.”
“Alex also has extensive relationships within the institutional investor and banking communities and this will be important to develop Abra on the best terms possible which will create greater value for existing shareholders.”
Mr Molyneux recently completed three-years as Chief Executive Officer of Paladin, where he completed a USD$700m recapitalisation of the uranium company.
Prior to this, he spent approximately five-years with mining goliath Ivanhoe Mines Group and Ivanhoe Energy in various leadership roles including as Chief Executive Officer and Director of SouthGobi Resources Ltd.
In March this year, Galena declared its global mineral resource estimate for its impressive Abra lead/silver project at 36.6 million tonnes grading 7.3% lead and 18g/t silver using a 5% lead cut-off grade.
A high-grade subset of 11.2 million tonnes @ 10.1% lead and 28g/t silver was produced using a higher-grade cut-off grade of 7.5% lead.
This ranks Abra, located north of Meekatharra in Western Australia, as one of the largest undeveloped lead-silver projects in the world.
Galena plans to complete a feasibility study for the Abra project during 2019.
Ongoing resource development drilling to convert lower confidence inferred mineral resources to indicated status has also returned “better than expected” results.
Earlier this month, the company said highlights from the recent campaign included 28.3 metres grading 8.9% lead and 52 grams per tonne silver from 346.9 metres down-hole, including 8.1m @ 11.2% lead from 395.8m deep.
Other impressive intersections included 29.6m @ 9.5% lead and 19g/t silver from 478.3m deep, 10.9m @ 24% lead and 33g/t silver from 513.1m deep and 8.7m @ 11.2% lead from 572.7m deep in the same drill hole, at the southern end of the deposit.
