THE appointment of former Homestake CEO Richard Tastula as a director of Titan Resources NL has given a significant corporate boost to the company’s various resource endeavours.
Titan managing director and chairman Bill Ryan is understandably cock-a-hoop over the appointment of a man of Mr Tastula’s experience to the board.
“We are delighted that Titan has been able to attract someone of the calibre of Mr Tastula to oversee the company’s growth and development,” said Mr Ryan.
“Titan is going through an important development phase and Mr Tastula’s wealth of experience and strong international affiliations will be invaluable.”
Mr Tastula – recently retired as managing director of Homestake Gold Australia and vice president of Homestake Mining Company of America – will assume a role as chairman following Titan’s AGM on 16 November.
Titan has 100 per cent ownership of the Radio Hill nickel mine and is developing a process to biologically recover nickel, copper and cobalt from the disseminated mineralisation overlying the Radio Hill massive sulphide orebody currently being mined.
Mr Tastula said he was attracted to Titan because of the potential of its operations.
“The orebody is robust and the mining operation is performing strongly,” he said.
“The metallurgical research being conducted by the company has attracted keen international interest and continued success in this area has the potential to take Titan to an industry leader in its sector.
“I have known Bill Ryan for a considerable period of time and look forward to working alongside him.”
Mr Tastula is a graduate of the WA School of Mines and has spent most of his working life in WA’s gold and nickel industries.
He was underground manager at Mt Charlotte and Otter Juan and resident manager at Windarra and Kalgoorlie.
He spent seven years as general manager of the WMC gold operations in WA and a similar period with Homestake in Australia.
Mr Tastula is a director of Iluka Resources Ltd and the Australian Mineral Industry Research Association. He is also chairman of the Curtin University Kalgoorlie Campus and a trustee of the AusIMM Education Endowment Fund.