Announcement of Chief Executive Officer Succession

 

TIDMAVM 
 
RNS Number : 0291L 
Avocet Mining PLC 
29 April 2010 
 

                                AVOCET MINING PLC 
 
               Announcement of Chief Executive Officer Succession 
 
Avocet Mining PLC ("Avocet" or "the Company") announces that Jonathan Henry has 
tendered his resignation as Chief Executive Officer and from the Board of the 
Company effective 31 May 2010, in order to pursue other interests. 
 
Jonathan has been with the Company since 1994, in a variety of senior management 
capacities including Finance Director and has been the Chief Executive Officer 
of the Company since 2006.  He will remain with the Company to facilitate an 
effective hand over of the management of the business and will provide on-going 
support to the Board. 
 
Effective 1 June 2010, Brett Richards will be appointed the Interim Chief 
Executive Officer of the Company, and will work with Jonathan on a hand over of 
day to day business activities of the Company during May. Thereafter Jonathan 
will provide consultancy services to the Company to ensure a smooth transition 
of the business and the successful completion of the listing application to 
admit the Company's shares to trading on the Oslo Stock Exchange. 
 
Brett has been working with Avocet in the capacity of Executive Vice President, 
Corporate Affairs since June 2009, and has held various senior management 
positions in a variety of mining and metals companies over a 25 year career. 
Most recently Brett was a senior vice-president of Katanga Mining Limited from 
2005 to 2009, and prior to that was in senior management roles at Kinross Gold 
and Co-Steel Inc., both in Toronto.  Brett is a graduate in Mechanical 
Engineering Technology and has an Executive MBA from the Johnson School of 
Business at Cornell University, New York. 
 
The Board of Avocet is reviewing a number of candidates for the Chief Executive 
Officer role and will be making an announcement in the forthcoming months 
confirming the permanent replacement for Jonathan. 
 
Jonathan Henry, outgoing Chief Executive Officer commented: 
 
"Avocet has entered its next phase of growth and development with the 
integration of its newly acquired assets in West Africa. The commissioning and 
ramp up at the Inata gold mine in Burkina Faso continues to progress ahead of 
schedule.  I feel it is time to step aside and allow a new leadership to build 
on the recent successes, and facilitate the corporate strategy to grow Avocet 
into a mid tier gold mining and exploration company." 
 
 
Nigel McNair Scott, Chairman, commented: 
 
"Jonathan has led Avocet through a significant stage of growth since being 
appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2006 with the successful disposal of our 
Tajikistan interests in 2007; the expansion of our Indonesian interests; the 
move into Africa through the acquisition of Wega Mining in 2009; and successful 
merger integration, construction, commissioning and ramp up at Inata. He has 
established a quality executive leadership team, and the business is well 
positioned for his succession at this time.  On behalf of the Board of Directors 
of Avocet, I would like to thank Jonathan for his long dedicated service and 
commitment to the Company, and for his leadership that has Avocet well 
positioned to execute its strategic growth plan. 
 
+------------------+---------------------+------------------+------------------------+------------------+---------------+ 
| For further information please contact:                                                                               | 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 
| Avocet           | Buchanan            | Ambrian          | J.P. Morgan            | Arctic           | First         | 
| Mining PLC       | Comm.               | Partners         | Cazenove               | Securities       | Securities    | 
|                  |                     | Limited          |                        |                  |               | 
+------------------+---------------------+------------------+------------------------+------------------+---------------+ 
|                  | Financial PR        | NOMAD and        | Lead Broker            | Financial        | Financial     | 
|                  | Consultants         | Joint            |                        | Adviser          | Adviser       | 
|                  |                     | Broker           |                        |                  |               | 
+------------------+---------------------+------------------+------------------------+------------------+---------------+ 
| Jonathan         | Bobby Morse         | Richard          | Michael                | Arne             | Stein         | 
| Henry, CEO       | Katharine           | Brown            | Wentworth-StanleyAnish | Wenger           | Hansen        | 
| Mike             | Sutton              | Richard          | Patel                  | Kim              | Eirik         | 
| Norris, FD       |                     | Greenfield       |                        | Galtung          | Lilledahl     | 
| Hans-Arne        |                     |                  |                        | Døsvig           |               | 
| L'orange,        |                     |                  |                        |                  |               | 
| EVP Bus.         |                     |                  |                        |                  |               | 
| Dev. & IR        |                     |                  |                        |                  |               | 
+------------------+---------------------+------------------+------------------------+------------------+---------------+ 
| [phone] | [phone]    | [phone] | [phone]       | [phone]     | [phone] | 
|                  | [phone]     |                  |                        |                  |               | 
+------------------+---------------------+------------------+------------------------+------------------+---------------+ 
| www.avocet.co.uk | www.buchanan.uk.com | www.ambrian.com  | www.jpmcazenove.com    | www.arcticsec.no | www.first.no  | 
+------------------+---------------------+------------------+------------------------+------------------+---------------+ 
 
 
Notes to Editors 
 
Avocet Mining PLC ("Avocet" or "the Company") is a mining company listed on the 
AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (Ticker: AVM). The Company's principal 
activities are gold mining and exploration in Burkina Faso (as 90 per cent owner 
of the Inata gold mine), Malaysia (as 100 per cent owner of the Penjom gold 
mine, the country's largest gold producer), and Indonesia (as 80 per cent owner 
of the North Lanut gold mine and Bakan project in North Sulawesi) and. The 
Company has a number of other advanced exploration projects in West Africa and 
South East Asia. 
 
Background to operations 
Inata in Burkina Faso, West Africa, has a resource of 1.7 million ounces and 
reserves of 944,000 ounces.  Inata poured first gold in December 2009 and is 
currently ramping up to full production rates in excess of 10,000 ounces per 
month. Other assets in West Africa include exploration licences in Burkina Faso, 
Guinea and Mali (the most advanced being the Tri-K gold exploration project in 
Guinea with a resource of 667,000 ounces). 
 
Penjom is Malaysia's largest gold producer and was developed by Avocet after 
applying modern technology to grass roots exploration in an area of historic 
alluvial mining. The mine is located in Pahang State, approximately 120 km north 
of the country's capital, Kuala Lumpur. 
 
North Lanut in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, was developed by Avocet from the 
exploration stage and has produced over 270,000 ounces since it was commissioned 
in 2004.  North Lanut is located within a contract of work which includes 
exploration and mining rights over approximately 50,000 hectares in an area 
highly prospective for gold.  Avocet holds an 80 per cent interest and an 
Indonesian company, PT Lebong Tandai, owns the remaining 20 per cent. 
 
 
This information is provided by RNS 
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange 
   END 
 
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