Toronto-listed precious metals miner Argonaut Gold on Monday announced the appointment of Larry Radford as president and CEO, replacing Pete Dougherty who resigned in December in the wake of a major cost overrun at the Magino project, in Canada.

Radford has more than 35 years of technical and operations experience in the mining industry. Most recently, he served as COO of Gold Standard Ventures, where he was responsible for leading the development of the South Railroad project, including permitting, feasibility studies and exploration. 

Prior to, Radford held the role of senior VP and COO of Hecla Mining, where he was responsible for managing the operating portfolio of several underground mines, including the Lucky Friday mine in Idaho, the Greens Creek mine in Alaska, the Casa Berardi mine, in Quebec, the San Sebastian mine in Durango, as well as several mines in Nevada.

Prior to his role at Hecla, Radford held roles of increasing responsibility with Kinross Gold from 2007 through 2011, including VP and general manager of the Fort Knox mine in Alaska, He also previously worked for Barrick Gold at mines in the US, Chile and Australia.

"Larry has had an impressive career in mining operations and project delivery.  During his time with both Barrick and Kinross, he made a name for himself – including working directly with members of Argonaut's board of directors – as someone who was mandated to either turn around existing mines or deliver on projects that had experienced challenges during construction and/or ramp-up,” commented chairperson Jim Kofman.

He stated that Argonaut’s biggest value drivers over the next several years, were the delivery of the Magino project within the capital estimate of C$800-million, seeing Magino ramp up to design capacity as safely and efficiently as possible, and a potential expansion of Magino's processing facility, including potential future underground mining concurrent with openpit mining. 

“Larry's skill set perfectly aligns with these value drivers. On behalf of the entire board of directors, I welcome Larry to the Argonaut team and look forward to working with him."