East African gold producer Caracal Gold has appointed Caracal subsidiary Kilimapesa Gold GM Riaan Lombard to the Caracal board as executive director and COO effective immediately, the company announced on July 18.

Lombard is a qualified mining engineer and native of Namibia with 25 years of experience across various senior management and technical roles, as well as a diverse range of commodity projects in West Africa, East Africa and South America. 

Kilimapesa operates Caracal’s flagship mine in Kenya, where Lombard has been GM since February. 

He was also instrumental in Caracal’s recent acquisition of the Nyakafuru project in Tanzania, which is located in the Lake Victoria Gold Fields. 

Lombard will support Caracal going forward in focusing on delivering on its strategic objectives of building production and profitability across its portfolio, targeting more than 50 000 oz/y of gold production and more than three-million ounces of Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (Jorc-) compliant resources.

Currently, Caracal has just over 1.3-million ounces of Jorc-compliant gold resources.

“Since joining the company in February, [Lombard] has [helped] us enhance the operational efficiency and build production at our flagship Kilimapesa mine, while also being a driving force in our acquisition of the Nyakafuru project in Tanzania, which offers significant growth opportunity. 

“Accordingly, his appointment as COO is an obvious next step,” said Caracal chairperson Simon Games-Thomas.

Additionally, Caracal has announced the immediate board appointment of nonexecutive director Stefan Mülller, who has extensive corporate and financial experience, having supported more than 250 capital market transactions during his career and having served on the boards of a number of national and international companies. 

Müller began his career at financial institution Dresdner Bank in international securities trading before being appointed as senior VP at financial institution Bankhaus Sal Oppenheim. 

He subsequently worked in asset management before founding the German Institute for Asset and Equity Allocation and Valuation – a German investment banking boutique focused on the global mining and resources industry, where he remains CEO. 

Müller is also a board member of the German Federation of International Mining and Mineral Resources and a member of the German Institute of Standardization Technical Committee, which is establishing a new International Organisation for Standardisation standard for lithium.

 As part of the board changes, Caracal executive director Gerard Kisbey-Green will become a nonexecutive director.
 
“I believe these appointments round off the board perfectly. We look forward to working together to continue to deliver on the overall strategy and success of . . . Caracal,” Games-Thomas said.