Vancouver-based Great Panther Mining, which owns mines in Brazil, on Tuesday announced Rob Henderson new CEO, David Garofalo new board chairperson and the appointment of three new directors.

Henderson is a professional engineer and seasoned mining executive, who started his career as an engineer at Rand Mines in South Africa. He has more than 35 years’ experience in operations, capital projects and mining finance. Most recently, he was president and CEO of Amerigo Resources, a copper producer with assets in Chile. Prior to Amerigo, Henderson was senior VP for technical services with Kinross Gold.

Henderson commented in a statement that his immediate priorities at Great Panther would be to build on cost and operating efficiencies at Tucano and grow production at all three mines.

“I see tremendous potential in the asset base and am looking forward to leading the company through this period of transition into a midtier precious metals producer."

Henderson is taking over from Jeffrey Mason, who was chairperson and interim president and CEO. Mason would resign from both roles but would provide consulting services to the company.

Garofalo’s appointment as chairperson is effective immediately. He was most recently president and CEO of Goldcorp, which Newmont bought in April last year to create the world’s largest gold mining company.

"I am delighted to be entrusted with the opportunity to perpetuate Bob Archer's entrepreneurial culture at Great Panther as I support our new CEO, Rob Henderson, in the optimisation of our operations," said Garofalo. "I believe Great Panther represents a compelling value proposition to gold investors and an excellent platform for growth."

In addition to Garofalo, Joseph Gallucci and Alan Hair joined the board.

Cofounder Archer will remain on the board until the upcoming annual general meeting on June 24, but will not stand for re-election and, instead, will continue to serve the company in an advisory capacity. 

Also joining Great Panther with immediate effect is Meghan Brown in the role of VP for investor relations.  Brown is a consummate investor relations professional with a 25-year track record in the mining sector.  Most recently she was at Leagold, which merged with Equinox Gold in March 2020.