VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Koryx Copper Inc. (“Koryx” or the "Company") (TSX-V: KRY) announces the appointment of a highly experienced technical and management team who will implement the fast-tracked development of the Haib Copper Project (“Haib” or “the Project”) in Namibia. This multi-disciplinary team has worked together successfully for many years advancing Osino’s Twin Hills Gold Project (recently sold to Shanjin International Gold) and is already in place to drive the continued advancement of Koryx assets in Namibia and Zambia.
Highlights
Tony da Silva appointed as CFO
Charles Creasy appointed as Head of Project Development
Steve Burks appointed as Senior Metallurgical Study Consultant
Jon Andrew appointed as VP Exploration (Namibia and Zambia)
All 4 are part of the former Osino management team who discovered and advanced Osino’s Twin Hills gold project in Namibia until the recent sale to Shanjin Gold International. They have successfully worked together as a team for over 5 years and continue to assist in the ownership transition of Osino, whilst taking up their new roles with Koryx.
Together with this established and well proven team, Heye Daun and Alan Friedman will lead the repositioning of Koryx as a successful African copper developer with a strengthened shareholder base, improved technical credibility and better public market traction.
Heye Daun, Koryx Executive Chairman stated: “After investing our own capital into Koryx earlier in 2024 and being appointed to the Board of Directors as Executive Chair and Lead director earlier this month we are fortunate to attract the skilled technical and executive management required to re-position Koryx as a successful Namibian copper developer with significant scale potential. The team’s track record and experience, particularly in Namibia, in advancing Osino’s Twin Hills Gold Project from discovery to construction is a great example of our vision for Koryx Copper. That vision is to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of the Haib Copper Project as the next great copper development asset in Africa. We plan to achieve this by financing the company, building a competent management team and then permitting and advancing the project to construction readiness in as short a timeframe as possible.”
Appointment of Technical and Management Team
A strong technical team has been identified who have already started driving a number of exploration & project development initiatives with the aim of optimizing and right-sizing the Haib Copper Project. A particular focus is on testing the significant growth potential of the mineral resource at Haib, whilst demonstrating the feasibility of a more conventional metallurgical process route (crushing, milling & flotation for higher-grade material as well as coarse particle flotation and bacterial heap leaching for lower grade material). Environmental baseline studies and other de-risking activities are underway.
Tony da Silva – Chief Financial Officer
Tony has approximately 20 years of experience as a finance professional in private and public companies, auditing and capital asset management. Tony is the former CFO of Osino Resources Corp. and has been instrumental in the successful advancement, financing and sale of Osino Resources Corp. As Osino’s CFO he was instrumental in concluding all of Osino’s financings and was responsible for all financial controls, stock exchange reporting and ensuring compliance in multiple jurisdictions. He was also instrumental in the formation of Lotus Gold Corp. (an Egypt exploration company), and other projects and companies. He has previously worked at Nexia International and BlueAlpha Investment Management. Tony is a qualified accountant with degrees from Universities of South Africa and Natal and he is a Registered Chartered Accountant (CA(SA)) in South Africa since 2004.
Charles Creasy – Head of Project Development
Charles is a geologist with over 24 years of professional experience and more than 16 years’ experience in the mining industry. He holds a BSc (Hons) Geology degree from London University and B.Econ from Stellenbosch. Charles began his career with Randgold Resources, in greenfield regional exploration, before pivoting to focus on the development of major gold mine development projects in West and Central Africa at Randgold Resources. He was responsible for project technical studies and financial evaluations of assets to pass strategic filters for capital investment. Most recently Charles was the Feasibility Manager for Osino Resources and lead the completion of various technical studies for Osino’s Twin Hills Gold Project. Charles had an especially noteworthy and successful role in leading the entire permitting process for the Twin Hills Gold Project in Namibia, achieving the full permitting of the project within 3 years which ultimately lead to the successful sale of the project to Shanjin International Gold.
Steve Burks – Senior Metallurgical Study Consultant
Steve has about 40 years of wide-ranging processing plant and mine experience gained in production and project implementation roles. He is a minerals processing engineer who transitioned from process plant design roles into study and business unit management at Bateman Engineering and Lycopodium Minerals Africa. At Bateman, he was Chief Technology Officer for several years, including direct responsibility for investigation of copper sulphide leach technologies incorporating development of partnerships and relationships with several commercial technology suppliers. In addition, he worked at Advisian as a management consultant providing operational improvement advice as well as providing mining and processing value chain optimisation services during a 4-year period as Managing Director of Whittle Consulting Africa. Between 2020 and 2024, Steve worked part-time for Osino Resources on the Twin Hills Gold Project in Namibia, most recently as the Project Director responsible for the overall definitive feasibility study and (DFS) and coordination of several front-end engineering design (FEED) contracts. Steve applied his experience to provide a highly professional project management approach which was tested and confirmed by multiple intensive lender due diligence processes as part of the Twin Hills Gold Project financing.
Jon Andrew – Vice President Exploration
Jon is a professional geologist with more than 30 years’ experience in Exploration and Mining Geology. His career has been focused on the Africa and Middle East regions and includes diverse experience in precious, base and rare metals and industrial minerals. He has held exploration manager and senior consulting positions with several major and junior mining companies listed on all major international stock exchanges. Early career roles with Gold Fields and BHP Billiton developed into management roles with juniors including Albidon Limited, North River Resources and Osino Resources Corp. Jon was responsible for the start-up and management of the Osino exploration projects in Namibia since inception in 2016 until the discovery and subsequent drill-out of Osino’s Twin Hills gold deposit in Namibia in 2020 and as such played an integral part in the discovery and development of Twin Hills. Jon is currently also VP Exploration for Lotus Gold Corp.
Board Changes
Furthermore, Matthew Starnes has resigned from the Board of Directors, effective 1 October 2024. Matthew has been a Director of Koryx since February 27, 2024 and the Board of Directors and management of Koryx thank Matthew for his dedicated and committed service over the last 7 months. About Koryx Copper Inc.
Koryx Copper Inc. is a Canadian copper development Company focused on advancing the 100% owned, PEA-stage Haib Copper Project in Namibia whilst also building a portfolio of copper exploration licenses in Zambia.
Haib is a large and advanced copper/molybdenum porphyry deposit in southern Namibia with a long history of exploration and project development by multiple operators. Mineralization at Haib is typical of a porphyry copper deposit and the deposit remains intact. Porphyry copper deposits are a major global source of copper with the best-known examples being concentrated around the Pacific Rim, North America and South America. Haib is one of the few examples of a Paleoproterozoic porphyry copper deposit in the world and one of only two in southern Africa (both in Namibia). Due to its age, the deposit has been subjected to multiple metamorphic and deformation events, but still retains many of the classic mineralization and alteration features typical of these deposits. The mineralization is dominantly chalcopyrite with minor bornite and chalcocite present and only minor secondary copper minerals at surface due to the arid environment.
More than 70,000m of drilling has been conducted at Haib since the 1970’s with significant exploration programs led by companies including Falconbridge (1964), Rio Tinto (1975) and Teck (2014). Teck remains a strategic and supportive shareholder. In addition to extensive drilling, metallurgical testing, geophysics and geological mapping, various mine modeling and technical studies have been completed to date.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
