Aura Energy Ltd (ASX:AEE, AIM:AURA) has appointed well-credentialed mining and finance executive Andrew Grove as managing director and chief executive officer, effective today, replacing David Woodall, who has resigned.
Grove, who has been serving as a strategic consultant to the Aura board, takes the helm as the ASX-lister's 85%-owned Tiris Uranium Project in Mauritania, Africa, approaches production status.
With more than 30 years in the mining and finance industry, Grove has expertise in uranium and West African development and operations and is currently the non-executive director at lithium exploration company Zenith Minerals.
He was most recently the managing director at Chesser Resources Ltd, the company developing the Diamba Sud Gold Project in Senegal that was acquired by Fortuna Silver (TSX:FVI) Mines in late 2023.
Before that, he held senior roles at Perseus Mining Ltd and at Macquarie Bank.
Grove holds a Masters in Mineral Economics and a Bachelor of Engineering in Minerals Exploration and Mining Geology from the WA School of Mines.
“Invaluable” experience
“We welcome Andrew to the position of managing director and CEO of Aura Energy,” Aura non-executive chairman Phil Mitchell said.
“His extensive West African mining, finance and corporate experience will be invaluable in developing the Tiris Uranium Project into a commercial scale uranium mine and thereby, opening a new uranium province in Mauritania.
“On behalf of the board and Aura’s key stakeholders, I want to thank David Woodall, who has decided to resign from the MD/CEO role to pursue other interests, for his work and dedication during his time at Aura.
“Dave has made a significant contribution and materially progressed both the Tiris Uranium Project through to a front-end engineering design (FEED) study and the Häggån project to a scoping study with promising results.
“The board and I wish David all the best in his future endeavours.”
Hitting the ground running
Grove said: “I am delighted and very excited to be joining Aura Energy.
“As part of my strategic consultancy work, I have been working with the team to review the close-to-completion Tiris FEED study results and am excited about the opportunity that it offers to bring a new project into being with low capital and operating costs.
“I look forward to sharing the key features of the proposed project with the government and with shareholders in February.
“In addition, as previously announced, the current drilling program offers Aura the opportunity to expand its resource base to more than 100 million pounds and we believe that with the additional tenure applied for in December 2023, we have significant potential to identify additional shallow economic uranium mineralisation around both Tiris West and at Tiris East.
“I am similarly excited about Aura’s 2-billion-tonne Häggån polymetallic deposit in Sweden. During the past year, Aura has put in a substantial amount of time to engage with stakeholders in Sweden, locally and nationally.
“We have seen some regulatory progress in Sweden as far as simplifying the permit process for mining.
“I look forward to continuing the Swedish stakeholder dialogue and be part of a successful application for Häggån.
“The asset represents significant value, including 800 million pounds of uranium resources, that is not currently fully reflected in the Aura share price.”
Wishing success
To ensure a smooth handover, Grove will work with Woodall, who decided to step down in anticipation of the intense international travel and workload in the coming years.
“I have immensely enjoyed the challenges of the global push towards clean energy and have no doubt that a company such as Aura will be at the forefront of the industry in the years to come; however, to continue as I have throughout 2023 would be to place excessive strain on family and me personally.
“I further extend my appreciation and best wishes to the shareholders, board and executive staff members of Aura."