Greatland Resources has appointed Nick Strong as its new chief operating officer (COO), who will be taking on the Telfer and Havieron projects in Western Australia after taking office in October this year.
Strong, with more than 25 years of operational and leadership knowledge across the mining industry, brings experience throughout a range of commodities, predominantly in gold and base metals, for major companies including Rio Tinto, Northern Star Resources, and Newcrest Mining.
Greatland’s managing director Shaun Day said that he is delighted to have Strong joining the company as its new COO, especially as he joins at an “exciting time” and is “very well placed” to lead the miner’s operations and substantial growth projects.
“Nick has deep experience in overseeing large-scale underground and open-pit gold and copper mines across Australia, and in planning and delivering large-scale development projects,” Day said.
Previously acting COO Otto Richter will transition from the role to chief technical officer (CTO) in October; joining Greatland in 2021, Richter will provide leadership to advance the company’s growth strategy and realise the “full potential” of its portfolio through strategic mine planning, including technical studies for projects such as West Dome Underground.
Once COO, Strong will work closely with Telfer general manager Mark Benson to maintain the projects’ consistent mining and processing performance, while also overseeing the team delivering the brownfield Havieron underground mining development.
Strong has previously managed large-scale underground and open-pit mining operations, including at KCGM (Northern Star) and Cadia from Newcrest; and most recently, he was general manager – Hemi and KCGM Growth with Northern Star.
As for Richter, Day thanked him for his work; he had previously led Greatland’s technical “due diligence” for the acquisition of Telfer and Havieron and was responsible for strategic mine planning and ore reserves compilation.
“I am delighted to be appointing Otto to an executive leadership role as chief technical officer,” he said.
“This allows him to focus on strategic long-term planning as we continue pursuing a multi-decade integrated Telfer-Havieron mining hub.”
Read more: Greatland targets multi-decade future at Telfer-Havieron
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