Canadian-based mineral development company, Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. is pleased to announce the appointment of Brett A. Richards to the board of Directors, where he will also act as Chairman.
Richards, who is based in London, England, is a well-respected mining industry Executive with over 32 years of mining and metals business development experience. He has extensive mine project development, project financing, board and executive level experience on 5 continents in over 20 countries. He is currently the CEO of Midnight Sun Mining Corp. and has held executive management positions for private equity shareholders in the past including: CEO of African Thunder Platinum; CEO of Renew Resources and CEO of Octéa Ltd. Brett is formerly the transition CEO of Roxgold through a successful shareholder proxy battle; was CEO of Avocet Mining plc from 2008 to 2012, and was part of the five-person start-up of Katanga Mining Ltd from 2005 – 2008. Brett's other publicly-listed experience was in senior executive positions with Kinross Gold and Co-Steel Inc.
Richards has significant public and private and board committee experience in Canada, the UK, Norway and Johannesburg.
Richards commented: "I am very pleased to join the Board of Zenyatta Ventures. It has become apparent to me that Zenyatta has created considerable value from global collaboration and development related to the Albany high purity carbon material for conversion to an exciting nanomaterial called graphene. I am looking forward to advancing both the Albany graphite deposit to production and development activities of graphene applications under ZEN-tech Materials."
Aubrey Eveleigh, President & CEO of Zenyatta commented, "We are very pleased to add a highly respected and accomplished mining executive of Brett Richards' calibre to our Board. Brett is a creative leader with vision, backed by deep technical knowledge and hands-on experience. He will add considerable strength to our Board as we transition through pre-feasibility and prepare for the upcoming full feasibility study. Mr. Richards, who has a considerable network in the industry, will assist us in our efforts to organize and meet business objectives for both Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. and ZEN-tech Materials Ltd."
In connection with the appointment of Brett Richards as Director and Chairman, he has been granted stock options to purchase up to 500 000 common shares in the capital of the company. The options are exercisable at a price of CAN$0.60 for a five-year period. Zenyatta will also be granting 240 000 stock options to consultants of the company at the same price.