Black Dragon Gold has named Dominic Roberts as its new executive chairman as the company moves towards the permitting of one of Europe’s biggest undeveloped gold deposits at its Salave project in northern Spain.
The appointment is one of several boardroom changes, including Paul Cronin moving from non-executive chairman to non-executive director and Gabriel Chiappini becoming non-executive director and company secretary after spending time as chief executive officer and managing director.
They are all overseeing a Salave project that boasts a mineral resource estimate of 11.3 million tonnes grading 4.27 grams per tonne for 1.5 million ounces of the precious yellow metal using a conservative 2g/t cut-off. Bringing the cut-off grade down to 1g/t boosts the estimate up to 2.2 million ounces contained within 25.7 million tonnes averaging 2.66g/t gold.
Roberts has spent more than 15 years in the European mining sector and has experience permitting and building several underground mining operations, including a role developing Adriatic Metals’ Vares silver mine in Bosnia. Management says the appointment brings strong European permitting and mine-building experience.
Prior to his time at Adriatic, Roberts ran a private mining company, operating four base metal underground mines in the Balkans and permitting two new mines. He also led a three-year European Union “HORIZON 2020” funded research project, which focused on the rapid permitting and commissioning of critical metal mines.
I am delighted to be given the opportunity to finish the permitting of the Salave Gold Project. The European mining space has changed dramatically during the past two years. With Brussels, through its recently published Critical Raw Materials Act, acknowledging the reality of resource scarcity and supply chain fragility, the potential to open projects in Europe is both real, required and imminent. Accordingly, the political and operating environmental across the continent is very different to where it has been and I see a unique opportunity to demonstrate to the local community, the Government of the Principality of Asturias and the Spanish government how we can collaboratively achieve a European style of mining in Salave. Black Dragon Gold incoming executive chairman Dominic Roberts
Cronin said having worked with Roberts for more than three years at Adriatic, he was confident he could create the conditions required for the final permits to be issued for the promising Salave deposit. Roberts is based in the United Kingdom, giving the company a full-time presence in Europe and a closer connection to the Spanish project.
And it is easy to understand why Black Dragon is keen to secure the permits.
A preliminary economic assessment for Salave tabled in 2019 forecasted an annual production of 79,000 ounces over a 14-year mine life. The study projected an after-tax net present value of US$230 million (AU$346 million), with an internal rate of return ringing in at 25 per cent using a 2019 base case gold price of US$1250 (AU$1879) per ounce. The company says the project would require a capital cost of US$95.3 million (AU$143.2 million) and a payback period of just 3.8 years.
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