Tietto Minerals has named Matt Wilcox as its new managing director and chief executive officer following a decision by company founder and outgoing managing director Dr Caigen Wang to retire from the board.
Dr Wang founded the company in 2010 and led it through exploration and development to become one of Africa’s latest gold producers at its 3.83-million-ounce Abujar project in Côte d’Ivoire in January this year. He will continue to be involved in a consulting role.
Mr Wilcox moves into the new role from his current position as Tietto’s chief operating officer and executive director, where he oversaw the team that constructed and commissioned the Abujar gold plant on time and below budget.
Prior to joining the company, Mr Wilcox directly managed the construction of West African Resources’ 300,000-ounce per annum Sanbrado gold mine, which was completed in March 2020, ahead of schedule and under budget.
Tietto says Mr Wilcox is highly experienced in the gold mining construction industry in West Africa, having spent the previous eight years working for Nord Gold, which operates nine gold mines globally, including three in Burkina Faso and one in Guinea. The company also emphasised the important role Dr Wang played in advancing the Abujar project, particularly during the difficulties of the coronavirus pandemic period.
In particular, Caigen made extraordinary personal efforts to rapidly advance the construction of Abujar through the Pandemic period, assisted by Matt Wilcox and the construction team. We wish Caigen great success in his next phase of business in the mining sector, and we are delighted that Caigen will continue to consult to Tietto as necessary under a new consultancy agreement. Tietto Minerals chairman Francis Harper
The company celebrated its first Abujar gold mine pour on January 14 and recorded its first gold sales the following month. Gold production of 260,000 ounces is forecast in the first year with an expected 1.2 million ounces in the first six years.
With its ongoing resource growth and large unexplored strike extensions, management is planning to reveal an extended mine-life for Abujar when it updates its production plan in the third quarter of this year.
The mine’s measured resources, based largely around the core of its AG deposit, increased to 12.3 million tonnes at 1.3 grams per tonne gold for 470,000 ounces. Tietto says that result de-risks the first two years of its gold production. At AG, the measured and indicated resources increased to a total of 41.3 million tonnes at 1.3g/t gold for 1.69 million ounces of gold.
Management says infill drilling confirms the geological interpretation and resource grade distribution at Abujar. Tietto’s newly-updated mineral resource estimate combined with a higher gold price – some 40 per cent above the figure used in its definitive feasibility study – will be used to update the life-of-mine production plan and the company is anticipating increased mill throughput.
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