25 September 2014
SYRAH MAKES BOARD CHANGES TO MARK NEXT PHASE IN CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT
Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR) today announced significant changes to its Board of Directors as it continues its transition from the exploration/assessment phase through to development and commercialisation of the Balama Graphite and Vanadium deposit.
The Syrah Resources ('Syrah') Board is pleased to announce the
ASX Code SYR
Current Corporate Structure
Ordinary Shares
Issued Shares: 163,485,076
Options
appointment of new, very high quality directors with extensive
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Exercisable at $0.26:
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1,525,005
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experience in the mining sector, particularly in successfully bringing
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Exercisable at $2.21:
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35,000
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assets into production and operating mines on the African continent.
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Exercisable at $2.90:
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250,000
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Exercisable at $3.87:
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1,000,000
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As the Company continues to grow and progress towards production
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Exercisable at $5.50:
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500,000
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at Balama, the new directors will bring to the Board significant technical and commercial skills together with robust corporate governance skills.
The Board and management changes include:
CHAIRMAN
Jim Askew will be appointed as Non-Executive Chairman of Syrah from 2 October 2014. Current Non-Executive Chairman, Tom Eadie, will step down to take carriage of Jacana Minerals, the Company's spin off of its Tanzanian assets.
Jim is a mining engineer with over 35 years international experience as a Director and/or Chief Executive Officer for a wide range of Australian and international publicly listed mining, mining finance and other mining related companies. He has had a continuous involvement with the African mining industry since 1985.
Jim's commodity experience has been primarily base metals, precious metals and uranium developments and operations, in all major continents of the world. As a Board member, past or present, of over
30 publicly held resource companies internationally, he has significant
Major Shareholders
Directors 22.28% Citicorp Nom PL 10.24% Copper Strike Ltd 6.73% HSBC Custody Nom Aus Ltd 5.10%
Board of Directors
Mr Tom Eadie
Non-Executive Chairman
Mr Paul Kehoe
Managing Director
Mr Tolga Kumova
Executive Director
Mr Rhett Brans
Non-Executive Director
Mr José Manuel Caldeira
Non-Executive Director
Ms Melanie Leydin
Company Secretary
Key Project
Balama Graphite Project (Mozambique) Balama is the largest and one of the highest grade flake graphite and vanadium projects globally.
www.syrahresources.com.au
experience in all aspects of managing international exploration and mining companies, particularly those in the development phase.
Jim has overseen numerous financings, M&A successes and assembling of key personnel for mining development projects. Jim is currently Chairman of OceanaGold Corporation and holds non-executive director positions in Evolution Mining and Asian Mineral Resources. Other past listed company directorships include PMI Gold (Chairman), Sino Gold (Chairman), Climax Mining (Chairman), Eldorado Gold (Non-Executive Director), Yamana Gold (Non-Executive Director), Conquest Mining (Non- Executive Director) and Ivanhoe Australia (Non-Executive Director).
Jim holds a Bachelor of Mining Engineering (Honours) and a Masters Degree, Engineering Science.
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Tolga Kumova (co-founder of Jacana Resources and current Executive Director of Syrah), will be appointed as the Managing Director, effective from 2 October 2014. Paul Kehoe (co-founder of Jacana Resources and current Managing Director of Syrah), has chosen to stand down as Managing Director from the Board on 2 October 2014. In addition to family reasons, Paul believes that a thorough and in-depth understanding of the graphite and vanadium markets is critical for Syrah's next stage of development. To that end, Tolga's commercial knowledge and extensive relationships in the graphite and vanadium markets is an invaluable asset and makes him the logical successor to the Managing Director role.
Tolga was appointed as an Executive Director of Syrah in May 2013. Prior to joining Syrah, Tolga had over 15 years experience in financial markets, corporate advisory and stockbroking. Tolga has been one of the driving forces behind Syrah in terms of corporate strategy, establishing potential new markets and developing customer relationships. Tolga has been intimately involved in all facets of the Company's operations, marketing, economic studies and financing since inception.
NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Sam Riggall, will be appointed a Non-Executive Director, effective from 2 October 2014. Sam worked for the Rio Tinto Group in a variety of roles for almost fifteen years. He was the mining executive responsible for Rio Tinto's Industrial Minerals businesses in London (titanium, borates, talc and salt) before taking on the role of Commercial Manager for Rio Tinto's global project generation group. He worked in a number of business development and evaluation roles within Rio Tinto, including leading the four-year negotiation with the Mongolian Government to secure an Investment Agreement for the Oyu Tolgoi Project. He has worked extensively in China and throughout Asia.
In 2010 Sam joined Ivanhoe Mines as Executive Vice President - Business Development and Strategic
Planning. He was an executive director of Ivanhoe Australia Limited and a non-executive director of
Oyu Tolgoi LLC. He has worked on project development opportunities in many parts of the world across multiple commodities.
He is currently Non-Executive Chairman of Clean TeQ Holding Ltd.
Sam holds a Bachelor of Law (Honours), a Bachelor of Commerce and a MBA.
The incoming directors will stand for election at the first AGM following their appointment, which is due to be held in November 2014.
BACKGROUND TO APPOINTMENTS
Since discovering Balama in 2012, Syrah has continuously sought to secure the best people with the appropriate skills to successfully develop and commercialise the world class Balama Project.
In June 2013, Syrah announced the appointment of Rhett Brans as a Non-Executive Director. Rhett is an engineer with over 39 years of experience in mine developments, particularly in Africa. Michal Chan was also appointed in June 2013 and is a metallurgist with over 35 years experience in senior operations, project development and commercial roles for multi-national and ASX listed companies.
In July 2014, Syrah announced the appointment of José Caldeira to the Board as part of the Company's desire to integrate itself more fully into the Mozambique business community. José is one of the pre- eminent lawyers in Mozambique.
In August 2014, Syrah announced the appointment of a world class technical team responsible for bringing Balama into production. It included Jeff Stirling as Oversight Manager, Ian Stewart as Project Manager, Ricardo Rodrigues as Construction Manager and Andrew Hickey as Logistics Manager. Syrah notes that it is one of the few graphite explorers taking such steps to assemble a team of this calibre who are capable of bringing a project into production.
The Board anticipates further appointments to the Board and management will occur as the appropriate organisational structure and skills are established within Syrah.
Syrah Chairman Tom Eadie said: "These are tremendously exciting times for Syrah Resources, both at an operational and corporate level. We have been contemplating for some time the need to bring operational and corporate governance experience onto the Board, and we are thrilled with the calibre of directors we have secured in Jim and Sam.
"At the same time the entire company is disappointed that Paul Kehoe has elected to stand down as Managing Director. While this will bring to an end his operational association with the company, Paul has advised that he will continue to be heavily invested in Syrah. We congratulate him for his achievements in taking the Balama Project from an idea to it now standing on the cusp of development.
"Paul and Tolga have worked closely together to establish solid foundations for the future growth of the company. As Tolga is intimately familiar with all aspects of the Company's operations the Board is confident that this will be a seamless transition."
Paul Kehoe said: "At the time I took on the role, I wanted to take the Balama Project to commencement of feasibility studies, which I have now done. As the Company moved towards commercialisation, I felt that a different skill set would be required.
"Tolga is amply qualified to take on the challenge of bringing Balama in to production. His knowledge of graphite and vanadium markets is, I believe, unsurpassed in Australia, if not the world. He is extremely motivated, passionate and deeply enthusiastic about the role and potential of Syrah in both the graphite and vanadium spaces. I am absolutely confident that Tolga will be a fantastic Managing Director and his skills in the financial world will be amply supported by those of Jim, Sam and Rhett in all aspects of mining development and operation. It will be a formidable Board of Directors supported by a world class technical team.
"I want to take the opportunity to thank the Board of Directors for entrusting me with the role of Managing Director. I would also like to thank all the employees of Syrah Resources who came with me on this exciting ride. Last but not least, I would like to extend my gratitude to our loyal shareholder base, some of whom began with me on this journey as seed capital investors in Jacana Resources".
Tolga Kumova said: "This is a wonderful opportunity to build on the work Tom and Paul have done to date. Tom was instrumental in identifying the potential of the Balama Project which led to Jacana Resources being vended in to Syrah. He also led early exploration efforts which led Syrah to proving up the largest graphite deposit in the world and one of the largest vanadium deposits.
"The coming period is about continuing the momentum we have seen since Paul commenced with the Company. Much of the heavy lifting has been done in terms of getting the company to this pre- development stage. The challenges now mainly involve executing on strategy, continued market and product initiatives and driving the technical team to achieve our goals. This includes being the dominant force in graphite and vanadium globally in both traditional markets and emerging battery and technology markets".
At the forthcoming General Meeting of Syrah on 1 October 2014 to consider the demerger of Jacana Minerals, Resolutions 3 and 4 dealing with the granting of options to Tom Eadie and Paul Kehoe will be withdrawn.
Tom Eadie
Chairman
Syrah Resources Ltd
About Syrah Resources
Syrah Resources (ASX code: SYR) is an Australian resource company with a diversified exploration portfolio located in southeast Africa. The Company is rapidly progressing its core Balama Graphite and Vanadium Project in Mozambique to production. Balama is a 106 km2 granted prospecting licence located within the Cabo Delgado province in the district of Namuno in northern Mozambique. The project is approximately 265 km by road west of the port town of Pemba. Pemba Port is a deep -water container port, and the third largest in Mozambique. The Balama Project site is accessible by a sealed, main road, running directly from the airport and Pemba Port. The main road is located 1 km from the airport. Syrah's exploration portfolio also includes a strategic mineral sands portfolio in Tanzania, comprising eight tenement areas, some with high grade heavy mineral intersections, and the Nachingwea graphite project in Tanzania.