Anna Ladd-Kruger, the former CFO of McEwen Mining, has been appointed to the board of Toronto-listed Nevada Copper, which is ramping up its Pumpkin Hollow underground mine in the US.

Ladd-Kruger has been an integral member of executive management for several companies that have grown from exploration and development to midtier producers.

“She will add a strong strategic presence as we continue to ramp up Pumpkin Hollow and look towards future opportunities including the openpit,” said chairperson Stephen Gill.

Before her retirement in 2022, Ladd-Kruger was CFO of McEwen, where she was brought in to lead financial and operational turnaround strategies. She was key to the McEwen Copper spinout, including serving as its CFO and director.

Ladd-Kruger previously served as the CFO and VP corporate development for a number of mining companies and began her career working at Vale’s Thompson and Sudbury Canadian operations, before joining Kinross Gold as its North American group controller.

Meanwhile, Nevada Copper reported the ramp up of Pumpkin Hill continued and that it would achieve nameplate capacity of 5 000 t/d consistently by the end of 2023.

“The team has worked tirelessly to get us to this point and I appreciate their dedication towards the restart and ramp-up of the mine,” said president and CEO Randy Buffington.

The mill was restarted on October 3 and milled more than 48 000 t of low-grade ore in October as part of the planned commissioning. Daily operating rates exceeded 3 000 t/d over certain periods.

The plant achieved commissioning targets with copper recoveries averaging over 87% and demonstrated that copper concentrate can be produced within required specifications. About 446 dry metric tonnes of concentrate were trucked to the rail transfer station in October as concentrate sales logistics were re-activated. As expected, a portion of concentrate production in the month was below specification grade and is expected to be blended with higher grade concentrate through November 2023 to upgrade it to specification prior to transport.