TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Vancouver-based Hana Mining has appointed James Sullivan as president and COO, effective immediately, the company announced on Thursday.

He replaces Peter Wilson, who will remain as a director and a member of the management team.

Sullivan was previously regional vice-president for Russian operations at Kinross Gold, where he managed the Russian minerals portfolio that Kinross acquired when it bought Bema Gold in 2007.

He oversaw the exploration and subsequent development of the $750-million Kupol mine, which started production last year, and Hana expects this experience will help as the company advances its flagship copper/silver project, in Botswana.

The Ghanzi project has an inferred resource of two-billion pounds of copper and 34,9-million ounces of silver, contained in 60,4-million tons of ore.

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