Platinum-group metals producer African Thunder Platinum (ATP) announced the appointment of its new CEO, Brett Richards, earlier this month.

Richards is a well-known mining executive, with more than 30 years’ experience in mining and metals. He has CEO experience in publicly listed resource companies in Toronto and London, and has focused primarily on projects in Africa over the past ten years.

He has acted or advised on a multitude of corporate mergers and acquisitions projects, and also has extensive mine-project development and rehabilitation, mine financing and senior- level operations experience.

Richards was the CEO of diamond producer Octéa from 2012 to 2015, and served as the interim CEO of gold producer Roxgold in 2012. He was also the CEO of West Africa-focused gold mining and exploration company Avocet Mining from 2009 to 2012. He has held senior executive and management positions at various publicly traded companies, including copper and cobalt miner Katanga Mining, gold producer Kinross Gold and steel company Co-Steel.

The ATP board of directors has mandated Richards to advance plans for the restart of the underground mine at the Smokey Hills operation, in Limpopo, and the development towards production of the Kalplats project, in the North West, while exploring strategic acquisitions and other joint venture opportunities.

ATP expects to allocate new funds to capitalise the improvement of mine production at Smokey Hills prior to re-opening the investigating means of increasing equipment efficiency. The company will also be exploring possible openpit scenarios and other opportunities to improve plant capacity through tolling from other new sources of external ore.

The company points out that it has proven to be a lower-half cash cost producer to its peers when operating at capacity and it is confident that it can further lower its operating costs by improving and increasing its plant capacity.

ATP will allocate appropriate funds to advance the Kalplats project towards a definitive bankable feasibility study.

It will also evaluate of a number of potential business combinations to build a strong, platinum midtier producer in the Bushveld and Limpopo region, as well as the North West.