TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Yukon Territory-focused Wellgreen Platinum has appointed former Romarco Gold chief executive Dianne Garrett as its new president, CEO and director.

Garrett brought with her more than 20 years of experience in the mining industry, most aptly demonstrated in her role at Romarco which, under her leadership, grew from a market valuation of C$20-million in 2002, to being sold for more than C$550-million to OceanaGold in 2015.

“I’m very excited to join Wellgreen Platinum, which controls a project that is not only one of the largest undeveloped PGM-Ni [platinum-group metals and nickel] deposits in the world, but is also located in one of the most attractive jurisdictions globally. The Wellgreen project is exceptionally attractive in terms of the extraordinary size of the resource, the diversity of base and precious metals, and its being situated in a supportive community," Garrett stated.

“I appreciate the hard work carried out by current management and the board that has brought Wellgreen Platinum to this point, and I look forward to working with the team to take this project up the value chain,” she added.

Wellgreen also announced Monday that Gillyeard Leathley had been appointed as an observer to the board and was expected to stand for election to the board at the company’s next annual general meeting.

Based on a 2015 preliminary economic assessment (PEA), Wellgreen boasted a significant combined measured and indicated resource of 5.5-million ounces PGM plus gold and 2.9-billion pounds of nickel and copper, as well as 13.8-million ounces of PGM plus gold and 7-billion pounds of nickel and copper in the inferred category.

At an initial capital expenditure of C$586-million for a 25-year base case mine life, the PEA base case economics calculated an after-tax net present value, at a 7.5% discount rate, of C$1.2-billion and an internal rate of return of 25.3%.