Greg McCunn has returned to Africa-focused Asanko Gold, with the Canada-based company announcing on Tuesday that its former finance chief would return on April 1 as CEO.
He is taking over from Peter Breese, who would transition to the newly created position of president and COO, reporting to McCunn.
The company explained that Breese would remain responsible for the operations of the its flagship Asanko gold mine in Ghana, maintain oversight on the large scale Esaase development programme, as well as overseeing the the technical team in its Johannesburg project office.
McCunn was Asanko’s CFO from 2011 to 2017. He is currently CEO of another Canada-based miner, Alio Gold, which has mines in Mexico and the US.
Alio said that it had appointed Mark Backens as McCunn’s successor.
Backens served as interim CEO from October 2015 to February 2017, and has more than 30 years of global mining experience. He is currently the chairperson and a director of Candelaria Mining, and has also served as a past director on a number of junior mining/resource companies. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Geological Engineering from South Dakota School of Mines and was formerly a professional geologist.