TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX- and NYSE MKT-listed base metals miner Taseko Mines has appointed industry veteran Geoffrey Burns as an independent nonexecutive director.
Burns brought to Taseko more than thirty years of senior management experience in the mining industry.
He currently served as the chairperson of Maverix Metals and, until December, was the president, CEO and a director at Pan American Silver. During his 12-year tenure at Pan American Silver, the company had increased its silver output from 7.5-million ounces to more than 26-million ounces a year, to become the second-largest primary silver producer in the world.
Taseko advised that Burn had extensive experience throughout North and South America in mine operations and project development, having participated in several mine construction projects from early feasibility studies into continuous operation. He had also led frequent capital market transactions – including placements of equity, debt and convertible debt – and was influential in completing several cornerstone acquisitions for Pan American Silver.
Burns had also served a two-year term as president of the Silver Institute.
Taseko, which had recently successfully fended off a proxy contest led by activist shareholder Raging River Capital, operated the 75%-owned Gibraltar mine, in British Columbia, and had several significant development projects in the pipeline, including the controversial New Prosperity project, and the Florence in situ copper project, in central Arizona.