Exploration company Solaris Copper, which was spun out of Equinox Gold last year, has assembled a new executive team with the appointment of a new CEO, CFO and VP for corporate affairs, as it expands its exploration activities and prepares for a public listing.

Solaris, which is focusing on the Warintza project in Ecuador, as well as other projects in Mexico, Chile and Peru, appointed Daniel Earle its new president and CEO, as well as director.

Earle most recently served as a VP and director at TD Securities, where he covered companies in the precious and base metals sectors as an equity research analyst for over 12 years. Prior to joining TD Securities, Earle was a senior executive with a number of Canadian and US public mineral exploration and mining companies.

Linda Chang has been named new CFO and Purni Parikh senior VP for corporate affairs and corporate secretary.

James Steels has been appointed to the board. He would join current directors Marcel de Groot, Scott Heffernan and current CEO Greg Smith. Earle would also serve on the board.

Alex Holmes would be resigning from the board in order to accommodate the addition of the new directors.

Smith would be resigning from his role as CEO and Kylie Dickson and Susan Toews would be resigning from their roles as CFO and corporate secretary, respectively.

Last year, Equinox Gold separated its copper and gold assets with the transfer of its copper assets into a new standalone company named Solaris Copper.

CAPITAL RAISING

Further, Solaris announced that it planned to undertake a nonbrokered private placement financing to raise gross proceeds of up to C$5.5-million.

The placement will consist of an issue of units at a price of C$0.40 a unit, with each unit consisting of one common share of the company and one-half of a common share purchase warrant of the company. Each warrant will entitle the holder to acquire one common share at a price of C$0.60 for a period of three years following the closing date of the private placement.

The proceeds would be used to advance permitting, exploration and drilling activities at the company’s mineral claims, for mineral property holding costs and for general and working capital purposes.

Concurrent with the private placement, Equinox would subscribe for 6 875 000 units in exchange for the cancellation of all debt payable by the company to Equinox Gold totalling C$2.75-million.

Accordingly, on closing of the private placement, Equinox Gold will retain an interest of about 32% in Solaris.