TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Explorer Guyana Goldfields on Monday said its board had appointed Scott Caldwell as the new president and CEO of the company, effective immediately, and former CEO Patrick Sheridan Jr would become executive chairperson of the board.

"Having Scott as president and CEO of the company completes another step in our plan towards developing the Aurora gold project. His operations background will ensure proper execution of the day-to-day demands and I have absolutely every confidence he will excel as he takes the reins to help steer the company to its next level of success,” Sheridan said.

Caldwell has been a director of Guyana Goldfields since June 2012, and would be relocating to the head office in Toronto for his new roles.

He is a mining engineer with more than 30 years of experience of building and operating gold and base metals mines worldwide, including in the US, Canada, Russia, Zimbabwe, Chile and Indonesia.

He was until recently the president, CEO and director of Allied Nevada Gold for more than six years, and has worked in various capacities at Kinross Gold, including executive VP and COO and director, and has also served as VP of operations for Echo Bay Mines, where he was responsible for the operation and development of mines in Canada and the US.

Caldwell also spent a number of years working in Indonesia for PT Freeport Indonesia, where he was a critical member of the development and operating team for the Grasberg mine.

Guyana Goldfields had also appointed Peter Lello Galassi to the position of COO in May.

The company in March entered into a C$5.5-million private placement agreement with the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group and, in February, closed a $100-million bought deal offering for which it had issued 29.42-million shares at a price of C$3.40 a share.

The Aurora project holds an estimated after-tax-and-royalties net present value of $800-million at a 5% discount when using a gold price of $1 300/oz. The after-tax-and-royalties internal rate of return is 38% when using the same parameters and the mine has an expected price tag of $205-million.

The mine could produce gold at a rate of 194 000 oz/y over its first 17 years, starting in 2015. In the first ten years the mine is expected to produce 231 000 oz/y and production is expected to peak at a rate of 349 000 oz/y in 2020.

Guyana Goldfield’s TSX-listed stock climbed 5.33% in value on Monday to close at C$1.58 apiece.