Copper and gold company AIC Mines has grown to the point where a COO is warranted and has appointed Tim Benfield to the position, MD Aaron Colleran announced on Monday.
“Tim is a perfect fit for the role - he has very relevant and current experience in the Cloncurry district and he is well known to key members of our management team. It’s great to be working with Tim again,” said Colleran.
Benfield is well known to the AIC management team from his time with Evolution Mining as general manager (GM) of the Pajingo gold mine, in north Queensland, from 2009 to 2012.
Benfield has held a range of senior roles, including COO, GM operations and chief engineer within copper and gold mining companies.
Most recently he was COO with Fetch Metals, leading the development studies for the White Range copper project, located south of Cloncurry. Prior to this he was GM project development with Aeon Metals at the Walford Creek copper project, located north of Cloncurry.
Benfield was COO with ASX-listed Kingsgate Consolidated from 2012 to 2016 where he oversaw gold mining operations in Australia and Thailand.
AIC owns the Eloise copper mine, a high-grade operating underground mine near Cloncurry. The company is set to start development of the Jericho deposit this year, which will transform Eloise into a “true cornerstone asset” for the company, increasing production, reducing costs and increasing the project life.