Robert Kaplan has been appointed CFO and company secretary of ASX-listed Pensana Rare Earths ahead of its planned listing on the main board of the LSE next month.
Kaplan previously worked in financial and treasury roles for LSE-listed diamond miner Petra Diamonds.
Pensana aims to become one of the world’s biggest suppliers of neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr) exporting concentrates through the development of its Longonjo NdPr project in Angola.
“We welcome Rob to the team. He brings extensive African mine finance and operational expertise to the company at a time when we are making the transition from feasibility studies into financing, construction and production,” Pensana chairperson Paul Atherley said on Friday.
He added that the appointment should help accelerate the development of Longonjo as the world’s first major rare earth mine in nearly a decade.
A preliminary feasibility study into the Longonjo project, published in November, showed potential for the project to produce about 56 000 t/y of concentrate over a nine-year mine life.