TORONTO, Feb. 1, 2023
/CNW/ - Argonaut Gold Inc. (TSX: AR) (the
"Company", "Argonaut Gold" or "Argonaut") announced today that
Marc Leduc, P.Eng. has been
appointed Chief Operating Officer of the Company.
"Marc and I worked closely at Barrick Gold and most recently in
a private venture. I believe that Marc has the right skill set to
facilitate Argonaut's repositioning to a lower cost North American
gold company with significant organic growth opportunities," stated
Richard Young, President and Chief
Executive Officer. "Marc will work with our team on completing and
commissioning of our flagship Magino mine in Ontario, evaluating the potential for
operational improvements and the sulphide potential at Florida
Canyon in Nevada and pursuing
organic growth opportunities within our Mexican asset
portfolio."
Mr. Leduc's career spans more than 40 years and includes all
aspects of the mining cycle. He has been involved in the
exploration, design, permitting, construction, commissioning, and
operation of gold mines, including many complex heap leach
projects. Mr. Leduc is both a professional mining engineer and a
geologist.
Since 2006, Marc has been in executive positions at several
publicly traded companies, including Interim President and CEO of
NewCastle Gold, one of the companies that comprised part of a
three-way merger to form Equinox Gold. At NewCastle Gold,
Marc lead the design team that redesigned the Castle Mountain heap
leach project in California into a
mine containing 4.2 million ounces of reserve and is expected to be
a 218,000 ounce a year gold producer. Marc was also an integral
part of the design, permitting, construction and start-up team at
Barrick Gold's Pierina Mine in Peru, a million ounce per year heap leach
operation. In addition, Marc has worked on projects
throughout the Americas, including Cerro
San Pedro in Mexico, and
Aurizona in Brazil. Recently, Marc was COO at Kore Mining,
focused on the Imperial heap leach Project, located in California.
Marc Leduc stated: "Argonaut has
significant organic growth potential as the Company transitions to
a lower-cost producer in North America. Having worked with
Richard in the past, I am looking forward to the opportunity to
join the Argonaut team, which is in the final stages of
construction and ramping up to operations in the second quarter, as
well as optimizing and growing all of our operating and development
assets. With a strong focus on open pit and heap leach gold
operations, we will work together to bring further scale to our
portfolio of assets."
Lowe Billingsley, the Company's
current Chief Operating Officer, is resigning to pursue other
opportunities but will assist in the transition and stay on as an
advisor to the Company through the first quarter of this year.
"On behalf of the Company, I would like to thank Lowe for his
contribution to Argonaut and wish him every success in the future,"
stated Mr. Young.
About Argonaut Gold
Argonaut Gold is a Canadian gold company engaged in exploration,
mine development and production. The Company is in the final
stages of construction of the Magino mine, located in Ontario, Canada. Magino will be the Company's
largest and lowest cost gold mine. Commissioning is scheduled for
the second quarter of 2023 followed by commercial production in the
third quarter of 2023. In addition, the Company has four operating
mines including the Florida Canyon mine in Nevada, USA, the El
Castillo mine and San
Agustin mine, which together form the El Castillo Complex in
Durango, Mexico and the
La Colorada mine in Sonora, Mexico. The Company also holds
the advanced exploration stage Cerro del
Gallo project and several other exploration stage projects,
all of which are located in North
America. For further information on the Company's material
properties, please see the reports as listed below on the Company's
website or on www.sedar.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking
Statements
This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements"
and "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian
securities laws concerning the business, operations and financial
performance and condition of Argonaut Gold. Forward-looking
statements and forward-looking information include, but are not
limited to statements with respect to: risks related to meeting the
Magino construction project schedule; the realization of mineral
reserve estimates; the timing and amount of estimated future
production; the impact of inflation on costs of exploration,
development and production; estimated production and mine life of
the various mineral projects of Argonaut; risk of employee and/or
contractor strike actions; timing of approval for modifications to
existing permits; permitting and legal processes in relation to
mining permitting and approval; the future price of gold; the
estimation of mineral reserves and resources; success of
exploration activities; the impact of COVID-19, the response of
governments to COVID-19 and the effectiveness of such responses;
and currency exchange rate fluctuations. Except for statements of
historical fact relating to Argonaut, certain information contained
herein constitutes forward-looking statements. Forward-looking
statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan,"
"expect," "project," "intend," "believe," "anticipate", "estimate"
and other similar words, or statements that certain events or
conditions "may", "should" or "will" occur. Forward-looking
statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at
the date the statements are made and are based on a number of
assumptions and subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and
other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ
materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.
Many of these assumptions are based on factors and events that are
not within the control of Argonaut and there is no assurance they
will prove to be correct.
These factors are discussed in greater detail in Argonaut's most
recent Annual Information Form and in the most recent Management's
Discussion and Analysis filed on SEDAR, which also provide
additional general assumptions in connection with these statements.
Argonaut cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is
not exhaustive. Investors and others who base themselves on
forward-looking statements should carefully consider the above
factors as well as the uncertainties they represent and the risk
they entail. Argonaut believes that the expectations reflected in
those forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance
can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and
such forward-looking statements included in this press release
should not be unduly relied upon. These statements speak only as of
the date of this press release.
For more information,
contact:
Argonaut Gold Inc.
Joanna Longo
Investor Relations
Phone: 416 575 6965
Email: investor.relations@argonautgold.com
SOURCE Argonaut Gold Inc.
