Aura Energy Ltd (ASX:AEE, AIM:AURA) has appointed Mark Somlyay to the newly minted position of chief financial officer (CFO), bringing 20 years of experience in finance, commercial and business improvement within the mining industry.
Somlyay is particularly experienced in the region of West Africa and in francophone jurisdictions, where he has been involved in the recent development of three greenfield projects, which is of special interest to Aura due to its Tiris Uranium Project in Mauritania.
Important step in Tiris development
“We are pleased to welcome Mark to the Aura Energy team,” managing director and CEO Andrew Grove said.
“Mark’s exceptionally strong commercial skills as well as his recent development, operational and funding experiences will be critical to assist Aura progress the Tiris Uranium Project through to final investment decision, which is expected this year, and then into production.
”Mark’s appointment as CFO is another important step in the development of Tiris and the steady progress in Mauritania is exciting.
“We look forward to providing our shareholders with further updates as we achieve more milestones during 2024.”
Somlyay most recently served as finance director, Australia, for Agnico Eagle Mines Limited and previously held commercial and finance-based roles for Chesser Resources and Perseus Mining, where he was intimately involved in the successful development and funding of both the Sissingué and Yaouré gold mines in Côte d’Ivoire.
AEE’s recent FEED study demonstrated Tiris to be a near-term, low-cost, 2-million-tonnes of uranium per annum uranium mine with a 17-year mine life and excellent economics and optionality to expand to accommodate future resource growth.
Beyond the Tiris Project, Aura owns 100% of the Häggån Project in Sweden. Häggån contains a global scale 2.5 billion tonnes vanadium, sulphate of potash and uranium resource.
Using only 3% of the resource, a 2023 scoping study outlined a 27-year mine life based on mining 3.5 million tonnes per year.