Richmont cherry-picks Stornoway CFO

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Intermediate gold miner Richmont Mines has hired 20-year mining finance veteran Robert Chausse as CFO, cherry-picking him from Quebec diamond miner Stornoway Diamonds, which last year commissioned its Renard project.

Chausse, a chartered accountant, previously held a similar role at AuRico Gold, and was previously employed as VP of finance, operations and projects at Kinross Gold. He has also worked for Baffinland Iron Mines and Barrick Gold.

Richmont is scheduled to report updated reserves and resources in early February and, following that, to provide 2017 operating guidance.

The company reported a slightly better-than-expected fourth-quarter operational update earlier this month, driven by expected rising grades at the flagship Island Gold mine, in Ontario. Richmont is expected to implement a potential expansion at the mine, details of which are expected in the second quarter.

“Given our opinion that Stornoway is in sound financial health with C$150-million in cash and investments as of September 30, 2016, we are not overly concerned with this departure. We believe Stornoway is performing very well in its ramp-up of the Renard diamond mine; we thus do not see the company having a difficult time attracting talent and we think getting a replacement for Mr Chausse this year should be achievable,” Desjardin Capital Markets analyst Michael Parkin said in a note to clients.