Aura Energy (AIM:AURA), the uranium exploration and development company advancing the Tiris project in Mauritania, has named three executives to lead the project from study into construction.
John Carr becomes President, Spencer Davey joins as Chief Financial Officer, and Jeremy Carter becomes Chief Strategy Officer.
The appointments come as the Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) for Tiris, which Aura is positioning as Mauritania's first uranium mine, nears completion.
Final engineering estimates have pushed the study's release back slightly, with Aura now targeting mid-October against an earlier timetable.
Aura continues to target project financing by the end of 2026, with the BFS expected to underpin talks with potential strategic partners and lenders.
Carr has led Aura's technical and operating work as Chief Adviser, Operations since March, overseeing the test work and engineering behind the BFS, and will now run the business day-to-day reporting to Executive Chair Phil Mitchell.
Davey joins from Fortescue, where he was Global Head of Business Development and Special Projects, and previously represented the company in the US$1.2 billion sale of a 31% stake in the Iron Bridge magnetite project to Formosa Plastics Group.
Carter, who has advised Aura on strategy and technology since November 2025, will lead digitalisation of the business and the recruitment of young Mauritanians to run Tiris, alongside Mohamed El Moctar and Mohamed Sid'Ahmed.
Mitchell remains Executive Chair and will lead financing talks with lenders and investors through to close, with Davey at his side.
Construction of the Tiris pilot plant is under way at Bir Moghrein, with the first modular packages due in Nouakchott in late October and commissioning to start in early November.
Testing, due for completion in early December, will run each of the three main Tiris ore types and a 48-tonne bulk composite sample through the plant as a continuous circuit, with 24 Mauritanian operators trained to run it.
"John has lived in the detail of this project all year. Spencer has done deals at a scale well beyond ours, and we need exactly that at the table with lenders between now and the end of the year," said Mitchell.
The pilot operates under the uranium authorisation Aura received from Mauritania's radiation safety regulator in July 2024, with the environmental notice needed before operation expected in October.