Guardian Metal Resources (AIM:GMET) has appointed David Hendriks as Chief Operating Officer and Ron Espell as Vice-President, Environment & Permitting, strengthening the senior team overseeing its tungsten projects in Nevada.
It comes as the company is advaning the Pilot Mountain and Tempiute tungsten projects as it works toward establishing a domestic US tungsten supply chain.
Hendriks is a mining engineer with more than 30 years of experience developing, constructing and operating mines across the Americas, Africa and Turkey, including around 15 years in rural Nevada. His background includes senior leadership roles at Kinross, Calibre Mining and, most recently, Chief Operating Officer at Centerra Gold.
In Nevada, he oversaw operations during the around $375m Round Mountain Phase W expansion and led initial development of the around $250m Goldfield Project.
Espell, meanwhile, is a geologist and environmental manager with more than 30 years of experience across the Americas, Australia, Southeast Asia and Africa, having held senior roles at Homestake Mining, Barrick Gold, McEwen Mining and American Vanadium, with technical expertise spanning permitting, due diligence, mine closure planning and geochemical studies. Having started his career at the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, Espell specialises in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Bureau of Land Management 3809 regulations governing mine permitting.
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Executive Chair J.T. Starzecki said Hendriks's appointment "comes at a pivotal time for the company as we continue to build on the significant progress being made across both Pilot Mountain and Tempiute", while describing Espell as "instrumental in our permitting efforts to date".
The hires follow Guardian's completion in June of a pre-feasibility study for Pilot Mountain, which modelled an after-tax net present value of $660.3m and targeted first ore through the mill in the fourth quarter of 2028, and come as the company works toward submitting a Pilot Mountain Mine Plan of Operations to trigger the NEPA review process.