Horizonte Minerals makes several senior leadership changes

Nickel developer Horizonte Minerals announced several changes to its board of directors and senior leadership team on Monday.

The AIM-traded firm said co-founder and chief executive officer Jeremy Martin would step down from his role as CEO and resign as a board member.

Similarly, chief financial officer Simon Retter would step down as CFO and resign from the company’s board.

In addition to those changes, non-executive interim chair William Fisher and non-executive director Owen Bavinton would step down from the board under best practice corporate governance.

Both Fisher and Bavinton had served as directors since 2011 and 2012, respectively.

Horizonte said all departing directors and officers had agreed to assist with an orderly handover, with the changes effective immediately.

In light of the changes, the company announced new management and board appointments, with Karim Nasr appointed as interim chief executive officer and a proposed board member.

The board said Nasr, the managing partner and co-chief investment officer of La Mancha Resource Capital, one of the company’s major shareholders, would lead the financing and restructuring efforts.

He would bring over 25 years of corporate finance and investment experience, including experience with restructuring in Brazil.

Nasr would step down from his day-to-day executive role at La Mancha to focus on Horizonte and develop a financing plan for the project.

Corporate finance professional Paul Smith was proposed to join the company as a non-executive director and chair of the board, with non-executive director Vincent Benoit set to serve as interim chair until Smith’s appointment took effect.

Former Iamgold chair Maryse Bélanger was meanwhile appointed interim chief operating officer in a non-board capacity.

Bélanger, who has over 30 years of experience in the global mining sector, would leverage her expertise in operational excellence and turnaround, technical services, and organisational efficiency to support Horizonte’s operations.

“Firstly, we would like to thank Jeremy for his leadership and contributions to the company,” said non-executive director John MacKenzie.

“Jeremy was a founding director of Horizonte and has led the company since 2010.

“We are grateful for his dedication to the business and wish him well for the future.”

MacKenzie described interim CEO Karim Nasr as a “highly respected senior leader”.

“The board is grateful that Karim has agreed to lead the company through this financing and restructuring process.

“I am also very pleased to welcome Paul Smith to our board, which he will chair after the usual onboarding procedures are completed.”

At 1156 GMT, shares in Horizonte Minerals were up 3.12% at 9.9p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.