Paul Brown will leave rare earths developer Hastings Technology Metals at the end of the month as the company restructured its business to reduce costs.
The restructuring has resulted in a “material reduction” in the workforce numbers, ASX-listed Hastings said on Friday.
Brown, who joined Hastings in September last year, has undertaken a company-wide structure and cost review, including a detailed first principle’s build-up of the capital costs estimates of the Yangibana rare earths project.
Details of the capital costs estimate will be announced in the coming weeks.
“I am pleased with the work that has been undertaken by the Hastings team to identify significant savings and optimisation across the Yangibana project, which continues to derisk the project execution strategy and improve project economics,” said Brown.
As part of the restructure, current executive general manager of mining operations, Tim Gilbert, will step into the role of COO and report directly to executive chairperson Charles Lew.
Commenting on the restructure, Lew said that Hastings was confident that the new management structure had the necessary team of executives with specific skills to close out its project financing workstream and strategic options.
“The fundamentals of the Yangibana project remain positive and unchanged,” he added.
Lew thanked Brown and the people leaving Hastings for their efforts in taking the project through to its advanced stage.
The Yangibana project is located in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The project will be developed in two stages with an initial focus on the construction of the mine and beneficiation plant to produce 37 000 t/y of mixed rare earth concentrate.