Highland announces new appointments, technical advisory committee

The company appointed Trace Arlaud project director and Peter Hemstead interim CFO on April 21, as well as established a technical advisory committee.

Arlaud is a globally recognised mining executive with a proven track record of improving project economics through strategic mine planning and technical innovation, in addition to having held key mine development execution roles, including at Seabridge Gold, Rio Tinto, Freeport-McMoRan and South32.

Highland believes Arlaud’s capabilities will translate to project optimisation through detailed engineering- and operational-readiness efforts.

In turn, Hemstead will temporarily succeed Cybill Tsung while she takes personal leave. Hemstead is a highly experienced mining executive and board member, with his work tenure including stints at Capstone Copper Corporation, Bluestone Resources and LunR Royalties.

Highland is confident that Hemstead has the necessary understanding of debt and equity capital markets, as well as good corporate governance, to propel the company forward in Tsung’s absence.

Meanwhile, the newly formed technical advisory committee will comprise former Copperwood project director Dr Wynand van Dyk, and current Highland board members Jon Cherry and Melanie Miller.

The company says it will add further advisory members as needed through the project’s engineering- and construction-readiness process.

Notably, Highland aims to complete 40% of Copperwood’s front-end engineering design work this year, including to update key capital and operating cost assumptions. Highland plans to release an updated feasibility study on the project as part of its engineering objectives to more readily facilitate due diligence in project financing.

Formal financing initiatives will also start before the end of the year.