Molten Metals names new CEO, focuses on antimony, gold
Molten Metals Corp. [MOLT-CSE] has named Lara Smith as CEO, while appointing Jon Harris to the role of interim Chief Operating Officer. The move follows the resignation of Christopher Ecclestone, who served on the board of directors for the last 18 months. He resigned for personal reasons, the company said.
Since 2009, Smith has been CEO of a consultancy firm with a focus on evaluating the economics of mining operations. She has two decades of experience working on feasibility studies and reviewing offtake agreements. Harris is the CEO of Pambili Natural Resources Corp., a gold development company. He previously served as a non-executive director of Bankers Petroleum [BNK-TSX].
Molten shares were unchanged at 18 cents and currently trade in a 52-week range of 35 cents and $0.085.
Molten is developing antimony and antimony-gold mine projects. Antimony is a critical element with many industrial applications, including ammunition and fire retardants. An upcoming potential application is in massive storage devices, including molten-salt batteries.
The company recently contracted a geological consultant to undertake sampling work at the Berggren Shaft Target area on the company’s West Gore project in Nova Scotia, and to provide recommendations for follow up work.
The West Gore Project is located in west-central Nova Scotia, approximately 50 kilometres northwest of Halifax. The project is held by Molten Metals through an option agreement with Elk Exploration Ltd. Previously antimony and gold mining was conducted within the project area between 1884 and 1917 with most production reported from the Main Vein – Fissure.
The most recent known historical sampling at the site was undertaken in 2014 when the project was under the control of Geodex Resources [now Intercontinental Gold & Metals Ltd. [GMXLF-OTC]] The CEO of Geodex at the time was Christopher Eccelstone.
In a Geodex news release dated September 15, 2014, Geodex announced that it had received antimony, gold and silver assays for rock grab samples collected at the West Gore Antimony – Gold Project. Assays confirmed significant antimony and gold content for multiple samples, with assays up to 27.1% Sb and 72.5 g/t gold.
Previous limited rock grab sampling by Geodex confirmed gold and antimony mineralization in the waste rock dumps near the Main Vein, including assays of 153 g/t gold and 21% Sb, and antimony-bearing rubble in the reported area of the Brook Vein with a sample returning 56.9% Sb.
The Berggren Shaft Target area lies on trend with the old West Gore Antimony-Gold mine. In the latter part of the 1930s, the exploitation license for the area of the old Antimony mine at West Gore was held by Chester Berggren. He initially reworked the old mine dumps with the dispatch of substantial amounts of Sb material to the United Kingdom for roasting. He also advanced exploration at new locations on trend as well as the so-called Berggren shaft. However, his efforts ceased at the outbreak of the Second World War.