Petropavlovsk appoints new CEO
MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) - Gold miner Petropavlovsk plc has appointed a new CEO after Peter Maslovskiy, one of its founders, was elected to the Federation Council, Petropavlovsk said in a statement.
Maslovskiy will also retire from the board of IRC Ltd, which is developing the Group's iron ore business.
Maslovskiy was made Honorary President of Petropavlovsk. In this capacity, which will not be remunerated, he will be able to advise the new CEO and also attend but not vote at meetings of the Board.
Maslovskiy was elected to the Amur Region Duma on December 4 and nominated by this body to be a Senator and Member of the Federation Council. "The appointments recognise the important role both he and the Company he created have played in the development of the Amur Region's economy over the past 18 years," the statement said.
Maslovskiy will be replaced as CEO by Sergey Ermolenko, one of the original five members of the Group's founding management team and has been Maslovskiy's most important operational deputy, the statement said.
Ermolenko, 58, has held top managerial positions with the Group since its inception in 1994. In his previous capacity as Director of Pokrovskiy Rudnik, he was responsible for bringing the Pokrovskiy mine into production. He was appointed General Director of Management Company Petropavlovsk in 2004, and in this capacity has led the expansion of the Group into a multi-mine operator.
The company also appointed a new Deputy Chief Executive and Technical Director. Martin Smith, whop has been associated with the Group for more than 16 years. Smith, 56, will be stationed at the Group's Far East head office in Blagoveshensk, and will become Deputy CEO to Sergey Ermolenko.
Petropavlovsk Group was formed in April 2009 after the merged of Peter Hambro's gold production capacity and Aricom's iron ore and ilmenite in Russia's Far East (this enterprise was spun off from Petro Hambro in 2003). The alliance again spun off iron ore assets into a new company, IRC Ltd, in October 2010. This company's shares are traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Petropavlovsk owns a controlling packet in IRC Ltd.
Petropavlovsk is one of Russia's leading gold producers. Albyn will be its fourth project after the Pokrovsky, Pioneer and Malomyr vein gold projects in the Amur region.
