KENMARE Resources’ founding MD Michael Carvill is to step down from the company in August ending neary 40 years with the mineral sands miner.
“As I turn 65 later this year, I feel that now is the right time for me to step down as managing director,” he said in a statement on Friday. Shares in the company were trading about 2.3% higher by midday.
Carvill founded Kenmare in 1987 and endured some difficult times including the $275m recapitalisation of the company in 2016 after it nearly ran aground. The last eight years however have been a story of recovery culminating in a maiden dividend in 2019.
The company, which operates the Moma mine in northern Mozambique where it processes ilmenite for pigments, said Carvill would remain on the board until its interim results.
“Following this, and to support an orderly transition process, Michael will continue to be available to the company in a consultancy capacity until at least the end of 2024,” Kenmare said.
A perennial in Miningmx’s Rainmakers & Potstirrers, Carvill has had a colourful career. He was reportedly evicted from Sudan during the Islamic Revolution and trawled around the Philippines post the Ferdinand Marcos regime looking for gold. He subsequently founded Kenmare in 1987.
In December, the company said it had approved the $225m upgrade of a wet concentrator plant and tailings storage facility at Moma. The upgrade will enable Kenmare to access the Nataka resource at Moma which will extend mining for more than 20 years.
Kenmare has forecast ilmenite production of 950,000 to 1.05 million tons for the 2024 financial year. Production for the 12 months ended December 2023 was 986,300 tons. This was within revised guidance following a rocky first quarter in which electrical storms damaged plant components, interrupting production. It had first guided the market to ilmenite production of 1.05 and 1.15 million tons in 2023.
Zircon and rutile production has been guided to 45,000 to 50,000 tons and 8,000 to 9,000 tons respectively.
