Phil Hoskins
CEO: Atomic Eagle
‘Atomic Eagle is well funded to continue an aggressive resource expansion campaign’
MINERS are a resilient bunch so it was no surprise to see the former GoviEx Uranium reinvent itself as Atomic Eagle following the loss of its flagship uranium project in Niger. But long-standing CEO Daniel Major did not survive the transition. According to the company, Major was “unable to commence as CEO for personal reasons”. He’s been replaced by GoviEx’s former corporate development manager Phil Hoskins whose task is now to develop the Muntanga Uranium Project in Zambia.
This was GoviEx’s fallback position after the Niger government cancelled its mining permit for the Madaouela project in July 2024. GoviEx had spent 15 years drilling up Madaouela to the point where it was about to raise $343m to develop it. Arbitration proceedings are now underway against the Niger government, but that will likely be a long and drawn-out process. Muntanga is a smaller project than Madaouela but Hoskins – as well he might – is playing it up as a low-risk, high-recovery mine that will have excellent infrastructure along with the benefits of operating in Zambia.
The country is described as “pro-mining with strong legal frameworks” and third in Africa for investment attractiveness according to the Fraser Institute. Ja well no fine. Zambia has had its fair share of altercations with its mining sector over the past 20 odd years but at least it’s a better destination than Niger with a far more sizeable and established mining industry. But Hoskins has his work cut out for him as a junior player in what has been shown over the years to be a highly volatile commodity just on the fundamentals, never mind taking jurisdictional risk into account.
LIFE OF PHIL
Hoskins is described as “an experienced ASX mining” executive with 15 years as either MD or CFO in various resources projects at the exploration and development stages. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree and is a chartered accountant, also holding a diploma in applied finance. He spent a decade as MD of an African critical minerals project overseeing its development from greenfields exploration to the completion of feasibility studies, permitting and financing.
