Century Iron appoints Ghislain Arel as mine development executive

Canadian ire ore explorer Century Iron Mines (TSE:FER) announced Wednesday the appointment of Ghislain Arel as mine development executive.
Arel will report directly to the company’s senior vice president of logistics, mine development and operations, Hubert Vallée.
Based in Montreal, Arel’s role will be to lead the supervision of mining operations, and assist in the company’s development and implementation of mining exploration plans as it brings its major iron ore bodies into production over the next five years and beyond.
His initial responsibilities will revolve around the creation of mining development plans for the production of direct shipping ore.
Arel is a graduate engineer of Université Laval, with 17 years of experience at several mining companies and mining consulting firms.
Most recently, he worked for Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines Limited, having the role of assistant general manager at the Mine and Mill Plant, Open Pit Operation.
Here, he was responsible for the management and administration of mining and ore processing, as well as for a large operating and capital budget of approximately a quarter of a billion dollars.
Arel was in charge of the company’s transition from start-up to full production, with over 200 employees and multidisciplinary teams under his wing.
“As a key member of the team which took the first world class iron ore mine into production in decades in Canada, Ghislain will contribute greatly to realizing Century Iron’s vision to be one of the few mining companies to bring a DSO deposit into production in the Labrador Trough and become one of the largest and best iron ore producing companies in Canada over the next few years," said Century’s president, Sandy Chim.
“With the largest iron ore land claim holdings in Canada and partnering with two Fortune Global 500 Chinese SOE companies, WISCO and MinMetals, we are well positioned to achieve this."
Prior to his time at Consolidated Thompson, Arel was director of the mining sector for Canadian engineering service firm Genivar, the chief engineer of mining operations for Quebec Iron and Titanium, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto and McWatters Mining Company.
"Gishlain is one of the few mining engineers who have taken an iron ore mine from development to production," said Century’s senior vice president, Hubert Vallée.
"His joining of Century strengthens our mining team and adds invaluable iron ore mine development experience and expertise to our core competence."
Canada’s largest holder of iron ore land claims, Century Iron, has properties in Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, boasting NI 43-101 compliant resources approaching 1 billion tonnes.
The company has various interests in separate iron ore exploration projects known as Duncan Lake, Attikamagen, Sunny Lake, Astray, Grenville, Menihek, and Schefferville.
Iron ore is the ore used to make steel.
The company currently has 51 percent interest of the Duncan Lake project, with an option to increase to a 65 percent interest under an option and joint venture agreement with Augyva Mining Resources.
The company has earned a 50 percent interest in the Attikamagen project, with a right to acquire up to a 60 percent interest under an option and joint venture agreement with Champion Minerals.
The Sunny Lake project is wholly owned by Century, as well as the Astray, Grenville, Menihek and Schefferville projects that were recently acquired from Altius Minerals Corp.
Century Iron is also backed by two Chinese strategic partners through financing and off-take agreements: MinMetals and WISCO International Resources, a unit of Wuhan Iron & Steel, also known as China's third-largest steel producer.
Support from these two massive Chinese conglomerates, which are two of China’s largest mining companies, is a big feat.
In 2010, the WISCO group produced 36 million tonnes of crude steel, ranking as the fourth-largest steel mill in China and the fifth-largest in the world.