Great Western Minerals announces resignation of Russell Grant

Rare Earths processor Great Western Minerals Group (CVE:GWG) announced Monday the resignation of director, and senior vice-president of business development, Russell Grant.
Grant has served Great Western since April 2010, during which time he was responsible for initiatives that included the establishment of the company’s joint venture agreement with Ganzhou Qiandong Rare Earth Group, and commercial development opportunities.
"It has been a distinct pleasure to work with GWMG over the past two years, participating in the transition of a company from being one with great potential to being one of the most fully integrated rare earth companies outside of China today,” said Grant.
"With the recent financing successfully in place and with the establishment of a professional delivery team, I feel certain that GWMG will prove to be a leader in the rare earth sector."
President and CEO of Great Western Minerals, Jim Engdahl, said: "We sincerely thank Russell Grant for the extensive rare earth industry experience he has added to our Company over the past two years.
"His knowledge of the global rare earth sector has been of significant value to GWMG as we have developed our management group in a manner that enables us to be a global leader."
The Canadian-based company focuses on the exploration and development of six rare earth properties in North America, and a sizeable property in South Africa.
As part of the company’s strategy to pursue a vertically-integrated business model, its wholly-owned subsidiaries of Less Common Metals Limited located in Birkenhead UK, and Great Western Technologies Inc. located in Troy, Michigan, produce a variety of specialty alloys for use in the battery, magnet and aerospace industries.
These "designer" alloys include those containing copper, nickel, cobalt and the rare earth elements.
The company recently reported at the start of May that it had satisfied the escrow release condition on its $90 million convertible bond financing, for the development of its Steenkampskraal project in South Africa.
The program at Steenkampskraal is central to ensure a strong flow of feedstock for the company's downstream processing.
In order to satisfy the condition of the financing, Great Western said it was obligated to have Caracle Creek International Consulting provide a confirmation letter stating that at least 20,000 metric tonnes of total rare earth oxides (TREO), in the sum of the measured, indicated, and inferred resource categories using a one per cent cut-off grade, are present at Steenkampskraal.
The company said the letter indicates the presence of at least 26,600 metric tonnes of TREO under the inferred resource category.
At that time, Great Western said it expected to file an NI 43-101 report on the Steenkampskraal property on or before May 31, 2012.
Not included in the letter, but anticipated to be incorporated into the NI 43-101 report, are results from recent sampling of mineralization in the up-dip and down-dip extremities of the historic mine area, the two tailings dams, and the rock dump, Great Western said.