Orvana Minerals' Bill Williams resigns as chief, Winship appointed interim CEO

Orvana Minerals Corp. (TSE:ORV) says that Bill Williams has resigned from his position of president and CEO, with the company appointing board director Michael Winship as his replacement on an interim basis. 

Williams has also resigned from his seat on the board of directors. No reasons for the departure were given in the statement. 

"Bill has made many valuable contributions to the company's transition to being an international, multi-mine gold and copper producer and we wish him well in his future endeavours," said the company in a statement on Monday, citing chairman Robert Mitchell. 

Mitchell also said that Winship, who has more than 30 years of experience in the mining industry including as COO of Quadra FNX Mining and president of HudBay Minerals, is "extremely well-qualified" to lead the company while it undertakes the process of choosing a new chief. 

The Toronto-based company, which has lately seen a sharp improvement at its mining operations, recently announced that it was granted the key Wetlands permit for its Copperwood project it is developing in Michigan - moving one step closer to advancing the copper property into production. 

Over the last year, the gold and copper producer has been applying for permits that will allow for mining this copper deposit. 

Analysts are also expecting a turnaround at both the company's flagship El Valle-Boinas/Carles (EVBC) gold-copper mine in northern Spain and the Don Mario Mine in Bolivia, which processes its copper-gold-silver Upper Mineralized Zone (UMZ) deposit. In February, Orvana announced it swung to a profit in its fiscal first quarter as revenue more than doubled on a sharp rise in production at its mines from a year earlier.          

Cash flow provided by operations before changes in working capital was $8.2 million in the quarter and capital expenditures were $4.2 million, resulting in positive free cash flow of $4 million.

Looking ahead, the company has said its short term focus is operational optimization at the EVBC and UMZ mines to generate increasing operating cash flows in order to pay down debt, and set a foundation for growth.