Atlantic Lithium appoints mining veteran as operations chief

Africa-focussed explorer and developer Atlantic Lithium announced the appointment of Keith Muller as its new chief operating officer on Thursday, with a start date in November.

The AIM-traded firm described Muller as an experienced mining engineer with more than 20 years of “operational and leadership experience” across domestic and international mining sectors, including in the lithium sector.

It noted that Muller had a “strong operational background” in hard rock lithium mining and processing, and in particular DMS spodumene processing.

Additionally, he had experience operating within the African mining sector, having previously lived there.

The board said Muller had built an “impressive” track record as a technical and operational leader and, throughout his career, had been responsible for improving efficiency, driving commercial opportunities, increasing mine longevity and maximising safety across the projects he worked on.

He previously held roles as both business leader and as general manager at Allkem and, prior to that, as operations manager and senior mining engineer at Simec.

Atlantic said his experience and expertise within the mining industry, including extensive work and business performance improvement at the Mt Cattlin lithium mine in Western Australia during his time at Allkem, as well as in-country experience in Africa, would be “invaluable” to the company.

“Keith's exceptionally strong operational skills, especially from a working lithium mine, will be key as we progress the Ewoyaa Lithium Project through the development and mine build phase into production,” said executive chairman Neil Herbert.

“Keith has also completed detailed mine studies as well as permitting, crucial next steps for the company.

“Developing and building the company's integrated international team, incorporating the growing team in Ghana and the team in Australia, will be an area of focus and core to the effective implementation of Atlantic Lithium's plans to develop the Ewoyaa Lithium Project towards production.”

At 1330 BST, shares in Atlantic Lithium were up 7.46% at 36.75p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.