Another management change at Roxgold, with Sapuppo to become CFO

In its third management change in as many months, Roxgold (TSX: ROXG) has appointed a new chief financial officer.

Roxgold’s current CFO — Natacha Garoute — will stay in the role until the end of the month and will be replaced by Vince Sapuppo, a chartered accountant who previously held posts at Newcrest Mining (ASX: NCM) and BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP; LON: BLT).

During his 10 years at BHP, Sapuppo’s roles included vice-president reporting, divisional chief financial officer and controller, while at Newcrest he served as acting general manager of mergers and acquisitions and group manager of commercial reporting. He is currently general manager finance at Beach Energy and will join Roxgold in September.

The CFO change follows the departure in June of  vice-president of geology, Yan Bourassa, and news in May that Paul Criddle would step down as chief operating officer. Iain Cox, Roxgold’s general manager of operations, has assumed the role of interim COO. Criddle became a director in June.

The company told The Northern Miner the departures are a coincidence and do not reflect any underlying problems at the company.

Tara Hassan of Raymond James says the changes over such a short period of time are likely to weigh on the company’s share price, but she continues “to view operating risk to be limited given the amount of development completed and the experience of the on-site team,” and argues the company’s current valuation “does not accurately reflect its superior free cash flow profile relative to its junior producing peers.”

Roxgold’s Yaramoko gold mine in Burkina Faso generated US$30.9 million in cash flow during the first quarter ended March 31. The mine produced a record 40,050 oz. gold at all-in sustaining costs of US$658 per oz. sold.

In June, Burkina Faso’s Council of Ministers approved the mining decree for Roxgold’s Bagassi South project. The mining decree is an extension of the existing 2013 mining convention currently in place at the 55 Zone and carries the same terms.

Bagassi South, 1.8 km south of the Yaramoko processing plant, will be Roxgold’s second underground gold mine, and the company expects first ore in the fourth quarter of the year.

Roxgold expects Yaramoko, which started commercial production in October 2016, will produce between 120,000 and 130,000 ounces of gold in 2018.