National Bank on Wednesday noted that this morning Marathon Gold Corp. (MOZ.TO) announced the appointment of Gil Lawson as the COO, effective Oct. 1, replacing Tim Williams, who stepped down for personal reasons.
From what we know, the bank said, Gil is good at building an operating team, and developing relationships with communities and stakeholders, which will benefit Marathon at this stage. Gil will join existing bench strength including Paolo Toscano, who has been promoted to SVP, Projects, Engineering and Construction. National said that overall, it ascribes a neutral bias.
Lawson is an experienced mining professional with over 36 years of experience in project development, mine planning and management, the bank noted.
National maintained an Outperform rating and $1.75 price target on Marathon.
"Our thesis is supported by a world-class project in a Tier 1 jurisdiction, compelling organic opportunity and M&A appeal, tempered by development de-risking and closing funding delta. Trading at P/NAV 0.52x (ARTG 0.56x, OSK 0.47x). Target is based on 1.00x NAVPS," according to the note.
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