About

New Dawn Metals (NDM), previously Optiva Resources, a company incorporated in England and Wales in January 2019, has signed a Technical Partnership Agreement with Base Metals Guinee SARLU, a Guinean company, that has exploration licences in the Mamou and Faranah prefectures in the Republic of Guinea. These licences are referred to as the Marela Project.

The Technical Partnership Agreement was approved by the Minister of Mines in March 2019. Under the terms of the Technical Partnership Agreement the mining licence will be granted to NDM’s Guinean subsidiary company at the “decision to mine” stage and NDM will then hold an 85% interest, with the Government of Guinea holding 15%. NDM has strong local support for project development and will work closely with the Government for the benefit of all stakeholders.

NDM’s principal objective is to develop Guinea’s first scandium, titanium and vanadium mine and processing plant to produce a mixed ilmenite-magnetite concentrate and scandium oxide. NDM plans to sell the mixed Ti-V concentrate to off-takers for the production of vanadium pentoxide and synthetic rutile by using pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes. NDM’s secondary objective is to produce nickel-cobalt Mixed Hydroxide Precipitate (MHP).

NDM plans to list on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2025.

Meet the team

Decades of mining experience in Africa

  • Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director

    Charles is a Geologist and a Mineral Economist with 20 years’ experience of working in the mining sector in Africa. He has extensive experience in exploration, project evaluation and project management and has worked across a range of commodities and deposit types in more than 30 countries.

    Most recently Charles has been consulting to the World Bank’s Energy and Extractives Global Practice on the mining sectors in various countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. Prior to that he served as Vice President for New Business Development for AIM and TSX-V listed Altus Strategies.

    Charles holds a BSc in Geology from the University of Bristol and an MSc in Mineral Economics from the Colorado School of Mines. Charles is a Member (MIMMM) of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments and a Member of the Institute of Directors.

  • Non-executive Director

    Heinz Pley is a globally recognised authority in the mining industry, particularly in Africa. He has 30 years of strategy consulting, investment banking and principal investing experience. He has held leadership roles, directorships and partnerships in mining at global professional services firms McKinsey, Morgan Stanley, Mubadala Development Company, Boston Consulting Group, Oliver Wyman and Hyphen.

    Heinz has very broad functional experience, from market analysis to corporate and commodity strategy development, M&A, ESG, restructuring, operations improvement, capital project optimization, procurement, organisation design and transformation management.

    Heinz has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Stanford University.

  • Non-Executive Director

    Cozmo is a mining executive with over fifteen years’ senior experience with global and mid-cap miners across precious metals and bulk ores, onshore processing & beneficiation, materials handling, and direct shipping.

    Cozmo has significant experience in Africa including Guinea where he led lender engagement for a $750 million project finance package alongside engineering, finance, E&SR and legal packages leading to project completion. Prior to that he served with Newmont Africa as Director of Strategic Planning and with Newmont Corporation as Director of Investor Relations in Denver.

    Cozmo brings significant early-stage experience as a financial & technical contact for investors and government and for fiscal stabilization and permitting. A cross-cultural communicator, he is highly experienced in managing transitions from project phase to commercial operation.

    Cozmo has a finance and engineering background with a BEng (Hons) from the University of Wales, UC Cardiff and an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management. He is a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the Institute of Directors (IOD).

  • Christian is a highly experienced corporate finance executive, currently CEO of Optiva Securities Limited, a leading UK based investment banking company.  He has significant experience in global institutional capital raisings and has worked within investment finance for over 30 years in both London and New York. During this time has been involved in the development of numerous mining companies, taking them from initiation to flotation on established Stock Exchanges.  He has a wealth of experience in working with companies, advising them through the mining life cycle: from project definition to project funding, to construction and commissioning. 

    Since its foundation in 1995, Optiva Securities has been responsible for over US$ 500 million in equity and debt funding for clients.

    Christian is currently a Non-Executive Director of Tirupati Graphite Ltd, a Madagascan based company, mining and processing graphite.