Vital Metals said on Sunday it had replaced its managing director, terminating the contract of Geordie Mark and appointing Lisa Riley.
The announcement marked the end of a brief nine-month period of managerial stability that had been accompanied by high-profile dealings involving Chinese firm Shenghe Resources.
Vital, the Australian owner of the NWT’s Nechalacho rare earths mine, sold a percentage stake to Shenghe last fall and promised it all of the material mined at Nechalacho to date, before reneging on that deal and instead agreeing to sell it to a Saskatchewan-based Crown corporation.
Mark was the face of the company throughout that period, which saw northerners and MPs raise concerns over national security.
China is a dominant player in the mining of rare earths, which are used in various green technologies and are considered critical minerals. Selling the output of an NWT mine to a Chinese firm was seen as antithetical to Vital’s stated aim of creating a North American supply chain, though Vital defended the deal as a necessity to secure enough money to keep investing in a grander, long-term vision of Nechalacho as a major mine.
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For now, Nechalacho remains mothballed and out of active production. It had been a small-scale “demonstration mine” under an earlier iteration of Vital’s management.
In a Sunday evening announcement timed to coincide with the opening of Australian trading for the week, Vital said new boss Riley had been a board member since 2022 and brings 30 years’ experience in markets, finance, mining and government relations.
Richard Crookes, Vital’s chairman, said in a statement that he “expected a smooth transition.”
“We look forward to a reinvigoration of our market-facing activities as we continue to complete scoping study work on our Nechalacho rare earths project,” he said.
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Riley said in a statement she would “bring new energy and knowledge to lead the management team and execute our corporate strategy.”
In an interview with Cabin Radio in June, Mark – who had just visited Nechalacho – gave no indication that his position was in doubt.
“There’s a lot of new people on board over the last year or so, so it was great to be able to get people together, be able to really understand where Nechalacho is and what it potentially could be,” he said, days after announcing the sale of ore from Nechalacho to the Saskatchewan Research Council rather than Shenghe.
“The great work that’s already been done just shows the true potential. I think it shows that Nechalacho could potentially provide a good shot in the arm for future production in the Northwest Territories,” he said.
Whether Vital keeps Mark’s strategy of taking more time to design and develop a larger mine, rather than return to operation in the short term, remains to be seen.
Prior to Mark’s appointment last fall, Vital had been through a series of senior management and board-level changes.
The terms of Riley’s contract, a summary of which was made public by Vital on Sunday, suggest she can be terminated without notice in her first six months. However, after that, Vital must give her six months’ notice of any such decision.
