Gold producer Black Cat Syndicate on Monday announced a planned leadership transition, with founding MD Gareth Solly set to step down from the role in April after eight years at the helm.

He will be succeeded by mining executive James Bruce, who joins the company to drive its next stage of expansion.

Solly, who led Black Cat through its 2018 initial public offering and the transformation from early-stage explorer to a 100 000 oz/y multi-site gold producer, will remain with the company as a nonexecutive director following a handover period.

Under Solly’s leadership, Black Cat progressed two projects into production on time and on budget and advanced two additional assets toward development, while maintaining what the company described as a strong balance sheet. Since listing, the company’s resource base has grown from zero to about 2.5-million ounces of gold, with ore reserves now estimated at 330 000 oz.

The board said the incoming MD was well suited to accelerate the company’s growth ambitions.

Bruce is a mining engineer and WASM graduate whose career includes operational experience in underground gold mining near Kalgoorlie, followed by nearly two decades as a portfolio manager and resources analyst in Sydney and San Francisco. More recently, he served as COO at Mineral Resources and then Core Lithium.

His employment package includes performance incentives linked to substantial market capitalisation growth, the company noted.

Solly said it was the right moment for a leadership transition, with Black Cat now positioned to scale from a junior to a midtier producer.

“This company is one of the best startup mining stories on the ASX with a very bright future ahead of it,” he said.

“Now that the business is sufficiently set up with a solid strategy to grow into a midtier producer, it is an opportune time to transition other talented people into the company.”

He added that he was looking forward to continuing to support Black Cat as a nonexecutive director as the company targeted growth toward 200 000 oz/y and beyond.

Bruce said he was “tremendously excited” to lead Black Cat into its next phase.