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EUROPE

Breathing fire into Adriatic

s the senior executive of two ASX- it’s one that will probably deliver the best Jose [Manuel Dominguez] and his team in
Alisted companies focused on Europe, outcome for both companies,” Cronin told country are running the project.
Paul Cronin is constantly dividing his time Paydirt. “Officially I’m working two roles, but
between Bosnia and Herzegovina, Spain “Adriatic had been looking for a new I’ve kind of been doing that for the last 2.5
and his London base. CEO and MD to lead the company, but it years anyway. I was already heavily very
It is a hectic working lifestyle many became increasingly clear to the board involved in the day-to-day operations at
would immediately object to, but Cronin that I was actually the person they wanted. Adriatic, so nothing has really changed
wouldn’t have it any other way, such is his However, I didn’t want to leave my Black from my perspective. My wife thinks I’ve
passion for Adriatic Metals plc and Black Dragon role because I’ve put a lot of work taken on too much work, but she’s always
Dragon Gold Corp. into that company and there are still things said that.”
While the specifics of Cronin’s job titles I need to do there. Adriatic continues to be the best per-
at both companies were only formalised in “I spoke to the Black Dragon board and a forming IPO from the class of 2018. At
September, he has essentially been work- few of the shareholders and we all agreed the time of print, the company’s stock was
ing two full-time roles for at least the past it was time to shift the day-to-day manage- trading at $1.12/share, just shy of its $1.23/
two years. ment back to Spain. So, I’ve stayed on as share peak in early July.
Cronin, an experienced investment an executive director in a lesser role and Underpinning Adriatic’s success is the
banker and corporate finance executive, Vareš polymetallic project in Bosnia and
is the founding shareholder of Adriatic and Herzegovina. Since the IPO in May last
was integral in the recapitalisation of Black year, the company has defined resources
Dragon. He was previously managing di- for the main Rupice (9.4mt @ 1.8 g/t gold,
rector of Turkish uranium hopeful Anatolia 183 g/t silver, 5.1% zinc and 3.3% lead)
Energy until its merger with Uranium Re- and Veovača deposits.
sources Inc in 2015. A scoping study is due for imminent re-
Since mid-2017 until recently, Cronin lease. Adriatic has also applied for exploi-
served as Black Dragon’s managing direc- tation permits which could be in the com-
tor. While managing the day-to-day opera- pany’s hands as early as next month.
tions of that company, including its transfer “I think the scoping study numbers will
from the TSX to ASX, he helped facilitate show there’s a lot of value growth to oc-
Adriatic’s $10 million IPO and subsequent cur,” Cronin said.
listing before settling into an “actively in- “As well as the scoping study, there’s
volved” non-executive director role. more met [test work] and I think the permit-
However, when inaugural chief execu- ting is another big one as well that will get
tive Geraint Harris departed Adriatic ear- people very comfortable with the project
lier this year, Cronin needed to step up to and where it’s going.”
an executive role. In September, he was Cronin expects the company will kick off
officially confirmed as the company’s new feasibility studies at Vareš during Q2 next
managing director, while scaling back to year and work towards entering the DFS
executive director duties at Black Dragon. phase by late 2020.
“It’s a bit of an unusual set-up, but I think Bosnian legislation requires the com-
paul Cronin

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