Flanagan, who also has experience operating in Africa during his time at graphite hopeful Battery Minerals, built five smaller iron ore mines in five years in Western Australia’s Pilbara, and is now taking on the challenge of pushing Arrow’s early-stage Simandou North project in Guinea towards development.
Coming along with Flanagan is another Atlas alumni, Jeff Dowling, as Arrow’s new non-executive chair.
The appointments and a A$4 million recapitalisation plan need to be approved by shareholders next month.
Flanagan, who was recently ousted as executive chair at Delta Lithium, will sign on as a consultant until the meeting.
He will be granted 865 million zero strike price options as part of his compensation, with vesting hurdles including a minimum 50Mt at 60% resource, Arrow increasing its interest to 60.5%, and completion of a prefeasibility study.
A salary of $350,000 per annum has also been agreed.
Arrow is clearly feeling refreshed, with $3.5 million placement and a share purchase plan seeking $500,000, both priced at 0.1c.
Flanagan and existing directors Alwyn Vorster, Frazer Tabeart and Tommy McKeith will subscribe for a combined $445,000, while 4.8% shareholder Bernadine Holdings will subscribe for $435,000.
A further $1 million in notes will be converted into $500,000 of new shares at a 25% premium to the equity raising price.
Arrow, which had around $250,000 cash at the start of the quarter, has been gradually liquidating its Australian lithium assets to fund its stake in Simandou North, where it has 33% and is looking to move to 100%.
Simandou North is at the northern end of the Simandou Range, host to some of the largest undeveloped high-grade iron deposits in the world including Rio Tinto’s 2.8 billion tonnes at 65.8% Simfer JV and the Winning Consortium’s 1.8Bt at 65% Simandou project.
While past work at Simandou North has been limited, Arrow has defined four targets with a collective 10km of strike- Dalabatini, Diassa, Kowouleni and Kalako.
Before the wet season a modest 825m of scout drilling returned 12m at 60.1% from 2m and 4m at 58.75% from 10m, helping confirm the area’s prospectivity.
On-ground exploration will begin in the dry season.
Arrow has rights to move to 90% by spending some $37.5 million and delivering a feasibility study, and can move to 100% by deciding to mine in exchange for a US$1/tonne royalty.
The aim is to develop resources and use high-capacity multi-user rail and port infrastructure being developed by a consortium, including the government, the Simfer JV and Winning, to allow ore to be shipped to global markets.
Rio expects to initially spend US$6.2 billion for its 53% share of Simandou, and is targeting first production in 2025, ramping up over 30 months to 60Mtpa.
Arrow shares were up 50% earlier today off significantly higher volumes, reaching 0.3c, but the stock was back at 0.2c this afternoon, capitalising the junior at $6 million.
The explorer’s shares have traded between 0.1-0.9c over the past year.
