Tiernan Gold Strengthens Management Team, Hires James Connolly as Executive Vice President, Projects
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Tiernan Gold has appointed James Connolly as executive vice president, Projects, effective May 12, 2026.
In this role, Connolly will lead all engineering and feasibility activities and be a cornerstone in advancing permitting activities for the company’s flagship Volcan Gold Project in Chile’s prolific Maricunga Gold Belt. He will also build and lead Tiernan’s internal project development team to ensure disciplined, on-schedule advancement through engineering, environmental impact assessment (EIA), and into future execution phases.
“James is the proven project delivery leader Tiernan needs to execute on the Volcan opportunity and create real shareholder value. With 25 years of hands-on experience advancing complex, multi-billion dollar gold, lithium, and base-metal projects from conceptual studies through feasibility, permitting, and execution, James has delivered exactly the technical and strategic results Volcan requires right now,” said Fausto Di Trapani, president and CEO.
“His track record at Allkem, Vale, and Barrick, including direct experience in the ‘Puna de Atacama’ region of Chile and Argentina, will keep our engineering and EIA on track and on budget, and drive significant value addition through disciplined project execution and de-risking of Volcan,” added Di Trapani.
James Connolly is a chemical engineer with more than 25 years of international experience in mining, metals, and minerals processing across gold, copper, nickel, and lithium. Most recently, he served as chief technical officer and chief project development officer at Allkem Ltd. (prior to its $12 billion merger with Livent Corporation to form Arcadium Lithium), where he was accountable for project development, execution, technical services, exploration, and the successful advancement of multiple $500 million-plus projects.
Previously, he held senior leadership positions including head of Projects and Capital Allocation at Vale Canada, overseeing complex project portfolios and multi-billion-dollar annual capital deployment across North America, South America, and Asia-Pacific, and vice president, Operational and Technical Excellence at Barrick Gold.
Connolly has deep expertise across the full mining project lifecycle — from conceptual and prefeasibility studies to detailed engineering, permitting, construction, and operations. He brings direct project experience in the ‘Puna de Atacama’ region of Chile and Argentina, has built and led large international technical teams, and possesses specialized strengths in minerals processing and hydrometallurgy. These capabilities align directly with Tiernan’s immediate priorities: delivering quality engineering and an EIA on schedule while establishing robust internal execution capacity at Volcan.
Tiernan Gold is focused on the disciplined de-risking of the Volcan Gold Project strategically located in the Atacama Region of Chile, on the Maricunga gold belt, a jurisdiction that has a long-established history of mining with a number of operating mines, new mines under construction and major projects being developed.
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