MINING PEOPLE IN THE NEWS: High River Gold, KGHM International and Shore Gold

High River Gold of Toronto has named Yury Lopukhin its new CEO and Greorgy Smirnov its CFO. Lopukhin is also the senior financial manager at Severstal Gold, a subsidiary of Nord Gold, High River's controlling shareholder.

Effective June 1, 2012, Derek White, currently the executive VP corporate development, will become president of KGHM International. Paul Blythe, the current president and CEO, will remain CEO until Sept. 6, at which time White will assume that role as well.

Resources Appalaches of Rimouski, QC, has hired Douglas Keating as manager for its Dufferin gold project in Nova Scotia. Production is to resume in 2013.

Brian Menell is the new chairman of Shore Gold, headquartered in Saskatoon. He is a principal and the CEO of the Kemet Group. Kemet is a group of private companies which invest in and manage mining and other natural resource projects across sub-Saharan Africa. Menell, a former executive of the De Beers Group, has over 25 years of senior level management experience in the diamond exploration, mining and marketing industries.