Black Rock Mining Limited announced it has formally appointed Mr. John de Vries as its full-time Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Mr. de Vries, was appointed Black Rock's current Chief Operating Officer, 13 March 2017, and interim CEO on 24 April 2017. Since joining Black Rock, Mr. de Vries successfully finalised the PFS for Mahenge Graphite Mine released in April 2017, followed by the Optimised PFS released in August 2017. Mr. de Vries had over 30 years' experience in the mining industry, started his career in 1984 working for WMC Resources and held roles including Manager Mining, Underground Manager and Senior Financial Analyst. In 1998, he moved to AMC Consultants as Principal Mining Engineer responsible for the mine optimisation business. In 2003, he joined Orica Mining Services as Global Business Manager, Advanced Mining Solutions, before moving to BHP Billiton NiWest in 2007 as the Manager Strategic Mine Planning. Most recently from 2011 to 2015 he acted as General Manager Technical Services for St Barbara and was integral in turning the gold operations of St. Barbara around. After his success with St Barbara, Mr. de Vries took an 18-month sabbatical before agreeing to join Black Rock.