Ascendant Resources Inc. announced that it has strengthened its technical team with the addition of Mr. Val Coetzee who has been appointed as Director, Process Engineering. Mr. Coetzee will work with the rest of the technical team to enhance the delivery of the Lagoa Salgada project to optimize the process flow sheet and design as the company moves towards project development. Mr. Coetzee is a senior process engineering professional with over 25 years of experience in process engineering design, operational management, metallurgical analysis, risk analysis, economic valuation and executive leadership within the global mining industry.

For the past decade, Mr. Coetzee has been at DRA Global rising to the role of Senior Vice President for Process Engineering. Mr. Coetzee played a vital role in the success of various projects and studies across a broad range of commodities and locations globally. Prior to this Mr. Coetzee worked at Impala Platinum and De Beers Consolidated as a metallurgist and technical manager tasked with overseeing new greenfield projects.

Mr. Coetzee holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa and a Master of Engineering: Mining (Mineral Economics) form the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and has experience in a diverse range of commodities, including PGMs, Gold, Uranium, Copper, Cobalt, Zinc, Lead, Lithium, Manganese, Chrome, Nickel, Magnesium, Iron Ore and Diamonds, with expertise in mineral processing, hydrometallurgy, and pyrometallurgy.