ASX- and Aim-listed Aura Energy has announced the appointment of Mohamed El Moctar Mohamed El Hacene to the newly established role of country manager Mauritania.

Hacene is a qualified Mauritanian national with experience in mining and international affairs. He previously served as Mauritania's Petroleum and Mines Minister from 2007 to 2008, during which time Aura first discovered uranium at its Tiris project.

In addition to his role as country manager Mauritania, Hacene has also been appointed as Tiris Resources director-general. The company is Aura’s 85%-owned Mauritanian subsidiary and holder of the Tiris uranium project.

Hacene’s tenure at Aura began on November 1 after ten years serving as the UN economic development and integration division’s economic and social commission for Western Asia director in Lebanon.

From 2011 to 2014, he served as GM of external relations for Rio Tinto's Simandou iron-ore project in Guinea. He has also provided consultancy to various mining companies in Mauritania, including Woodside, Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière, Paladin Energy and General Gold, as well as to the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

Hacene holds a Bachelor of Arts from the École Normale Supérieure in Mauritania, a Master of Science in Mineral Economics from the WA School of Mines at Curtin University in Australia, and he began a PhD in Political Science at Université de Grenoble in France.

“We are very pleased to welcome [Hacene] to the Aura Energy team . . . Both Aura and Mauritania will benefit significantly from his return to Mauritania after [an] international career. [He] is a key appointment in driving the development of the Tiris uranium project into Mauritania’s first uranium mine,” Aura Energy MD and CEO Andrew Grove said on November 4.

He added that Hacene’s appointment was an important milestone as Aura continued to progress the Tiris development.

The latest production target update study, published in September, showed a $499-million net present value, with a payback period of two years and three months and a 39% internal rate of return.

The upside and exploration potential of the area is partly demonstrated by a recent 55% increase in mineral resources to 91.3-million pounds of triuranium octoxide.