Pangolin Diamonds Corp. has announced the election of Gareth Penny, former De Beers CEO to the board of directors of the Company where he will hold the position of non-executive Chairman of the Board.

A veteran with over three decades in the mining industry, Penny was with De Beers and Anglo American for 22 years, the last five as Group CEO of De Beers. He is currently non-Executive Chairman of MMC Norilsk Nickel, a world leader in nickel and palladium production and a leading producer of platinum and copper, as well as non-Executive Director and RemCo Chairman of Julius Bär Holding Limited, a listed Swiss bank focused on wealth management.

As one of the prime architects of the demand driven business model that De Beers implemented from early in this millennium, Penny was instrumental in reshaping both the mining giant and the diamond industry.   

Dr. Leon Daniels, President and CEO of Pangolin said, “We are very pleased to have Mr. Penny join the Board of Pangolin.  His lifetime industry experience and proven leadership and operational skills, coupled with his extensive international business management expertise, will be invaluable additions to our Board.”

The appointment is subject to the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Penny has also been granted options to purchase up to 2,000,000 common shares pursuant to the Company’s stock option plan (the “Plan”).  The Options are subject to vesting provisions in accordance with the Plan and are exercisable at a price of $0.15 per share for a period of five years.

Pangolin also announced that it has closed a non-brokered private placement financing of 5,607,944 units of the Company (one common share and one purchase warrant) at a price of $0.10 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $560,794. The financing was facilitated by Aberdeen Gould Capital Markets Ltd. of Canada. The funds will be used to continue the exploration program, inclusive of drilling, at the Company’s priority Malatswae project during 2016 and to provide working capital to further exploration at its other 100% owned diamond projects in Botswana.