"Tony has managed some of the industry's largest and most profitable mines and has an established reputation for delivering large-scale mine builds and capital projects on time and on budget," Discovery's president and CEO Taj Singh said. 

Esplin has more than 30 years of experience in the mining industry, which includes more than two decades of executive and senior management roles with Newmont and Barrick, Discovery noted. 

Most recently, he was executive managing director of the Barrick and Zijin Mining joint venture, Barrick Niugini's operation in Papua New Guinea, Discovery noted. 

Prior to that, he was general manager of Newmont's Merian mine in Suriname from 2016-2017. At Merian, he managed the ramp up to commercial production. He also worked as general manager at Newmont's Australian Boddington gold mine from 2011-2013, and the Jundee gold mine in Western Australia from 2013-2014. 

Esplin, an Australian fluent in Spanish, has been granted 1 million incentive stock options in Discovery at an exercise price of C$1.93/share (US$1.50/share). The option has a five-year expiry. 

Discovery also granted Esplin 250,000 restricted share units, each redeemable for one Discovery common share, or a cash payment in lieu thereof, or a combination of cash and shares. 

Discovery's share price was quoted as C$1.77 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on March 15, having dropped 8% day-on-day. The company had a market capitalisation of C$589.03 million.