January 16, 2024
Rupert Resources Ltd (“Rupert” or the “Company”) announces that it has appointed Riikka Aaltonen to its Board as an Independent Non-Executive Director, effective immediately. In her role, Ms Aaltonen will sit on the Board’s Technical Committee. Susan Milton has concurrently retired from the Board.
Gunnar Nilsson, Chairman of Rupert Resources Ltd said “The Board would like to take this opportunity to thank Susan Milton for her contribution since she was appointed in June 2016. Over Susan’s tenure, Rupert completed the acquisition of its core land package in the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt of Northern Finland and commenced the systematic exploration campaign leading to the discovery of the world-class 4Moz Ikkari gold deposit. We are pleased to welcome Riikka Aaltonen as an Independent Director to the Board of Rupert Resources. Riikka will add considerable experience on Finnish legislature, policy and governance as we progress Ikkari through permitting towards production over the next few years.”
Concurrent to her appointment, the Company furthermore announces that pursuant to the Company’s Amended and Restated Equity Incentive Plan dated November 9, 2022 (the “Plan”), a total of 200,000 options were awarded to Ms. Aaltonen (the “Options”). The Options were granted with an effective date of January 15, 2024 with an exercise price of $3.53 per share, being the closing price of the Company’s shares on the TSX on January 12, 2024. The Options are exercisable for a five-year period from the date of grant, with 1/3rd of the Options vesting on each calendar anniversary.
Following the award of the Options, there are 5,293,481 options outstanding under the Plan, representing 2.5% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company.
Biography of Riikka Aaltonen
Riikka Aaltonen was a Senior Adviser working with permitting and mineral policy from 2008 to 2023 in various departments of the Finnish Government at national level in Helsinki and latterly for the Regional Council of Lapland in Rovaniemi. Prior to this, Riikka worked in exploration and mining in both Finland and Sweden with roles for Boliden and LKAB. Riikka holds an MSc in Geology and Mineralogy from the University of Turku, Finland.
