Finders Resources has appointed Grant Harding as operations manager, with initial responsibility for project management and completion of the feasibility study and development of the Wetar copper project.

Grant Harding, 46, who speaks fluent Bahasa Indonesia, is a qualified extractive metallurgist and has more than 25 years of extensive industry experience in a range of roles incorporating copper and gold heap leach operations, commissioning and project development.

He is resident in Indonesia and his Indonesian experience includes key development roles in a range of projects including Avocet Mining's Bakan Gold Project in Sulawesi, the Mt Muro gold project in Kalimantan and the Gosowong gold project in Halmahera.

The appointment follows a decision to accelerate development of a trial heap leach and pilot plant program at its Wetar Copper Project in Indonesia which will be of sufficient scale to replicate the full-scale operations planned for the Kali Kuning deposit.