Prior to his time at Gloucester, Crossley was a senior executive with Hancock Prospecting and was president and chief operating officer with BHP Billiton’s Western Australian iron ore business, which shipped 123 million tonnes of high grade ore in the 2008 financial year.

Before working in the iron ore business, Crossley held senior positions in BHP Billiton’s manganese and metallurgical coal divisions.

TTR executive chairman Bill Bisset said he was delighted with the depth and breadth of experience Crossley brought with him, particularly in the carbon steel raw materials sectors.

“Tim Crossley is a very experienced senior mining executive with an outstanding mining sector track record that will bring demonstrated skills in managing large complex operations with sensitive environmental requirements,” he said.

“He understands the supply chain and is familiar with broad commercial issues which will be crucial for TTR’s future development.”

The appointment marked a convergence of work streams and activities for TTR which was moving the company closer to achieving its objective of extracting iron ore from the iron sands off the coast of the North Island of New Zealand’s west coast, Bisset said.

“It is timely to appoint a chief executive to manage this step change in an organisation which has, until recently, operated with small diversified offices with a strong scientific focus,” he said.

“The evolution from a conceptual to an operational project is a very significant leap and we look forward to Tim’s leadership in leading the company through this important stage in its development.”