Gough was formerly the vice president for finance at BHP Billiton’s energy coal division in Sydney where he was responsible for the division’s statutory and management accounting, information management and governance of capital investment, risk processes and compliance.

Coalspur president and chief executive officer Gill Winckler said Gough’s appointment completed the building of the company’s executive management team.

“Rob brings to Coalspur a diverse financial acumen across multiple industry segments, including the thermal coal sector, and significant expertise in public company corporate finance as well as corporate development,” he said.

“Rob’s experience will serve us extremely well as we move towards construction on Vista.”

Coalspur announced last week that Vista would miss its previously slated September construction start date but first production remains on schedule for mid-2015.

The company said Vista was one of the largest undeveloped export thermal coal projects in North America with measured and indicated coal resources of more than 1 billion tonnes and marketable reserves of 313 million tonnes.

Vista covers about 10,000 hectares, providing a large-scale surface mineable thermal coal project containing a strike length of more than 20km of continuous gently dipping coal seams.