Debelle joins Fortescue exits

Guy Debelle has become the third person to resign from a senior role at Fortescue Metals Group in the space of a week, after CEO Fiona Hick and CFO Christine Morris.

Dr Debelle has stepped down as a non-executive director of FMG’s green energy arm Fortescue Future Industries after taking a similar role at small-cap critical minerals company Tivan.

The former Reserve Bank deputy governor originally joined FFI as chief financial officer in July last year, in what was seen as a major coup for the group, but stepped down from that role after five months, citing the effects of a serious bicycle accident.

The news of his exit comes just hours after FMG announced the shock departure of Christine Morris, just two months after she commenced as chief financial officer of its mining arm, Fortescue Metals.

In a two-sentence statement on Thursday evening, FMG simply advised of Ms Morris's departure and said Group Manager Finance and Tax, Apple Paget, has been appointed Fortescue Metals Acting CFO.

That followed Monday’s resignation of Fiona Hick, just six months after she left Woodside Energy to become Fortescue Metals CEO.

The miner’s chief operating officer Dino Otranto was promoted to take her place.

This latest wave of resignations brings to 11 the number of senior executives to have left FMG in the past three years.

FMG’s share price dipped 4.4 per cent this morning to $20.48.

Adding to the tumult at Fortescue, there was a senior exit this week from the private business empire of executive chairman Andrew Forrest.

Paul Slaughter resigned as chief executive of Harvest Road Group, the agribusiness arm of Mr Forrest’s private company Tattarang.

Dr Debelle’s move to Tivan (formerly TNG) is a fillip for the ASX junior, which has ambitious plans to develop vanadium battery projects in northern Australia.

Its shares jumped 15.8 per cent this morning to 6.6 cents.

Led by former hedge fund manager Grant Wilson, the company is seeking to commercialise TIVAN+, a minerals processing technology designed to extract vanadium from hard rock ore bodies with reduced environmental impacts.

Developed in collaboration with CSIRO, the TIVAN+ process yields three commodities – vanadium, titanium and iron.

The company is also aiming to create an industrialisation pathway for Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries for grid-scale storage.

Its core mineral deposit is at Mt Peake and it is working to build a pilot plant at Darwin.

Dr Debelle said the move to Tivan would allow him to focus on the green energy transition.

“I am excited to join Tivan who are focused on realising the great opportunity Australia has in the green transition, particularly in the critical minerals space,” he said.