He will also lead exploration of other assets, including the newly granted licence covering the historic Salafossa zinc project.
Garnitzio has almost two decades' of exploration and mine geology experience across Europe, South America, Africa, the Middle East and Australia.
He previously worked as group exploration manager at KEFI Minerals (LN:KEFI) for six years and was most recently CEO of the Gold and Minerals LLC joint venture in Saudi Arabia.
Before this he worked at Gruppo Minerali Maffei generating new opportunities across the world and managing exploration projects.