NioCorp general counsel to retire

John Ashburn, vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Centennial, Colorado-based NioCorp Developments, is retiring on December 2, 2021. The company expects that he will continue to provide consulting services to NioCorp on a part-time basis.

Ashburn joined NioCorp’s senior management team in 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before that, he was vice president, chief legal officer and a member of the board of directors of Simbol, a privately held development stage lithium production company. Prior to that, he was executive vice president and general counsel of Molycorp. Earlier in his career he held senior legal positions with Chevron and Unocal Corporation.

NioCorp is developing a superalloy materials project in southeast Nebraska that will produce niobium, scandium and titanium. It is listed on both Toronto Stock Exchange and the US-based OTCQX exchange.

Executive chair, president and CEO Mark Smith says in a statement: ‘John Ashburn has enjoyed a very illustrious professional career over the past 40 years, and his experience, insights and counsel have been immensely valuable to NioCorp. I am proud to have been able to work with John in a variety of professional capacities and companies over the past several decades.’