THUNDER BAY, Ontario, May 03, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zenyatta Ventures Ltd. (“Zenyatta” or “Company”) (TSXV:ZEN) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Paul Gardner to the team as CEO of the Company’s private and wholly owned subsidiary, ZEN-tech Materials Limited (“ZEN-tech”). Mr. Gardner will be responsible for the market strategy, business and application development, partnerships and sales of Zenyatta’s high purity carbon, graphene and graphene-oxide products. He will also be working with the rest of the Zenyatta team to assemble expert nanomaterial members for ZEN-tech.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Commerce from The School of Business at Queen's University, and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

For the past 15 years Mr. Gardner has been part of leadership teams and advised organizations within the innovation economy to accelerate growth, undergo transformation and better manage their multi-stakeholder environments. This has included CEO of Toon Boon Animation, CFO of Real Ventures, COO of Syntegrity Group, and Corporate Development for Entrust. Paul has also advised organizations across multiple industries including the resource, financial, media and entertainment and technology sectors.

Previously, Paul was a venture capitalist with McLean Watson and worked in operations and business development for Microvitec PLC. He currently sits on the board of the Ottawa Network For Education, Jewish Family Services of Ottawa’s foundation and the Ottawa Jewish Community Foundation’s Investment Committee.

Paul Gardner commented, "I am very pleased to join Zenyatta which has an exciting nanomaterial story. I’ve worked with Keith on prior projects and I am looking forward to using my skill set as a member of a team to advance activities related to graphene applications under ZEN-tech Materials.”

Keith Morrison, Executive Chairman of Zenyatta commented, "We are very pleased to add Paul Gardner as our first hire in ZEN-tech. Paul is an accomplished business leader and he will establish a positive, results oriented culture in ZEN-tech. I look forward to working with Paul and helping to ensure that he has the resources required to be successful in this critical aspect of our business.”

Zenyatta is focused on advancing its 100% owned Albany graphite deposit towards production and will supply consistent, high-quality carbon or graphene to its wholly owned subsidiary ZEN-tech Materials Limited (“ZEN-tech”) in a vertically integrated structure. The formation of ZEN-tech was a strategic move that will provide a downstream vehicle to market, capture value and advance graphene application development separate from the mineral development Company.

The Albany graphite deposit is situated in northeastern Ontario, Canada. The deposit is a large and unique type of igneous-hosted, fluid-derived mineralization containing highly crystalline graphite in two adjacent breccia pipes. Independent labs in Japan, UK, Israel, USA and Canada have demonstrated that Zenyatta’s rare form of graphite easily converts (exfoliates) to graphene using a variety of simple mechanical methods. The deposit is located 30km north of the Trans-Canada Highway, power line and natural gas pipeline near the communities of Constance Lake First Nation and Hearst. A rail line is located 50 km away with an all-weather road approximately 10 km from the deposit.

ZEN-tech is a wholly owned subsidiary of Zenyatta with a registration in England and Wales. ZEN-tech will focus on marketing, development and commercialization activities of graphene applications and the allocation of any associated intellectual property (‘IP’) and worldwide licensing. The subsidiary will operate independently of Zenyatta and will be assembling an expert management team in 2018.

In connection with the appointment of Paul Gardner, he has been granted stock options to purchase up to 200,000 common shares in the capital of the Company. The options are exercisable at a price of $0.56 for a five year period. 

To find out more on Zenyatta Ventures Ltd., please visit website www.zenyatta.ca or contact the Company at [email protected] or Tel. 807-346-1660.

Mr. Keith Morrison, P.Geo., is the “Qualified Person” for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed, prepared and supervised the preparation of the technical information contained in this news release. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward looking information and Zenyatta cautions readers that forward looking information is based on certain assumptions and risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations of Zenyatta included in this news release. This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements”, which often, but not always, can be identified by the use of words such as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan". These statements are based on information currently available to Zenyatta and Zenyatta provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements with respect to Zenyatta’s future plans, objectives or goals, to the effect that Zenyatta or management expects a stated condition or result to occur, including the expected timing for release of sample analyses and a preliminary economic assessment, the expected uses for graphite in the future, and the future uses of the graphite from Zenyatta’s Albany deposit. Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results relating to, among other things, results of exploration, metallurgical processing, project development, reclamation and capital costs of Zenyatta’s mineral properties, and Zenyatta’s financial condition and prospects, could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements for many reasons such as: changes in general economic conditions and conditions in the financial markets; changes in demand and prices for minerals; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; technological and operational difficulties encountered in connection with Zenyatta’s activities; and other matters discussed in this news release and in filings made with securities regulators. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect any of Zenyatta’s forward-looking statements. These and other factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on Zenyatta’s forward-looking statements. Zenyatta does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by Zenyatta or on its behalf, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.