Aug 1 (Reuters) - Australian gold producer Perseus

Mining's ( PMNXF ) long-standing chief executive officer and

managing director, Jeff Quartermaine, would retire at the end of

September after 12 years at the helm, it said on Friday.

Quartermaine will hand over the reins to Craig Jones, who is

set to join Perseus Mining ( PMNXF ) later this month and assume the roles

in October, the company said.

Jones, who has worked across Australia, Papua New Guinea

(PNG), Indonesia and Canada, previously served as global chief

operating officer at Newcrest Mining, now a unit of Newmont Corp ( NEM )

.

Under Quartermaine's leadership, the Africa-focused gold

producer was recently added to the ASX100 index and boasts a

market capitalisation of A$4.43 billion ($2.85 billion),

according to LSEG data.

Perseus, which debuted on the Australian bourse in 2004,

currently operates three gold mines across Africa and ranks

among the continent's leading gold producers.

Shares of the firm lost as much as 2.1% but pared some of

its losses to trade 0.2% lower to A$3.265 as of 0550 GMT.

($1 = 1.5542 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru)