Executive Director
Brendan Borg is a geologist with 20 years’ experience gained working in management, operational and project development roles in the Exploration and Mining industries, with companies including Rio Tinto Iron Ore, Magnis Resources Limited, IronClad Mining Limited, Lithex Resources Limited, Sibelco Australia Limited, and most recently Borg Geoscience Pty Ltd. He specialises in the “battery materials” sector, and has participated in numerous successful projects, in an investment and/or operational capacity. Brendan is a currently a director of Celsius Resources Ltd (ASX: CLA), Birimian Ltd (ASX: BGS) and geological consultancy Borg Geoscience Pty Ltd.
Integrated Operations Specialist
Stef is an operations strategist with over 20 years’ experience developing and implementing operating models for companies across industry verticals in Africa, Australia, and Latin America.
His work at Global io centres on helping resource company leaders transcend the constraints of their supply chains through the application of integrated operations.
He holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Western Australia and is well versed in scaling small to mid-cap resource companies
Brazilian Ambassador to Australia
Ambassador Sérgio Eduardo Moreira Lima, a career diplomat, graduated from the Rio Branco Institute, where he took the Diplomat Refresher (CAD) and High Studies (CAE) courses. He has a degree in Law from the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) and is a licensed member of the Order of Attorneys of Brazil. Ambassador Lima has a Master’s degree in Public International Law from the University of Oslo. He served at the Brazilian Mission to the United Nations and at the Embassies in Washington, Lisbon and London.
He was Ambassador in Tel Aviv (cumulative with Ramallah), Oslo and Budapest. He was elected Vice President and President of the Governing Council of the United Nations Common Fund for Commodities. The positions he held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Brasilia, include Secretary for Internal Control, and Director of the Institute of Research on International Relations (IPRI) of the Alexandre de Gusmão Foundation (FUNAG), which he presided until being designated Ambassador to Australia. His publications include “A Time for Change” (2006), “Imunidade Diplomática – Instrumento de Política Externa” (2004), (Diplomatic Immunity – an Instrument of Foreign Affairs), “The Expanding Powers of the UN – Security Council and the Rule of Law in International Relations” (2009), “A Reflection on the Universality of Human Rights
– Democracy and the Rule of Law in International Relations” (2009) and “Diplomatic Academia: o IPRI como instrumento de política externa” (2014) (Diplomacy and Academia: IPRI as an instrument of External Relations).
Among the many awards he has received are the Grand Cross of the Order of Rio Branco, the Hungarian, Norwegian and French Orders of Merit, the Portuguese Order of Christ, the British Royal Victorian Order and the Austrian Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver. He is married to Ana Maria Moreira Lima, and they have three adult children. Besides Portuguese, Spanish and English, he speaks some French and German.
Ambassador Sérgio Eduardo Moreira Lima presented his credentials in Australia on 29
November 2018. He is Ambassador-designate to Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Nauru and Vanuatu.
Chief Operating Officer
Christian Price is a qualified Mining Engineer graduating from the WA School of Mines in Kalgoorlie and holds a master’s degree in Mineral and Energy Economics. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Resources and Energy Group Limited (ASX:REZ), an emergent gold company exploring and developing projects in Western Australia and Queensland. Over 18 years, Christian has held various operational, technical, consulting and management roles in underground hard rock mines.
Christian is the Vice-President of the WA School of Mines Alumni, a group that represents over 8,000 mining and resource sector professionals worldwide. In addition, he is the Steering Committee Chair for the CoRE Learning Foundation, a group committed to bridging the gap between industry, education and government through the national expansion of the CoRE Learning Model. The model facilitates real-world learning in secondary school classrooms connecting students with industry.
Christian has a passion for attracting, inspiring and developing the pipeline of talent for the resources sector. In addition, ensuring that current industry professionals are developed and retained in sector throughout their careers.
Director
Gavin Rutherford is a non-executive Director of EMU NL. He has served shareholders in this position for over 6 years. He has spent over 20 years in the Mining Services / Fabrication / Contracting sector and is well experienced working with junior and midsize explorers as they convert to operations. This included Managing Directorship and part ownership of a large contracting and construction company operating predominantly in the resources sector. This followed a successful career in agribusiness on both domestic and international stages. Other current activities include project development in the renewable energy space, business development in the indigenous mining segment, aviation related interests, and development of a new medical cannabis business.
Country Manager - Ecuador
Jason is an exploration geologist with 20 years’ experience in a wide variety of commodities and deposit types with a specialization in gold and copper. He has an extensive track record of successfully managing exploration teams working with a wide variety of cultures in challenging terrains and remote locations around the globe including the South Pacific Rim, the Middle East, South and Central America, SE Asia and the Arctic. Jason is Exploration Manager for the Cascabel Project as well as SolGold’s Ecuadorean Country Manager and President of the Cascabel Project holding company, Exploraciones Novomining S.A. (ENSA), which is 85% owned by SolGold. Jason has worked for SolGold since its inception, playing a leading role in the exploration of the Company’s founding projects in the Solomon Islands. He has developed, over the last 20 years, outstanding skills in landholder relations, local labour force development and project and exploration management and is applying these skills at Cascabel to the great benefit of SolGold.
Managing Director
JP Varges de la Vega is a Chilean/Australian mineral industry professional with 15 years’ broad experience in ASX mining companies, stockbroking and private equity firms. JP has been a specialist lithium analyst in Australia and has also operated a private copper business as in Chile. He previously worked for BHP, Rio Tinto and Codelco.
Secretary of Geology and Mineral Transformation
Alexandre Vidigal de Oliveira has served as federal judge in several Brazilian capitals since 1991. Among many other subjects, his activities in the Judiciary were dedicated to the analysis and decision of high complexity issues in the public sector – including in the energy, oil and mining sector –, solving crises of the public-private relationship, predominantly in conflicts related to Constitutional law, administrative law, taxes and criminal law. He is specialized in compliance cases, ministering courses on this area for the public control representatives. He has extensive experience in public management, biddings, contracts, regulation, supervision, control and public policy. He holds a doctorate in law from Universidad Carlos III in Spain.
Named Secretary of Geology, Mining and Mineral Transformation earlier this year, he is responsible for the public management of the Geology and Mining sector, with activities in the fields of research, exploration, technology, control and natural resource sustainability; aside from the implementation of public policies and articulation with other production fields and federated entities for the development of the mineral sector. Currently, he has played an important role of integration between the activities of the Secretariat of Geology, Mining and Mineral Transformation, the National Mining Agency and the Geological Survey of Brazil. He is preparing a new restructuring of the Secretariat, in order primarily to meet the aspirations of society, so that he can better perform all functions within the highest standards of technological innovation, as well as integration with other government agencies, academia and companies.
He has been keeping in touch, and promoting meetings with foreign embassies in Brazil, in order to strengthen the links of friendship and to tone up the exchange of bilateral technical cooperation towards the mineral sector.
Senior Consultant
Tony Wiggins is a senior consultant working with EMU NL, engaged in business development and precious metal exploration activities in the high Andes of Chile. He enjoys field studies and developing resources-related investment decision-making frameworks.
A qualified geologist and Goldfields graduate trainee, he has worked in large scale mining operations in Australia and Western Australia, before moving to a business analysis and valuation role with North Limited.
Pursing interests in institutional asset management, Tony has held resources sector and portfolio construction responsibilities with leading financial institutions including JB Were Asset Management, Aviva Investors and EIM Capital Managers. More recently, with Portfoliodirect, he developed analytical research frameworks to guide institutional risk assessments of early-stage exploration and development companies.
Tony holds an honours degree in geology, a Masters of Minerals and Energy Economics from Macquarie University and a Masters of Applied Finance and Investment. He is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining (AusIMM) and a Member of the institute’s Geoscience Society. He is a Fellow of the Finsia, The Financial Services Institute of Australasia.
Australian Ambassador to Argentina
Brett is a senior career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), who has been Australia’s Ambassador to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay since December 2018. His most recent assignment in Canberra was as Acting First Assistant Secretary, Americas Division, DFAT. He has previously served overseas as Ambassador to Brazil, Ambassador to Afghanistan, Deputy Head of Mission in Pakistan and First Secretary in Canada. In Canberra he has served in DFAT as Assistant Secretary, Canada and Latin America Branch; Assistant Secretary, Services and Intellectual Property Branch; and Director, Philippines and East Timor Section.
Vice Minister for Mines
HE Pablo Terrazas is a Lawyer and has a MA in Environmental Law. During his career, Mr Terrazas has been Chief of Staff for the Ministry of the Secretary General of Government and the Regional Development Vice Minister, as well as Chief Advisor for the Ministry of Interior and Public Safety. He was also advisor to the Senate’s Committees on Environment, National Assets and the Economy.
Chief Geo-scientist and Chief Technologist
Dave Lawie has held global positions in Exploration Geochemistry and R&D with both Pasminco and Anglo American before joining ioGlobal as Managing Director in 2004. ioGlobal provided geochemistry and geometallurgical consulting services, cloud based data management and the ioGAS desktop analytics. In late 2012 ioGlobal was sold to IMDEX. Now as Chief Geoscientist for IMDEX and Chief Technologist for IMDEX Mining Solutions, Dave’s role involves moving IMDEX into real-time, at rig sensing technology, from exploration through to production.
Executive Director
Mr Nilsson joined Troy in 1997 and is currently an Executive Director. Mr Nilsson is a mining engineer with over 35 year international mine construction and production experience covering gold, base metals and coal. He has been responsible for the development of Troy’s Western Australia operations at Sandstone and the construction of the Sertao plant and development of the Andorinhas Mine in Para state, Brazil. He managed the development and construction of Troy’s Casposo operation in Argentina and most recently has been responsible for development of the Karouni gold project in Guyana.
Minister of Natural Resources
Minister Raphael Trotman spent much of his youthful years pursuing studies in Law, International Relations, Security, and Development Economics and has dedicated much of his adult life to serving his country.
His academic achievements include a Bachelor’s degree in Law (LLB); Legal Education Certificate (LEC); a Master of Arts Degree in International Relations (Security & Development Economics); Post Graduate Certificate in Mediation and a Post Graduate Certificate in Defence Planning & Resource Management.
Minister Trotman began his professional life as an Attorney–at–law and member of the Guyana Bar Association. His love for service and desire to make a difference led to his active participation in Politics. Minister Trotman served with the Georgetown Mayor and City Council from 1994-1998; as a Member of Parliament from 1998 to present day and during that period as Speaker of the National Assembly from 2012-2015. Minister Trotman has had a prolific political career with continued demonstration of commitment to the service of his country. In May 2015 he became Minister of Governance, a position he held briefly before being reassigned as Minister of Natural Resources.
Managing Director
Mr Johnson holds a Masters’ degree in Engineering Science from Oxford University, England and a Masters’ Degree in Business Administration from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. He began his career in resource exploration, is a founding director of Strike Resources and has previously been a director of a number of ASX listed resource exploration and development companies.
Partner-in-charge
Mr. Ignacio Celorrio is an Executive Committee Member of CAEM (Cámara Argentina de Empresarios Mineros –Argentine Chamber of Mining Entrepreneurs) and Vice-president of the Australian-Argentine Industry and Commercial Chamber. He is the Partner-in-Charge of the Mining Department at Alfaro Abogados; EVP Corporate Development, LATAM Operation for Lithium Americas Corp and board member of several natural resources Argentinean subsidiaries of TSX-V and ASX listed companies (i.e, Golden Arrow Resources Corp., Galaxy Resources Inc., among others). He is also Chair in Administrative Law at the Universidad del Museo Social Argentino and has extensive academic practice in Mining and Administrative Law.
Ambassador of Chile
H.E. Patricio Powell is a career diplomat and journalist. Graduated from the Fellows in Foreign Service Program School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington DC, the Catholic University of Chile and the Diplomatic Academy of Chile, he has extensive international experience in a variety of roles as a Foreign Service Officer.
He was the Director of Informatics and Communications of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile; Head of the Department of Hemispheric Affairs of the Multilateral Directorate; Deputy Director of the Diplomatic Academy and Director of Cultural Affairs.
His Excellency has held positions at the Embassies of Chile in the USA; in Singapore and as representative to APEC‘s Budget and Administrator Committe; Deputy Head of Mission in Austria and the UN; Deputy Head of Mission to the Organisation of American States in Washington DC; Consul General in Toronto, Canada and Ambassador of Chile in Australia since February 2018.
Director of Projects
Zenon Wozniak, is a qualified engineer with 35 years of varied and challenging experience in multiple countries. Initially involved in the Oil and Gas sector, both onshore and offshore and including engineering, design, construction and field work. Subsequently moved into the Mining sector including detailed design and commissioning, Project Engineering and Project Management. Has worked on numerous lump sum ‘hard money’ contracts, and mining projects for various commodities including copper, nickel, gold, diamonds. Relocated to Chile in 1994 to 1998 to undertake a number of mining projects, and has direct project execution experience in Latin America, Africa, Australasia and Europe. Joined First Quantum Minerals in 2003 to manage FQM’s projects, commencing with the original Kansanshi development onwards. Implemented continual improvement of FQM’s project execution strategy, and is currently Director Projects, overseeing the FQM project development portfolio which at times exceeded US$10B in value, with multiple large scale international projects implemented concurrently. Most recently has been very involved in the successful development of the US$6.3B Cobre Panama Project.
Managing Director
Todd is a geologist and holds a Bachelor of Science from Adelaide University. He was appointed as Managing Director of E2 Metals in December 2018 following the acquisition of the Company’s flagship Santa Cruz gold projects located in Argentina. Prior to that Todd was the founder and principal of Circum Pacific a private Australian exploration company focused on developing greenfields gold and base metal projects in South America.
Director
Steve has been closely involved with ALABC activities since 1990, and has served on the Board of Directors since 2011. A qualified mining engineer, he also holds an MBA from Monash University.
Having worked in Chile from 1990-2002, Mr Hall speaks fluent Spanish and he has travelled extensively throughout the Americas developing successful business in Chile, Perú, Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Uruguay, Suriname, Guyana, Panama, and Mexico for several Australian-owned companies in the mining equipment, technology & services (METS) sector.
Currently Mr Hall works for the Chile-Australian company Duratray International which is a Melbourne-based company which was the pioneer of LatAm investment into Australia in 2001.
Sustainable Minerals Institute
For the first 20 years of his career David worked as a criminal justice researcher in the government and university sectors in Australia. In 2001 he shifted focus and joined the University of Queensland as Director of the newly established Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM), one of the six research centers comprising the Sustainable Minerals Institute. Under David’s leadership, CSRM became established as a world leading center of research expertise and professional education on the social challenges facing the mining and minerals sector. He held the position of Director until 2012, when he moved into a senior management role in the Institute, as Deputy Director, Research Integration. David formally retired from the University in July 2016, but remains active as a researcher and consultant. For the first half of 2017 he was based in Lima, Peru, where he worked with the Universidad del Pacifico to build a research capability in mining and sustainability. He is currently working with Curtin University on the development of a new mining engineering curriculum. David is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and holds a PhD in Political Science from Stanford University.
Director: WA School of Mines
Sam was born in Zimbabwe and went to University in South Africa where he achieved a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering and a Master in Civil Engineering. He received his PhD from the Technical University of Silesia in Poland. Before joining academia, initially in the US about 12 years ago. He has published two books, written several Chapters in books and has over 50 peer reviewed journal papers. He has travelled to over 70 countries during his career. He is currently the Director of the WA School of Mines Kalgoorlie.
Business Development Manager
Josh Collard’s role is Business Development Manager, Listings, at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). Josh is responsible for the development of ASX’s domestic and international listings business, working with companies across
industry sectors to help them raise capital to fund their growth ambitions via ASX.
Prior to joining ASX, Josh spent nearly a decade in various roles within the Investment Banking industry at both Morgan Stanley & Nomura in Australia and the UK.
Josh holds a Bachelor of Property Economics from the University of Technology, Sydney and a Masters of International Business from the University of New England.
Managing Director
Dr Kieren Moffatt is Managing Director and Co-Founder of Reflexivity, a data analytics company delivering real time social insights to industry about the communities they work alongside. Previously he was a Senior Research Scientist with Australia’s CSIRO, with expertise in social and organisational psychology. He lead the Resources in Society program of social and economic research in the Mineral Resources Business Unit. His research has focused on relationships between extractive industries and society, including citizen attitudes toward mining, using large-scale quantitative modelling of the key drivers of social licence developed at local and national scales both within Australia and globally.
Australian Ambassador to Brazil
Mr Kane is a senior career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Before his current appointment as Australian Ambassador to Brazil he was Chargé d’affaires at the Australian Embassy in Madrid. Previously he was Australian Ambassador to Chile and concurrently to Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. He has also served as Counsellor, Australian Embassy, Washington D.C.; First Secretary, Australian Embassy, Mexico City; and Second Secretary and Vice Consul, Australian Embassy, Santiago de Chile.
In Canberra, Mr Kane has served in a number of areas in DFAT, covering trade, consular, multilateral and human resource responsibilities. From 2003-04 he was Senior Adviser in the International Division of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Mr Kane has a Master of International Relations from Deakin University; a Graduate Diploma in Foreign Affairs and Trade from the Australian National University; and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Melbourne.
Vice President
David Gonzalez is the Vicepresident for Promotion and Development of the National Mining Agency where he is in charge of the promotion of foreign investment and assistance of the mining in Colombia.
Previously, he was the Promotion Manager of the National Mining Agency. He also worked in at Procolombia where he was appointed as the Senior Investment Specialist of Procolombia’s London Office, where he supported companies from the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Ireland and The Netherlands interested in investing in Colombia.
He also worked at Procolombia Office in Bogota as Investment Specialist and in Medellin as Trade Specialist.
He began his professional career in the Chamber of Commerce of Medellin in 2005 as a trade specialist.
Mr. Gonzalez graduated in International Business from the University Eafit, from Medellin, Colombia, and with a Masters in marketing and Distribution from the University of Barcelona (Spain). He holds further studies from the University of Putra in Malaysia, in Marketing Management and Accounting for Decision Making.
CEO and Director
Dr Tunks is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientist holding a B.Sc. (Hons.) from Monash and a Ph.D from the University of Tasmania. Dr Tunks has held numerous senior executive positions in a range of small to large resource companies including Auroch Minerals, A-Cap Resources, IMAGOLD Corporation and Abosso Goldfields.
In his role as CEO and director of A-Cap Resources Dr. Tunks led the discovery of the 10th largest uranium resource in the world and managed four separate capital raisings totalling AUD$45 million. Through his 30-year career within the resource and academic sectors Dr. Tunks has developed a unique skill set including technical, promotional and corporate.
Ambassador of Argentina to Australia
Born in Buenos Aires in November 1955, Ambassador Gobbi is an Economist with a Master degree in International Relations and a PhD. in Political Science from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He also has a Diploma in Trade Policy from the GATT in Geneva.
As a career diplomat graduated from the Argentine Foreign Service Institute in 1985, he has served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the Directorate of Multilateral Economic Relations (1985-1987); the Embassy of Argentina to the European Economic Community (1987-1992); the Directorate of MERCOSUR (1992-1994); the Mission of Argentina to MERCOSUR and ALADI (1995-1997); the Embassy of Argentina to Brazil (1997-2002); the Senate, as counsellor of ex-President and Senator Raúl Alfonsín (2003); the Secretariat of International Economic Relations (2003-2005); and the Embassy to the Holy See (2005-2010). In 2010 he was appointed Director of Special Economic Affairs and was Sous Sherpa for Argentina in the G20 between 2010 and 2016. He was the Director of Economic Multilateral Affairs and G20 between 2013 and 2016. These positions allowed him to be the Head of the Argentine Delegation in several multilateral fora: WTO, FAO, OECD, G20 (Toronto, Seoul, Cannes, Los Cabos, Saint Petersburg, Brisbane and Antalya).
On 24th February 2016, H.E. Gobbi presented the letters of Credence to Governor General of Australia, H.E. Gen. the Hon Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd) that accredited him as Ambassador of the Argentine Republic. On 25th October 2016 Ambassador Gobbi presented the letters of Credence to the Governor General of Papua New Guinea, Gran Chief Sir Michael Ogio, GCL, GCMG, KStJ, which accredited him as non-resident Ambassador in that Country. On the 11th April 2017 he presented the letters of Credence to the H.E. President Jioji Konousi Konrote, President of the Republic of Fiji, which accredited him as non-resident Ambassador, on the 7th August 2018 he presented the letters of Credence to H.E. Father Obed Moses Tallis, President of the Republic of Vanuatu and on the 4th October 2018 he presented the letters of Credence to Sir Frank Kabui, Governor General op Solomon Islands.
He received the decoration of the National Order of the Southern Cross, from Brazil; the decoration of the Legion of Honour, from France and the decoration of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, from the Holy See.
Head of Global Mining
Dean McPherson is Head of Global Mining for the TMX Group. He is responsible for the development and execution of the global strategy for attracting new listings in the mining sector to the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange.
Prior to the TMX, Mr. McPherson worked as an investment banker, assisting mining companies to meet corporate finance and growth objectives. Before joining the capital markets, Mr. McPherson worked as a civil engineer, managing capital projects for ALCOA®’s bauxite/alumina operations in Jamaica and FLUOR® in Canada.
In addition to an undergraduate honors degree in Civil Engineering; Mr. McPherson earned an MBA from Schulich School of Business and is a CFA Charterholder.
Senior Research Fellow
Dr Louisa O’Connor qualified as an Applied Geologist with an honours degree from the University of Leicester, a Masters in Mining Geology from Camborne School of Mines and a PhD in Mining Engineering from the University of Nottingham. She moved to Australia by herself in 2007 to work for BHP Billiton.
Louisa is a Senior Research Fellow, currently working for the University of Sydney’s Rio Tinto Centre for Mine Automation as a workflow leader for Ore Body Knowledge. She is a Chartered Professional with the AusIMM in the field of Geometallurgy. Her academic experience comprises Senior Lecturer and Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning for the Western Australian School of Mines and Senior Research Fellow for the Julius Kruttschnitt Minerals Research Centre (University of Queensland). She currently holds Adjunct positions (Senior Research Fellow -WASM/Associate Professor -WH Bryan Centre). Louisa has industrial work experience with senior, Superintendent and management level roles in the following companies: BHP Technology, FMG, JK Tech, Bureau Veritas and CSA Global.
GM industry Engagement
Peter Clarke has a Bachelor of Engineering from University of Western Australia, 1974, and a Master of Science from the University of Surrey, 1978. He has spent most of his career in technology development and commercialisation in a range of industries including mining, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and agriculture. He has been a co-founder of four companies, a robotics and engineering business, a computer vision company, a refrigeration product design company and a mining services company.
He was awarded the WA Innovator of the Year in 2007, made a University of Sydney Innovation Hero in 2011 and accepted the Australian Museum Eureka Commercialisation prize for this work with Scanalyse Pty Ltd in 2013. Peter has worked closely with the innovation and start-up space and is a mentor on several accelerator programs including CSIRO ON, Uneartherd, Vocus Upstart, Curtin Ignition and Start Something. He has an extensive network throughout the global mining industry with a good knowledge of the METS markets in Australia, Chile, Peru, Brazil, USA, Canada, Europe, Central Asia and Africa.
Principal, Noah's Rule
Sean is passionate about helping companies manage market risk to build strength and sustainability in their businesses. He has a fierce commitment to delivering responsible and innovative risk solutions to all Noah’s Rule clients.
Since founding Noah’s Rule in 2004, Sean has been a hands-on, strategic advisor for the management of financial and commodity market risk and negotiations and oversight for hedging execution.
Sean has a strong track record in delivering excellent strategic risk advice to CEOs, company boards and senior management. His success at Noah’s Rule comes from formidable industry knowledge gained over more than 30 years in financial markets. His roles included Managing Director of Treasury at NM Rothschild and Sons (Australia).
A strong advocate for developing a high level of risk awareness in the business community, Sean takes pride in developing and fine-tuning intelligent and responsive risk solutions for all Noah’s Rule clients.
Mining Secretary, Argentine Republic
Carolina Sánchez is a Natural Resources and Environment Engineer with a Political Studies Diploma at the University of Tolouse, France and a Waste Management Master Degree at the International University of Andalucia, Spain.
She worked as a technical advisor at the Environment and Sustainable Production Ministry in Salta, Argentina and for the Environment and Sustainable Development Federal Ministry. Mrs Sánchez has also participated in many International Cooperation Projects and was a professional consultant for International Financing Organizations. Worked for the National Institute of Industrial Technology in Jujuy as a Technical Director and was a teacher and researcher at the National and Catholic Universities of Salta.
Currently she is the Federal Mining Policy Secretary of Argentina.
Managing Director
Leo Horn has completed a Bachelor of Science in Geology with Honours at the University of Western Australia.
Leo is a highly skilled geologist and executive who has managed various teams to discovery success across Australia, the Americas and Africa for a variety of commodities including precious and base metals, diamonds and uranium.
Leo’s exploration success includes managing the discovery and resource definition and estimation of several of the worlds’ highest grade uranium deposits in Saskatchewan, Canada with UEX Corporation.
Managing Director
Graeme Drew is the Managing Director of AusQuest Limited who are exploring for porphyry copper and Iron Oxide copper gold deposits along the southern coastal belt of Peru, from Marcona in the north to Ilo in the south.
In 2017 the Company formed a Strategic Alliance with South32 and in 2018 completed several exploration programs in southern Peru including drilling of Porphyry and IOCG prospects under the Alliance to test targets identified by a combination of surface mapping, sampling and geophysical surveys.
By way of background Graeme has had over 40 years in the exploration industry working in various roles, including exploration management both with AusQuest and the Rio Tinto Group where he spent 20 years prior to forming AusQuest in 2000.
Minister for Mines and Petroleum; Energy; Industrial Relations
Member for Cannington
Bill Johnston was sworn in as the Mines and Petroleum, Commerce and Industrial Relations, Electoral Affairs, and our State’s first Asian Engagement Minister in March 2017.
Bill is also the Member for Cannington, having held this position since September 2008.
Prior to entering Parliament, he spent seven years as the State Secretary of WA Labor, four years as Shadow Minister for Mines and Petroleum, and five years as Shadow Energy and State Development Minister.
He was also a former senior official of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association, where he fought for fairness for low-paid workers in industrial rights, workers compensation and working conditions.
Managing Director
Mr Mason has a broad corporate, management and mining background achieved through working in the exploration and mining industry for 35 years throughout Australasia, Asia, Southern Africa and South America.
David is the Managing Director of Dark Horse Resources, focusing on mineral resources in South America. Dark Horse currently holds a large portfolio of lithium and gold properties in Argentina and intends to be a lithium hydroxide and gold bullion producer within several years.
Prior to this, David had executive director roles with Intra Energy Corporation Limited (ASX:IEC), a coal producer in East Africa; Overseas & General Limited (ASX:OGL) an Indonesian mining company; Haddington Resources (now Altura Mining, ASX:AJM) a new Australian Lithium producer; and the Swabara Group, which developed the Adaro Indonesia coal mine, the Pulau Laut shipping terminal and the 1,260MW thermal Paiton Power Station.
David holds a BSc (Hons) and a PGradDipBA from the University of Queensland and an MBA from University of Southern Queensland.
One of the World's Leading Lithium Market Experts
Joe Lowry has been involved in the lithium industry for over a quarter of a century. From 1992 to 2012 Joe managed FMC Lithium’s commercial business with a focus on lithium ion battery related materials. While living in Japan and China from 2000 through 2010, he also served as President of FMC’s Japan based joint ventures producing cathode material and lithium metal / organometallics. After moving to China he was responsible for forming and served as President of FMC Zhangjiagang Specialty Chemicals Ltd. He was venture manager for the construction of the world’s largest butyllithium plant which was FMC’s first wholly owned production unit in China. Joe ended his tenure at FMC with both global commercial and business development responsibility.
After leaving FMC in September of 2012, Joe founded Global Lithium LLC an advisory firm serving lithium producers, purchasers, investors and governments on five continents. His extensive global network of high level contacts at both lithium companies and major purchasers gives Joe a unique window on what for many is an opaque market.
Director Exploration, First Quantum Minerals Ltd
Mike is a geologist and a graduate of the Camborne School of Mines in the UK. His experience spans some 30 years in the mineral industry including extensive involvement in exploration and mine development projects in Africa, Australia, Papua New Guinea and more recently Latin America. His career has included senior roles in the Rio Tinto group, Placer Dome and Resolute Mining as well as involvement with several junior exploration companies in Africa.
Mike joined First Quantum Minerals in 2008 as Exploration Director and has been closely involved in an exciting period of growth, assisting the company to take advantage of a raft of exploration and acquisition opportunities.
Managing Director, Latin Resources, Limited
Christopher (Chris) Gale is the Managing Director of Latin Resources.
Chris has extensive experience in senior management roles in both the public and private
sectors, especially in commercial and financial roles.
He has also held various board and executive roles at a number of mining and technology
companies during his career.
Chris is former Chairman of the Council on Australian Latin American Relations (COALAR)
established by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)
from 2012 to 2018.
He is also a founding director of Allegra Capital, a boutique corporate advisory firm based in
Perth and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).
Managing Director, HotChili Limited
Christian Easterday is a geologist with over 19 years’ experience in the mineral exploration and mining industry. He holds an honours degree in geology, and master’s degrees in both Mineral Economics and Business Administration.
Christian has held several senior positions and exploration management roles with top-tier companies, specialising in structural geology, resource development, project valuation and negotiation across multiple commodity classes in Australia and internationally. Since 2008 he has held the position of Managing Director of ASX listed resource company Hot Chili. He is a founding director of Hot Chili and continues to lead the Company through the discovery and development of the large-scale Productora copper project in Chile.
Managing Director, Azure Minerals
Tony Rovira has worked in the mining industry as a geologist and in company management for more than 35 years. He has been responsible for the discovery of several gold and nickel deposits which have been developed into operating mines – including the world-class Cosmos Nickel Mine.
Since 2003, Tony has been Managing Director of Azure Minerals which is exploring and developing several precious and base metals projects in northern Mexico with good success. Azure’s flagship project is the Oposura zinc-lead-silver deposit.
The Company is progressing Oposura through the Feasibility Study with a development decision expected in late-2019 and production aimed for late-2020.
Conference Manager, Paydirt Media
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Perth, Western Australia