Directors​

William (Bill) Howald

Executive Chairman

William (Bill) Howald is a successful entrepreneur who founded several public companies as well as led the exploration division of a major mining company.  He has extensive experience building effective exploration teams and delivering quality resources.  As an executive, Mr. Howald provided strategic vision, planning, and implementation of many values creating programs for junior and senior gold producers.  Most recently, he led the acquisition, build out and start-up of the Florida Canyon mine in west-central Nevada. The mine achieved commercial production within 18 months of being acquired.  To date, Bill has raised approximately $300 million in project financing for properties in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Dominican Republic, and Nevada.

Prior to creating junior mining companies, he was General Manager of Exploration, the United States and Latin America, for Placer Dome Inc. During his tenure at Placer Dome, Mr. Howald was an integral part of the teams that delivered over 100Mozs of gold resources to the Placer portfolio. Several of these resources, including Turquoise Ridge, Pipeline, Pueblo Viejo, are now mines. While there, he also oversaw the last systematic drill campaign done on Silver Cloud. Mr. Howald was born and educated in Butte, Montana, the “Richest Hill on Earth” and has over 34 years in the international exploration and mining industry gained primarily in the Western US, Mexico, and Central and South America.  He is a Certified Professional Geologist and a Qualified Person as defined by NI43-101.

Andrew Pollard

President & CEO, Director

Prior to joining Blackrock as President & CEO in 2019, Andrew Pollard had established himself as a sought-after management consultant within the mining industry. Mr. Pollard founded the Mining Recruitment Group Ltd (MRG) in 2006 and has amassed a “Who’s Who” network in the mining & finance world, leveraging his personal relationships to help shape what have become some of the most prominent and successful resource companies. In a sector where management is crucial, he has served as a trusted advisor to exploration companies and producers ranging in size from seed round through to over $100 billion in market capitalization.

Tony Wood

Independent Director

Tony Wood currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of Aurania Resources Inc. Mr. Wood’s executive experience includes oversight of finance and operations of various publicly-traded exploration, development, and production staged resource companies. Over the last 20 years, he has successfully completed close to $1billion in financing and M&A transactions in the mining industry. Mr. Wood has a proven record of success with strategic planning, organizational development, and company transformations. He has been instrumental in achieving performance and value growth across diverse commodities, countries and market conditions.

Mr. Wood is an honours graduate, Management Sciences (Marketing) B.Sc. from the University of Lancaster, U.K., and a qualified Chartered Accountant in the UK and Canada.

David Laing

Independent Director

David Laing is a mining engineer with 40 years of experience in the industry. He was formerly the COO of Equinox Gold Corp., operating gold projects in Brazil and California, COO of True Gold Mining Inc. which developed a gold heap leaching operation in Burkina Faso, and COO and EVP of Quintana Resources Capital, a base metals streaming company. David was also one of the founding executives of Endeavour Mining Corp., a gold producer operating in West Africa. Prior to these recent roles, David held senior positions in mining investment banking and debt advisory services at Endeavour Financial, Standard Bank in New York, and provided technical consulting services at MRDI in California, the Refugio Project at Bema Gold Corp., and various roles at Billiton with operations in Peru, South Africa, and northern Chile.

Mr. Laing currently serves as Independent Chair of both Fortuna Mining Corp and Arizona Sonoran Copper Company. He also serves as an advisor to Endeavour Financial.

Tom Peregoodoff

Independent Director

Mr. Peregoodoff has more than 30 years of experience in the natural resources sector, including senior leadership roles in corporate development, capital markets, and project advancement. He previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Apollo Silver and was formerly President and Chief Executive Officer of Peregrine Diamonds Ltd., where he oversaw the advancement of the Chidliak diamond project in Nunavut prior to its acquisition by De Beers Canada. Mr. Peregoodoff has also held executive and board roles with a number of publicly listed mining companies, including 18 years with global mining company BHP, and brings extensive experience in corporate strategy, financings, mergers and acquisitions, and governance across the exploration and development lifecycle. He is currently Executive Chairman of Apollo Silver Corp (TSX-V: APGO) and Independent Director of American West Metals (ASX:AW1). He has received his ICD.D designation from the Rotman School of Business.

Susan Mathieu

Independent Director

Susan Mathieu has over thirty years of international mining experience through exploration, project development, permitting, construction and operations. She has experience from mine-site to corporate leadership roles, with a proven ability to affect change in diverse organizational cultures. Her mining career has been built in several different commodity businesses, including precious and base metals, diamonds, potash and uranium.
 
Ms. Mathieu served on the MAG Silver Corp board, where she Chaired the Technical Committee, and was a member of the Compensation and the Sustainability/HSEC Committees. In previous VP roles, Ms. Mathieu led the corporate environmental, safety and sustainability efforts for NexGen Energy (Saskatchewan), Centerra Gold (Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Turkey) and NovaGold (Canada and Alaska). Ms. Mathieu gained solid technical grounding in mining during the early stages of her career with Placer Dome, Falconbridge, BHP and Golder Associates in Canada, South Africa, Peru, Brazil and Tanzania.
 
Ms. Mathieu holds a BSc. (Honours) and a MSc. in Biology from the University of Saskatchewan, and an Executive MBA from the Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University. She has also achieved her ICD.D designation.

Bernard Poznanski

Independent Director

Bernard Poznanski is a highly experienced corporate and securities lawyer with more than 40 years of distinguished practice advising public companies listed on the TSX, TSX Venture Exchange, NYSE American, and NASDAQ on complex securities, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and mining law matters. He brings strategic legal insight to transactions across a broad range of industries, particularly in natural resources, technology and capital markets.
Mr. Poznanski’s experience encompasses all aspects of corporate and securities law, including public offerings, private placements, stock exchange listings, and sophisticated corporate governance matters. He has acted on major financings and strategic transactions, including cross-border offerings and bought deal financings for mining issuers, take-over and issuer bids, and proxy contests. He has also played a pivotal role in significant mergers and acquisitions in complex public company transactions and mineral property acquisitions. He has regularly represented boards of directors and special committees and provides pragmatic counsel to public companies.
Mr. Poznanski holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) (cum laude) from the University of Ottawa, a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Commercial Law from McGill University, and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the University of Guelph. He is admitted to practice in British Columbia and Alberta and is recognized as a leading practitioner in securities and corporate law.