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.
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.
Mr. Kaip is the Lead Director for the Board, he brings over 25 years of experience within the mining business as an executive, geologist, and equity analyst covering the precious metals sector. He currently serves as President and CEO of Karus Gold. Prior to these appointments, he served as Managing Director at BMO Capital Markets where he was co-head of global mining research. In 2010, Mr. Kaip initiated coverage of the silver equities for BMO Capital Markets. During his tenure as their silver analyst, Mr. Kaip was consistently ranked the top Small/Mid Cap Precious Metal analyst by Brendan Wood International. Prior to mining research, Mr. Kaip was a geologist working on projects throughout North, South and Central America. Mr. Kaip is a Professional Geoscientist and holds a B.Sc. in Geology and Earth Science, from Carlton University and a Master’s in Geology and Earth Science, from the University of British Columbia.
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.
Mr. Vickerman is a seasoned institutional sales and corporate finance professional with 25 years of experience in the financial industry and formerly, Managing Director, Head of UK of Beacon Securities UK and former Managing Director , Head of UK for Edgecrest Capital. Prior to joining Edgecrest Capital UK, Mr. Vickerman was Managing Director, Co-Head of Canadian Equity Sales UK at Canaccord Genuity Corp. Mr. Vickerman also formerly worked at Thomas Weisel Partners Group Inc. where he served as Senior Vice President. Daniel spent over 4 years at a London based Alternative asset manager with over $400 million AUM, trading commodities and FX. Mr. Vickerman has extensive experience working with mineral exploration and development companies, raising over $1bln for private and listed companies.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts, Economics from the University of Western Ontario and currently serves as an Independent Director of Discovery Metals Corp.
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 Director of Fortuna Silver Mines Inc., Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., and Aton Resources Inc. He also serves as an advisor to Endeavour Financial.
Edie Thome was the President & Chief Executive Officer of The Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) in Vancouver, British Columbia. Prior to that appointment, as the Director – Environment, Permitting and Compliance, Aboriginal Relations and Public Affairs at BC Hydro, she was responsible for permitting and compliance, Aboriginal relations and government/public affairs for the Site C Clean Energy Project. Her management experience also includes Vice President, Customer Service, Airport Operations and Corporate Communications for Harmony Airways.
Ms. Thome has completed her Directors Education Program through the Institute of Corporate Directors at Rotman and holds an Architectural Technology diploma as well as a BFA from The University of Alberta.
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