David Kelley
Chief Executive Officer, President and Director
Mr. Kelley is an economic geologist and exploration geochemist with more than 35 years of international exploration experience throughout the Americas, Central Asia and Australasia. Most recently David was responsible for developing the exploration program at Las Bambas for MMG as the General Manager Exploration - Americas. Prior to this he worked for Oz Minerals, Zinifex, Newmont, WMC, BHP, Westmont Mining and Gold Standard. He was directly involved in the discovery of the Zuun Mod Mo-Cu deposit in Mongolia, the Wayamaga Au deposit in French Guiana, and the High Lake East VHMS deposit in Nunavut. He obtained a B.Sc. degree in geology from Colorado State University in 1985 and an M.Sc. degree in geology/geochemistry from the Colorado School of Mines in 1989. He is a past President of both the Society of Economic Geologists Foundation and the Association of Applied Geochemists.
Xavier Wenzel
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Wenzel is a Chartered Professional Accountant (member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC) with more than 20 years of public accounting experience as an auditor and senior level executive with both public and private entities in North and South America. Mr. Wenzel is from Mexico City, is bi-lingual and has served as the Chief Financial Officer for several exploration companies.
Douglas B. Silver
Chairman and Director
Mr. Silver brings with him a long and storied career in the mining sector commencing in 1980 where he was an exploration geologist with Anaconda Minerals, during which he co-discovered the Silver Creek molybdenum deposit in Colorado. In 1987, he was a member of the management team that created Bond International Gold, then one of the world’s largest gold mining companies, where he served as head of Investor Relations. Bond Gold’s NYSE listing was the largest mining IPO at the time. He served as President of his private company, Balfour Holdings Inc. where he acted as a strategic advisor for a number of global mineral companies providing project and company appraisals, valuations, due diligence, investor relations and M&A advice. In 2003 he co-founded International Royalty Corporation, a TSX-listed company, and served as Chairman and CEO as his team built IRC into the world’s fourth largest royalty company until the company was sold for C$749 million in 2010. IRC was the largest mining-related IPO on the TSX in 2005 having raised C$190 million. In 2011 he became a Portfolio Manager for Red Kite Management, a private equity firm, where he was responsible for sourcing, negotiating and closing on investments. Subsequently, in 2013, Red Kite spun out Orion Resource Partners where he then helped grow Orion into the world’s largest mining private equity firm with assets under management of ~US$6B. Mr. Silver retired from Orion in December 2020. In 2018, Mr. Silver was inducted into the U.S. National Mining Hall of Fame and in 2023 he was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. He holds an M.Sc. in Economic Geology from the University of Arizona and a B.A. in Geology and Zoology from the University of Vermont. He is also known for his philanthropic work with educators and industry non-profits. Mr. Silver founded the Denver Gold Group, one of the industry’s most significant gold investment conferences.
John Black
Director
Mr. Black is an economic geologist with more than 30 years of exploration experience in the Americas, Central Asia, the SW Pacific, and Eastern Europe/Western Asia. He first worked in South America in 1993 and has been actively involved in mineral exploration throughout the continent for several companies since that time. Mr. Black was the founding President of Antares Minerals Inc. and was instrumental in acquiring the Haquira project in Peru for Antares. He was the key driver in negotiating the sale of Antares to First Quantum Minerals for C$650 million. Mr. Black’s early career included work with Bear Creek Mining Company, Kennecott Minerals Corporation, Rio Tinto and Western Mining Corporation and he currently serves as a Director or Technical Advisor for several private and public exploration companies.
His professional credentials include a B.Sc. degree in Geology from Stanford University in 1983 and an M.S. degree in Geology - Ore Deposits Exploration from the same University in 1988.
Darren Devine
Director
Mr. Devine is the principal of CDM Capital Partners, a firm that provides corporate finance advisory services to private and public companies. Mr. Devine also acts as a director and/or officer to a number of junior public companies in the natural resource and technology sectors. In addition, he is currently an active member of the TSX Venture Exchange’s Local Advisory Committee. Mr. Devine is qualified as a barrister and solicitor in British Columbia and in England & Wales and prior to founding CDM Capital Partners, practiced exclusively in the areas of corporate finance and securities law.
Thomas E. Wharton, Jr.
Director
Mr. Wharton has over 30 years of experience in the development, marketing, management, financing, and the sale of early stage companies. Since January 2011 Mr. Wharton has been the Investment Manager for Saint Thomas Capital Partners, evaluating and managing investments in the areas of junior mining, oil & gas, and business to business technology services. Mr. Wharton has had integral experience working with all aspects of public and private companies in both junior exploration and mining.
Mr. Wharton received a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Creighton University in 1983 and began his career at Bozell & Jacob’s Advertising. In 1988 Tom was promoted to Bozell’s Business to Business New York Advertising division Poppe Tyson where he advanced to CFO and CIO in 1992. While CIO at Poppe Tyson, Mr. Wharton co-founded, managed, and was a Director for Poppe’s ad sales network, Doubleclick Inc. where he assisted in its early management and initial financing. DoubleClick is now owned by Google.
From 1998 to 2011 Mr. Wharton was an independent consultant offering “startup” consulting services or equity capital financing to various developing internet companies including Vente Inc and Cheetamail Inc., which were purchased by Experian, and Trancentrix Inc., which was purchased by Ruesch International.