Board and Management
Peter Bures
Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Peter Bures is a Geological and Mineral Engineer with 25+ years of mining and metals capital market expertise. Recent experience includes CEO at C2C Gold, Co-Founder and Chief Business Development Officer at Star Royalties, Director Global Mining Sales at BMO Capital Markets (New York) and Portfolio Management at Sentry Investments where he co-managed several top-ranked funds. He also held various equity research roles, including VP Analyst at Canaccord Genuity, HSBC (New York and Toronto) and Orion Securities. Mr. Bures began his career as a mining engineer at Placer Dome, and is a graduate BASc Geo. Eng. University of Toronto.
Hassnain Raza, CPA, FCA, FCCA, MBA, CIA
Chief Financial Officer
Hassnain Raza is a CPA with 20+ years of financial experience in Canada, USA, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean serving both public and private sector clients. Mr Raza is the founding partner of a boutique consulting firm specializing in CFO advisory services to start-ups and SMEs. Previously held senior management and leadership roles at Namaste Technologies, and Senior Manager at KPMG. He is founder and patron of Allama Iqbal Model School in Pakistan, providing free education (kindergarten–grade 10)
Patrick Sullivan, LLP
Corporate Secretary
Patrick Sullivan is a Mining, M&A and Securities lawyer at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. With over a decade of experience in the mining sector, he has advised a wide range of clients in connection with joint venture, option, mineral property acquisition, royalty and streaming agreements and mineral tenure issues. Mr. Sullivan has acted on several of the most significant mining transactions in Canada including South32 Limited’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Arizona Mining, Washington Companies’ $1.2 billion acquisition of Dominion Diamond Corp, and Hudbay Minerals’ $555 million acquisition of Augusta Resource Corporation.
Zac Kotowych
VP, Corporate Development
Zachary Kotowych is a geophysicist with almost half a decade of mining and metals capital market experience. Previous roles include equity research positions at Haywood and Red Cloud Securities. Additionally, he worked as an exploration geologist at Solstice Gold, Great Bear Resources (now Kinross Gold Corp.), and Carlisle Goldfields (now Alamos Gold). Mr. Kotowych holds an MSc in Geophysics, and a HBSc in Mathematics and Geology, both from the University of Toronto.
Philip van der Berg
Independent Director
Philip van den Berg has over 35 years of capital markets expertise in Europe managing capital market transactions, public listings and mergers and acquisitions. Past experience includes investment analyst, head of research and investment policy committee member. A majority of Mr. van den Berg’s sell-side experience was with Goldman Sachs (1987 London) European equities division, then Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (1995)
re-establishing its European equities division. In 1997 he moved to the buy-side as co-founder of Olympus Capital Management, and Taler Asset Management (2006) in Gibraltar. In 2014 he became an active investor in various start-up companies in Europe and the US in director and CFO roles. Mr. van den Berg graduated 1985 cum laude in economics at the University of Amsterdam.
Peter Simeon, LLP
Independent Director
Peter Simeon has over 20 years of experience as a lawyer focused on securities, corporate finance, and mergers and acquisitions. Since February 2015 he has been a partner at Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP and has extensive experience in corporate commercial and securities law. Prior to 2015, he was a partner at a boutique corporate law firm in Toronto. Mr. Simeon has a Bachelor of Arts from Queen’s University and a law degree from Osgoode Hall at York University. Mr. Simeon acts as an independent director on several publicly traded companies in Canada.
Peter Schloo, CPA, CA, CFA
Independent Director
Peter Schloo is CPA, CA and CFA with 10+ years of progressive experience in capital markets, operations and assurance. He is also a license prospector in Ontario, Canada. Currently CEO at Heritage Mining Ltd. and a Director at Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. (PEMC), he has held Senior Executive positions in a number of private companies, a majority in the Precious Metals sector including Ion Energy Ltd. and Spirit Banner Capital Corp. Mr. Schloo past successes include over C$85M in associated capital raising opportunities involving public and private companies.
Advisors to the board
Terry Salman, B.A., MBA, D. Tech, h.c.
Strategic Advisor
CEO of Salman Partners, industry icon Terry Salman raised over $20 billion for over 400 exploration and mining companies. His 35+ year portfolio of experience includes executive roles at Nesbitt Thomson (acquired by BMO) where he was instrumental in forming the mining team and its mining conference in the 1990s.
Adding to his mining legacy is his dynamic public service presence, recently appointed to the Order of Canada for his contributions to mining exploration and for his generous philanthropy and community activism. He served with the United States Marine Corps and is a Vietnam veteran. Mr. Salman received an MBA from the University of Hartford.
Frank Balint, P.Geo
Technical Advisor
Frank Balint is a seasoned mining executive with over 35 years of broad ranging experience in the mining industry. He has been involved in all aspects of the mining life cycle, possesses strong technical skills backed up by solid financial experience that has resulted in a strong exploration and acquisition track record. Previously, a senior member of the executive team at Inmet for nearly 20 years, was crucial in executing corporate strategy that saw Inmet grow market cap to over $5 billion. Former director of Wolfden Resources Inc. that was sold to Zinifex for $363 million. Mr Balint is a licensed professional geologist (P. Geo) in Ontario, British Columbia and NWT.
Mitchell E. Lavery, P.Geo
Technical Advisor
Mitchell Lavery has over 48 years experience in exploration and development for a number of junior and major mining companies. He has worked across North America, South America, Europe and West Africa. Mr. Lavery is currently President and director of Seahawk Gold Corp. He has been involved in the discovery of a multitude of sulfide and gold deposits in Canada; as well as a number of Mines including Bell Creek Gold Mine (Timmins ON); two uranium deposits (Wollaston Domain SK); discovery through operation of Joubie Gold Mine (Val-d’Or QC); and the acquisition/development of the Quebec Lithium property (Lacorne QC). Mr. Lavery is a licensed professional geologist (P. Geo) and is a Qualified Person under NI-43-101 regulations.
Wray Carvelas, MBA
Technical Advisor
Wray Carvelas provided 25 years of visionary leadership, developing and implementing ambitious strategic plans. Mr Carelas is Founder and CEO of Ascencia Group, providing strategic and executive leadership development to the mining industry. He is also a Director at Heritage Mining. Mr. Carvelas previous experience includes Senior positions at DRA Global responsible for business growth and development in North and South America; as well as KBR, ELB, and De Beers managing development, production, and metallurgical (R&D and capital management).
