Revisit this page soon for the Speakers' Bios and other details.
NY SME’s 8th Current Trends in Mining Finance Conference (CTMF 2023)
Managing Risk and Identifying Opportunities in a Disruptive World - Where Finding, Financing and Securing Supply is Critical
Connecting Mining, Finance and Engineering Executives™
Monday May 8 - Thursday May 11, 2023
For updates revisit Schedule at a Glance
Content and times may change
Lead Sponsors RPMGLOBAL; SHEARMAN & STERLING; SLR CONSULTING; and SME FOUNDATION
Monday May 8, 2023 – Workshops and Evening Welcome Reception
Workshop Registration and lunch start at 11:30 am; workshops end at 4:45 pm
Reception and Dinner registration start at 5:30 pm - 7:45 pm at Shearman & Sterling
I. Workshop Part A: Managing Construction Risks & Mitigating Consequences on Mining Projects by Shearman & Sterling from Noon to 2:15 pm Part B: Assessment of the Productivity of a Mining Project through Mine-to-Mill Reconciliation: The Importance of Post Investment Reviews by Geo Global and RESPEC from 2:30 pm to 4:45 pm. Registration includes lunch, and Monday reception and dinner.
Part A: Managing Construction Risks and Mitigating Consequences on Mining Projects: Mining operations are highly regulated and subject to significant development, technical, geological, commercial, political, legal and other risks. As a result, over 80% of mining projects are not completed within the parameters set out in the feasibility study. As a result, often greenfield mine construction experiences significant delays and cost overruns. This Workshop will explore how companies can manage the risks and mitigate the consequences of delays, cost overruns, and other types of obstacles arising from major capital investments that can occur throughout the life of a project. The panel will examine these issues at three critical phases: contract formation; project execution; and dispute resolution.
Christopher Ryan is a partner in the International Arbitration practice of Shearman & Sterling. He has extensive experience in international arbitration and litigation, and has represented private and State clients in disputes before ICC, AAA, ICSID, UNCITRAL, LCIA, ad hoc arbitral tribunals, and U.S. federal courts. His practice focuses on commercial and investment disputes in the construction, infrastructure, mining, and energy sectors. He has advised U.S. and other companies on issues of public and private international law, investment and trade policy, and strategies for mitigating the risks associated with foreign investment. Christopher Ryan also serves as a Lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law and the George Washington School of Law, where he teaches a course on international investment arbitration and international commercial arbitration, respectively.
Jesse Sherrett is a partner in the International Arbitration practice of Shearman & Sterling. Jesse represents public and private sector clients in complex multinational disputes across a range of sectors including the engineering and construction, government, energy, mining, private equity, maritime, sports, IT industries. Jesse currently represents multinational clients in arbitrations and court litigation in North America, Europe and the Middle East. Jesse has represented clients in arbitrations conducted under the ICC, LMAA, LCIA, and National Hockey League Rules and has appeared before several state and federal courts in the United States.
Part B: Assessment of the Productivity of a Mining Project Through a Mine-to-Mill Reconciliation of Post Investment Reviews: This workshop is intended to start a dialogue on the post-investment review during the life of the mine in order to check if the mine is achieving the production target. In many cases, mines do achieve production targets and it is an opportunity to learn the reasons for such achievements. Mining operations, where production seems to be underperforming compared to plan, need special attention for better understanding the reasons for such results. Sometimes, the production plan can be unrealistic and is not based on ground truth. There are many other reasons for production not matching with the plan on a monthly or quarterly or yearly time scale. In many cases, large mining companies conduct a post-investment review of the productivity thereby helping them to realize the truth about the project. The mining finance companies and investors should conduct such reviews to ensure that the investment would result in a good return.
Dr. Abani R. Samal has been working in the mining industry since 1996. He is the owner and principal of GeoGlobal, LLC based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dr. Samal provides consulting services to exploration and mining companies and major financial institutions worldwide. He provided strategic advice to government agencies through the World Bank for the development of mineral resources. Dr. Samal offers professional development programs to industry professionals and academic researchers worldwide. Dr. Samal holds a PhD from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, DIC & MS from Imperial College in London, and Montana Tech (Mineral Exploration) degree from IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, India. He is a Registered Member and Fellow of SME and a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geology (SEG) and a Certified Professional Geologist (CPG).
Peter Christensen (RM- SME) has extensive international mining experience. He is a principal consultant at RESPEC and has held senior positions with major mining companies, contractors, and service providers. Mr. Christensen has experience in managing feasibility studies, mine development, mining method and equipment selection, mine planning, cost estimation, and reserves estimation. He has conducted due diligence on mining assets on all continents; economic and financial evaluations of mining operations; reserve audits; operational and HSE audits; provided litigation support; and reviewed mining projects, cost structures, and operating performance. His commodity experience includes coal, lignite, potash, trona, salt, oil sands, oil shale, gold, silver, copper, beryllium, tin, nickel, bauxite, mineral sands, limestone, aggregates, and clays.
II. Workshop Two: S-K 1300 Disclosure by Registrants Engaged in Mining Operations by Wood Plc. and Mine Technical Services Ltd. (MTS) on Monday May 8. Registration and lunch start at 11:30 am, workshop ends at 4:30 pm. Includes lunch, and Monday reception and dinner.
This workshop will focus on unique challenges the new S-K 1300 standards have created when preparing mining studies and mineral property disclosure for critical metals and minerals needed for the green economy. The challenges to be discussed are directed at specific requirements for the defined mining studies under S-K 1300, the need to show how a process method or plant design has never been used commercially in order to support mineral resources and mineral reserves, the need for market studies to support the mineral resources and mineral reserves for these unique deposits, and the availability of properly qualified persons to sign off on the many unique aspects of these deposits and their mines.
Greg Gosson has 40 years in mining industry in exploration, mine operations, and senior company management.; five years as Chief Mining Advisor of the BC Securities Commission; Led the project to revise NI 43-101 in 2005; Involved in drafting legislation on Civil Liability under BC Securities Act, and NI 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations; Former chair, current member of the Mining Technical Advisory and Monitoring Committee on NI 43-101: industry advisory group to the Canadian securities regulators; Member of the PDAC Securities Committee and Mining advisory committee to Canadian Securities Administrators on NI 43-101 (MTAMC); Member of the CIM Committee on Mineral Resources and Reserves (and Best Practices); Member of the CIM‐CSA Working Committee on NI 43-101; 12+ years as Technical Director, Geology & Compliance with Wood.
Stella Searston, RM SME, F. Aus IMM, AIG; Principal Geologist, Mine Technical Services Ltd.; Member of: CIM Mineral Resource and Reserve Committee; SME Resources/Reserves Committee. Technical reviews, audits, and specialist studies including due diligence and governance/compliance appraisals. Prepared technical aspects of listing and filing documents, independent expert and competent person reports for various exchanges, including AIM, HKEx, ASX, JSE as well as Canadian exchanges. Part of peer review of major mining studies (PEA, PFS, FS) Prepared/reviewed/compiled over 480 NI 43-101 technical reports, and over 20 reports under S-K1300.
Monday May 8, 2023 - Welcome Reception
Reception starts at 5:30 pm with guest speakers starting about 6:30, ends at 7:45 pm
Sponsor Red Cloud Securities Inc.
Guest Speakers: Laura Granier P.C., Partner, Co-Chair Mining Group, Holland & Hart LLP and Peter Boockvar, Chief Investment Strategist, Bleakley Financial Group
On Monday May 8 following two informative afternoon workshops join us starting at 4:45 pm (all must register in advance) to enjoy delicious hors d'oeuvres, beverages and a dinner with two guest speakers, before the start of the two day conference. Registered delegates for the Monday May 8 workshops are welcome to attend the welcome reception and dinner. During the dinner starting at 6 pm we look forward to hearing from two guest speakers.
Laura Granier, PC, Partner, Co-Chair Mining Group, Holland & Hart LLP. Laura Granier will provide an update about Lithium Americas Corp's Thacker Pass lithium mine project in Nevada and other projects under development in America. We look forward to her remarks.
Laura Granier, Partner, Co-Chair of Holland & Hart’s mining group delivers pragmatic counsel to help mining, energy, and natural resources clients navigate litigation and regulatory challenges. Laura's clients, including large energy users, mining companies, and water purveyors, benefit from both her extensive litigation and regulatory experience, and her experience as Vice President and U.S. General Counsel for a large utility provider. Laura represents clients before numerous regulatory agencies including the Bureau of Land Management, United States Forest Service, Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, the Nevada Division of Water Resources, and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. She has served as lead counsel in numerous regulatory proceedings including general rate cases, integrated resource planning and on complex water, resource and environmental agency issues. Laura also assists clients through the permitting process for projects on public and forest system lands. Laura has served as lead counsel in numerous court cases involving agency decisions and rule-making managing large client groups and complex issues. She has frequently and successfully handled cases involving key industry issues, complex matters and high stakes litigation. Laura also has successful defended agency decisions authorizing resource projects on public lands. Laura also works closely with clients in the areas of municipal law and government affairs, water rights acquisitions and permitting, and related policy issues.
Peter Boockvar will discuss the outlook and interconnection of inflation, interest rates, the economy and markets and highlight that the world is a much different place than many of us are used to over the past 10-15 years. The era of cheap money is over and we're not going back. It's time to acclimate to an environment of sticky inflation, higher interest rates and tighter monetary policy.
Peter Boockvar, Chief Investment Officer, Bleakley Financial Group, a New Jersey based $8 billion wealth management firm. Peter is also Editor of the The Boock Report, a macro market newsletter. Prior to joining Bleakley, Peter was the Chief Market Analyst at the Lindsey Group, a macro economic and market research firm founded by former Federal Reserve Governor Larry Lindsey. Before this, Peter worked as a macro analyst and portfolio manager for a brief time with Omega Advisors and had previously been a partner at Miller Tabak + Company where he was the equity strategist and a portfolio manager.
NY SME’s 8th Current Trends in Mining Finance Conference (CTMF 2023)
Managing Risk and Identifying Opportunities in a Disruptive World - Where Finding, Financing and Securing Supply is Critical
Connecting Mining, Finance and Engineering Executives™
Monday May 8 - Thursday May 11, 2023
Lead Sponsors RPMGLOBAL; SHEARMAN & STERLING; SLR CONSULTING; and SME FOUNDATION
For updates revisit Schedule at a Glance
Content and times may change
Tuesday May 9, 2023 - CTMF 2023 Conference Day One
7:00 am Registration and Breakfast
Sponsors SRK Consulting; McEwen Mining; McEwen Copper
7:40 am Welcome: New York SME, Conference Co-Chairs: Tim Alch, Executive Director, and Alan Oshiki, Chairman
Tim Alch is Executive Director (2016-23) and Executive Committee Member (2008-16) of NY SME, and Managing Partner of TAA Advisory. Since 2012, Tim has chaired and organized more than 35 expert panel discussions and is co-chair of NY SME's annual Current Trends in Mining Finance (CTMF) Conferences (2014-23). His work history spans metals, mining and energy equity, management and investment analysis, and executive placement. He is a Senior Associate and was Managing Director of Behre Dolbear; SVP of Anderson & Schwab; Mining, Metals, Steel Equity Analyst at Paine Webber, Prudential Securities, and Dean Witter Reynolds and Senior Industry Analyst at CRU International (London), World Steel Dynamics (New York) and Resource Strategies (Philadelphia). He is an Honors Geology graduate, and John Mason Clarke fellow of Amherst College; studied Mineral & Energy Economics at Pennsylvania State University; and member of SME, AEMA, PDAC and NCUSCR and was a SME Finance Strategic Committee member (2017-20), its Chair (2021) and was selected as the 2020 recipient of the SME President's Citation for Local Section Service Award.
Alan Oshiki, Executive Vice President of H/Advisors Abernathy, works with management teams and boards of directors on mergers and acquisitions, crises, litigation, going-public transactions and innovative, high-impact approaches to ongoing stakeholder communications. Representative Experience: Power Corporation of Canada and IGM Financial on the consolidation of their ownership stake in China Asset Management Co.; AES Corporation on communications strategy related to its international investments and environmental sustainability; Cano Health on investor relations strategy development after closing its $4.4 billion de-SPAC transaction with Jaws Acquisition Corp.; WideOpenWest Inc. (WOW!) on its $1.8 billion sale of five service areas in two separate transactions; Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior (Bladex) on investor relations strategy; Great-West Lifeco on its $1 billion acquisition of Personal Capital; Altaba Inc. (formerly Yahoo! Inc.) on its $70 billion liquidation transactions and ongoing engagement with activist hedge funds including TCI, Elliott, Starboard and Third Point.
7:45 am Conference Host: Shearman & Sterling LLP: Cynthia Urda Kassis, Partner, Head of Project Development & Finance | Lead Coordinator for Mining & Metals
Cynthia Urda Kassis has decades of experience representing sponsors/borrowers as well as providers of finance in project, finance and joint-venture transactions worldwide, with extensive experience in the mining industry, as well as in infrastructure and energy. For her impact in the space she has been a three-time recipient of the “Project Finance Lawyer of the Year” award by Who’s Who Legal. Cynthia’s notable work in the mining space includes the representation of: (i) Orion and Blackstone in the financing of Lundin Gold’s $1B+ Fruta Del Norte Project in Ecuador; (ii) Orion Mine Finance on its acquisition of Occidental Petroleum’s Wyoming, Colorado and Utah Land Grant assets for about $1.33 billion and the financing thereof; (iii) Société Générale and ING on the structured acquisition financing of Cobalt 27 and (iv) Nevada Copper on the development and financing of its Pumpkin Hollow Underground Copper Project.
7:50 am Opening Remarks: Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME): David Kanagy, Executive Director; SME: Marc LeVier, President, 2023-24; SME Foundation: Thomas Rauch, President
Dave L. Kanagy, CAE, is Executive Director of Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME). Since joining SME in 2004, Dave Kanagy has been largely responsible for the Society’s success. Focusing on growth, innovation and opportunity, SME has become the world’s largest mining related organization. He is the recipient of two prestigious awards including the Colorado Society of Association Executives’ Professional of the Year award and the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America’s Gold Medal award. He has a B.S. degree in industrial education from the University of Maryland, a M.S. degree in technology education from Eastern Illinois University and is a certified association executive by the American Society of Association Executives.
Marc LeVier became the 2023 SME President on March 1, 2023 at the conclusion of the MINEXCHANGE 2023 SME Annual Conference & Expo in Denver, CO. LeVier, a 53-year member of the Society, spent the majority of his career with Newmont as senior director of metallurgical research and development, where he played an integral role in rebuilding the Newmont research and development (R&D) team. The R&D team was responsible for leading Newmont Gold Company’s development of gold mines in Nevada. The mine-development successes came at a critical time in Newmont’s history and allowed Newmont to rebuild internationally to Newmont Mining Corporation.
Tom Rauch, President of SME Foundation, is President of McCarl’s Technical Services, the professional services business unit of McCarl’s, a 77-year-old heavy industrial contractor. Tom holds a BS in Mining Engineering (focused in Mineral Processing) and a second BS in Energy Business and Finance (focused in Commodity Finance) both from Penn State and is a Professional Engineer in the state of Nevada. Prior to joining McCarl’s, Tom worked in engineering and finance positions for Black Mountain, Kappes Cassiday & Associates, Jacobs, and Taggart Global. Tom’s career has focused on EPC (Engineering, Procurement, & Construction) project delivery in the mining, metals, and chemical sectors focusing on taking projects from engineering through construction, startup and performance guarantee. Tom also serves the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Foundation as President-Elect.
8:00 am I.1. A Deep Dive on Mining’s Financial Trends: Global Profit Forecasts, Spending Plans, and Credit Quality: Keynote
I.1.1. S&P Global Ratings: Donald Marleau, CFA, Senior Director, Sector Lead, Metals and Capital Goods
Don Marleau is Sector Lead for Metals and Capital Goods at S&P Global Ratings, providing analytical leadership for credit research in the global metals and mining and capital goods industries. As Sector Lead, Don is responsible for ratings quality, industry-level credit themes and commentary and outreach to investors. Don has covered issuers in various materials industries since 2000, serving as a global coordinator for metals and mining since 2008. Don holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
8:25 am I.2. Key Trends: Overcoming Challenges and Disruptions Impacting Financing Mines Today: Roundtable
Over the past two years, interest rates have increased up to 5%, pushing borrowing costs to its highest level since 2007. What are the choices for capital intensive mining projects? Capital financing options include bank debt, private investors debt or equity, equity financing, or business bonds. Alternative financing options including royalty, streaming, and offtake agreements. How does a mining company minimize its cost of capital while developing mines to maintain production levels? We will look at financing from various perspectives with commercial banks, private equity, and royalty and streaming as sources. We will present the options and outlook for a producing mining company.
I.2.1. SLR Consulting: Richard J. Lambert, MBA, P.E., P.Eng. Technical Director, U.S. Mining Advisory (Ch)
I.2.2. Teck Resources: Nicholas Hooper, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development & Exploration
I.2.3. Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking: Alvaro Belevan, Senior Director
I.2.4. Orion Resource Partners: Jon Lamb, Portfolio Manager
I.2.5. Royal Gold Corporation: Alistair Baker, Vice President, Investor Relations and Business Development
Rick Lambert is Technical Director, U.S. Mining Advisory for SLR Consulting and is responsible for operations of the company's U.S. mining consulting practice. He is a senior mining executive with more than 40 years of experience in all aspects of mine development from permitting to closure. His experience includes development and operation of open pit mines, start-ups, preparation and implementation of feasibility studies, due diligence, M&A, and management consulting. He was employed by Fortune 500 mining companies for the first 17 years of his career including Phelps Dodge, Kennecott, NERCO and Exxon Minerals. Since then, Rick has been providing mining contracting and consulting services. He has been involved with over 120 mining properties around the world. He has led teams of mining experts in reserve audits for major mining companies and been involved as the independent engineer on many large mining project financings over US$1 billion including Esperanza, Antucoya, Caserones, Quebrada Blanca, and Constancia.
Nicholas Hooper was appointed Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Exploration in February 2022. He joined Teck in September 2020 and has many years of experience in financing and M&A transactions in the mining sector along with extensive knowledge across a wide range of commodities, jurisdictions and corporate strategies. Prior to joining Teck he worked for Rothschild & Co, where he was Managing Director, Investment Banking, based in Toronto. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Western Ontario.
Alvaro Belevan heads Société Générale’s business development in Latin America, extending the bank’s global platform in metals and mining finance and advisory. Alvaro is responsible for originating and structuring corporate, project, trade and acquisition financing transactions as well as leading debt advisory mandates in support of mine development and operating companies in Latin America. Alvaro has been a financier to the mining sector since 1997 in a number of roles including corporate finance, merchant banking and principal investing at Citigroup, Macquarie Bank and RMB Resources (a division of First Rand Bank) and now SG. He also managed business development projects at Meridian Gold, a North American gold mining company. Alvaro holds a BBA from EU Business School and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Jonathon Lamb is a Portfolio Manager at Orion Resources. Prior to Orion, Jonathon was an Investment Manager for the Red Kite Group's Mine Finance business. Before joining Red Kite in 2012, he worked for five years in Deutsche Bank's Metals & Mining Investment Banking group. He was one of the founding members of that team in New York. He has worked on a variety of debt and equity financing as well as M&A transactions for clients across the base metals, precious metals, coal and steel sectors. Jonathon graduated with a BA from the College of William and Mary majoring in Government and Finance.
Alistair Baker, Vice President, Investor Relations and Business Development, Royal Gold Corp. has over 20 years of technical and financial experience in the mining business where he developed expertise in finance, capital markets, business development and corporate strategy. He joined Royal Gold in 2015 as Director, Business Development and served in that role until 2020 when he was appointed Vice President, Investor Relations and Business Development. Mr. Baker started his career in mining with a focus on geotechnical engineering, and has held positions in financial services and operating companies. Alistair holds a BASc in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the University of British Columbia, and is a registered Professional Engineer in the Province of British Columbia.
9:10 am I.3. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE): Three U.S. DOE Senior Officials’ View of the U.S. DOE Spectrum: Innovation to Commercialization to Support Energy Transformation: Current and Future Opportunities to Identify and Promote Research & Development and That Will Deliver the Resources to Reach a Carbon-Free Future: Keynote
This panel will provide the scale and scope of DOE’s approach to innovation, technology, and funding through technology readiness levels and the current state of analysis on supply chain dynamics related to critical mineral development required for the renewable energy transition. The Department of Energy is currently supporting efforts to address high-impact opportunities and challenges across the entire life cycle of critical minerals and materials for energy technologies. The United States lacks a strong domestic supply of many minerals and materials which will be critical to a decarbonized energy infrastructure as well as current manufacturing technologies. The lack of a secure domestic supply of these minerals poses a significant supply chain risk for the United States, especially with regard to batteries, renewable generation, and transmission.
This roundtable will provide an overview of current and future opportunities to identify and promote research and development and, more recently, demonstration and deployment opportunities that will deliver the resources to reach a carbon-free future. New funding created a renewed push for commercially scalable technologies to reduce emissions and increase resource access with a targeted focus on the public-private partnerships. This panel will discuss the importance of technology development from high-risk, high-reward through debt financing that will shape our energy future and the awareness of gaps and bottle necks throughout the supply chain.
I.4.1. U.S. Department of Energy: Zack Valdez, Ph.D., Chief of Staff, Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (Ch)
I.4.2. U.S. Department of Energy: Grant Bromhal, Ph.D, Senior Fellow for Geosciences, National Energy Technology Lab (NETL)
I.4.3. U.S. Department of Energy: Othon Monteiro, Ph.D., Technology to Market Advisor - Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)
Zack Valdez, Chief of Staff, Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains, U.S. Department of Energy. Prior to joining the Manufacturing Energy Supply Chain Office as Chief of Staff, Zack Valdez developed strategy for diversity, equity, inclusion, and future workforce policy at the Office of Advanced Manufacturing within the National Institutes of Standards and Technology. Dr. Valdez has extensive experience with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math outreach and engagement with national non-profits. He is also an alumni of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology Policy Fellowship, where he served on the Energy and National Resources Committee of the U.S. Senate. Zack received his academic degrees in his native state of Texas with a Ph.D. from Baylor University and Engineering and Physics B.S. degrees from St. Mary’s University.
Dr. Grant S. Bromhal is the Senior Science Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Resource Sustainability. He is also the Acting Director of the Mineral Sustainability Division in DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, where he leads a team to facilitate an environmentally, economically, and geopolitically sustainable supply chain of critical minerals, particularly coming from unconventional and secondary sources. He recently joined DOE HQ after over 20 years at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), where he was the Senior Fellow focusing on Geological and Environmental Sciences, and the Technical Director of the Science-informed Machine Learning for Accelerating Real-Time Decisions in Subsurface Applications (SMART) Initiative. He has led research teams that perform R&D in carbon storage, environmental impacts of oil and gas recovery, geothermal energy, and related topics. Dr. Bromhal earned his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and bachelor’s degrees in Civil Engineering and Math from West Virginia University. He is the recipient of an R&D100 Award for Innovation, a U.S. Department of Energy Secretary’s Achievement Honor Award, and a U.S. Geological Survey Director’s Award for Exemplary Service to the Nation.
Dr. Othon Monteiro serves as Technology-to-Market Advisor at the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) where he supports the transition of breakthrough energy technologies from concept to commercial markets. With a PhD from the University of California – Berkeley and an MBA from McCombs Business School (University of Texas – Austin) Monteiro has extensive engineering experience in materials engineering, advanced materials, process development, and new product deployment. At ARPA-E he provides commercialization support to Programs in mining and energy industries.
10:00 am I.4. Intended and Unintended Consequences of U.S., Canadian and Other Government Incentives: Roundtable
The panel will discuss and consider key highlights of recent government incentives, and proposed incentives, such as those in the United States in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and involvement of the US Department of Energy and Department of Defense; and similar actions taken in Canada and the European Union. What are the impacts of these incentives on project development in U.S., Canada and the European Union and elsewhere; How much will they “move the needle”? How might these incentives affect market dynamics for the targeted commodities and or businesses? What additional guidance is anticipated or would the market benefit from having regarding these incentives? What is the expected timing for any anticipated additional guidance?
I.4.1. Shearman & Sterling LLP: Cynthia Urda Kassis, Global Project Development & Finance Practice Group Leader, Lead Industry Coordinator for Metals & Mining (Ch)
I.4.2. FTI Consulting: Bertrand Troiano, Managing Director, Power, Renewables and Energy Transition industry practice
I.4.3. Shearman & Sterling LLP: Jorge Medina, Head of Renewables – Americas
I.4.4. Torys LLP: Braden Jebson, Partner, Metals and Mining Group
Cynthia Urda Kassis has decades of experience representing sponsors/borrowers as well as providers of finance in project, finance and joint-venture transactions worldwide, with extensive experience in the mining industry, as well as in infrastructure and energy. For her impact in the space she has been a three-time recipient of the “Project Finance Lawyer of the Year” award by Who’s Who Legal. Cynthia’s notable work in the mining space includes the representation of: (i) Orion and Blackstone in the financing of Lundin Gold’s $1B+ Fruta Del Norte Project in Ecuador; (ii) Orion Mine Finance on its acquisition of Occidental Petroleum’s Wyoming, Colorado and Utah Land Grant assets for about $1.33 billion and the financing thereof; (iii) Société Générale and ING on the structured acquisition financing of Cobalt 27 and (iv) Nevada Copper on the development and financing of its Pumpkin Hollow Underground Copper Project.
Bertrand Troiano is a member of the Power, Renewables & Energy Transition (“PRET”) industry practice. His expertise is strategic advisory, restructuring, valuation and due diligence in cyclical and capital-intensive industries. He has extensive experience in M&A, financial restructuring and operational turnaround in complex and fast growth environments in multiple geographies, and engaging with key stakeholders in complex situations, including governments and sovereign funds. Mr. Troiano has close to 20 years of management and advisory experience across large and small companies in energy, metals and mining, commodity trading, specialty chemicals and packaging. Prior to joining FTI, Mr. Troiano worked for Rio Tinto and Alcan in the United States, Canada, Continental Europe, United Kingdom and China. At FTI Consulting, Mr. Troiano has led engagements globally in energy, construction materials, steel, metals, mining, commodity trading, automotive components and EV battery materials, recycling, drilling, manufacturing and chemical industries, including: M&A advisory, Chief Restructuring Officer, operational turnaround, commodity pricing, industry and market analyses, financial and operational due diligence, and company valuations. He has advised corporations and investors on energy transition strategies, and bespoke solutions ranging from material sourcing to new capital investments. Prior to joining FTI, Mr. Troiano was Vice President Business Analysis, Finance Director and Chief Financial Officer with Rio Tinto. He began his career at Total S.A. in financial analysis and business development with a specialty chemicals business in the United States and Germany. After this, he worked in corporate banking with BNP-Paribas in Tokyo where he was responsible for the European clients’ portfolio, developing structured finance products and enhancing the bank’s profitability in Japan. Mr. Troiano holds a MSc. in Accounting, Finance and Business/Management from ESCP Business School in Paris, France and the University of Berlin, Germany. He also holds a dual M.B.A. from Columbia University in New York and the London Business School.
Jorge Medina, partner in the Project Development & Finance practice and Head of Renewables (Americas) at Shearman & Sterling, focuses on federal tax policy and controversy issues involving renewable energy and energy transition assets and he has extensive experience structuring tax-driven transactions. Jorge manages the execution of tax equity and debt transactions and represents both sponsors and tax equity investors in the energy sector in connection with energy storage, wind, solar, hydrogen, renewable natural gas, carbon capture, geothermal, biofuels and electric vehicle infrastructure projects. He is deeply familiar with all forms of tax equity structures, having closed dozens of partnership flip, lease pass-through and sale-leaseback transactions. Prior to joining the firm, he was co-leader of energy renewables and infrastructure at his prior law firm. He also previously served as associate general counsel-tax at automotive and energy company Tesla Inc., where he was primarily responsible for all tax issues across Tesla related to the energy and storage business and served as vice president and deputy general counsel at SolarCity, which Tesla purchased in 2016.
Braden Jebson is a partner in Torys Mining and Metals Group, and practices corporate and securities law, with an emphasis on public and private M&A and corporate finance. His practice focuses on the mining and metals sector, with particular experience in royalty and streaming finance transactions, inter-jurisdictional transactions and joint ventures.
10:45 am Refreshment Break (available 9:45 am until 11:15 am)
Sponsors Reyna Gold and Reyna Silver
10:55 am I.5. Where Are We in the Mining & Metals' Cycle? What is the Outlook for Commodities, Precious, Critical, Base, Battery and Other Metals? Metals Pricing Trends & Outlook: What’s Different? Roundtable
Hear four expert analysts discuss key macro trends, issues and recent developments impacting global metals supply chains, the outlook and drivers of industrial, agricultural, precious and battery and energy metals and steel prices and supply and demand.
I.5.1. The World Bank: John Baffes, Senior Economist, Macroeconomics, Trade & Investment (Ch)
I.5.2. CPM Group: Jeffrey Christian, Managing Partner (Ch)
I.5.3. HSBC Bank: James Steel, Chief Precious Metals Analyst
I.5.4. World Steel Dynamics: Philipp Englin, CEO
John Baffes is a member of the World Bank’s Prospects Group, heads the Commodities Unit and is in charge of the Commodity Markets Outlook, a World Bank publication focusing on commodity market analysis and price forecasts. John’s experience spans several regions and units, including Latin America, South Asia, East Africa, Evaluation, and Research. John specializes in the areas of commodity markets analysis and resource economics. John, whose work appears in media outlets and academic journals, is also teaching an executive MBA course on Applied Econometrics for Commodity Markets. Prior to entering graduate school, John managed a commodity trading company. He holds a degrees in Economics from the University of Athens, Greece (BS), University of Georgia, U.S. (MS), and University of Maryland, U.S. (PhD).
Jeffrey Christian is Managing Partner of CPM Group, a precious metals and commodities research and consulting firm. He founded CPM Group in 1986 when he bought the Commodities Research Group he managed from J. Aron and Goldman Sachs. He is a globally recognized authority on the markets for precious metals and is well known for his application of economics and econometrics across commodities markets. He has written two books, Commodities Rising in 2005 and World Guide to Battery-Powered Road Transportation in 1979. He also is well known for his financial engineering work using commodities derivatives both for hedging and investment purposes and has worked with numerous governments, central banks, mining companies, industrial companies, investment banks, and institutional investors.
James Steel is HSBC’s Chief Precious Metals Analyst. He joined HSBC in May 2006. Previously Jim ran the New York research department for Refco, a large US commodities brokerage house, specializing in energy and metals. He also worked for The Economist in the Economist Intelligence Unit covering commodity producing nations and on the Middle East desk. His primary duties at HSBC include the production of daily market reports, including long term outlooks for the precious metals markets. These include supply/demand and price forecasts, as well as qualitative analyses. He is a frequent speaker at commodities related conferences. He is often quoted in the financial media and frequently appears on Bloomberg and CNBC. He is an economist by training and studied economics at undergraduate and graduate levels in London and New York.
Philipp Englin, CEO of World Steel Dynamics, joined World Steel Dynamics in 2008 after his career spanning roles in Engineering and Corporate Strategy functions. Philipp worked closely with WSD’s Founders as CEO for over a decade, before taking over WSD’s day to day operations. Along with WSD’s highly capable team of Senior Practitioners and Analysts, Philipp authors WSD’s breakthrough Information Service reports while leading efforts across the full range of WSD products and services from its Consulting/Advisory practice to WSD’s premier industry conferences. Mr. Englin holds bachelors degrees in mechanical engineering & philosophy from Carnegie Mellon University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Pittsburgh.
11:40 am I.6. A Current Perspective about Critical Minerals re Economics and Policy: Roundtable
Critical minerals and materials are those that provide essential functionality to engineered materials, components and systems and, in addition are subject to short-term supply chains risks or concerns about long-term availability. For emerging energy technologies, these include for example: rare earths for magnets in electric motors; lithium, nickel, manganese, cobalt and others for energy storage; platinum-group elements for catalysts, electrolyzers and fuel cells; and gallium, indium and tellurium for photovoltaics and other electronics. (Whether copper should be on the official US list of critical minerals is an issue of recent discussion.) The economic and public-policy contexts have changed dramatically over the last five years or so - as policy makers and the public have questioned hyper-globalization, been confronted with heightened geopolitical tensions and war, and demonstrated more support for active industrial policy than at any time since the 1970s.
I.6.1. Colorado School of Mines: Roderick G. Eggert, Professor of Economics & Business, Coulter Foundation Chair in Mineral Economics, and Deputy Director, Critical Materials Institute (Ch)
I.6.2. Columbia University: Robert Johnston, Executive Director, Center on Global Energy Policy
I.6.3. Greyfriars LLC: Matthew D. Zolnowski, President
I.6.4. GreenMet: Drew Horn, President
Roderick G. Eggert (Ch) is Viola Vestal Coulter Foundation Chair in Mineral Economics at Colorado School of Mines, where he has taught since 1986. He also is Deputy Director of the Critical Materials Institute, an energy innovation hub (research consortium, led by the Ames Laboratory) established by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2013 to accelerate innovation in energy materials. He chairs the Independent Advisory Board of the UKRI Circular Economy Centre for Technology Metals (United Kingdom) and serves on the Advisory Board of the international Rare Earth Industry Association. His research and teaching focus on mineral economics and public policy. He chaired the U.S. National Research Council committee that wrote the 2008 book Minerals, Critical Minerals, and the US Economy (National Academies Press). He has testified on mineral issues to committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the Canadian House of Commons and European Parliament. He has a B.A. in earth sciences from Dartmouth College, a M.S. in geochemistry and mineralogy from Penn State University, and a Ph.D. in mineral economics also from Penn State.
Robert (“RJ”) Johnston is Executive Director at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. RJ was most recently the founder and Managing Director of the Eurasia Group’s Energy, Climate, and Resources practice, and served as the firm’s CEO from 2013 to 2018. At the Eurasia Group, RJ worked closely with corporate and institutional investor clients in the oil and gas, mining, electric power, and clean tech sectors. Prior to joining Eurasia Group, RJ served as managing director of equity research at Medley Global Advisors, where he was responsible for providing political and strategic insights to clients in the institutional investment community and served as the lead analyst for global energy equities. RJ, in addition, was a research director at UBS Warburg Energy, working directly in support of energy trading. And he previously directed internal research teams supporting oil, LNG, metals, and FX trading at Enron Global Markets. Earlier, at ArmorGroup, RJ directed political risk research for corporate clients in a variety of markets including China, Russia, Colombia, and Indonesia. Recent notable achievements include published contributions to the World Energy Council, Harvard University Belfer Center, the National Petroleum Council, the International Gas Union, and the Canadian Energy Research Institute. He participates regularly in industry policy development initiatives including the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers Oil Sands Dialogue, the Brookings Institution Task Forces on US Crude Oil and LNG Exports, the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum Abu Dhabi, and PwC Energy Visions, among others. RJ is a member of the Trilateral Commission and was a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center from 2017 to 2021. RJ holds a doctorate in international relations from American University, a master’s degree in political science from McMaster University, and a bachelor’s degree in political studies from Bishop’s University.
Matthew D. Zolnowski founded Greyfriars LLC to accelerate the development of new sources of supply and guide investment and sustainment professionals through increasingly volatile supply chain conditions. Greyfriars is a deal pathfinder, integrating complex project, acquisition, and capital schedules. Mr. Zolnowski most recently served as a Highly Qualified Expert at the U.S. Department of Defense, dual-hatted as a Special Advisor for Strategic Materials and a Portfolio Manager for Defense Production Act investments. For the latter, Mr. Zolnowski managed more than $1 billion, covering public health and materials projects. Previously, Mr. Zolnowski was a Deputy Program Manager at Alion Science & Technology, supporting the U.S. National Defense Stockpile and mining clients. Mr. Zolnowski is a graduate of the University of Chicago (B.A. History) and King’s College London (M.A. War Studies).
Drew Horn is the former top US official on strategic minerals and energy supply chain development. He is a highly regarded business leader and has served in the highest leadership assignments at The White House, Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and the US Departments of Energy and Defense. Prior to US Government service he was a strategic management consultant at one of the Big Four consulting firms. He served as an Officer with distinction in the U.S. Army Special Forces and the U.S. Marine Corps. where he gained on-the-ground international minerals experience while serving in combat. He earned his MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. His expertise, knowledge and contacts are unmatched in this industry.
12:25 pm Keynote Speaker Lunch – Sponsor Government of Quebec
12:30 I.7.1. Introduction: Martine Hébert, Delegate General of Québec in New York, Québec Government Office in New York
Martine Hébert was appointed Quebec’s Delegate General in New York on August 16, 2021. In this capacity, she is responsible for promoting Québec’s interests in the 8 states comprising the Mid Atlantic region. Previously, she served as Quebec’s Delegate in Chicago. As an experienced economist, she is well-known to economic development stakeholders, policy makers and the media, and has built her career at prominent public and private organizations in both Québec and Canada. A seasoned expert on government relations and the business community, she has contributed to the economic development of Québec and Canada by serving for 10 years as senior vice-president and national spokesperson for Canada’s largest SME group, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). Prior to that, she held various positions, including strategic advisor, manager, administrator and policy advisor. In April 2015, the renowned Les Affaires magazine also named her one of the six most influential personalities in Québec in the field of public affairs. She holds a master’s degree in economics, has authored the book ‘Les secrets du lobbying’ and gave the first course on government relations at Université de Montréal where she was awarded an honorary degree in 2010 in recognition of her outstanding career.
I.7.2. Keynote Speech: Nathalie Camden, Associate Deputy Minister of Mines, Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests (MRNF)
Nathalie Camden has been Associate Deputy Minister of Mines at the Ministère des Ressources naturelles et des Forêts since June 2018. Ms. Camden began her career in the Québec public service in 1992 at the Ministère de l’Énergie et des Ressources naturelles, where she was promoted to Director of Aboriginal Affairs in 1998. She has held several management positions in different sectors of this ministry (Forestry and Mining) and was Associate Deputy Minister of Wildlife from 2009 to 2014. From 2015 to 2017, she served as Assistant Secretary to the Northern Development Secretariat and the Société du Plan Nord, where she actively participated in the creation of the latter as a strategic advisor to the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Société. From June 2017 to June 2018, she was Assistant Deputy Minister of Business Partnerships and Customer Services at the Ministère du Tourisme. Ms. Camden obtained her bachelor’s degree in political science from Université Laval in 1987, with a specialization in American politics and economics from Assumption College in Worcester, United States. She completed a certificate in administration in 1995 at Université Laval.
I.7.3. Panel Discussion: Critical and Strategic Minerals Supply Chains in Québec: When Government Policies and Strategies Make It Happen
With all the financial tools and coordinated action that it puts in place, we can say that the Government of Québec has built a unique business environment favorable to mining project development with a strong focus on the critical and strategic minerals sector. During this panel, we will learn about those tools and actions put in place by the MRNF and SPN, and hear the testimony of a Québec mining company, Vior, that benefits from it.
I.7.3.1. Moderator: Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests (MRNF), Jonathan Lafontaine, Strategic Advisor for Mining Exploration and Promotion
I.7.3.2. Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests (MRNF): Jocelyn Douhéret, Director of Mining Policies
I.7.3.3. Société du Plan Nord (SPN): Ian Morissette, Vice President for Sustainable Development and Partnership in the Northern Territory
I.7.3.4. Exploration Mining Fund - to be announced
I.7.3.5. Vior Inc.: Laurent Eustache, Executive Vice President,
Jonathan Lafontaine started his current role as the Mining exploration activity monitor for the ministère des Ressources naturelles et des Forêts in August 2020. Mr Lafontaine graduated with a B.Sc. in geology from Laval University in 2001 including an academic exchange with the University of Alberta, and graduated with a M.Sc. in geology from the University of New Brunswick in 2007. He began his professional career in Saskatchewan for a uranium exploration and mining company and pursued professional interests as a geologist in New Brunswick, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Among his successes, he contributed to the discovery of the Matoush project, Quebec’s discovery of the year in 2008, which helped him convince the IAEA to now recognize it as a new deposit type. Between 2013 and 2020, he has assumed several different roles in the fields of corporate development and mining investments, and he managed technical committees in the field of hydrogen standardization at both the international and Canadian levels for ISO and SCC respectively, with hydrogen a significant path in the field in electrification. Since the beginning of his career, he has been involved with several commodities and numerous projects representing the entire mineral development process. Mr Lafontaine is a registered professional in Québec, du New-Brunswick and Saskatchewan.
Jocelyn Douhéret, Director, Mining Policies, Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests, joined the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests as Director of the Mining Policies Office in February 2023. Previously, he worked more than 6 years as Director of the Marketing Office at Société du Plan Nord. Mr Douhéret also held different positions during 10 years in the mining sector as General Manager of an environmental services company, then as Director and Vice President of Business Development for a company offering services and equipment. From 1998 to 2006, he worked for Québec companies on industrial development projects in Eastern Europe, Latin America as well as Canada, particularly in the fields of natural resources, energy, and environment. Mr. Douhéret began his career in 1996 as a scientific attaché at the French Embassy in Slovakia. He is a graduate of ENESAD (Dijon, France, 1994) and holds a master’s degree in science from Université Laval (Québec, Canada,1996).
Mr. Ian Morissette is Vice President for Sustainable Development and Partnerships in the Northern Territory at the Société du Plan Nord. His mandate includes contributing to the integrated and sustainable development of Québec's northern territory by working closely with regional and local representatives, Indigenous communities, and the private sector. A senior executive and diplomat with extensive experience, he has been Assistant Deputy Minister at the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications, Delegate for Francophone and Multilateral Affairs for Québec in Paris, and Director of Political and Public Affairs at the Québec Government Office in London. Mr. Morissette holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and a Master's degree in International Relations from the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Laurent Eustache, GEO., MSC., MBA is Executive Vice President at VIOR Inc. Mr. Eustache has held a number of progressive positions in the mining industry over the past 15 years. As an exploration geologist, Mr. Eustache has contributed to different exploration successes; with Aurizon Mines at their Casa Berardi mine in Abitibi, and with Agnico-Eagle Mines with the early-stage recon of the Amaruq area in Nunavut. Since 2014, he has held positions in mining finance both as Portfolio Manager and Investment Advisor for SIDEX, a Quebec based institutional fund specializing in mining exploration Companies. Mr. Eustache holds a Master’s degree in Economic Geology from Université d’Orléans (FR) and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and an MBA with Honours from École des sciences de la gestion of Université du Québec à Montréal (ESG-UQAM) and Paris Dauphine (FR).
1:35 pm I.8. Current State of China Affairs, Geopolitics and Impact on the Global Minerals Supply Chains: Roundtable
I.8.1. Global Mining Capital: Keith Spence, CEO and Partner (Ch)
I.8.2. RPMGlobal: Phillipe Baudry, Executive General Manager, Advisory Services
I.8.3. Independent Director: John King Burns, Principal
I.8.4. Eval Minerals: Andre Gauthier, President
I.8.5. Roc Global LLC: John Zhang, Managing Director
Keith Spence is an award-winning mining thought leader. He is CEO and Partner of Global Mining Capital. The company is engaged in Private Equity Investments and M&A globally. The company has extensive funding relationships with its partners in Asia. Mr. Spence is Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the “world recognized” Canadian Mining Valuation Standards and Guidelines for mining projects; which is referenced by the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX-V), the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Singapore Stock Exchange. He was CEO of Alliance Pacific Resources, which explored for gold and base metals in western China. He has been quoted in the media and has written extensively on China’s international mining investments. A field geologist; he held positions in Capital Markets and Investment Banking at RBC Capital Markets, Scotia Bank and BMO Capital Markets. He received the CIM Distinguished Lecturer Award, the SME Mineral Economics Award (USA), the PDAC Distinguished Award, Robert Elver Mineral Economics Award for outstanding contributions to Canadian mineral economics and received the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal Award, for contributions to Canada. A Commonwealth Scholar; he is a graduate of the Global Management program at Harvard University, has an Honors B.Sc. in Geology from Western University and an MBA from the Ivey School of Business.
Philippe Baudry, Executive General Manager, Advisory Services has over 25 years of industry experience across the globe. Upon joining RPMGlobal Philippe has successfully build the group’s advisory business in Asia and Europe before taking executive ownership of all Advisory Services for RPMGlobal with over 140 staff across 23 offices. In 2021 Philippe expanded the capabilities of the RPM Advisory Services through the acquisition of a number of ESG service firms to deliver a pure play mining ESG business aimed at broadening the support provided to RPM’s mining clients. His career began as a geologist in open cut and underground operations in Western Australia, followed by three years developing large porphyry copper projects in Russia and 13 years in China working on outbound M&A for Chinese state-owned and private enterprises. For over a decade Philippe has worked closely with leading financial institutions across Australasia, America and Europe on transactions ranging from Due Diligences to IPO’s and has gained detailed understanding of the requirements of both investors and banks in regards to public technical report requirements and listing processes on various financial exchanges. For the past 10 years Philippe has been closely involved in most of RPM’s mandates for project financings in Turkey, Africa and Australia as lenders engineer for leading European and American banks, global ECLA's and private equity financiers, with whom Philippe has developed close relationships. Through this work Philippe has gained a deep insight into debt financing processes and requirements including IFC PS and EP4 requirements. Most recently Philippe has led RPM’s relationships with leading battery cell and car manufacturers and is involved with both technical reviews and supplier onboarding for these organisations including assessment of projects against the IRMA frameworks adopted by most OEM’s. Philippe holds a Bachelor of Science Mineral Exploration and Mining Geology, an Associate Diploma of Geoscience, a Graduate Certificate of Geostatistics and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientist (“MAIG”). He meets the requirements for Qualified Person (“QP”) for 43-101, UMREK and SGX reporting, and Competent Person (“CP”) for JORC and HKEx reporting for most metalliferous Mineral Resources.
John King Burns has extensive experience in managing risk and financing resource projects in the exploration, development and production stages, in the Americas and across the globe. Previously, Mr. Burns served as a non-executive, independent director of China Gold International Resources (TSX, HKEX), the affiliate of China National Gold Group. He also previously served as Chairman of Athabasca Potash (TSX.V), as Chairman of Dolly Varden Silver (TSX.V), as a director of Corazon Gold (TSX.V), as Chairman of Titan Goldworx Resources (CNSX), and as Chairman of Northern Orion Explorations (TSX). Mr. Burns is former Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Drexel Burnham Lambert Commodity Group in New York, London and Chicago; former Managing Director and Global Head of the Derivative Trading and Finance Group of Barclays Metals Group, Barclays Bank PLC in London; and former Managing Director of Frontier Risk Management LLC, a grains and livestock focused CTA, in Chicago. Mr. Burns serves as lead director and an audit committee member for a number of private venture focused companies. Mr. Burns was born and resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Andre Gauthier has over 47 years of experience in the Mining Exploration field and has worked in over 35 countries. Andre is currently leading EVAL MINERALS, his private company involved in mineral investment and advisory. He has lived and worked in China for several years. He has worked with Soquem, Falconbridge, Noramco and Cambior Inc. Andre has been president of Maxy Gold Corp. (China), Inca Pacific Resources Inc, Lara Exploration and Gold Holding Lid. He has been interim Managing Director and CEO of Gold Holding Ltd, headquartered in Dubai (UAE). He has a BSC in Geology Eng and Msc from UQAC (Chicoutimi) and is active member and leader of many mining and professional organizations (Canada, Peru, UAE and China). André was involved in many Gold and Copper discoveries and opportunities acquisition; including in Peru, Canada, Mexico, Argentina and China. He was also involved in the creation of the Lima Venture Capital Exchange (part of BVL). Andre is currently leading EVAL MINERALS, his private company involved in mineral investment and advisory.
John Zhang is a managing director at Roc Global LLC, a NY-based investment bank focused on metals and mining sector. John has over 30 years of experience in capital markets and investment banking businesses. At Roc Global, he has been involved with and successfully executed a variety of capital formation and M&A transactions. He is also responsible for liaising with Asian institutional investors. Before joining Roc Global, John was a founding partner at a global macro hedge fund. He also served as a managing director at several Wall Street firms in the US, Europe, and Asia, and on the investment committee of Fairfield County’s Community Foundation. John graduated summa cum laude in mathematics and economics from University of Rochester, and holds a master’s degree in Finance from Wharton School.
1:35 pm I.8A. Having Your Smart Phone and Using It Too: How to Address NIMBY Issues for Miners and All of Us: Roundtable
In the era of critical minerals frenzy, everybody recognizes the need for these minerals in our everyday lives but nobody wants any mine remotely close to where they live. The goal of the panel, in the form of a fireside chat, is to showcase some really good examples of how mining companies in Qc (or from Qc) have tackled stakeholder and community engagement to make them part of the project rather than against it. What are the challenges and pitfalls? What is the best way to tackle them? What has worked and what has not worked? Lessons learned and word from the wise.
I.8A.1. Fasken: Frank Mariage, Senior, Partner (Ch)
I.8A.2. Lomiko Metals Inc.: Belinda Labatte, Chief Executive Officer and Director
I.8A.3. Osisko Metals Inc.: Robert Wares, Chairman and CEO
I.8A.4. NioBay Metals: Jean-Sébastien David, CEO, President, Director
Frank Mariage practices in the areas of securities, corporate law and mining law. Over the course of his career, he has developed legal expertise on mining issues. Frank represents mining companies and guides them during the discovery, sale, and processing of mineral deposits, in Canada and elsewhere. He specializes in the legal issues and challenges faced by mining companies. Frank’s expertise is recognized in Canada and he continues to be listed as a leading mining lawyer by a number of legal directories that rank the country’s best firms and lawyers. In 2018 and 2019 (and again in 2023), Frank was designated by Best Lawyers in Canada as Lawyer of the Year in Natural Resource Law and Mining Law, respectively. In 2023, Frank was listed in the Lexpert ALM 500 Directory as a “most frequently recommended lawyer” in the area of mining. Frank is Chairman of the Board of the Diversification of Exploration Investment Partnership (SIDEX), a major player in the financing of exploration projects in Quebec. He was Chairman of the Board of the Québec Mineral Exploration Association from 2014 to 2018 and sits on several boards of directors of mining companies. He also delivers seminars on behalf of the TSX Venture Exchange on how to manage a publicly traded company and is a member of the Local Advisory Board of this Exchange.
Belinda Labatte, CFA, MBA, ICD.D, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Lomiko Metals has more than 15 years of senior management experience in mining and the extractive industry, and 20 years of capital markets experience, including a decade of strategic development, capital markets investment banking experience, stakeholder engagement, and asset acquisition and disposition processes. Her most recent position was Chief Development Officer of Mandalay Resources Corp. Prior to that, Ms. Labatte was the founder and President of her own Company, The Capital Lab Inc., a leading Toronto-based consulting firm. Ms. Labatte is fluent in French, Spanish and German and graduated from the Rotman School of Management with an MBA. She holds the ICD.D designation and is CFA charterholder. Ms. Labatte serves as independent director of Star Royalties Ltd.
Robert Wares, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Osisko Metals, is a professional geologist with over 35 years of experience in mineral exploration and development. He was responsible for the discovery of the Canadian Malartic bulk tonnage gold mine, which was subsequently developed by Osisko Mining Inc. into one of Canada’s largest gold producers. Among other awards, Mr. Wares was a co-winner of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s “Prospector of the Year Award” for 2007, and was named, together with John Burzynski and Sean Roosen as “Mining Men of the Year” for 2009 by the Northern Miner. Mr. Wares sits on the Board of Directors of Brunswick Exploration Inc. Mr. Wares has a Bachelor of Science and an Honorary Doctorate in Earth Sciences from McGill University.
Jean-Sébastien David is President of NioBay Metals since October 2021. He was Chief Operating Officer at Arianne Phosphate Inc, a company working on the development of the Lac à Paul mining project in the Saguenay region. Before joining Arianne Phosphate Inc., Mr. David was Vice President Sustainable Development of Osisko Mining Corporation (2007-2012) where he was instrumental in obtaining the authorizations for the construction and the development of the Canadian Malartic Project. His experience with Arianne Phosphate and Osisko includes project evaluation, consultation and negotiation with regulatory agencies and stakeholders, including First Nations groups as well as the development and implementation of sustainable development policies. He has held various positions in the mining, forestry and environmental operations. After beginining his career with Nutrinor in 1993, he has worked for IAMGOLD, Cambior and Louisiana-Pacific. Mr. David earned a BA in Geology and a Masters in Project Management from the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi.
2:20 pm I.9 Importance & Challenges of Raising Finance for Exploration and Early-Stage Development; What is Different Today for Miners Looking to Raise Capital?
This discussion brings together executives from junior mining, the institutional investment community and the corporate finance and advisory sector to evaluate the nexus between mineral discovery and capital markets. Institutional investors will address the challenges of identifying and valuing the most promising junior companies and projects at the early stages of exploration. Whereas, a frontline exploration executive will share his perspective on the challenges of raising accretive funding for high-risk drill-intensive exploration in a risk-averse market cycle. A finance and market advisory executive will provide insights on bringing a value proposition to issuer companies and a broader investing audience.
I.9.1. Eagle Mines Management: Robert Schafer, President (Ch)
I.9.2. Van Eck Associates Corp., Joe Foster, Gold Strategist
I.9.3. Timberline Resources Corp., Patrick Highsmith, President & Chief Executive Officer, and Fire Fox Gold Corp., Chairman
I.9.4. Red Cloud Mining Capital: Chad Williams, Chairman
Robert W. Schafer is a Registered Professional Geologist with +30 years international experience exploring for mineral deposits and identifying, evaluating and structuring business transactions globally having worked in more than 80 countries on all continents. Mr. Schafer is an active member of SME (President 2020-2021), the PDAC (President 2015-2016), the CIM (President 2013-2014) and the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America (MMSA – President 2005-20066). He was a member of the Board of Governors for the US National Mining Hall of Fame and the Board of Directors of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. He is the only person to hold such leadership roles in both the USA and Canada. Mr. Schafer is the recipient of the William Lawrence Saunders Gold Medal from AIME, as well as the Daniel C. Jackling Award and Robert A. Dreyer Award from SME for technical achievements and leadership in the mining industry during his career. He earned his BSc and MSc degrees in Geology and in Mineral Economics and completed studies toward a PhD in Economic Geology. In addition, he completed the Executive Management program at Stanford University. Mr. Schafer is a Certified Corporate Director (ICD.D) and a Registered Professional Geologist in the States of Wyoming and Utah. He is founder and CEO of Eagle Mines Management and is a member of the Board of Directors of select mining companies.
Joe Foster joined VanEck in 1996 as a precious metals mining analyst, and was Portfolio Manager for VanEck’s Gold Strategy from 1998 to 2023. He also serves as Strategist for VanEck’s Global Resources Strategy. Mr. Foster forecasts and monitors gold-related market conditions and models the asset bases of mining companies with an emphasis on junior developers. Mr. Foster is one of the most experienced investment managers in the field of gold and gold stocks portfolio management, with years of experience in the industry as a geologist and investment manager. Mr. Foster has over 14 years of dedicated experience in geology and mining. From 1992 to 1996, he was a Senior Geologist at Pinson Mining Company, where he managed an on-site geology department and conceived and implemented a comprehensive exploration program on a 35 square-mile land position. His primary responsibility was to find new gold reserves that could extend the life of the mine. In addition, Mr. Foster established an AutoCAD-based geologic information system that incorporated geological, geo-chemical, geophysical, topographic, and drilling data compiled over a 20-year period. From 1988 to 1992, as a Mine Exploration Geologist, Mr. Foster planned and supervised up to 30,000 feet of exploration drilling per year. Prior to 1988, Mr. Foster was an Exploration Geologist with Lacana Gold Inc. in Reno, Nevada. Mr. Foster started his career in 1981 as a summer intern as a geologist for Atlas Mining, an underground uranium mine in Green River, Utah. Mr. Foster received an MS in Geology from the Mackey School of Mines and an MBA from the University of Nevada-Reno. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Geology from Tennessee Technological University. Mr. Foster has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Barron’s, The Wall Street Reporter, Reuters TV, CNBC, Fox News and Bloomberg TV. He has published articles in mining journals, including Mining Engineering, Society of Economic Geology, and Geological Society of Nevada.
Patrick Highsmith has 30 years of international experience in the mining industry, including operational, exploration and business development roles with major companies such as Newmont Mining, BHP, Rio Tinto, and Fortescue Metals Group. He also has significant experience in the more entrepreneurial side of the business, co-founding several junior companies and acting as director or senior executive in several others. His junior company pedigree includes Canadian listed companies such as: Lithium One, Copper One, Bellhaven Copper & Gold, Pure Energy Minerals, and FireFox Gold, for whom he is co-founder and chairman of the board. Patrick holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Geological Engineering and a Master of Science in Economic Geology (Geochemistry) from the Colorado School of Mines. He has specialized technical expertise in gold, copper, and lithium exploration. Gold exploration and mining has constituted a major portion of his career, including deep experience with orogenic, sediment hosted, porphyry, and epithermal gold deposits. He has also worked extensively in porphyry copper deposits. Patrick is passionate about building high-caliber exploration teams and the integration of exploration technologies. Patrick has also led numerous transactions in the mining sector including alliances, joint ventures, strategic investments, off-take agreements, capital market financings, as well as corporate sales and mergers. He has evaluated and worked on several hundred projects in more than 30 countries across a broad range of commodities. He is originally from South Carolina and currently resides in Denver, Colorado in the United States.
Chad Williams P.Eng., Chairman of Red Cloud Mining Capital, has extensive experience in mining finance and management having previously held the positions of CEO of Victoria Gold Corp., Head of Mining Investment Banking at Blackmont Capital Inc. and a top-ranked mining analyst at TD Bank and other Canadian brokerage firms. Mr. Williams has been a Director of several emerging mining companies and was a founder of Agilith Capital Inc. as well as Westwind Capital Inc. Mr. Williams holds both a P.Eng in Mining and an MBA from McGill University.
2:20 pm I.9A. Bringing the Next Generation of Critical Minerals and Battery Metals Facilities Online: Roundtable
This panel of project and technology developers will discuss the issues impacting the next generation of processing facilities required for battery materials (anode, cathode, separator, electrolyte) and other advanced materials. They will discuss their perspective on project development and financing in today's world of compressed schedules, technology development needs, supply chain issues, and permit and licensing challenges.
I.9A.1. McCarl’s Technical Services: Tom Rauch, President (Ch)
I.9A.2. Blue Whale Materials: David Fauvre, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer
I.9A.3. Materia USA: Rabbi Yechezkel "Zeke" Moskowitz, Founder & Chief Visionary Officer
I.9A.4. Piedmont Lithium: Erin Sanders, SVP Corporate Communications
Tom Rauch is President of McCarl’s Technical Services, the professional services business unit of McCarl’s, a 77-year-old heavy industrial contractor. Tom holds a BS in Mining Engineering (focused in Mineral Processing) and a second BS in Energy Business and Finance (focused in Commodity Finance) both from Penn State and is a Professional Engineer in the state of Nevada. Prior to joining McCarl’s, Tom worked in engineering and finance positions for Black Mountain, Kappes Cassiday & Associates, Jacobs, and Taggart Global. Tom’s career has focused on EPC (Engineering, Procurement, & Construction) project delivery in the mining, metals, and chemical sectors focusing on taking projects from engineering through construction, startup and performance guarantee. Finally, Tom is proud to serve the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Foundation as President-Elect.
David Fauvre is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer for Blue Whale Materials, a li-ion battery recycling company providing full lifecycle solutions. He is responsible for development and implementation of the company's corporate strategy, partnerships and business systems. David is an attorney with a varied set of experiences in litigation, commercial and corporate matters from his private practice at an AmLaw 200 firm prior to joining the Company full time. He obtained his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and earned degrees in engineering and political science from Brown University.
Rabbi Yechezkel Moskowitz, a third-generation venture capitalist from Long Island, specializes in high-risk, deep-tech investments. With a track record of successful ventures, he also assists Cherna Moskowitz at the Irving Moskowitz Foundation. Moskowitz holds three rabbinic ordinations, a master's degree in administration, and serves as Synergos Holdings' CEO, incubating startups focused on vertical integration and circular economics. He is developing Materia for unconventional REE and CM extraction and Curio for nuclear waste recycling through NuCycle technology. Additionally, Moskowitz is the president of The Jewish Heritage Preservation Society and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC.
Erin Sanders is an award-winning integrated communications strategist who has more than 20 years of experience and a deep background in the mining, environmental, industrial, manufacturing, and energy industries. As the Vice President of Corporate Communications, Ms. Sanders is responsible for all executive and corporate communications, community relations, crisis and issues management, employee communications, brand communications, public relations, and social media strategies for Piedmont. She has spent her career at leading global and regional communications agencies and has helped build the brand identities of Fortune 500 companies, support clients in achieving business objectives, develop nationwide media relations campaigns, and guide some of the world’s top organizations in overcoming crisis situations. Her background includes working with the leading global public relations and communications firm, Burson-Marsteller, as well as several key global organizations such as Shell Oil Co., OceanaGold’s Haile Gold Mine, Albemarle, Samsung, Lenovo, and Google.
3:05 pm 1.10. Securing Mineral Supply Chains and Conflicting Policy Priorities: Keynote: American Exploration & Mining Association: Mark Compton, Executive Director
While geopolitical events and global mineral demand clearly demonstrate the need to establish secure mineral supply chains for our economic and national security, priorities such as addressing climate change through clean energy and vehicle electrification, rebuilding infrastructure, and environmental justice issues are driving policy debates around domestic hard rock mineral production. This talk will explore how actions taken by the federal government both help and hinder the policy environment for mining in the United States.
Mark Compton is the executive director of the American Exploration & Mining Association (AEMA), based in Spokane Valley, Washington. Mark rejoined AEMA in 2019 after serving seven years as president of the Utah Mining Association. Mark also worked at AEMA (then known as the Northwest Mining Association) as government affairs manager from 2008 – 2012, and he possesses over a quarter century of government affairs experience. Prior to joining the mining industry, he served as a congressional and gubernatorial aide, and he also has worked as a forester and public affairs specialist in the forest products industry. He resides with his wife Kelley on the outskirts of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
3:05 pm I.10A. The Automotive Industry Faces a Supply Chain Issue: China Dominates Critical Minerals Processing: Keynote: Critical Minerals Institute: Jack Lifton, Co-Chairman
Up until recently automotive OEMs relied on a tiered supplier system for supply of outsourced production parts, those that are actually on the finished car as delivered to the customer. The OEMs bought from prior approved, by them individually, Tier One vendors of the part. In turn, these Tier Ones were responsible for the selection of qualifiable (to the OEM) vendors to themselves, these would be the Tier Twos. The daisy chain continued until the anchor of the supply chain, the mine and/or the mineral processor was reached far, far away from the concern, or understanding, of the OEM automotive assembler’s procurement operations. The reliance on the daisy chain of tiered responsibility has been upended by the need for the fine chemicals required to manufacture lithium-ion storage batteries and rare earth permanent magnet motors. Those total supply chains with enough capacity to supply an OEM automotive assembler exist today only in China, which has been constructing those supply chains for at least 15 years. How can non-Chinese OEM automotive address this issue?
Jack Lifton is currently an industry consultant providing evaluations and due diligence studies of business operations of mining refining, fabrication, and manufacturing operations in the minerals, metals and materials area. As a research scientist, chemical plant manager, technical operations and sales manager, and a CEO in the OEM automotive engineered materials and minor metals industries with over six decades of direct experience he gained a worldwide reputation as an expert in these areas. He has been a respected member of the natural resources community with a distinction among his peers as a reputable resource.
3:25 pm Networking Refreshment Break - Sponsors Reyna Gold and Reyna Silver
3:45 pm I.11. Root Causes of Delays in Regulatory Approval of New Mineral Development Projects: Roadmap to Success: Roundtable
I.11.1. Foth Infrastructure & Environment, LLC: Stephen Donohue, P.H., VP: Mining (Ch)
I.11.2. Foth Infrastructure & Environment LLC: Andrea Martin, P.E., Lead Environmental Engineer (Ch)
I.11.3. Big Rock Exploration: Gabriel Sweet, Principal (Ch)
I.11.4. Perpetua Resources: Mckinsey Lyon, VP External Affairs
I.11.5. Holland & Hart LLP: Laura Granier P.C., Partner, Co-Chair Mining Group (Ch)
Steve Donohue, P.H. is Vice President – Mining, Foth Infrastructure & Environment, LLC. Steve has over 30 years of experience with permitting metallic mining projects. He has led project teams on high-profile projects integrating feasibility studies, environmental permitting, mine closure, and environmental impact analyses. Steve works with clients on mine development, regulatory, and permitting strategies. He has been involved in permitting efforts on virtually all the metallic mining projects that have been advanced in the Upper Midwest over the past 30 plus years. Steve has experience in numerous contested case hearings and other litigation at the state and federal level defending project permits and operations. Steve worked on the development of Michigan’s nonferrous metallic mining law and lead efforts to revamp Wisconsin’s mining law that rescinded Wisconsin’s so called “Mining Moratorium”.
Andrea Martin, PE, Lead Environmental Engineer, Foth Infrastructure & Environment, LLC has worked for 18 years permitting metallic mining projects, focusing in the Midwest. Her experience runs the gambit from regulatory and technical analysis; qualified person (environment) for technical reports; application prep; agency relationships, and negotiations; and litigation testimony and support. Andrea’s current focus is on mining clients who are engaged in environmental review, permitting, stakeholder relations, and navigating the complexities of federal and state rules and regulations. Andrea earned a BS Chemical Engineering, MS Environmental Science & Policy, Professional Engineer licenses. She is a Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME) Registered Member and is past chair of SME Environmental Division and current Vice Chair of Government and Public Affairs Committee. Prior to her regulatory focus, Andrea worked in the construction industry for 17 years.
Gabriel Sweet has spent over 15 years in the mineral exploration and mining industry, focusing on the development and implementation of early-stage exploration programs throughout the United States. While out of the field, he has spent a considerable amount of time navigating the forefront of permitting and compliance for early exploration programs at federal, state, and local regulatory levels. Gabriel is a graduate of Ontario’s Lakehead University with a master’s degree in economic geology. He is registered as a Professional Geologist in the state of Minnesota and a licensed Responsible Explorer with the Minnesota Department of Health. He is an active member of the Society for Economic Geologists, and Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration. Gabriel has served on multiple organization boards and councils, including the Mesabi Range Geological Society and the Advisory Council on Wells and Borings for the Minnesota Department of Health.
Mckinsey Lyon, VP External Affairs, Perpetua Resources. Whether navigating complicated public policy issues or managing a complex issue in the public arena, Mckinsey leads public affairs practices with interdisciplinary fluency in government relations, social license development, stakeholder engagement, messaging, and media communications. Mckinsey has consulted on some of the top energy development and mining projects in the west and worked with the Stibnite Gold Project since 2011. After years of consulting on the project, Mckinsey joined the Perpetua Resources team in 2017 to help bring the Stibnite Gold Project in the Historic Stibnite Mining District through permitting and to development. As VP of External Affairs, Mckinsey leads the direct advocacy and social license development for the Project. Before joining Perpetua Resources, Mckinsey was a partner at Gallatin Public Affairs. Mckinsey is a fifth-generation Idahoan.
Laura Granier, Partner, Co-Chair of Holland & Hart’s mining group delivers pragmatic counsel to help mining, energy, and natural resources clients navigate litigation and regulatory challenges. Laura's clients, including large energy users, mining companies, and water purveyors, benefit from both her extensive litigation and regulatory experience, and her experience as Vice President and U.S. General Counsel for a large utility provider. Laura represents clients before numerous regulatory agencies including the Bureau of Land Management, United States Forest Service, Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, the Nevada Division of Water Resources, and the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection. She has served as lead counsel in numerous regulatory proceedings including general rate cases, integrated resource planning and on complex water, resource and environmental agency issues. Laura also assists clients through the permitting process for projects on public and forest system lands. Laura has served as lead counsel in numerous court cases involving agency decisions and rule-making managing large client groups and complex issues. She has frequently and successfully handled cases involving key industry issues, complex matters and high stakes litigation. Laura also has successful defended agency decisions authorizing resource projects on public lands. Laura also works closely with clients in the areas of municipal law and government affairs, water rights acquisitions and permitting, and related policy issues.
3:45 pm I.11A. New Challenges in Resource & Reserve Disclosure: Roundtable
Now that S-K 1300 is in effect, there is a level playing field regarding Mineral Project disclosure across the international mining jurisdictions as the US can now disclose Mineral Resources. The focus on critical minerals will have companies competing over the relatively small pool of specialized qualified persons who are familiar with less common commodities such as lithium brines, rare earths metals, and graphite. This roundtable will discuss the tools such as best practices in these commodities that industry is developing to assist Qualified Professionals (QPs) and what investors should focus on when reviewing the disclosure.
I.11A.1. SLR Consulting: Deborah A. McCombe, P.Geo., Global Technical Director, Global Mining Advisory (Ch)
I.11A.2. Dakota Gold Corp.: Robert Quartermain, DSC, Co-Chairman
I.11A.3. Stanford Mineral-X Initiative: David Zehn Yin, PhD, Co-Founder, Program Director
I.11A.4. SLR Consulting: Jason Cox, P. Eng., Global Technical Director, Canada Mining Advisory
Deborah McCombe is Global Technical Director at SLR Consulting. Deborah has over 30 years' experience in exploration project management, feasibility studies, reserve estimation, due diligence studies, and valuation studies. Deborah has worked in diverse geological settings in North and South America, Asia, Europe and Africa. She was involved in the development and implementation of NI 43-101 Canadian Disclosure Standards for Mineral Projects and is familiar with all international standards and reporting Codes.
Dr. Robert Quartermain serves as the Co-Chairman of Dakota Gold Corp. and was most recently Executive Chairman of Pretium Resources Inc., which he founded in October 2010. Prior to Pretium, he was President and CEO of Silver Standard Resources Inc. (now SSR Mining Inc.) for 25 years from 1985 - 2010. Dr. Quartermain holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of New Brunswick, a Master of Science from Queens University, held his Professional Geoscience certification from the Engineers and Geoscientists BC from 1992 - 2022 and Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of New Brunswick. Dr. Quartermain has a number of education, wildlife, diversity and social justice philanthropic interests that he supports. Dr. Quartermain was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame ("CMHF") in August 2022 for his significant contributions to the mining and exploration industry both in Canada and internationally over his career.
David Zhen Yin is the co-founder and executive director of the Stanford Mineral-X Initiative. This initiative aims to accelerate the clean energy transition by increasing critical mineral discoveries using artificial intelligence (AI). The Mineral-X initiative is participated by more than 20 CEOs, senior executives and managers, and scientists from the mining industry, investors, end-users, academia, and government organizations, including BHP, Rio Tinto, Vale, KoBold Metals, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Tesla, and USGS. David is also the research lead of the Stanford-KoBold collaboration, which led to a $192 million fundraising in Series B reported by the Wall Street Journal. David’s research develops data-scientific/AI technologies for prediction, uncertainty quantification, and decision-making in critical mineral exploration. The AI tools developed by David’s group for borehole planning have accelerated the mineral discovery in the Central African Copperbelt and were highlighted at the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in 2022. David received his Ph.D. in Geosciences from Heriot-Watt University, Scotland, in 2016. He has authored one book, and tens of peer-reviewed journal articles.
Jason Cox, Global Technical Director, Mining Advisory, is a Principal Mining Engineer specializing in project management, mine design, cost estimation, and cash flow forecasting. Mr. Cox has over 25 years of experience in all stages of mine development; resource and reserve estimation, engineering studies, construction, operation, and closure. Additionally, he leads SLR’s mining disclosure team for SK-1300 and NI 43-101 reporting.
3:45 pm I.11B. Energy: Part One: Overview; Uranium and Nuclear Power
I.11B.1. Capstone Partners: Raymond McCormick, Managing Director, Energy and Natural Resources (Ch)
I.11B.2. Capstone Partners: Angela Helenberger, Vice President, Energy & Natural Resources
I.11B.3. Northcott Capital and KCR Capital: Rick Reeves, Managing Director (Ch)
There are a total of 441 nuclear power reactors (392 GWe) currently operating in some 30 countries, and this is the 7th consecutive year nuclear generation has risen. Globally 50 new reactors were connected to the grid in the last 8 years. Add to that 54 nuclear power plants currently under construction around the world and over 165 planned through 2040 and you have a recipe for surging U308 prices generating increased M&A activity and significant capital requirements in the uranium mining sector. We can expect a 42% increase in nuclear generation capacity by 2030, which would necessitate a 60% growth in uranium production to 300 million pounds annually. We do not expect a material supply response however until spot prices reach at least $40/pound. The US Department of Energy is expected to begin purchasing uranium for domestic reserves after Congress' approval of an initial $75 million earmarked for purchase in 2021 from at least 2 US mines (10 year program). Higher uranium prices are ahead due to demand outstripping supply, inventory shrinkage, deposit depletion and continued high grading. Utility long term contracting, which will be occurring sooner rather than later, will be the main catalyst to drive uranium prices higher.
Raymond M. McCormick is the Managing Director of Energy and Natural Resources at Capstone Partners. He has 40 years of experience in mining, banking and advisory. Earlier, he founded a private investment banking firm that focused on the mining sector, which he managed for over 20 years. He worked in the Global Corporate Banking Department of Mellon Bank where he served as VP and Manager of the mining sector for 10 years, and Raymond was a consulting mining and geological engineer with the John T. Boyd Co. and Consol Energy. Ray’s background combines financial, marketing and technical skills, with expertise in project financings, gold loans, equipment leasing, private placements and acquisition financings. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in mineral economics, with a geology minor from the Pennsylvania State University and a Master’s degree from the Department of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition to sitting on half a dozen private company boards, Ray has served on the Board of Directors for the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania, the Society of Mining Engineers, and the Pittsburgh Coal Conference.
Angela Helenberger is a Vice President in Capstone Partners’ Energy, Power and Infrastructure Group with a focus on mining & minerals. Angela has worked to provide support and assistance on all aspects of executing merger and acquisition transactions and senior debt and equity transactions within the mining sector including met and steam coal, coal conversion technologies, lithium, and base and precious metals. She has been closely involved with financial advisory assignments as well as with business development initiatives within the mining space, including preparing several marketing pieces presented at various industry conferences. Prior to joining Capstone Partners, Angela was the Founder and Managing Partner of an employee benefits firm which offered middle market business owners comprehensive and customizable employee benefit packages.
Rick Reeves formed KCR Capital, LLC in October 2016, and brings 40 years of experience in the mining sector; KCR Capital established a relationship with Northcott Capital, Limited at approximately the same time. In 2021, KCR Capital was successfully registered as a Broker-Dealer in the US. KCR Capital provides securitization services to Northcott Capital. Until September 2016, Rick led MUFG Union Bank’s mining project finance business in North and South America. Prior to MUFG, Rick worked as an investment banker for Deutsche Bank, Barclays BZW and as a consultant. Rick’s experience includes: marketing, structuring and executing mineral finance transactions; advisory; mine and mineral property valuation; mine feasibility; and independent consulting. Rick has a B.Sc. in Mining Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. Rick is a registered Professional Engineer, and he holds the requisite securities licenses to operate and manage a registered Broker-Dealer.
4:30 pm I.12. Financing Projects with Jurisdictional, New Technology and Other Challenges: Roundtable
This panel will discuss efforts and solutions to overcome challenges facing mining projects including which challenging jurisdictions are seeing the most demand for debt and equity funding? What makes those jurisdictions most challenging? What characteristics do those jurisdictions have in common and what characteristics are unique? What solutions are being implemented? How can funding structures factor in resource nationalization and host countries wanting to include local beneficiation to capture more of the value-add? For mining projects facing new technology challenges, what forms do those challenges take? How do issues of predictability of demand, pricing or substitution risk for the commodities being mined, and concerns about the ability of processing or other new technologies being used to perform as anticipated (including scalability of pilot plants) affect the willingness of investors to fund projects? What mitigants do investors look for, including composition of major equity investors, long term offtake, warranties of IP/contractors? How do those challenges affect the terms of the investment, i.e. debt / equity ratios, tenor, pricing? For projects with these types of challenges, what factors make success more likely when working on these types of projects? And, what are the opportunities these projects present when the challenges can be overcome?
I.12.1. Shearman & Sterling LLP: Lachlan Poustie, Partner: Head of Africa Practice (Ch)
I.12.2. International Finance Corporation (IFC): To be announced
I.12.3. ING Capital: Remco Meeuwis, Director, Metals and Mining Americas
Lachlan Poustie is a partner in the Project Development & Finance practice. He has extensive experience in acting for sponsors, development finance institutions, commercial lenders and export credit agencies on the financing of complex infrastructure and energy projects and other assets. He has advised on transactions and projects in Africa, Asia and in other emerging markets as well as in Western, Central and Eastern Europe. Lachlan heads Shearman & Sterling’s Africa Practice. He is based in Paris.Remco Meeuwis is a Director in the Metals & Mining team of ING Capital LLC, based in New York, providing clients active in the sector with access to financing, financial markets (hedging), debt capital markets, working capital solutions, and various other financial services. Remco has over 15 years of experience in financial advisory and arranging of multi-sourced corporate and project financings in the energy, infrastructure, and resources sectors across the Americas, APAC, and EMEA regions. Remco holds a MSc in Applied Earth Sciences from Delft University of Technology, and a MSc in Mineral Economics from the Colorado School of Mines.
4:30 pm I.12.A.U.S. SEC Rule S-K 1300 Disclosures for Mining Registrants: Are You Ready? Roundtable
The panel will be discussing the following topics: required summary disclosure, individual property disclosure and technical report summaries. Summary disclosure is required for material and non-material properties. Mineral resources and mineral reserves, whether on material or non-material properties, must be prepared by a Qualified Person(s). Individual property disclosure is only required for material properties. It has to be based on information in a technical report summary, prepared by a Qualified Person(s). Examples from comment letters by SEC staff will be used to illustrate compliance issues noted in the first two years of their S-K 1300 reviews. A technical report summary, which has defined content requirements, is required for all material and non-material properties. The registrant will have technical report summaries available for its material properties that will be filed on EDGAR, but will also have technical report summaries available if requested on non-material properties. The technical report summary for material properties must be filed with specific forms as set out in the Securities and Exchange Act. Typically, these are annual reports or registration statements. Finally, the panel will present a case study where technical report summaries were prepared for a combination of operating mines and projects (initial assessment, pre-feasibility and feasibility level studies), and discuss the issues that arose from preparation of those reports, and steps that were taken to resolve those issues.
I.12A.1. Wood Plc.: Greg Gosson, Ph.D., Technical Director, Geology & Compliance (Ch)
I.12A.2. Mine Technical Services Ltd.: Stella Searston, FAusIMM, MAIG, RM SME, Principal Geologist
I.12A.3. Geosyntec Consultants: Edwin R. Peralta, PE, RM, SME, Principal Mining Engineer
Greg Gosson has 40 years in mining industry in exploration, mine operations, and senior company management.; five years as Chief Mining Advisor of the BC Securities Commission; Led the project to revise NI 43-101 in 2005; Involved in drafting legislation on Civil Liability under BC Securities Act, and NI 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations; Former chair, current member of the Mining Technical Advisory and Monitoring Committee on NI 43-101: industry advisory group to the Canadian securities regulators; Member of the PDAC Securities Committee and Mining advisory committee to Canadian Securities Administrators on NI 43-101 (MTAMC); Member of the CIM Committee on Mineral Resources and Reserves (and Best Practices); Member of the CIM‐CSA Working Committee on NI 43-101; 12+ years as Technical Director, Geology & Compliance with Wood.
Stella Searston, RM SME, F.Aus IMM, AIG; Principal Geologist, Mine Technical Services Ltd.; Member of: CIM Mineral Resource and Reserve Committee; SME Resources/Reserves Committee. Technical reviews, audits, and specialist studies including due diligence and governance/compliance appraisals. Prepared technical aspects of listing and filing documents, independent expert and competent person reports for various exchanges, including AIM, HKEx, ASX, JSE as well as Canadian exchanges. Part of peer review of major mining studies (PEA, PFS, FS) Prepared/reviewed/compiled over 480 NI 43-101 technical reports, and over 20 reports under S-K1300.
Edwin R. Peralta, PE (NV), RM SME is a Principal Mining Engineer with Geosyntec Consultants, with over 25 years of experience in the mining and minerals industry. Edwin’s associated project experience includes working on engineering studies and updating mineral resources and mineral reserves for open pit and underground mine sites in North, Central, and South America. He has authored and coauthored mining studies ranging from preliminary economic assessments to feasibility studies under National Instruments NI 43-101 guidelines, and under the new US SEC Subpart 1300 of Regulation S- K (replacement for Industry Guide 7) Clients turn to Edwin for mining methods selection, mill throughput and mining rate tradeoffs, mine design and mine planning, mine valuation, resource evaluation, reserves estimation, mine reconciliation, mine infrastructure assessment, risk assessment and cost estimating, and project management, among other tasks.
4:30 pm I.12B. Energy: Part Two: Natural Gas, Coal and Hydrogen
The second of our energy panels will focus on key trends in the two main fossil fuels, natural gas and coal, essential for reliable power generation, and which together with oil account for more than 80% of total global primary energy demand. We will also examine the true economics of hydrogen, a very nascent green fuel being touted for its blue-sky potential in the transition to renewables. Despite the loud rhetoric surrounding Net Zero carbon policies, most credible industry demand scenarios show fossil fuels remaining the dominant energy source for the foreseeable future. As well-known Canadian scientist and recent author of "How the World Really Works" Vaclav Smil notes, the pace of energy transition will not be measured in years but in decades given the scale and complexity of existing energy systems.
I.12B.1. PMV Research: Michael Spohn, Independent Natural Resource Analyst (Ch)
I.12B.2. WSP: D. David Marston, P.E., Senior Vice President, Mine Engineering and Stability District Business Line Director
I.12B.3. CRU International: Chris Lawson, Head of Fertilizers
Natural Gas: A Fossil Fuel Bridge to Everywhere: Natural gas usage won’t be declining anytime soon given expected secular growth in both global LNG and electrification, as well as the fuel's relatively lower carbon footprint in a slowly transitioning world. Promoted energy transition targets assume renewables largely replace traditional fuels in generating capacity, while seemingly discounting the enormous costs and growing national security concerns.The US, already the world's largest gas producer, has also recently leapfrogged to the top LNG exporter, yet short-term factors have pushed domestic natural gas prices near pandemic lows where they continue to languish at significant discounts to international benchmarks.This presents compelling investment opportunities in the depressed valuations of gas-weighted exploration & production companies crucial to supplying expanding LNG liquefaction capacity.
Michael Spohn is an independent natural resources analyst with a focus on the oil & gas sector. He began his career as a credit analyst including positions in the mining & metals team at Barclays Bank and natural resources group at NMB Postbank. Later he was Director of Research at oil & gas valuation boutique John S. Herold (now part of S&P Global), followed by co-founding an energy investment research service with major institutional clientele, and where he was widely quoted in financial media (Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, etc.) for his independent views. Michael was also a sell-side analyst with a New York based broker-dealer and a principal at a value-oriented hedge fund. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and Society of Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration. Michael holds a BA in Geology from Colgate University and an MS in Mineral Economics from the University of Arizona
Global Financing and Thermal Coal Supply – A Perspective in 2023 Local energy markets, domestic electricity demand and national energy and natural resource policies continue to dominate the use of coal in power generation. However, external financing in the form of large development financing institutions in Japan, South Korea and Europe has been significantly curtailed in the shift toward financing of cleaner energy sources all parts of the world though significant financing continues by Chinese investment and banking entities. US thermal coal consumption is expected to be about 560 million short tonnes (Mt) in 2023 as stated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This is an increase from the decades low of 436.5 Mt seen in 2020. Meanwhile, China’s economy continues to be powered by coal. In 2022, China approved the construction of 106 GW of coal-based power generation (CREA) and has reportedly initiated construction of 56 GW in 2022. India is meanwhile preparing to add about 56GW of coal fired plants by 2030, Indonesia is in the midst of completing it build out of 35GW of plants initiated in 2015. Given the significant projects that are currently in the pipeline, it is hard to see demand for coal completely dying out in the next few decades with coal supplies expected to last at least through the financial tenor of the loans associated with projects currently in the pipeline.
David Marston, P.E., has over 35 years of experience in the global mining industry, having worked for clients in Canada and the U.S., Indonesia, Germany, Australia, Russia, Colombia and Venezuela. He is the District Lead for Mine Engineering and Stability for WSP USA, one of the world’s leading engineering and professional services firms. David directs multi-disciplinary, global teams providing consulting services on mining projects with topics including geology, mining, transportation, economic analyses and mineral resources and reserves disclosure (SK 1300, NI 43-101 & JORC.) He has experience with due diligence and audit reviews for finance and acquisitions and is experienced with coal supply strategies for Independent Power Projects.
Unveiling the Truths about Hydrogen and Its Role Within the Energy Transition
- Hydrogen is being touted as a critical solution within the energy transition and helping to decarbonize hard to abate sectors.
- But assumptions around the true cost of green hydrogen and its ease of use need to be more seriously considered.
- While CRU believes that green hydrogen will play a major role in the energy transition, the switch to hydrogen will necessarily lead to significantly higher energy prices and this will have ramifications on the economy, the competitiveness of different sectors and on how consumers spend their money.
- We will take a deep dive into our green hydrogen cost projections, and consider some use cases, such as green hydrogen in steel production and within the fertilizer industry.
Chris Lawson is Head of Fertilizers at CRU Group, leading a global and market leading team of 30 analysts and reporters. He oversees the Fertilizers business unit and is responsible for the full portfolio of fertilizer pricing, market outlook and cost/emissions services. He regularly speaks at conferences and client events on fertilizers, agriculture and the energy transition. Prior to his current role, Chris was Head of Phosphates and the team fertilizer demand analyst/agricultural economist. He joined CRU in 2014. He has a background in agriculture and holds a Bachelor of Science (Agricultural Science) from the University of Adelaide. He is based in New York City.
5:15 pm I.13. Many Risks, Many Opportunities: An ESG Ratings Provider’s Perspective of the Mining Sector and A Current View of the Lithium Market: Two Discussions
The session will include two presentations; An ESG Ratings Provider’s Perspective of the Mining Sector by Erin Boeke Burke and A Current View of the Lithium Market by Howard Klein.
I.13.1. S&P Global Ratings: Erin Boeke Burke, Director & Lead Analyst, Sustainable Finance
I.13.2. RK Equity: Howard Klein, Co-Founder and Partner
Erin Boeke Burke joined S&P Global Ratings in 2016, and has been on the Sustainable Finance team since 2020. In this position, she works on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment considerations, including entity-level ESG Evaluations and financing-level Second Party Opinions. She also researches ESG issues and the evolution of the sustainable debt market. In her prior role on the U.S. Public Finance team in Ratings, she worked on credit ratings for municipal and cooperative utilities – particularly in water – as well as debt issued by State Revolving Funds and bond banks. Erin previously worked for the federal Office of Management and Budget in Washington, D.C., where she oversaw the budget of the Army Corps of Engineers’ water supply, hydropower, inland navigation, and Clean Water Act permitting programs, and well as federal lending programs in transportation, housing, and other sectors. She holds a Masters degree in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin.
Howard Klein, Co-Founder and Partner, founded boutique capital markets advisory firm RK Equity in 2002. He has over 25 years capital markets and investing experience across multiple investment themes in natural resources, including, gold, iron ore and lithium. From 1997-2001 Howard led the institutional equity sales desk of SG Cowen Securities focused on the EMEA region, as well as Japan. Howard spent the first 5 years of his career as an analyst focused on privatization in Eastern Europe at Thomson Financial and as an investment banker in Budapest, Hungary. Howard holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University. Howard speaks regularly at investment conferences and to the financial media about the disruptive battery metals thematic
5:15 pm I.13A. Valuation of Mining Projects, Current Views: Roundtable
I.13A.1. SLR Consulting: Grant Malensek, P.Eng., Senior Principal Mining Engineer (Ch)
I.13A.2. Van Eck Associates Corp.: Adam Graf, CFA, Senior Analyst, Gold Strategy and Natural Resources Strategy
I.13A.3. Stagg Resource Consultants: Alan Stagg, President & Principal Economic Geologist
I.13A.4. Broadlands Minerals Advisory Services Ltd: Bernard 'Barney' J. Guarnera, President
Grant A. Malensek is a Senior Principal Mining Engineer with over 25 years’ experience in the mining industry and currently manages both the SLR US Mining Advisory team in Denver, Colorado as well as the Valuations team for the Global Mining Advisory group. Mr. Malensek’s consulting experience includes Feasibility and Prefeasibility Studies, Preliminary Economic Assessments, capital cost estimates and reviews, mine strategy, and options analysis and project evaluations in connection with mergers and acquisitions.
Adam Graf, CFA is a Senior Analyst on VanEck’s active Gold Strategy and Natural Resources Strategy. He joined VanEck in 2022 after serving as a Senior Mining Analyst at Amvest Capital. Previously, Adam was a Senior Mining Analyst and Managing Director at B. Riley FBR, Inc., and worked at McKinsey & Co. as a mining and commodities expert. He also covered metal and mining equities for firms, including Balyasny Asset Management, Federated Global Advisors, and Cowen & Co. and started his career at Bear Stearns & Co after working as a resource and exploration geologist for major global copper producers. Mr. Graf earned a B.S. in Geology and Oceanography from the University of Michigan and an M.S. in Ore Deposit Geology, and an MBA in Finance from the University of Arizona.
Alan K. Stagg, PG, CMA is President & CEO, Stagg Resource Consultants, Inc. Alan is an economic geologist with 59 years’ experience in the mining, minerals, and energy industries with the last 45 including an increasing emphasis on mineral appraisals and economic evaluations. He had conducted appraisals in more than 40 states in a variety of venues and internationally, and has participated in numerous acquisition-related due diligence activities. Stagg is a registered or licensed professional geologist in 15 states, a Certified Mineral Appraiser by the International Institute of Minerals Appraisers, and an SME Registered Member.
Bernard (Barney) J. Guarnera has degrees in Geological Engineering and Economic Geology from the Michigan College of Mining & Technology. He has more than 50 years of experience in the global mining industry and has worked in more than 50 countries on every continent where mining is present. He specializes in evaluating the technical and economic viability of mineral deposits and what they are worth. Barney is a Certified Mineral Appraiser, Chartered Professional, Registered Professional Engineer, and Registered Professional Geologist. He currently specializes in providing expert witness testimony in arbitrations between mining companies and nations before the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes.
5:15 pm I.13B. Precious Metals: Copper, Gold, Silver & PGMs: An Outlook
Hear three precious metals experts discuss their metals outlooks including their views about many factors and trends driving precious metals prices and supply and demand.
I.13B.1. Bloomberg Intelligence: Mike McGlone, Senior Commodity Analyst
I.13B.2. CPM Group: Rohit Savant, CAIA, Precious Metals Analyst
I.13B.3. Myrmikan Capital LLC: Daniel Oliver, Principal
Mike McGlone is a senior commodity strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence, a unique research platform that provides context on industries, companies, and government policy, available on the Bloomberg Professional service at BI <GO>. Mr. McGlone specializes in the broad investible commodity and crypto markets, authoring the monthly Bloomberg Commodity Outlook and Bloomberg Crypto Outlook. Mr. McGlone joined Bloomberg in 2016 with over 25 years of futures and commodity trading and investing experience, beginning at the Chicago Board of Trade. Prior to joining Bloomberg, he was a head of U.S. research at ETF Securities. Prior to ETF Securities, Mr. McGlone headed the commodity business at S&P Indices. His previous roles included head of futures research at ABN Amro and VP research, analyst, trader, sales at Aubrey G. Lanston / IBJ Futures. Mr. McGlone has an MBA from DePaul University in Chicago and bachelor’s of science and arts degrees from Illinois State University. He is a CFA Charter holder and has earned a Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designation.
Rohit Savant is Vice President, Research at CPM Group. Rohit has been with CPM Group since 2005 and is the lead author of CPM Group’s precious metals research. He has been a top quartile forecaster for the London Bullion Market Association’s (LBMA’s) 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2018 Precious Metals Forecast Survey and was the winner of the LBMA’s 2011 Precious Metals Forecast Survey, for platinum and palladium. Mr. Savant generates trade recommendations for clients using fundamental and technical market analysis and works with the firm’s commodity price risk management team to formulate solutions for clients using option strategies. Mr. Savant presents views on precious metals to boards of mining companies, institutional investors, and at conferences and is also involved in advising clients about commodity market fundamentals and price direction. Mr. Savant has contributed articles to various publications and has been extensively quoted by the financial press. Mr. Savant has earned the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation, which is recognized globally as the highest standard of educational achievement in the alternative investment field.
Daniel Oliver, board member of Guanajuato Silver Co., manages Myrmikan Capital LLC, of New York, NY, which actively invests in the precious metals mining sector. Mr. Oliver also serves as President of the Committee for Monetary Research & Education, an organization founded by prominent economists and businessmen in 1970 in opposition to the Bretton Woods monetary system. His articles have been published in Forbes.com, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Real Clear Markets, National Review Online, among others, and he speaks frequently at precious metals conferences. Mr. Oliver has a J.D. from Columbia Law School and an MBA from INSEAD.
6:00 pm Reception with Guest Speaker Rob McEwen, Chairman, McEwen Mining
Tuesday May 9, 2023 Evening Reception from 5:50 to 7:20 pm
Sponsors ARK Silver; Big Rock Exploration; Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP; Costmine Intelligence; Dolly Varden Silver; Guanajuato Silver; Honey Badger Silver; Relevant Gold
6:25 pm Welcome Remarks by NY SME
6:30 pm Guest Speaker: Rob McEwen, Chairman of McEwen Mining: Entering a New Super Cycle for Metals Without the Workforce to Maximize the Moment!
Geopolitical tensions, trade sanctions have disrupted global trade. As a result, countries as well as large multinationals are beginning to scramble for metals, something they haven’t thought about for a long time. The energy transformation is adding to the demand for secure and in many cases in-country sources of supply. Compounding our ability to scale up to meet this increased demand is the shortage of graduates, in the west, looking to work in exploration, mining and processing. Our challenge is a bit of a paradox. What do we have to do to attract individuals to an industry out of favor with the general population but offers some of the highest paying jobs in many countries?
Rob McEwen is Chairman, Chief Owner of McEwen Mining which has four mines located in USA, Canada, Mexico and Argentina. Associated with the gold industry all of his career, the first 18 years in the investment industry and since 1990 as CEO of several gold mining companies. He is the Founder of Gold Corp Inc. where Rob grew its market capitalization from $50 million to over $8 billion. At McEwen Mining (MUX) he owns 17% of the company, and takes a salary of $1/year. The cost of his investment in MUX and McEwen Copper exceeds $220 million. Rob and his wife have donated over $60 million to encourage excellence and innovation in healthcare and education. Rob is the recipient of many awards; including the Order of Canada, Canadian Mining Hall of Fame member, Honorary Doctor of Law Degrees from York University and Western University. Click here to see his other awards and memberships.
7:245 pm Conclusion of Day One of the Conference
NY SME’s 8th Current Trends in Mining Finance Conference (CTMF 2023)
Managing Risk and Identifying Opportunities in a Disruptive World - Where Finding, Financing and Securing Supply is Critical
Connecting Mining, Finance and Engineering Executives™
Monday May 8 - Thursday May 11, 2023
Lead Sponsors RPMGLOBAL; SHEARMAN & STERLING; SLR CONSULTING; and SME FOUNDATION
For updates revisit Schedule at a Glance
Content and times may change
Wednesday May 10, 2023 - Day Two of CTMF 2023 Conference
7:00 am Registration and Breakfast
Sponsors SRK Consulting; McEwen Mining; McEwen Copper
8:00 am II.1. Keynote: The Conflict Between ESG and Shareholders: Douglas Silver, CEO Balfour Holdings
The ESG paradigm is consuming the investment world and forcing companies to restructure their businesses to be in compliance with these new demands. This naturally opens a Pandora's box of unforeseen issues. One of the largest issues is the quest to appease both the shareholders and the other stakeholders. This presentation will explain these issues and provide potential solutions.
Douglas Silver, CEO of Balfour Holdings, LLC. has had a storied career in the minerals industry. He has been an exploration geologist, management consultant, mineral appraiser, M&A advisor, investor relations expert and mine financier. Mr. Silver was a founder, CEO and Chairman of International Royalty Corporation and participated in building the world’s largest mining PE firm as a portfolio manager. Douglas founded the Denver Gold Group, today’s premiere gold investor forum. He is a strong advocate for women’s rights and has sat on advisory boards at the University of Arizona and Colorado School of Mines. Douglas is also a well-known keynote speaker, author, writer and fly fisher. He is one of only three people to be inducted into both the U.S. National Mining Hall of Fame and the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. Learn more about Doug here.
9:00 am II.2. Project Management: Why Some Projects Succeed, Some Fail
II.2.1. RPMGlobal: Stuart Smith, President, Advisory & Consulting - Americas (Ch)
II.2.2. Independent Project Analysis (IPA): Astor Luft, Director of North America, and Baqun Ding, Master Analyst
II.2.3. US Gold Corp.: Kevin Francis, VP Exploration & Technical Services
II.2.4. Costmine Intelligence: Mike Sinden, Vice President
II.2.5. Dore Copper: Ernest Mast, CEO, President
Stuart Smith has been in the mining industry since 2004. He is currently the President, Advisory and Consulting – Americas for RPM global, leading a team who focuses on due diligence and independent engineering reviews. Mr. Smith specializes in managing multi-disciplinary teams and facilitating work on complex cross-functional issues. His work has focused on value creation or risk mitigation through structured approaches to technical studies and valuations. Mr. Smith has managed advisory projects in 12 countries on four continents across most major commodities and mine types. He has been a project manager on over 30 technical studies and securities disclosures (NI43-101 and SEC guidelines). These studies range from strategic-level conceptual assessment to PEA, PFS and FS level studies. In addition to his study work, he has overseen 50+ project reviews for independent engineer and M&A mandates. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Masters in International Business.
Astor Luft is IPA’s Director of North America. In this role, he oversees IPA’s North American operations, leading a team of analysts and senior consultants on the delivery of IPA services to our North America-based clients. He is also responsible for strengthening IPA’s relationship with global and local clients in the region and forging new partnerships with owner companies in the energy, minerals, infrastructure, chemicals, pharmaceutical, and consumer products sectors. Astor’s areas of expertise include project system improvements, portfolio management, and megaproject risk assessment. Astor holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Federal University of Parana and a specialist degree in Project Management from the FAE Business School, both in Brazil.
Baqun Ding is a Master Analyst with IPA. His main role is supporting project analysts in conducting complex project analyses and research analysts in project studies and IP development. Dr. Ding was the business area manager for IPA’s MMM sector and a member of IPA’s Review Board. Over the past 17 years, he has also worked as a Senior Analyst, involved in the analysis of hundreds of complex projects from different industries. His expertise covers orebody evaluation, feasibility studies, and mine planning and design. Before joining IPA, Dr. Ding was an assistant professor at Delft University of Technology, a Researcher and Project Coordinator at Queen’s University in Canada, and a Senior Mining Engineer with China Gold. Dr. Ding was educated in mining engineering at Wuhan University of Technology (B.Sc.), the University of Science and Technology, Beijing (M.Sc.) in China, and Queen’s University (Ph.D.) in Canada.
Kevin Francis is Vice President of Exploration and Technical Services for U.S. Gold Corp. He has held many senior roles within the mining and consulting industry, including VP of Project Development for Aurcana Corporation, VP of Technical Services for Oracle Mining Corporation, VP of Resources for NovaGold Resources and Principal Geologist for AMEC Mining and Metals. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Texas Mineral Resources Corporation. He is an SME Registered Member and “Qualified Person” as defined by SEC S-K 1300 and Canadian NI 43-101 reporting standards and holds both an M.S. degree and a B.A. in geology from the University of Colorado.
Mike Sinden, Vice President, Costmine Intelligence, has over 20 years experience in the natural resources sector, predominantly in the area of research and data collection, as well as product management. He spent 18 years at Wood Mackenzie, working in metals and ferrous market research, well as supporting institutional investor clients leverage the platform for research and mining due diligence purposes. At Costmine, he leads the research business as we grow our mine property database, equipment and labor cost data, estimation tools and software, where we serve engineers, financial professionals and governments. Mr. Sinden holds a B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University as well as an MBA from Duke University.
Ernest Mast is currently the President and CEO of TSX.V listed Doré Copper Mining Corp. He led the company’s successful RTO process of its copper and gold assets in Québec, Canada in 2019. The Company has a PEA for a 50-million-pound per year copper – gold project and are advancing the project via exploration, engineering and permitting. He is on the Board of Scottie Resources, Libero Copper and Gold and First Lithium. He has been the President and CEO of Primero Mining Corp. and Minera Panama S.A., Inmet Mining’s subsidiary that advanced the giant Cobre Panama project though critical early-stage milestones. He has 30 years’ experience in the copper, precious metals, nickel, and lithium industries holding a number of executive positions and having lived and worked in Finland, Chile, Dominican Republic and Panama. He is a graduate of McGill University, with Bachelors and Masters degrees in Metallurgical Engineering, and with Executive MBAs from Henley Management School (U.K.) and Universidad Catolica de Chile. He has two patents related to new technologies in metallurgical processing.
9:00 am II.2A. The Why, The What, and the How of ESG In Mining – Managing External Pressures, Identifying and Prioritizing Strategic Elements, And Effective Reporting
Over the past number of years, ESG implementation, analysis, and disclosure requirements have reached the same level as financial reporting. Investors, lenders, employees, regulators, and society in general are increasingly using ESG performance as a key factor in assessing company ethics and value. Global challenges around supply chains, energy acquisition and efficiency, and human rights bring further into focus the growing expectation for businesses to pay close attention to and report accurately on their impacts. Customers are driving increased ESG performance and positive ESG impacts across their own supply chains, and evolution of ESG strategy, performance and disclosure are becoming prerequisites for access to capital. Against this backdrop, we will look at how companies can respond to these emerging challenges with strategic thinking and practical implementation of cost effective, credible programs, putting the right resources and capabilities to work to achieve the right outcomes for your business.
II.2A.1. SLR Consulting: Simon Mendum, Financial Sector Leader, North America (Ch)
II.2A.2. SLR Consulting: Joanie Baczewski, Director – ESG Strategic Advisory
II.2A.3. SLR Consulting: Jason Cox, Global Technical Director, Mining Advisory
Simon Mendum, Financial Sector Leader, North America, has over 30 years of experience in transactional EHS and ESG due diligence and advisory. He specializes in pre-bid and pre-close transactional EHS/ESG consulting services, vendor due diligence services, and transaction specific EHS/ESG assessments, regulatory compliance reviews, portfolio liability protection services, exit preparedness, and corporate compliance programs. ESG advisory includes diligence, strategy development, Scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions, TCFD disclosure, and ESG value creation strategies and actions. He routinely provides EHS and ESG integration support to newly merged companies. Simon works across the private equity, legal, industrial, midstream oil and gas, mining and extractives and strategic investment sectors.
Joanie Baczewski, Director – ESG Strategic Advisory, is a Director with Corporate Citizenship, part of SLR Consulting. She brings deep expertise in ESG reporting, data management, and climate strategy across industries, including mining and energy companies. In particular, she focuses on helping companies prepare disclosure-ready environmental data as well as develop reporting strategies aligned with external disclosure requirements. Joanie led our global service line for Sustainability Reporting and ESG Disclosure for two years and currently leads our US Environment and Climate Change practice. She works with clients on ESG reporting aligned with GRI, CDP, DJSI, and other ratings agencies. She also works with companies in various industries to measure their GHG emissions in preparation for external assurance for public disclosure and in accordance with current and pending regulations. Prior to Corporate Citizenship, Joanie served as a consultant at PwC and ERM working with companies to improve many aspects of their sustainability programs.
Jason Cox, Global Technical Director, Mining Advisory, is a Principal Mining Engineer specializing in project management, mine design, cost estimation, and cash flow forecasting. Mr. Cox has over 25 years of experience in all stages of mine development; resource and reserve estimation, engineering studies, construction, operation, and closure. Additionally, he leads SLR’s mining disclosure team for SK-1300 and NI 43-101 reporting.
9:00 am II.2B. Filling the Supply Gap for Copper: The Most Critical Metal of All
Copper is the most critical metal of all for the energy transition, as it is the foundation that everything else, from EV’s to wind turbines, to solar and hydro plants, is built upon. This panel will look at the structural supply deficit in copper, what it is, how it is projected to grow and the factors responsible for a muted supply response, and some of the handful of projects are coming through in South America to meet growing demand.
II.2B.1. Mining Journal: Paul Harris, Americas Editor (Ch)
II.2B.2. McEwen Copper: Rob McEwen, Chairman & President
II.2B.3. McEwen Copper: Michael Meding, Vice President & General Manager
II.2B.4. Los Andes Copper: Eduardo Covarrubbias, Chairman
II.2B.5. Colorado School of Mines: Dr. Graham Davis, Professor Emeritus
Paul Harris (Ch) has more than twenty years’ experience in the mining sector in investor relations, communications, research and news reporting roles. Paul has 13 years’ experience in the Colombia gold sector including investor relations roles with Continental Gold, Gran Colombia Gold and Mineros. Paul founded the successful Colombia Gold Symposium in 2016 and has written for industry leading publication Mining Journal since 2015. Previously, Paul spent five years in Chile reporting and analyzing the copper sector for CRU and Metal Bulletin. Paul received a BA in Business Administration from the University of the West of England, UK; and a MA in International Relations from the University of Chile, Santiago Chile. He is fluent in English and Spanish.
Rob McEwen is the Chairman, Chief Owner of McEwen Mining which has four mines located in USA, Canada, Mexico and Argentina. Associated with the gold industry all of his career, the first 18 years in the investment industry and since 1990 as CEO of several gold mining companies. He is the Founder of Gold Corp Inc. where Rob grew its market capitalization from $50 million to over $8 billion. At McEwen Mining (MUX) he owns 17% of the company, and takes a salary of $1/year. The cost of his investment in MUX and McEwen Copper exceeds $220 million. Rob and his wife have donated over $60 million to encourage excellence and innovation in healthcare and education. Rob is the recipient of many awards; including the Order of Canada, Canadian Mining Hall of Fame member, Honorary Doctor of Law Degrees from York University and Western University.
Mr. Meding has over 20 years of international experience, primarily with major mining companies such as Barrick Gold and Trafigura, including extensive experience with project development and operations in Argentina. While at Barrick Gold's Veladero mine in Argentina, he played a key role in the turnaround, extension of the mine life, and subsequent strategic partnering with Shandong Gold. Mr. Meding is trilingual (Spanish-English-German) and holds an MBA from Indiana University in Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Leipzig Graduate School of Management in Germany.
Eduardo Covarrubbias, Chairman of Los Andes Copper, has been overseeing the mining interests of Turnbrook Corporation prior to the recent consolidation of ownership of the Vizcachitas project. Mr. Covarrubias was a banker with the Chase Manhattan Bank for almost a decade, covering the mining sector in Chile. He was based in New York and Santiago and his responsibilities included project financing, structured finance and mergers and acquisitions transactions. He is a Chemical and Industrial Engineer from The Catholic University of Chile and holds a MSc in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Dr. Graham Davis, Professor Emeritus Colorado School of Mines. Professor Graham Davis is a Professor Emeritus in the Division of Economics and Business at the Colorado School of Mines and consults in mine and project valuation for several large mining companies. Professor Davis also has significant experience as an expert witness in litigation involving mine valuations and damages from temporary takings. At the Colorado School of Mines, Professor Davis taught a range of courses including applied microeconomics, mineral and energy asset valuation, and research methodology. He has a PhD in Mineral Economics from Pennsylvania State University, an MBA from the University of Cape Town, and a BS in Metallurgical Engineering from Queen’s University.
9:45 am II.3. Importance of and Methods to Manage First Nations, Aboriginal Issues
Obtaining Indigenous support for mineral development in Canada is more critical than ever. Climate change not only tops the agenda of governments worldwide but is a growing concern for Indigenous peoples who have been disproportionately affected. With the endorsement of the United Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by many countries and the movement towards ESG accountability, Indigenous participation in the solution is imperative. This panel will highlight best practices in Canada for achieving Indigenous support for mineral development, including the cost and financial risk of not obtaining consent.
II.3A.1. Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP: Sandra Gogal, Partner, Aboriginal Law Group (Ch)
II.3A.2. Dolly Varden Silver: Shawn Khunkhun, CEO, President, Director
II.3A.3. Nisga'a Lisims Government: Charles Morven, Secretary-Treasurer
Sandra Gogal is a partner in the Aboriginal Law Group at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP. A strategic thinker and trusted advisor on matters relating to Aboriginal and environmental law, Sandra offers a combined 25+ years of experience – both in-house with the Government of Ontario and in private practice - providing legal advice to clients in the resource sector across Canada. An astute negotiator, she has navigated several successful commercial arrangements, settlements, impact and benefit agreements, and partnerships between industry and First Nations. For her work, Sandra is ranked as a leader in her field by Best Lawyers and Chambers.
Shawn Khunkhun, CEO, President & Director, has over 20 years of experience in the capital markets, mineral exploration and development sector with a focus on enhancing shareholder value. He has served in a variety of strategic roles including Investor Relations, Corporate Development, CEO, Director and Executive Chairman. Mr. Khunkhun has been instrumental in creating awareness for undervalued companies including grass root explorers, developers and producers. Mr. Khunkhun’s experience in incubating and growing early-stage companies through capital raises, acquisitions, joint ventures and spinouts, as well as long-standing relationships with an extensive global network of HNW investors, private equity and institutional investors, analysts, brokers, and investment bankers, have been a valuable asset to growing mineral explorations companies. Mr. Khunkhun is a Director of Goldshore Resources Inc. and is Director & Executive Chairman of StrikePoint Gold. Mr. Khunkhun has facilitated over $1B in capital raises.
Charles Morven is a member of the Nisga’a Nation and belongs to Wilps Axdii Wil Luugooda and Ksim Xsaan. Charles currently holds the Nisga’a name, Daaxheet. Secretary – Treasurer Morven originates from the community of Gitlaxt’aamiks. Charles holds the responsibility chairing both Nisga’a Finance Committee and Nisga’a Capital Finance Committee. Secretary – Treasurer Morven also oversees and works with the Management of the Nisga’a Settlement Trust. Secretary – Treasurer Morven has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in First Nations Studies through UNBC and a certificate in Advanced Management attained through the UBC Sauder’s School of Business. A future educational goal for Charles is to obtain a Masters in Business Administration. Charles also served as Council Representative for the Northwest on the First Nations Health Council (FNHC) from 2012-2016. Charles had the responsibilities while on the FNHC as chairperson for the Northwest Regional Table, Partnership Table with Northern Health Authority and the Policy Committee. Secretary - Treasurer Morven currently resides in the community of Gitwinksihlkw the home of beautiful wife Nicole Morven. Charles and Nicole have one daughter Peyton Azak-Morven.
9:45 am II.3A. Growing Role of ESG issues from a Finance, Technical and Legal Perspective - To be confirmed
This roundtable will focus on what this group of subject matter experts are seeing as regards the importance of the industry and those advising and financing it need to know about ESG. Each of the panelists are from a different sector, i.e., engineering, finance, legal and advisory. Each are engaged, involved with metals and mining transactions as well as advisory support roles to the industry as well as investors, financiers and government institutions. They will discuss what they see are critical milestones, benchmarks and reporting requirements.
II.3A.1. Dentons LLP: Greg McNab, Partner (Ch)
II.3A.2. RPMGlobal: Phillipe Baudry, Executive General Manager, Advisory Services
II.3A.3. Trigon Metals: Jed Richardson, President and CEO
II.3A.4. Social Suite: Seth Forman, President
Greg McNab is a partner in the Corporate group at Dentons. His main areas of practice include financings of public and private securities issuers (including private equity and hedge funds), investment management products, capital markets transactions, mergers and acquisitions and resources and energy matters, both domestically and internationally. Greg also advises on corporate governance, regulatory compliance, continuous disclosure and stock exchange matters for public issuers. Greg has extensive experience in both the energy and mining sectors. He regularly speaks at conferences, writes articles and appears in the media with respect to a variety of securities, mining and energy matters. He is a director and Canadian Chair of the Canadian Australian Chamber of Commerce. A former mechanical engineer, he is also the co-chair of the International Emissions Trading Association's global carbon capture and storage working group. Greg focuses his practice on public and private financing matters and services and cross-border joint ventures involving jurisdictions that include Asia, Australia, Africa and Canada, among others. His practice includes the negotiation and drafting of prospectuses, circulars, shareholder agreements, opinion letters, applications for regulatory relief, share purchase agreements and related transaction documents. He has been involved in a range of energy and resource industry transactions and financings. He also provides related regulatory advice with respect to climate change issues and has worked on a variety of renewable and clean tech matters, including wind, solar and hydro projects.
Philippe Baudry, Executive General Manager, Advisory Services has over 25 years of industry experience across the globe. Upon joining RPMGlobal Philippe has successfully build the group’s advisory business in Asia and Europe before taking executive ownership of all Advisory Services for RPMGlobal with over 140 staff across 23 offices. In 2021 Philippe expanded the capabilities of the RPM Advisory Services through the acquisition of a number of ESG service firms to deliver a pure play mining ESG business aimed at broadening the support provided to RPM’s mining clients. His career began as a geologist in open cut and underground operations in Western Australia, followed by three years developing large porphyry copper projects in Russia and 13 years in China working on outbound M&A for Chinese state-owned and private enterprises. For over a decade Philippe has worked closely with leading financial institutions across Australasia, America and Europe on transactions ranging from Due Diligences to IPO’s and has gained detailed understanding of the requirements of both investors and banks in regards to public technical report requirements and listing processes on various financial exchanges. For the past 10 years Philippe has been closely involved in most of RPM’s mandates for project financings in Turkey, Africa and Australia as lenders engineer for leading European and American banks, global ECLA's and private equity financiers, with whom Philippe has developed close relationships. Through this work Philippe has gained a deep insight into debt financing processes and requirements including IFC PS and EP4 requirements. Most recently Philippe has led RPM’s relationships with leading battery cell and car manufacturers and is involved with both technical reviews and supplier onboarding for these organisations including assessment of projects against the IRMA frameworks adopted by most OEM’s. Philippe holds a Bachelor of Science Mineral Exploration and Mining Geology, an Associate Diploma of Geoscience, a Graduate Certificate of Geostatistics and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientist (“MAIG”). He meets the requirements for Qualified Person (“QP”) for 43-101, UMREK and SGX reporting, and Competent Person (“CP”) for JORC and HKEx reporting for most metalliferous Mineral Resources.
Jed Richardson is a qualified mine engineer with a background that includes mine finance and resource development over a 20-year career. As CEO of Great Quest, a fertilizer resource developer active in Mali, West Africa, he gained valuable experience operating and creating shareholder value in Africa. He has also held an executive position at Amazon Mining developing resource assets in Brazil. Mr. Richardson spent a large portion of his career in capital markets working as a research analyst at Sprott Securities and RBC Capital Markets. He also worked as a Mining Engineer for Alcan Aluminum after graduating from the University of Toronto. Mr. Richardson holds a B.A.Sc in Mineral and Geological Engineering.
Seth Forman is President of ESG at Socialsuite based in New York City. A seasoned, strategic, data-driven SaaS technology leader, Seth is responsible for the global commercial team, driving business growth, and advancing the company’s product offerings to help organizations track, measure and disclose ESG. Prior to joining Socialsuite, Seth spent five years as Global Managing Director at Quantcast, a global online measurement and advertising technology company, where he led and grew an AI-driven SaaS audience platform. Before that, Seth spent six years in business development roles at Travelzoo, a publicly traded media publisher. Seth earned a BS in business administration from Syracuse University. He is a frequent speaker at conferences about sustainability/ESG topics. He resides in Westchester County NY with his wife and three sons.
9:45 am II.3B. Mexico’s Silver Renaissance
Mexico continues to be the world’s largest silver producer, with two large mines starting production in 2022, more on the way and companies breathing new life into old assets. Silver will play an increasingly important role in energy transition technologies and with prices entering an upward trend this panel will look at the changing silver production landscape in Mexico and the opportunities it provides.
II.3B.1. Mining Journal: Paul Harris, Americas Editor (Ch)
II.3B.2. Guanajuato Silver Company: James Anderson, Chairman & CEO
II.3B.3. IMDEX/Cascabel: Dr. Peter K.M. Megaw, Consulting Exploration Geologist, President
II.3B.4. Tocvan Ventures: Brodie Sutherland, CEO
II.3B.5. Reyna Silver: Lauren Megaw, Head of Investor Relations
Paul Harris has more than twenty years’ experience in the mining sector in investor relations, communications, research and news reporting roles. Paul has 13 years’ experience in the Colombia gold sector including investor relations roles with Continental Gold, Gran Colombia Gold and Mineros. Paul founded the successful Colombia Gold Symposium in 2016 and has written for industry leading publication Mining Journal since 2015. Previously, Paul spent five years in Chile reporting and analyzing the copper sector for CRU and Metal Bulletin. Paul received a BA in Business Administration from the University of the West of England, UK; and a MA in International Relations from the University of Chile, Santiago Chile. He is fluent in English and Spanish.
James Anderson serves as Chairman and CEO of Guanajuato Silver Company. His career began in the financial services industry with a successful 19-years as a retail broker, investment banker, and manager with several Canadian investment firms. These included First Canada Capital Ltd., Research Capital Corp., and Majendie Securities Ltd., where he was instrumental in the financing of numerous small-cap public companies in the mining exploration and development industry. James then went on a career in mining exploration, serving as CEO of NuLegacy Gold Corp. from 2012 until April 2019. He is also currently a director of Orestone Mining Corp. James was born in the gold mining community of Timmins, Ontario, and is a graduate of the University of Alberta.
Dr. Peter K.M. Megaw, Consulting Exploration Geologist, is President of IMDEX/Cascabel and co-founder of MAG Silver and Minaurum Gold. His Ph.D. work at the University of Arizona was an exploration-focused geological/geochemical study of the Santa Eulalia Ag-Pb-Zn District, Chihuahua and Carbonate Replacement Deposits (CRDs) of Mexico in general. He has published extensively on CRDs and Epithermal Vein deposits and is a frequent speaker at international academic and technical symposia. His primary exploration foci are CRDs and Epithermal Vein Deposits, which he has worked on throughout the Cordillera of North and South America, Ireland and Turkey. Peter was awarded the Society of Mining Engineers 2012 Robert M. Dreyer Award for excellence in Applied Economic Geology and the PDAC 2017 Thayer Lindsley Award for Outstanding Exploration Success for the significant discoveries made by his team at Juanicipio-Fresnillo, Zacatecas; Platosa, Durango; and Cinco de Mayo-Pozo Seco, Chihuahua.
Brodie Sutherland is a mineral exploration geologist, based in Calgary, Canada. With over sixteen years of experience exploring for mineral deposits in over twenty countries. Brodie has a focus on economic geology and the development of grass roots mineral exploration projects through to feasibility. Mr. Sutherland holds a Bachelor of Science Degree (Geology) from the University of Alberta and has completed a Diploma Certificate in Environmental Management from the University of Calgary. As a founding member of Tocvan Ventures Corp., a company actively exploring in Sonora, Mexico, Mr. Sutherland has played a pivotal role in building a local team of experts to breathe new life into undervalued projects.
Lauren Megaw is Head of Investor Relations for Reyna Silver, focusing on approachable communication of technical information. Growing up collecting and studying minerals, led to studying Geology at Stanford University. Prior to joining Reyna Silver in 2021, she surveyed historic mining districts in Hunan Province, China from a Carbonate Replacement Deposits (CRD) continuum perspective. She now works alongside the Reyna Silver technical team on the Guigui and Batopilas projects in Chihuahua, Mexico and the Medicine Springs project in Nevada, USA. She presented at AEMA in 2022 And GSN Winnemucca in 2023 on exploring with an ore-systems approach at Medicine Springs.
10:30 am Networking Refreshment Break
Sponsors Reyna Gold and Reyna Silver
10:50 am II.4. Designing Project Finance Structures for the Mining Business Cycle
Mining projects often draw from several financing sources to fund development. There are different costs and benefits associated with equity, debt, and alternative finance that need to be considered when putting together a financing package. This session considers the features of the different financing methods and how they interact within the confines of a larger financing package. It asks how specific project characteristics can be accommodated by a financing package so that challenging market conditions do not lead directly to financial distress and positive market environments benefits are largely preserved to equity. The ideas raised in this session hold out the possibility of designing a financing package that fits the needs and outlook of both project owners and mine financiers.
II.4.1. SCM Decisions: Michael Samis, Ph.D., P.Eng., Principal (Ch)
II.4.2. Hartree Partners LP: Matthew Rosales, P.Geo., Mine Finance & Investments Manager
II.4.3. Trillium Gold Corp.: Russell Starr, President & CEO
II.4.4. DLA Piper: Oliver Wright, Partner
II.4.5. Trident Royalties plc: Justin Anderson, VP, Americas
Dr. Michael Samis, P.Eng. is a leading Integrated Valuation and Risk Modelling practitioner in the natural resource industries with more than 30 years of mining experience. He has extensive professional experience valuing mining projects with complex forms of flexibility and risk. His assignments have ranged from exploration stage to late-stage capital investments and include project financing and contingent taxes. Mike was previously an Associate Partner and Senior Manager with EY for 11 years where he valued complex financial securities such as employee stock options, contingent contracts, and financial derivatives in addition to his consulting work in the mining industry. Prior to this, he worked for AMEC as the Technical Director of Mineral Economics. He currently assists mining clients align capital allocation decisions with business strategy through SCM Decisions.
Matthew Rosales is a Professional Geologist (EGBC) and finance professional with over 15-years experience covering both technical & financial aspects of the mining industry. His experience ranges from exploration, technical services, and project development studies at mines and projects on 4 continents, through to project finance, advisory, and private capital solutions for the mining industry. He is the Mine Finance and Investments Manager at Hartree Partners, a 25+ year commodity trader based in New York with over 700 employees in 17 offices globally. Hartree engages in debt, stream, royalty, equity, and prepay financing to complement their base- precious- and battery-metals concentrates trading business. Prior to Hartree, Matt held senior roles at Société Générale, ING Capital LLC, and Teck Resources Limited.
Russell Starr, Director, President & CEO, Trillium Gold, is an entrepreneur and financial professional, focused on private and public mining & exploration, corporate advisory, corporate development, and M&A. Mr. Starr has over 20 years of corporate finance, M&A, investment and business development experience. Mr. Starr held senior positions and advisory roles with financial institutions including RBC Capital Markets, Scotia Capital, Orion Securities, Blackmont, Lawrence and Company, where he helped raise over a billion dollars for junior and mid-tier companies. Mr. Starr was also an early investor in Echelon Wealth Partners, a large Canadian investment dealer. After leaving Bay Street, he held executive positions at Cayden Resources and Auryn Resources. As Senior Vice President with Cayden Resources, and board member, Russell was integral in the marketing, financing, development and ultimate sale of Cayden for CAD$205 million to Agnico Eagle.
Oliver Wright is a finance partner in DLA Piper’s Energy and Natural Resources sector. He has extensive experience advising on a broad range of transactions across the mining and metals sector, regularly taking the lead on project development, financing, capital markets, and M&A transactions. A recognized global leader in the mining a metals sector, he is ranked Band 1: USA-Nationwide: Mining & Metals (Transactional) by Chambers 2022. Oliver represents clients in relation to deal structuring, investment risks, joint venture management, offtake arrangements and other operational matters, new country entry, and relations with host country governments. Oliver advises sponsors, lenders, and private equity and private credit clients on transactions spanning several jurisdictions. His work combines aspects of project finance and M&A in renewable energy and the mining of minerals for energy transition, such as the ingredients for batteries and the copper necessary for building and connecting renewable energy facilities to the electrical grid.
Justin Anderson is VP Americas for Trident Royalties, a diversified mining royalty company. He has more than 15 years’ experience in the natural resources sector, most recently with McGriff Insurance Services. Prior to McGriff, Mr. Anderson worked for over ten years with Resource Capital Funds, a leading mining-focused private equity fund. He has also worked in several different engineering roles within the mining industry. Mr. Anderson earned his Bachelors in Mining Engineering and Masters in Mineral Economics from the Colorado School of Mines. Furthermore, he is a licensed Professional Engineer in Colorado. Mr. Anderson is active in multiple facets of SME, both at the local and national level. He has been nominated to join the SME Board of Directors in 2024.
10:50 am II.4A. Human Capital Relevancy in Investment Successes and/or Failures
The primary objective of investors’ due diligence programs is to understand the risks and opportunities of an investment. Yet despite these efforts, countless investments fall short of the expected returns. It is now recognized that underperformance of assets is frequently caused by management team failures. The relevancy of human capital in the due diligence process is the topic of this panel. The panelists include mine operators and financiers who have significant experience around building and evaluating successful executive teams.
II.4A.1. Brooks & Nelson, Anita Bertisen, Partner; (Ch)
II.4A.2. Brooks & Nelson, Jill Nelson, Partner
II.4A.3. Colorado School of Mines, Dr. M. Stephen Enders, Mining Engineering Department Head
II.4A.4. Independent Director, Edward C. Dowling, Jr., Teck Resources, Compass Minerals, Copper Mountain Mining
II.4A.5. Orion Resource Partners, Kirsten Wolf, Chief Risk Officer, Chair, ESG committee
II.4A.6. Resource Capital Partners: Jasper Bertisen, Partner, Team Leader, Investment Committee Member
Anita Bertisen, Partner, Brooks & Nelson (Panel Chair and Facilitator) Born and raised in the Netherlands, Anita’s passion for mining was guided by her appetite for adventure, exploring new territories, and meeting people from all walks of life. She earned a MSc. at the University of Technology in Delft and a MSc. in mining engineering from Colorado School of Mines. After 20 years of operational and corporate experience working for major gold mining companies, consulting and contract mining firms, Anita is now a Partner and Director of Recruiting at Brooks & Nelson where she leverages her strength and passion for building diverse, cross-functional, high-performing teams. Anita supports Women in Mining (WIM) and served as WIM national president from 2019 to 2022. She is dedicated into changing public perception of mining, driving inclusion and diversity, and expanding mining careers for women.
Jill Nelson, Partner, Brooks & Nelson, is a Mining Engineer who started her career with Shell Mining Company. She moved into the waste industry for BFI, managing closure projects, EH&S, before managing hazardous waste landfills at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Later, she returned to BFI as their Landfill Sales Manager. Contributing to her Alma Mater, Jill spent three years fundraising for SDSM&T, focusing on the mining sector. In 2008, Jill moved into recruiting in the mining industry with Downing Teal in Denver. In 2016, Lois Brooks and Jill Nelson started Brooks & Nelson to provide exceptional, client-tailored recruiting. Matching top-end talent with the right opportunities is her passion. Jill is a staunch supporter of the mining industry and serves on boards of trade associations, colleges, and Colorado’s Mine Land Reclamation Board.
M. Stephen Enders is Mining Engineering Department Head, Colorado School of Mines. Dr. Enders has over 46 years of mining since graduating from Mines with a BSc in geological engineering. Steve later earned his MSc and PhD from the University of Arizona. He has been President of Phelps Dodge Exploration Corporation and Senior Vice President of Worldwide Exploration for Newmont Mining. He subsequently served as Chairman, Director, and COO of EMX Royalty Corporation, and co-founded Cupric Canyon Capital LLC. Dr. Enders has worked at Mines since 2009 including roles as a Department Head for Geology & Geological Engineering and currently for Mining Engineering. Steve is a CSM Distinguished Achievement Medalist and is on the Board of Governors for the CSM Foundation. Additionally, he is on the Board of Directors of Copper Mountain Mining and the Board of Advisors for Brooks & Nelson.
Edward Dowling, Jr., Independent Director, Teck Resources, Compass Minerals and Chair of Copper Mountain Mining, holds a BSc. in Mining Engineering and a MSc and PhD in Mineral Processing, from Penn State where he received the University Research Award and is an Alumni Fellow, the University’s highest award. He has held a progression of operating and executive roles with Phelps Dodge, Cyprus Amax, Cleveland-Cliffs, DeBeers, Meridian Gold and Alacer Gold. Currently, he is a director of Teck Resources, Compass Minerals and Chair of Copper Mountain Mining. He is recognized as a strategically adept operator and builder, especially in assembling and motivating teams to excel in technical, political, and cultural challenges while delivering inconceivable business results. He is a Distinguished Member of SME, the recipient of the R. H. Richards Award and D. C. Jackling Award, amongst others. He is a US Navy veteran.
Kirsten Wolf, Chief Risk Officer, Orion Resource Partners, is the Chief Risk Officer of Orion Resource Partners and chairs their ESG committee. Prior to Orion, Ms. Wolf was Chief Risk Officer for the Red Kite Group’s Mine Finance business. Prior to joining Red Kite, Kirsten was a Director in CIBC World Markets’ Market and Credit Risk department managing commodity risk. She oversaw and expanded production of risk management metrics such as Value at Risk and stress/scenario testing. Previously Ms. Wolf was a Risk Manager for RWE Trading GmbH providing market risk management, risk reporting and trading P&L for their pan-European natural gas trading business. Prior to that, she was an analyst at Enron Energy Services; and a Sales Representative at Exxon Chemical. Kirsten received a BEng in Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering from University of Bath.
Jasper Bertisen, Partner, Resources Capital Funds, is a partner, team leader, and investment committee member at Resource Capital Funds. He has a MSc. in Mining Engineering from Delft University and a MSc. in Mineral Economics from the Colorado School of Mines Colorado School of Mines. He has been with Resource Capital Funds for almost twenty years and has managed numerous of portfolio companies, ranging from exploration through to producing assets. An important aspect of his role is to ensure that appropriate management teams and boards are in place to execute on a portfolio company’s strategy.
10:50 am II.4B Metallurgy for Rare Earths and Critical Minerals
II.4B.1. Colorado School of Mines: Dr. Corby Anderson PE, Harrison Western Professor and Director of the Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy (Ch)
II.4B.2. K. Marc LeVier & Associates: Marc LeVier, President (Ch)
II.4B.3. Critical Minerals Institute: Jack Lifton, Chairman
II.4B.4. Tetra Tech: Kimberly Porsche, P.E., Director of Program Management, Senior Project Manager
II.4B.5. Tetra Tech: Thomas Gray, P.E., Principal
II.4B.6. Virginia Tech: Aaron Noble, PhD, Professor and Incoming Department Head, Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering
Dr. Corby G. Anderson, PE is a licensed Professional Chemical Engineer with over 40 years of global experience in industrial operations, corporate level management, engineering, design, consulting, teaching, research and professional service. He is a native of Butte, America. His career includes positions with Thiokol Chemical Corporation, Key Tronic Corporation, Sunshine Mining and Refining Company, H. A. Simons Ltd. and at CAMP-Montana Tech. He holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Montana State University and an MSc from Montana Tech in Metallurgical Engineering and PhD from the University of Idaho in Mining Engineering - Metallurgy. He is a Fellow of both the Institution of Chemical Engineers and of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. He shares 16 international patents and 4 new patent applications covering several innovative technologies, 2 of which were successfully reduced to industrial practice. Corby currently serves as the Harrison Western Professor and the Director of the Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy as part of both the Mining Engineering Department and the George S. Ansell Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines.
Marc LeVier is a minerals industry consultant with over 50 years of experience in the mining industry. He has worked in mining operations and the development of new mining projects from exploration to operation. He has worked for mining companies as well as engineered equipment companies in support of the mining industry. Mr. LeVier most recently worked as the Senior Director of Metallurgical R&D for Newmont Mining Corporation. In 2011 Mr. LeVier started a minerals industry consulting company, providing metallurgical and analytical expertise to the industry. He has been the CEO and Director of several rare earth junior mining companies, leading efforts to develop new rare earth deposits. Mr. LeVier's experience covers base metals, precious metals, industrial minerals, iron ore, rare earth minerals, and energy minerals.
Jack Lifton is currently an industry consultant providing evaluations and due diligence studies of business operations of mining refining, fabrication, and manufacturing operations in the minerals, metals and materials area. As a research scientist, chemical plant manager, technical operations and sales manager, and a CEO in the OEM automotive engineered materials and minor metals industries with over six decades of direct experience he gained a worldwide reputation as an expert in these areas. He has been a respected member of the natural resource community with a distinction among his peers as a reputable resource.
From Concept to Construction, Challenges in Project Financing for US-Based Rare Earth Elements (REE)/ Critical Minerals (CM) Market: Tetra Tech, Inc. has been an active partner for nearly a decade in supporting the Department of Energy’s (DOE) initiatives relating to sustainable and economic recovery of rare earth elements and critical minerals from coal wastes and coal related strata. During that term, DOE has awarded over $4.5M in federal funding to Tetra Tech to leading in the identification of the highest quality and concentration of REE/CM sources and the completion of a feasibility study for a REE/CM and Calcined Alpha Alumina Extraction Plant in the US. The $350M Extraction Plant planned for development in Clearfield County, PA will produce 5-8 separated Rare Earth Metals, Lithium Carbonate, and Calcined Alpha Alumina, and other material biproducts utilizing commercial available technology extracted from clay wastes associated with the mining of metallurgical coal. The goal is to provide a reliable US based supply of critical materials used in the manufacture of national defense, decarbonization, and renewable energy products. The next step of the project is to transition from lab-scale to pilot-scale to full-scale. Private sector investment partners are a key component to this development alongside government support.
Kimberly Porsche, is a Registered Professional Engineer with a diverse background in project delivery. Skilled in Engineer-Procure-Construct (EPC) execution with experience across several sectors (Government, Infrastructure, Mining, Energy [Nuclear & Renewables] Oil, Gas & Chemicals) and spanning 3 continents (North America, Asia, & Australia) on both greenfield and brownfield projects. Ms. Porsche is highly skilled at safely delivering complex, multi-discipline projects (civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, remediation, environmental etc.) in challenging environments on-time and on-budget. She has led scheduling, costing, procurement, and contractor execution & management efforts using state-of-the-art CM techniques. With more than 15 years of engineering and construction management experience, Ms. Porsche maintains an in-depth knowledge of EPC and EPCM services, contract execution, and project management. She leverages years of on-the-job safety management, training, and certification experience to integrate safety principles and procedures through entire project lifecycles.
Thomas A. Gray P.E., received a Mining Engineering degree from Penn State in 1973 and an M.B.A. from University of Pittsburgh in 1977. Mr. Gray started his distinguished career at U.S. Steel’s Frick Coal District in Pennsylvania. He then transitioned to Dravo Engineers and Constructors, where he spent seven years, developing new coal mines in Appalachia. Mr. Gray then spent 21 years working for GAI Consultants successfully managing numerous mining projects. He went on to serve as a Senior Manager for Tetra Tech, in Pittsburgh, from 2007 until 2021, when he transitioned to an advisor/consultant role. Mr. Gray is a Professional Engineer in five states and specializes in active and Abandoned Mine Reclamation and in REE/Critical Mineral recovery projects. Mr. Gray is a past Chairman and a Distinguished member (1997) of SME’s Pittsburgh Section, an SME Fellow (2009), and received The Howard N. Eavenson Award in 2019.
Integrated Treatment of Acid Mine Drainage and Rare Earth Element Production: Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) from active and legacy mining is one of the most significant sources of stream pollution in the U.S. Over the last six years, researchers at West Virginia University and Virginia Tech have developed an integrated process that captures and preconcentrates rare earth elements (REEs) from AMD while producing clean water as a byproduct. The preconcentrated material has REE grades similar to that of conventional resources, with exceptionally high concentrations of magnet-critical REEs, including Tb and Dy. The preconcentration process has been successfully scaled, and the first commercial installation was successfully commissioned in Spring 2023. Alongside these efforts, the team has also recently received $8 million in federal BIL funding to complete Front End Engineering Design (FEED-study) for a central refinery, which will process this material and produce individually-separated rare earth oxides and metal products. This talk will describe the financial implications of the supply chain concept and the partnerships needed for successful project delivery.
Aaron Noble, PhD is a professor and incoming department head in the Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering at Virginia Tech. His instruction and research are in the general areas of mineral processing, process economics and mine environmental management. He has published more than 40 journal papers and has received three U.S. patents for innovative process equipment. Noble has a B.S., an M.S. and a Ph.D., all from Virginia Tech and all in mining and minerals engineering. He is a licensed professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and he currently serves as an associate editor on the editorial board of SME’s Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration journal. He is an inaugural recipient of the SME Academic Career Development Grant (2015). Other notable awards and honors include the J.W. Woomer Award (2019), the MPD Outstanding Young Engineer Award (2018), the Rossiter W. Raymond Award (2017), the Stefanko Best Paper Award (2014) and the Henry Krumb Lecturer (2016 and 2018).
11:35 am II.5. The Importance of the Robustness of Various Studies in a Mining Project Cycle
This panel will discuss key aspects of various types of studies, e.g. Preliminary Economic Assessments (PEA), Pre-Feasibility Studies (PFS), Feasibility Studies (FS) which are carried out throughout a mining project's life cycle starting the exploration stage. It is important to make sure that the studies are done well to get into the next phase and done to the industry's expected and acceptable standards. The panelists will highlight some of the key metrics, issues, and topics that investors, analysts, and stakeholders should focus on in order to ensure the risks associated with the geology, engineering, and financial aspects of the project are properly addressed.
II.5.1. GeoGlobal LLC: Dr. Abani Samal, CPG, RM-SME, Fellow-SME, Fellow-SEG, Principal (Ch)
II.5.2. RESPEC Consulting: Peter Christiansen, RM-SME, Principal
II.5.3. SLR Consulting: Grant Malensek, P.Eng., Senior Principal Mining Engineer
II.5.4. Independent Mining Consultants (IMC): John Marek, P.Eng., President
Dr. Abani R Samal (Ch) is in the mining industry since 1996. He is the owner and Principal of GeoGlobal, LLC. Dr. Samal provides consulting services to exploration and mining companies and major financial institutions worldwide. He provided strategic advice to governmental agencies through World Bank for the development of mineral resources. Dr. Samal offers professional development programs to industry professionals and academic researchers worldwide. Dr. Samal holds Ph.D. from SIU Carbondale, DIC & MS from Imperial College, London, and M Tech (Mineral Exploration) degree from IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, India. He is a Registered Member and Fellow of SME and a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geology (SEG) and a Certified Professional Geologist (CPG).
Peter Christensen, RM-SME, has extensive international mining experience. He is a principal consultant at RESPEC and has held senior positions with major mining companies, contractors, and service providers. Mr. Christensen has experience in managing feasibility studies, mine development, mining method and equipment selection, mine planning, cost estimation, and reserves estimation. He has conducted due diligence on mining assets on all continents; economic and financial evaluations of mining operations; reserve audits; operational and HSE audits; provided litigation support; and reviewed mining projects, cost structures, and operating performance. His commodity experience includes coal, lignite, potash, trona, salt, oil sands, gold, silver, copper, beryllium, tin, nickel, bauxite, iron ore, mineral sands, limestone, aggregates, and clays.
Grant A. Malensek is a Senior Principal Mining Engineer with over 25 years’ experience in the mining industry and currently manages both the SLR US Mining Advisory team in Denver, Colorado as well as the Valuations team for the Global Mining Advisory group. Mr. Malensek’s consulting experience includes Feasibility and Prefeasibility Studies, Preliminary Economic Assessments, capital cost estimates and reviews, mine strategy, and options analysis and project evaluations in connection with mergers and acquisitions.
John M. Marek, P.E., President of Independent Mining Consultants, graduated with an M.S. in Mining Engineering and B.S. in Physics from the Colorado School of Mines. He has 40 years of experience in the minerals industry and shares responsibility of all aspects of project engineering and management of this multi-disciplined mining consulting firm. Financial analysis, mine planning, reserve verification and review are some of the areas of his expertise. Project specialties include determination of mine operating policy integrating all disciplines and constraints.
11:35 am II.5A. Mining Sector GHG Emissions and Water Use Zero Emissions: What Do the Numbers Say?
II.5A.1. Skarn Associates: Sophie Chung, Director – Industry Analysis
Sophie Chung is Director – Industry Analysis at Skarn Associates. Sophie's expertise ranges from financial valuation of individual assets and companies to dynamic modelling of global mine supply and costs, risk analysis for projects and strategic advice on business development. Sophie holds a B.Sc. Hons. in geology and physics from University of Toronto, Canada. As principal copper analyst at Rio Tinto, Sophie led the team providing long term price forecasts. She also provided bespoke advice and modelling for the copper business development team and the economics team. At Wood Mackenzie, Sophie managed the copper cost service and provided consulting expertise for a wide spectrum of clients, from project risk management to asset valuation and benchmarking. Prior to joining Wood Mackenzie, Sophie worked in equity research at Desjardins Capital Markets, covering the majors and mid-caps on the Toronto stock exchange, in addition to assisting the corporate development team with due diligence on mining assets.
11:35 am II.5B. Nickel and Lithium: Needed Battery Metals for the EV/ Energy Revolution
As demand for EVs accelerates over the next decade, securing sufficient battery-grade materials will be increasingly difficult. Mines are delayed due to permitting challenges, skilled labor shortages can elongate construction and ramp-up schedules, and equipment lead times are pushing out the critical path. Meanwhile, there is intense pressure to accelerate market arrival, thus incentivizing developers to leapfrog engineering phases and take on greater risk. This has significant implications for those financing these projects. Of the critical metals that will be required, nickel and lithium may pose the greatest challenge to battery makers and OEMs looking to ramp-up EV production into the many millions per year by 2030.
This two-part panel, one part about nickel and second part about lithium will discuss the current state of the nickel and lithium industry as well as key attributes of both metals, including the challenges of nickel evolving away from a purely stainless steel focused industry, for example what makes a “good” nickel and lithium project, as well as geopolitical concerns. The panel will also discuss what differentiates the various intermediate products, technical aspects distinguishing viable projects from others, and how both fit into the battery value chain, and what potential financiers, investors and stakeholders should consider.
II.5B.1. HATCH Advisory: Duncan Kluwak, CFA, PE, Principal (Ch)
II.5B.2. Libra Lithium Corp.: Koby Kushner, P.Eng. CFA, CEO and Director (Ch)
II.5B.3. RK Equity: Howard Klein, Co-Founder and Partner
II.5B.4. Power Nickel Inc.: Terry Lynch, CEO
Duncan Kluwak is a Principal in Hatch’s Advisory Group with 15 years of consulting and engineering experience in the mining and metals sector. He leads Hatch’s Transaction Advisory service line globally, supporting a wide variety of financial institutions, governments, and industry players with strategy, M&A, divestiture, and lending decisions. In his previous role at Hatch, Duncan managed large construction contracts, de-risked complex project executions and led studies that improved technical outcomes while optimizing capital spending. He has extensive international experience on mine site globally. Duncan studied mechanical engineering and economics at Columbia University. He is a professional engineer and CFA charter holder.
Koby Kushner, P.Eng., CFA is CEO and Director of Libra Lithium Corp. Koby Kushner has spent most of his career as a mining engineer and more recently, an equity research analyst. Prior to entering finance, Koby worked at several mines in Ontario and Manitoba, including Hemlo (Barrick Gold), Detour, Rice Lake, and others. During this time, Koby has seen projects advance through all stages of development, including exploration, production, and closure. He then moved into equity research at Red Cloud Securities, a mining-only investment bank, where he wrote on over 100 companies across various stages of development and a wide range of commodities, with a particular focus on lithium. His expertise on lithium has attracted interest from major media outlets and investors. He holds a BSc in Mining Engineering from Queen’s University, is a licensed Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario, and is a CFA charter holder.
Howard Klein, Co-Founder and Partner, founded boutique capital markets advisory firm RK Equity in 2002. He has over 25 years capital markets and investing experience across multiple investment themes in natural resources, including, gold, iron ore and lithium. From 1997-2001 Howard led the institutional equity sales desk of SG Cowen Securities focused on the EMEA region, as well as Japan. Howard spent the first 5 years of his career as an analyst focused on privatization in Eastern Europe at Thomson Financial and as an investment banker in Budapest, Hungary. Howard holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University. Howard speaks regularly at investment conferences and to the financial media about the disruptive battery metals thematic.
Terry Lynch graduated in 1981 from St. Francis Xavier University with a joint honours degree in Economics and BBA. Prior to becoming a director with International PBX Ventures in 2012, Mr. Lynch had been CEO of privately held Nevada-focused Relief Gold. He also had been a director and later CEO of TSX-listed Firstgold Corp. He assumed the CEO position after the company had run into financial difficulty bringing its Relief Canyon mine into production. He arranged a sale of 51% of the company for a total capital injection of $26.5 million from Northwest Non-Ferrous Metals, one of China’s largest mining engineering and consulting groups. From 2005 to 2008 Mr. Lynch was a partner with Kingsmill Capital Partners, a financial advisory firm specializing in advising public and private early stage growth companies. Prior to joining Kingsmill Capital he spent 15 years operating startup companies in industrial products, oil and gas and media. Mr. Lynch is also a co-founder of Cardiol Therapeutics, a NASDAQ and TSX listed clinical-stage life sciences company focused on the research and clinical development of cannabidiol as an anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory therapy for the treatment of cardiovascular disease.
12:20 pm II.6 Networking Lunch Keynote – Sponsor RESPEC Consulting
12:35 pm Fireside Chat: The Brucejack Project - Discovery to Production in 8 Years: Lessons Learned: Robert Quartermain, DSC, Co Chairman, Dakota Gold Corp. with Anthony Vaccaro, Group Editor, Northern Miner
Dr. Robert Quartermain will speak about the high grade Brucejack Gold Mine in Northern British Columbia, Canada's fourth largest gold producer with Anthony Vaccaro, President of the Northern Miner. Bob will discuss the discovery, permitting, financing and the use of consultants along the development timeline from 2009 to 2017, and comment on some lessons learned when consultants have differences in interpretation of data, and other topics.
Dr. Robert Quartermain, DSC, serves as the Co-Chairman of Dakota Gold Corp. and was most recently Executive Chairman of Pretium Resources Inc., which he founded in October 2010. Prior to Pretium, he was President and CEO of Silver Standard Resources Inc. (now SSR Mining Inc.) for 25 years from 1985 - 2010. Dr. Quartermain holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of New Brunswick, a Master of Science from Queens University, held his Professional Geoscience certification from the Engineers and Geoscientists BC from 1992 - 2022 and Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of New Brunswick. Dr. Quartermain has a number of education, wildlife, diversity and social justice philanthropic interests that he supports. Dr. Quartermain was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame ("CMHF") in August 2022 for his significant contributions to the mining and exploration industry both in Canada and internationally over his career.
Anthony Vaccaro, President, Northern Miner Group for joining us. Anthony has overall responsibility for some of the mining industry's most distinguished media brands including The Northern Miner, Canadian Mining Journal and Mines handbook. He holds the CFA designation, has an MBA in Investment Management and is board member of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. He is based in Toronto, Canada.
1:40 pm II.7. Mining Merger and Acquisition and Consolidation Trends
The mining sector saw $75 billion in mining M&A deals in 2022, a drop of 34% from 2021 in terms of deal value. Gold accounted for the largest share, with over 50% of deals by deal value. With high interest rates and global uncertainty, gold and critical mineral miners should still be attractive acquisition targets in 2023. Join this panel as they discuss deal trends in mining M&A for 2023 including dealing with increased political and economic uncertainty, a continued focus on social licence, the challenges of deals with SOEs and more.
II.7.1 Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP: Steven McKoen (Ch), Partner
II.7.2 Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP: John Wilkin, Partner
II.7.3 Bloomberg: Todd Sibilla, Commodity Market Specialist
II.7.4 Shearman & Sterling LLP: George Karafotias, Partner, Mergers & Acquisitions
Steve McKoen emphasizes domestic and cross-border mergers & acquisitions, reorganizations, corporate finance, and corporate governance. He acts for a wide variety of issuer, underwriter and private equity clients in the mining sector. Ranked as one of the leading mining lawyers in Canada by The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2023 and The Best Lawyers in Canada 2023, Steve advises mining companies and investors on both M&A transactional agreements as well as commercial agreements such as streams, offtakes, royalties and option agreements.
John Wilkin focuses on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance transactions for public companies. He regularly advises purchasers, vendors and target companies in connection with public and private mergers and acquisitions transactions, and acts for both issuers and underwriters on public offerings and private placements of debt and equity securities. John has significant experience in the mining industry and is ranked as one of Canada’s premier mining lawyers by The Best Lawyers in Canada 2023, The Legal 500 Canada 2022, The Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2022, IFLR1000: The Guide to the World's Leading Financial and Corporate Law Firms: 2022, and Who's Who Legal: Global 2022.
Todd Sibilla is a Commodity Applications Specialist for Bloomberg LP in New York. In this capacity he has recently lectured at multiple industry events, including the Bloomberg Base and Precious Metals Webinar series through 2018, Client conferences in Toronto, Montreal, Miami, Mexico City and Monterrey, MX. He has been a featured speaker in the past at the BMO Metals and Mining Conference, CPM Gold Yearbook release, CPM/Metals Bulletin “Minor Metals” Conference, Society of Mining Metallurgy and Exploration NYC conferences, Peru Universidad Esan, Universidad Peruana (UPC) and regional domestic USA Universities. He has expertise in all aspects of global financial markets and is a risk and hedging model specialist. Todd has a patent with Bloomberg for electronic trading technology. Additional noteworthy events include the United Nations Renewable Energy Conference, the AFP Canada Annual Conference, CFA events, and Bloomberg Symposiums.
George Karafotias is a partner in Shearman & Sterling’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group. He has extensive experience in U.S. and cross-border M&A transactions, advising on public company transactions (negotiated and unsolicited/hostile), spin-offs, going private transactions, consortium bids, private M&A transactions, joint ventures and strategic investments. He regularly works closely with boards, special committees and senior management on their most complex and strategically significant transactions. George regularly advises on mining and metals transactions, with clients including Anglo American and ArcelorMittal.
1:40 pm II.7A. ESG/ Mine Closure and the Changing Landscape for Reporting: Roundtable
SRK discipline experts will discuss common observations, key items that regularly represent project risk, due diligence philosophy and approach, and the importance of a tailored experience in a Due Diligence team to perform fatal flaw through deep dive due analyses. The panel will also speak to different and similar risks seen working across various jurisdictions, and metals and minerals and mining methods as well as at various stages.
II.7A.1. SRK Consulting: Ben Parsons, Principal Resource Geologist (Ch)
II.7A.2. SRK Consulting: Matthew Sullivan, Principal Mineral Economist
II.7A.3. SRK Consulting: Jeff Parshley, Corporate Consultant, Mine Closure/ Environment
II.7A.4. SRK Consulting: Jane Joughin, Corporate Consultant (Sustainability)
Ben Parsons, Principal Resource Geologist, has over 20 years of broad geological experience, including precious metals, base metals, and more recently niobium and phosphate mining. Ben’s expertise includes the production of independent mineral resource estimates, geological modelling, due diligence and auditing of exploration/mining projects, review of operation performance, technical reviews, and assistance in project evaluation as part of Competent Person’s/Mineral Expert Reports and stock exchange listings. Ben has project management experience in technical studies such as exploration programs, mineral resource and ore reserve studies, scoping/conceptual studies, pre/definitive feasibility study projects, working with junior exploration companies at grassroots exploration level through to the listing of large multi-national operating companies with multiple assets. He has extensive experience in databases, QA/QC, developing geological models, mineral resource estimates, geostatistical optimization, grade control practices, and reconciliation studies, all reported in accordance with international reporting codes, such as CIM, JORC, SEC, SAMREC, etc.
Matthew Sullivan, Principal Mineral Economist, has over 12 years of experience analyzing, optimizing, and valuing mining operations from internal and external positions. Matthew has extensive experience designing and leading diligence processes for mining assets ranging from early-stage exploration through to operating mines. He has priced, negotiated, and closed mining deals across the globe in a wide variety of commodities via structures ranging from royalty and equity investment to term and convertible debt facilities. His experience as a mining sector buy-side professional funding the development and operation of mining assets provides a unique perspective on what it takes to study, build, operate, manage risk, and invest in the mining sector. His specializations include mining sector financial modeling and analysis; merger and acquisitions, due diligence planning and execution, strategic business planning and initiatives, risk management and assessments, operations research and optimizations, and process controls and improvements.
Jeff Parshley, Corporate Consultant (Environment), has over 40 years of environmental and closure experience in the mining industry. Jeff specializes in closure planning and closure cost estimation. In addition to doing planning and analysis work for mines, he has been involved in the management of abandoned mines and the implementation of closure works at several mines in the western United States. Having worked with legal and policy aspects of mining projects since his early career, Jeff regularly contributes to World Bank and IFC compliance projects and is one of SRK’s most experienced mine closure strategists and regulatory specialists. He has helped develop regulatory guidelines for mine closure and closure cost estimating and has also helped clients develop corporate standards and guidance documents for closure planning, implementation, and cost estimating.
Jane Joughin has 30 years of experience providing sustainability consulting services to the mining industry, mostly in Africa, Europe and Central Asia. She has much experience undertaking assessment, permitting and auditing of mines, coupled with a thorough understanding of ESG concepts and key standards. She also provides ESG input to mineral resource and mineral reserve estimation and the planning of mining projects. Currently she is assisting clients with updating of capital project study guidelines to address new corporate commitments to ESG and responsible mining standards.
1:40 pm II.7B. Two Key Vital Critical Materials and Metals: Construction Materials and Vanadium
II.7B.1. RESPEC Consulting: John S.L. Morgan, Senior Vice President
II.7B.2. Phenom Resources: Paul Cowley, CEO
Construction Materials – The forgotten commodity. When we think of mining it is normally focused on gold, copper or coal. It is often forgotten that construction materials are the basic building block of the economy. The need for aggregates, cement, and lime will continue to increase with both population growth and reinvestment in infrastructure. Developing countries will see an even greater increase in aggregate and cement demand per capita, as they build their infrastructure in parallel with increasing population. India will be a clear example of this as it eclipses China to become the world’s most populous country. In the US, the construction materials industry has numerous operating companies. However, ownership is fragmented, especially in the aggregates market due to transportation costs. Recently, the market has seen some consolidation from both major international firms and private equity. Recent trends in the limestone industry in the US has been an increase in underground mining, driven primarily by the challenges of getting zoning and permitting for new surface operations.
John S. L. Morgan, the Senior Vice President of RESPEC, is a mining consultant with extensive experience in both surface and underground mining. He has a degree in Mining Engineering from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College in London. Mr. Morgan has been the project manager on numerous mine technical reviews, and mining operation evaluations worldwide. Significant projects include managing the raw materials Due Diligence effort conducted in support of CRH’s successful evaluation and acquisition of the assets divested by Lafarge and Holcim and the acquisition of Ashgrove. He also managed the Due Diligence review of the mining operations of Fels in Germany. He also prepared the feasibility study and subsequent development of an underground limestone mine for Continental Cement. In addition to his significant consulting experience Mr. Morgan was the VP of Operations for a mid-west aggregate company.
Vanadium should be on your radar, now. This underestimated metal will come to the forefront this decade and beyond, capturing market share in the exponentially growing large capacity battery market as the world electrifies. The large capacity battery market is forecasted to double that of the EV battery market by next decade. Vanadium batteries for solar, wind, microgrids and grid energy backup and peak management applications have superior attributes and performance over lithium. While the world has slept or hesitated, China has over the last 5 years built, scaled up and has orders for massive vanadium battery projects. Other countries are now responding, so the upward demand for vanadium has begun, with shortages expected this decade.
Paul Cowley, P. Geo. for over forty-four years has held technical and managerial positions exploring for vanadium, gold, base metals, diamonds, industrial minerals, and coal worldwide. He has extensive experience in a major company setting based in Canada and South America (18 years with BHP Minerals). Projects include the world-class Escondida copper mine in Chile, Country Manager for Bolivia, and the Slave Gold Project in the Canadian arctic which under his management spawned four gold deposits discoveries amounting to over eight million ounces of gold. Mr. Cowley was instrumental in defining North America’s largest highest grade primary vanadium resource. Mr. Cowley is considered a reliable authority of vanadium, from focus over the past 6 years. Mr. Cowley is a Professional Geologist and President/CEO of Phenom Resources Corp.
2:25 pm II.8. Quantifying and Managing All Risks – Geopolitical, Technical, Financial, Social, and Environmental
Mining project teams develop risk registers to help measure, model, and manage key risks to a project. Most risk registers focus on technical risks; other risks, including geopolitical, social, and environmental, can be difficult to measure and are often assumed to be evaluated at the corporate rather than project level. Measuring and modelling non-technical risks can be difficult, and many teams do not have the expertise need for this type of analysis. Developing the ability to measure and levelize these different types of risk, however, is important to correctly allocate capital to risk mitigation at the project-level, and even deciding on capital allocation between multiple projects.
II.8.1. Stantec Consulting: Michael Stine, Mineral Economist (Ch)
II.8.2. Brattle Group: Florin Dorobantu, Ph.D., Principal
II.8.3. SCM Decisions: Michael Samis, Ph.D., P.Eng., Principal
II.8.4. Stantec Consulting: Ian Morrison, M.Eng., MBA, ICD.D, Senior Principal
II.8.5. Colorado School of Mines: Dr. Graham Davis, Professor Emeritus
Michael Stine is a mineral economist with Stantec and focuses on valuation, risk analysis, and economic modelling. He previously served as an intelligence analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency where he helped senior policy makers understand the national security risks related to his area of expertise. He enjoys using his technical and economic background to enable decision makers to understand and apply both economic and technical principles to strategic decision making. He has an MS in Mineral and Energy Economics from the Colorado School of Mines and a BS in Mining Engineering from the University of Utah.
Ian Morrison M.Eng., MBA, ICD.D is an expert in environmental and financial sustainable development, project economic assessment, risk-based solutions, and assessment for both financial and physical risk. He has led the implementation of successful non-traditional financial and ownership structures. He has advised private corporations, regulators and financiers in North America, South America, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa on the economics and delivery structure for large petrochemical, water, waste management, renewable energy, energy transition, transportation, mining, and traditional energy infrastructure projects. He has led or participated as a team member in several acquisitions both in North America and abroad. His current focus is on risk management solutions that decrease risk to acceptable levels at the lowest levelized cost.
Dr. Michael Samis, P.Eng. is a leading Integrated Valuation and Risk Modelling practitioner in the natural resource industries with more than 30 years of mining experience. He has extensive professional experience valuing mining projects with complex forms of flexibility and risk. His assignments have ranged from exploration stage to late-stage capital investments and include project financing and contingent taxes. Mike was previously an Associate Partner and Senior Manager with EY for 11 years where he valued complex financial securities such as employee stock options, contingent contracts, and financial derivatives in addition to his consulting work in the mining industry. Prior to this, he worked for AMEC as the Technical Director of Mineral Economics. He currently assists mining clients align capital allocation decisions with business strategy through SCM Decisions.
Dr. Florin Dorobantu is a principal and head of the New York City office of The Brattle Group, a global economic consulting firm. He provides advice to companies and governments on valuation and other economic issues, often in the context of litigation and international arbitration matters. His experience in the mining industry includes expert testimony and consulting engagements in matters involving projects at different development stages and across a range of minerals, including precious metals, industrial metals, coal, and phosphates. Dr. Dorobantu has authored publications on the valuation of natural resource investments and is recognized by Who’s Who Legal as a Global Leader among mining experts. He holds a Ph.D. and a master’s degree in Economics from Duke University and a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Administration from the American University in Bulgaria.
Dr. Graham Davis, Professor Emeritus Colorado School of Mines. Professor Graham Davis is a Professor Emeritus in the Division of Economics and Business at the Colorado School of Mines and consults in mine and project valuation for several large mining companies. Professor Davis also has significant experience as an expert witness in litigation involving mine valuations and damages from temporary takings. At the Colorado School of Mines, Professor Davis taught a range of courses including applied microeconomics, mineral and energy asset valuation, and research methodology. He has a PhD in Mineral Economics from Pennsylvania State University, an MBA from the University of Cape Town, and a BS in Metallurgical Engineering from Queen’s University.
2:25 pm II.8A. Renewable Energy & Clearing Pathways to Project Success: Discussion
II.8A.1. BQ Energy Development: Paul Curran, CEO
II.8A.2. Integrated Information Systems, Inc., Douglass N. Loud, Esq. President
This presentation will profile the development of solar on reclaimed mines and mine refuse piles, and why renewables in mining can make sense, especially if cheap hydro is not an option. Land with historic industrial use and potentially limited alternative uses, are perfect sites for renewable energy projects. Transmission lines and access roads are integral to mining sites and provide cost effective infrastructure to the solar project. Power can be sold for ongoing operations at a mine, or sold into the grid to utilities or commercial/industrial users. Land is available, environmental regulators are supportive and green energy is in demand. Investors are looking for green energy projects to fund.
Paul Curran is the founder and CEO of BQ Energy Development, a renewable energy developer that specializes in siting solar projects on landfills and brownfields. BQ projects have received awards from EPA, and recognition in several publications for the sustainable redevelopment of brownfield sites and the innovative development practices in the renewable energy industry. Paul has also served as a Managing Director at SunEdison, and Chief Development Officer at Axio Power and Apex Wind. Prior to founding BQ Energy in 2002, Paul worked in the oil industry for over 20 years with Texaco and Chevron, where he developed cogeneration, and renewable energy projects in the US and Europe. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of New York. Paul holds an MBA from Marist College and Engineering from Columbia University.
Simple Steps for Dealing with Complex Bureaucracies in Mining & Construction: This talk will discuss these issues based on a 3 year investigation into 7 projects across the world. Bureaucracy, fraud and corruption are not only troublesome from a moral point of view. There is also the FCPA – the Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act and its brethren in other countries and their punishments - to consider. Knowing what these issues are and what fraud and corruption may look like and what to look for is important. Managers and investors are often unaware of some simple steps they need to take to make their projects simpler and safer including fraud and corruption.
Douglass Loud has over 40 years of securities industry experience. He has provided investment, financial reporting and accounting consulting for: Investigations and Due Diligence, Compliance, FATCA, HIRE Act, AML, Construction, Mining Companies, Investment Banking, Corporate Finance, Securities Brokerage, Investment Management, Insurance Brokerage, and Reinsurance Management. He also managed the affairs of an SBIC and participated in over 100 investments. Recently, he spent several years investigating fraud and corruption in international infrastructure projects financed by the World Bank. He has given speeches on FATCA, AML, and fraud and corruption related to mining and construction projects and been interviewed by The Gold Report 3 times. Mr. Loud is admitted to practice law in New York and Hawaii, and currently holds the Series 7, 9, 63, and 66 licenses from FINRA.
2:25 pm II.8B. Two Experts’ Views re Why Metallurgy Matters: Discussion
II.8B.1. Colorado School of Mines: Dr. Corby Anderson PE, Harrison Western Professor and Director of the Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy
II.8B.2. K. Marc LeVier & Associates: Marc LeVier, President
Critical Aspects of Rare Earth & Critical Minerals Extractive Metallurgy. This presentation will focus on the current and apparent long term severe challenges facing domestic Extractive Metallurgy utilized in Rare Earth and Critical Minerals production. Ironically, at a time when domestic production is needed to accelerate, the existing Educational, Research and Experienced Talent availability in Extractive Metallurgy is very limited and continues to diminish. Setting aside US permitting issues, this is the largest barrier to successful project development and execution. Potential solution will be formulated for discussion.
Dr. Corby G. Anderson, PE is a licensed Professional Chemical Engineer with over 40 years of global experience in industrial operations, corporate level management, engineering, design, consulting, teaching, research and professional service. He is a native of Butte, America. His career includes positions with Thiokol Chemical Corporation, Key Tronic Corporation, Sunshine Mining and Refining Company, H. A. Simons Ltd. and at CAMP-Montana Tech. He holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from Montana State University and an MSc from Montana Tech in Metallurgical Engineering and PhD from the University of Idaho in Mining Engineering - Metallurgy. He is a Fellow of both the Institution of Chemical Engineers and of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. He shares 16 international patents and 4 new patent applications covering several innovative technologies, 2 of which were successfully reduced to industrial practice. Corby currently serves as the Harrison Western Professor and the Director of the Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy as part of both the Mining Engineering Department and the George S. Ansell Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines.
From Minerals to Metals: What Investors Need to Know; A Metallurgical Perspective: The development of a mineral discovery to an operating mine and ultimately to production of metal is a long journey with many twists and turns, orchestrated by a cast of many disciplines. Investors in such an opportunity want to see a quick return on investment. So what should the investor group expect to see in the years of development as progress and what should the investor be asking the company management about the detailed development? What are the critical stages; what are the critical criteria required and what criteria can be waived off to the operating phase; are the monetary expenditures all necessary to obtaining a profitable operation?
Marc LeVier is a minerals industry consultant with over 50 years of experience in the mining industry. He has worked in mining operations and the development of new mining projects from exploration to operation. He has worked for mining companies as well as engineered equipment companies in support of the mining industry. Mr. LeVier most recently worked as the Senior Director of Metallurgical R&D for Newmont Mining Corporation. In 2011 Mr. LeVier started a minerals industry consulting company, providing metallurgical and analytical expertise to the industry. He has been the CEO and Director of several rare earth junior mining companies, leading efforts to develop new rare earth deposits. Mr. LeVier's experience covers base metals, precious metals, industrial minerals, iron ore, rare earth minerals, and energy minerals.
3:10 pm Networking Refreshment Break - Sponsors Reyna Gold and Reyna Silver
3:30 pm II.9. Why Listing on the OTC Markets in the US is Essential for Growth
This panel will discuss why hundreds of mining companies select the OTCQX and OTCQB markets as their US trading venue of choice, how it lowers cost of capital and supports financing. Hear from capital markets and industry experts as they discuss best practice for companies seeking access to the world’s largest pool of investment.
II.9.1. OTC Markets Group: Chris King, SVP, International Corporate Services (Ch)
II.9.2. OTC Markets Group: Jason Paltrowitz, Director, OTC Markets Group International Ltd. and EVP, Corporate Services, OTC Markets Group
II.9.3. Canadian Securities Exchange: Richard Carleton, CEO
II.9.4. Red Cloud Financial Services Inc.: Sebastian De Kloet, SVP, Marketing
II.9.5. America Rare Earths: Mel Sanderson, President of North America and Executive Director
II.9.6. Exploits Discovery Corp.: Jeff Swinoga, President, CEO, Director
Chris King, Senior Vice President International Corporate Services, leads the International Corporate Services group at OTC Markets and has personally been involved with more than 2,000 companies cross-listing in the US on the OTCQX and OTCQB markets in New York. Chris began his tenure at OTC Markets Group in 2014 working with smaller U.S. companies helping them implement best practices and supporting private companies interested in going public. Since 2017 Chris has focused on assisting international companies increase US investor engagement and achieving fair valuation. Prior to OTC Markets Group, Chris spent 15 years in various roles at DF King Worldwide, Capital Precision and Precision IR, helping hundreds of multinational blue-chip companies achieve their corporate objectives.
Jason Paltrowitz, Director, OTC Markets Group International Ltd. and EVP, Corporate Services, OTC Markets Group. In his dual role as Director, OTC Markets Group International Ltd. and EVP, Corporate Services, Jason Paltrowitz manages the company’s international and domestic Corporate Services business, supporting more than 1,200 companies that trade on the premium OTCQX and OTCQB Markets. Leveraging his background in financial services and expertise in cross-border trading, Jason spearheads sales initiatives and alliances to provide issuers with efficient alternatives to raise capital, access U.S. investors, and help small-cap companies alleviate the cost and complexity associated with being a public company. Prior to joining OTC Markets Group in October 2013, Jason was Managing Director and Segment Head at JP Morgan Chase responsible for the custody, clearing and collateral management business in the Corporate and Investment Bank division. Jason also held multiple senior management positions at BNY Mellon, most notably, as Head of M&A for the Financial Markets and Treasury Services Sector and 11 years as the Head of the Global Capital Markets Group in the Depositary Receipt Division. Jason served on the Board of Directors of the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA) from 2017 - 2020. He previously served as a member of the Board of Directors at OTC Markets Group from 2008 - 2011. Jason holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Boston University and received his MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.
Richard Carleton was appointed CEO of the Canadian Securities Exchange in July 2011. During his tenure, Richard and the CSE team have positioned the exchange to take a leading role in the provision of public capital to entrepreneurial companies; since 2014, the CSE has set a series of records for new listings, capital raised by issuers and trading turnover. An early advocate for the cannabis industry, the CSE is the global exchange leader in the sector. Recognized by the Financial Post Magazine as one of Canada’s “25 Cannabis Industry Power Players”, and a recipient of the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp’s “Captain of Industry” Award in November 2018, Richard is a frequent speaker on early-stage company finance issues around the world. Richard is a director of two private companies: Tetra Trust Company, Canada’s first qualified custodian for cryptocurrency assets, and Blue Ocean ATS, LLC, a US broker dealer which operates an ATS providing after hours trading in US equities. Richard is also a member of two not-for-profit boards: the Empire Club of Canada, and the Private Capital Markets Association. He was also recently named to the Ontario Securities Commission’s “Market Structure Advisory Committee”. A member of the Law Society of Ontario since 1987, Richard is a graduate of the University of Ottawa (B.A. ’81) and the University of Toronto (LL.B. ’85). He has also completed the executive development programme at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Sebastian De Kloet currently is Senior Vice President of Marketing at Red Cloud Financial Services. He has nearly 15 years of capital markets experience, holding positions in mining sales, corporate development, and investor relations for various mining focused firms. During his 7 years at Red Cloud, Sebastian has been an integral pillar to building the first-of-its-kind platform dedicated to servicing issuers in the junior mining and exploration space. He has a proven track record of innovation and corporate development – focused on identifying attracting, and targeting investors through corporate access and media initiatives.
Melissa (Mel) Sanderson is President North America of American Rare Earths (ASX:ARR; OTCQB: ARRNF). Her professional experience includes 21 years in the Diplomatic Service and 15 years with Freeport McMoRan Inc. as VP for Africa and Director, International ESG Strategy. She is the founder of ESG+ which focuses on achieving and maintaining Ethical Sustainable Growth, including through culturally correct communication, inclusive social relations and transparent partnerships. She has earned numerous professional accolades, including the prestigious International Athena Award for Private Sector Businesswoman of the Year, the WIM UK Top 100 Inspirational Women in Mining and the Top 25 Dynamic Women in Business (Phoenix). Mel is past-Chair of the Arizona District Export Council, past-President of the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations, and is on the Boards of American Rare Earths, Auxico Resources Canada (CSE: AUAG; OTCQB: AUXIF) and the Japanese Friendship Garden. She is a Professor of Practice at Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Jeff Swinoga is a highly accomplished mining executive with over 25 years of executive and management experience in the areas of capital markets, project advancement, development and project construction. Most recently, he was the National Mining and Metals co Leader at EY Canada. Previously he was President and CEO of First Mining Gold, Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) of Torex Gold Resources Inc. (“Torex”) where, during his four-year tenure, he led the US$400 million financing of Torex’s US$800 million El Limon-Guajes gold mine on the Morelos property and led his team during Torex’s transition from an exploration and development company to a mid-tier gold producer. Prior to Torex, Mr. Swinoga spent four years as the CFO of North American Palladium Ltd. (“NAP”), during which time NAP financed and constructed the underground Offset Zone expansion project for the Lac des Iles Mine, in addition to acquiring and building two gold producing mines in Québec. Further, he spent three years as CFO of HudBay Minerals Inc., where, from its initial public offering in late 2004, grew to a market capitalization of over $2 billion. Mr. Swinoga also spent seven years at Barrick Gold Corporation as a senior officer with responsibilities that included project financing of Barrick’s Bulyanhulu and Veladero projects. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Toronto as well as a Bachelors degree (Honours) in Economics from the University of Western Ontario. Mr. Swinoga was also elected to the Board of PDAC this year and is also a member of their audit committee.
3:30 pm II.9A. Broader Frontier Issues in Mining and the Circular Economy
This roundtable will consider key innovations that are likely to impact metal sourcing investment in the future. We will consider the most likely scenarios for recycling and a circular economy meeting what Bloomberg has called "The $10 trillion dollar gap." New frontier sources of metals such as the deep sea will be examined in concert with extraction from legacy tailings sites. Techniques such as Phytomining and Biomining which can also play a role in ecological restoration will be considered in terms of their commercial viability.
II9A.1. University of Delaware: Saleem H. Ali, Chair, Department of Geography & Spatial Sciences & Blue & Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy & the Environment (Ch)
II.9A.2. University of British Columbia: John Steen, EY Distinguished Scholar in Global Mining Futures, Director of the Bradshaw Research Initiative in Minerals and Mining (BRIMM)
II.9A.3. Bloomberg NEF: Sung Choi, Associate
Saleem H. Ali is Chair of the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences and the Blue & Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware (USA). He is also a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel. Before embarking on an academic career, Prof. Ali worked as an environmental health and safety professional at General Electric Corporation. His laurels include being a National Geographic Explorer, with field experience in more than 160 countries and all continents; being selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum and serving on the boards of notable non-profit charitable organizations including RESOLVE, Adventure Scientists and Mediators Beyond Borders International. His books include Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life (Oxford Univ. Press) and Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future (Yale Univ. Press). Prof. Ali received his doctorate in Environmental Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an Masters in Environmental Studies from Yale University, and his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry (summa cum laude) from Tufts University. Dr. Ali is a citizen of the United States of America by birth; Pakistan by parental lineage; and Australian by naturalization.
John Steen is the EY Distinguished Scholar in Global Mining Futures at the University of British Columbia and Director of the Bradshaw Research Initiative in Minerals and Mining (BRIMM). Before arriving at UBC in 2019, he was head of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the University of Queensland Business School and advisor to governments and companies on innovation and economic policy. John leads major international research studies on the subject of innovation and sustainable development in the resources sector. These include transitioning to new digital business models, technology ecosystems, innovation strategy and performance in mega-capital ($1billion +) resource projects. He has advised the BC Mining Innovation Roadmap for the Mining Association of British Columbia and the BC Provincial Government. John is currently a senior editor for the Project Management Journal, the Project Management Institute’s research journal. He is a visiting professor at Reykjavik University in Iceland and an honorary professor at the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland. He has published in leading journals in strategy, innovation, project management and mine management and has supervised over 14 Ph.D. students to completion.
Sung Choi is an associate at Bloomberg NEF. His work includes analysis to understand metals and mining industry dynamics and developments essential to the energy transition. For example, some of his most recent work looked at copper supply and demand dynamics to forecast copper demand out to 2040. Sung previously worked as a head of strategy and investment for POSCO America, the US regional HQ for POSCO group, one of Korea's largest global conglomerates that operate in steel, lithium, hydrogen, chemical, energy, construction, and trading. Prior to that, he wrote an investment thesis at M.R. Beal and Co., a boutique investment bank, and Denali investors, a hedge fund. Sung holds BA in Economics from Columbia University. He also served in the US Army.
3:30 pm II.9B. Getting to Net Zero by Effectively Combining Primary and Secondary Metals: Roundtable
This panel will present an overview of the lithium battery value chain and the importance of primary and secondary raw materials to advance the clean energy transition. While the generation of secondary feedstock: End of Life batteries is largely related to adaptation of electrification and battery life, this discussion will share the importance to capitalize and combine primary raw material extraction and secondary raw material flow to efficiently supply raw materials for the industry. This session will also highlight a glimpse of various Glencore - one of the world's largest global publicly traded mining enterprises - related operations and public recycling projects and related innovations as well as describe some key related technical and financial issues.
II.9B.1. Glencore: Dr. Sumedh Gostu, Technical Risk Manager & Hydrometallurgy Expert (Ch)
Dr. Sumedh Gostu is Technical Risk Manager and Hydrometallurgy Expert for Glencore in the Copper, Zinc, Cobalt and Recycling divisions. Dr. Gostu has extensively worked in the hydrometallurgy of aluminum, copper, zinc, lithium, gold, iron from primary and secondary resources. Prior to Glencore, Sumedh was a hydrometallurgist at Air Liquide. He received Masters of Science in Extractive Metallurgy from the Colorado School of Mines and PhD from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Sumedh has 8 peer reviewed publications and has 4 patents in the field of extractive metallurgy. Recently, Dr. Gostu received the American Society of Materials Bronze Medal for the year 2022 for contributions in the field of economically extracting metals from bauxite residue and also novel methods for hydrometallurgical reduction of copper.
4:15 pm II.10. What We Have is a Failure to Communicate: How Mining Industry Communications Fail to Benefit Stakeholders
Our Industry too often fails to effectively communicate with its stakeholders, resulting in loss of control of our narratives and the public conversation around them. This panel will explore why this happens, how we should be addressing our most important issues, the various platforms we should be using to communicate, who our stakeholders are and how to make sure we are reaching them in a way that encourages support instead of opposition.
II.10.1. The Prospector News: Michael Fox, Publisher (Ch)
II.10.2. H/Advisors Abernathy: Alan Oshiki, Executive Vice President (Ch)
II.10.3. Ellis Martin Report: Ellis Martin
II.10.4. Refined Substance Inc.: Kimberly Darlington, Principal
II.10.5. Better In Our Back Yard: Ryan Sistad, Executive Director
Michael Fox, publisher of the Prospector News is a media relations/ communications professional with 28 years of media experience. Michael’s career began in News Talk Radio in Calgary Alberta Canada. After leaving the radio business Michael transitioned his professional life to a media consultant. In 2002 he started consulting to the Prospector News and eventually becoming its Owner/Publisher in 2008. “The past 21years have been a whirlwind, when I first started, I thought a 43101 was a zip code. What I know today about the industry is tantamount to the individuals who will willing to take the time to share their expertise and experiences. The key to good story telling is to have great characters. There is no shortage of colorful characters in our business.
Alan Oshiki, Executive Vice President of H/Advisors Abernathy, works with management teams and boards of directors on mergers and acquisitions, crises, litigation, going-public transactions and innovative, high-impact approaches to ongoing stakeholder communications. Representative Experience: Power Corporation of Canada and IGM Financial on the consolidation of their ownership stake in China Asset Management Co.; AES Corporation on communications strategy related to its international investments and environmental sustainability; Cano Health on investor relations strategy development after closing its $4.4 billion de-SPAC transaction with Jaws Acquisition Corp.; WideOpenWest Inc. (WOW!) on its $1.8 billion sale of five service areas in two separate transactions; Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior (Bladex) on investor relations strategy; Great-West Lifeco on its $1 billion acquisition of Personal Capital; Altaba Inc. (formerly Yahoo! Inc.) on its $70 billion liquidation transactions and ongoing engagement with activist hedge funds including TCI, Elliott, Starboard and Third Point.
Ellis Martin Talk show host and motivational speaker Ellis Martin is the Host of The Ellis Martin Report, a global radio Program and syndicated podcast. On his show Ellis interviews financial analysts and entrepreneurs featuring potential opportunities for a diversified audience. He enjoys showcasing potentially undervalued public companies for consideration by discerning investors. In addition to the company profiles, Ellis features insights from other, analysts and experts in a variety of sectors as they offer their opinions on their respective markets. In his personal life Ellis is a Renaissance Man, Malibu Beach Bum, Painter, Musician, Actor and Lover of Life.
Kimberly Darlington has more than two decades’ experience in the fields of marketing, communications, investor relations, and public relations across a wide variety of industries. In 2012 she turned her sights on applying her skills and experience to the mining industry and founded Refined Substance, a Montreal-based company that takes the substance of what mining and exploration companies seek to communicate and refines it so that it resonates with targeted audiences and stakeholders. The company offers strategic communications and marketing services tailored to the mining industry in both English and French. Kimberly serves as a director for a number of non-profit boards and is a past Chair of the Montreal chapter of Women in Mining, a global organization dedicated to the promotion and recognition of women pursuing careers in the mining sector.
Ryan Sistad was born in Fosston, MN and has been running Better In Our Back Yard for over 4 years out of Duluth, Minnesota. During that time Better In Our Back Yard has grown from 2 members to over 60, while growing its social media presence to over 18,000 followers, gaining national recognition, and has expanded its outreach from Northern Minnesota to the upper-midwest region. Better In Our Back Yard was created to advocate for responsible industrial development in Northern Minnesota and regions surrounding the Upper Midwest. Projects BIOBY advocates for include NewRange Copper Nickel’s NorthMet Project, Twin Metals Minnesota’s proposed Copper-Nickel mine, Perpetua Resources' Stibnite Gold Project out of Idaho, Enbridge’s Line 5 Segment Relocation Project in Wisconsin, and Enbridge’s Great Lakes Tunnel Project in Michigan.
4:15 pm II.10A. How to Get Systemic Decarbonization of Mining Paid For and Engineered
Vast quantities of metals are required to decarbonize the global energy system. But mining is notoriously carbon-intensive, so producing these commodities with existing methods will be a significant drag on global net zero ambitions. Viable alternatives exist, but technology shift in mining is notoriously hard thanks to relentless cost pressures and high levels of project, economic and geopolitical uncertainty. In this workshop, we show that combining model-based systems design approaches from other sectors with available low-carbon technologies and carbon market financing provides a path to lower-risk growth and profitability together with rapid decarbonization. We invite investors, executives and managers to learn about this solution and collaborate with us in small teams to define the first projects to take advantage of it, leading the industry and the world in decarbonizing the production of essential commodities.
II.10A.1. Inspire Resources Inc., Andy Reynolds, President (Ch)
II.10A.2. Deloitte LLP, Michael E. Raynor, Managing Director
II.10A.3. SysEne Consulting Inc.: Flyn McCarthy, Principal
II.10A.4. Neoteric Energy and Climate: Kim Carnahan, Founder
Andy Reynolds is President of Inspire Resources Inc., a Canadian social enterprise mining company founded in 2019 to deploy a new business model (Mineral Impulse™) for integrating natural resource projects into community economic development plans. His experience includes almost a decade managing resource sector research and development in Canadian government labs, and several years consulting to mining companies regarding innovation partnerships. He had migrated to Canada in 2009 after a 23-year career as a marine engineer officer in the UK’s Royal Navy, where his roles included front line operations and maintenance, management of technology, procurement, programs and portfolios, and international collaboration. He holds B.Eng and M.Sc degrees from the Royal Naval Engineering College, is a UK Chartered Engineer and a Professional Engineer in the province of British Columbia.
Michael E. Raynor is a Managing Director with Deloitte LLP. His current focus is on the parallel but related initiatives of mobilizing funding for nature-based carbon sequestration, and supply chain (scope 3) decarbonization. This work is informed by decades of research and client work on the topics of strategy and innovation, which Raynor has shared in hundreds of publications over the last twenty-five years. These have included articles in leading popular and academic journals, including the Harvard Business Review and the Strategic Management Journal; and four best-selling and critically acclaimed books: The Innovator’s Solution (2003; with the late Clayton Christensen), The Innovator’s Manifesto (2009), The Strategy Paradox (2007), and, with Mumtaz Ahmed, The Three Rules: How Exceptional Companies Think (2013). Michael has a doctorate from the Harvard Business School, a Philosophy degree from Harvard University, and an MBA from the Ivey Business School in London, Canada. He lives in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Flyn McCarthy is principal at SysEne Consulting where he has led the firm’s “systems approach to mine decarbonization” since the firm’s inception. Flyn is a tireless champion of industrial decarbonization and has worked for the past 20 years on all aspects of industrial carbon reduction including setting industrial carbon targets to helping world leader understand the opportunity in industrial decarbonisation at COP 22. Flyn’s previous roles include Corporate Energy & Carbon Manager for the world’s largest gold miner, Leader of the Canadian Mining Innovation Council - Energy Group, decarbonization advisor to hundreds of mining operations globally. Flyn is motivated by the challenge of decoupling carbon emissions from mining and understands this is essential for limiting global warming.
Kim Carnahan has over 15 years of experience in climate change and energy, including serving as the Chief Negotiator for Climate Change at the US Department of State. Over nearly a decade at the State Department, she managed the 13-government agency team that negotiated the Paris Agreement and its implementing guidance as well as energy and environment agreements at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Maritime Organization (IMO). She has a deep background in environmental markets, having served as the International Policy Director at the International Emissions Trading Association, and alternative fuels, thanks to her recent role managing the alternative fuels practice at ENGIE Impact, a global energy and climate consulting firm. Kim spearheaded the launch of the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) in 2021 – a novel initiative which enables downstream companies to decarbonize their use of air transport services through investment in sustainable aviation fuel. She is currently developing similar initiatives in adjacent sectors at her new firm, Neoteric Energy and Climate.
4:15 pm II.10B. Financing Water Needs: Why Off-Balance Sheet Financing of Water Assets is More Than an Option, It’s Critical in Today’s Environment
The mining industry is currently faced with significant challenges not only in terms of energy usage, but water consumption as well. “Pay now or pay even more later” The World Economic Forum predicts a shortfall of 40% between demand and supply of water by 2030, representing the greatest global economic risk over the next decade. For mining it’s what goes back into the river, ground etc. that is the real problem-how do you get it to a state of discharge that allows for reuse downstream? Next-Generation water treatment is vital for the long-term sustainability of the mining industry but at what cost? Embracing new methodologies and strategies like water as a service to mining companies provides best in breed water facilities through new treatment facilities or the transfer and upgrade of existing assets off their balance sheets, freeing up capital for core investments that provide a higher ROE. Customer Goals are met: Water becomes an Operating Expense / CapEx becomes someone else’s.
II.10B.1. Resilient Infrastructure Group: Bill Brennan, President (Ch)
II.10B.2. Resilient Infrastructure Group: Sid Singh, Director of Investments
II.10B.3. Ensero Solutions: Peter Dolph, North American Sales Leader
Bill Brennan, President of Resilient Infrastructure Group, oversees corporate development and partnerships for the company’s investments in wastewater, water, low carbon transportation, and other types of resilient infrastructure. Prior to joining Resilient, Bill spent three years as a Senior Strategic Advisor to Equilibrium’s Wastewater Opportunity Fund I and a Principal in the Water & Wastewater Opportunity Fund II, working closely with the Funds’ senior management. Bill has over 35 years of complimentary experience in executive management, portfolio management, project finance, venture capital, and day-to-day financial and operational responsibilities with an emphasis on water, waste, and infrastructure. He has served as the CIO at Summit Global Management ($1B+) and Co-CIO of Ultra Capital (~$200M) and was the sole portfolio manager and launched the U.S. and Global Claymore/Guggenheim Water UITS, the Praetor Global Water Fund in Europe, and the Kinetics Water Infrastructure Fund in the U.S. (five-star Morningstar Fund). Bill began his career as a design engineer on the Space Shuttle and as a Combat Crew Commander/ Nuclear Missile Launch Officer in the United States Air Force.
Sid Singh, Director of Investments, is Director of Investments at Resilient Infrastructure Group, Sid Singh focuses on the development, structuring, underwriting, and diligence of project investments working closely with partner companies and clients. Sid has 20 years of finance and project experience, with the last 10 years specifically focused on infrastructure in the water, energy, and agricultural sectors. His recent projects include wastewater re-use facilities, clean energy plants for public and private hosts, distributed energy management systems for commercial customers, and hydroponic greenhouse farms. As a developer, Sid led teams to design, build, own, and operate sustainable infrastructure facilities that used long-term revenue contracts to manage risks. The facilities were designed and built with commercially-proven technologies, quality equipment suppliers and construction partners. He has raised over $100M in capital from banks, private equity, and other sources. Previously, Sid was an investment banker for 10 years, providing M&A advisory and capital raising services, initially to companies in the technology sector while at Morgan Stanley, and subsequently to companies in the industrial and energy sectors while at Jefferies Group. During this period, he supported raising over $4B in capital across 30 transactions. Sid earned his B.S. degree in Engineering from Columbia University.
Peter Dolph, North American Sales Leader at Ensero, has been involved with the investigation and promotion of innovative finance solutions to the mining industry for the past 20 years. Peter has worked with many consultants, including Schlumberger, Golder, AMECFW and financial management teams in evaluating up-front, build-own programs, as well as final closure and remediation cost cap approaches to project execution that can help companies shed liability using project insurance and financial strategies.
5:00 pm Closing Remarks by Conference Chair
5:00 -7:00 pm Wednesday Reception at Shearman & Sterling
Sponsors ARK Silver; Big Rock Exploration; Blakes, Cassels & Graydon LLP; Costmine Intelligence; Dolly Varden Silver; Guanajuato Silver; Honey Badger Silver; Relevant Gold
NY SME’s 8th Current Trends in Mining Finance Conference (CTMF 2023)
Managing Risk and Identifying Opportunities in a Disruptive World - Where Finding, Financing and Securing Supply is Critical
Connecting Mining, Finance and Engineering Executives™
Monday May 8 - Thursday May 11, 2023
Lead Sponsors RPMGLOBAL; SHEARMAN & STERLING; SLR CONSULTING; and SME FOUNDATION
For updates revisit the Schedule at a Glance
Content and times may change
Thursday May 11, 2023 - Workshops at Shearman & Sterling
Registration and breakfast start at 7:15 am. Workshops III & IV start at 8:00 am and will end at 11:30 am with lunch starting at 11: 45 am. Afternoon Workshop V registration and lunch start at 11:45 am. Workshops V will begin at 12:45 pm and end at 4:30 pm.
7:15 am Registration and Breakfast
Sponsors SRK Consulting; McEwen Mining and McEwen Copper
8:00 am Workshops Start
III. Morning Workshop: Critical Aspects for Technical Due Diligence and Assessing Project Risks: by SRK Consulting on Thursday May 11 from 7:30 am to 12:30 pm. Registration includes breakfast and lunch.
SRK discipline experts will present on common observations, key items that regularly represent project risk, due diligence philosophy and approach, and the importance of a tailored experience in a Due Diligence team. SRK performs fatal flaw through deep dive due diligences globally, across commodities, and mining methods. The exposure to a variety of global projects at various stages provides a unique visibility on what to look for, what questions to ask, how to identify “red flag” items as early as possible, and when to take a deeper dive to assess a project’s technical risk. The order of subjects, topics and issues this workshop will address are:
* Introduction and General Objectives of Technical Due Diligence
* Geology and Mineral Resources
* Mine engineering and Reserves
Break
* Metallurgy and Minerals Processing
* ESG and Sustainability
* Mine Closure
* Economics
* Q&A and General Wrap Up
Ben Parsons, Principal Resource Geologist, has over 20 years of broad geological experience, including precious metals, base metals, and more recently niobium and phosphate mining. Ben’s expertise includes the production of independent mineral resource estimates, geological modelling, due diligence and auditing of exploration/mining projects, review of operation performance, technical reviews, and assistance in project evaluation as part of Competent Person’s/Mineral Expert Reports and stock exchange listings. Ben has project management experience in technical studies such as exploration programs, mineral resource and ore reserve studies, scoping/conceptual studies, pre/definitive feasibility study projects, working with junior exploration companies at grassroots exploration level through to the listing of large multi-national operating companies with multiple assets. He has extensive experience in databases, QA/QC, developing geological models, mineral resource estimates, geostatistical optimization, grade control practices, and reconciliation studies, all reported in accordance with international reporting codes, such as CIM, JORC, SEC, SAMREC, etc.
Matthew Sullivan, Principal Mineral Economist, has over 12 years of experience analyzing, optimizing, and valuing mining operations from internal and external positions. Matthew has extensive experience designing and leading diligence processes for mining assets ranging from early-stage exploration through to operating mines. He has priced, negotiated, and closed mining deals across the globe in a wide variety of commodities via structures ranging from royalty and equity investment to term and convertible debt facilities. His experience as a mining sector buy-side professional funding the development and operation of mining assets provides a unique perspective on what it takes to study, build, operate, manage risk, and invest in the mining sector. His specializations include mining sector financial modeling and analysis; merger and acquisitions, due diligence planning and execution, strategic business planning and initiatives, risk management and assessments, operations research and optimizations, and process controls and improvements.
Bob McCarthy, Principal Consultant (Mining) is a professional mining engineer with over 30 years’ experience in mine operations, mine planning, asset management, technology development and implementation, and consulting. He has worked at numerous mines, across different departments, in a variety of technical and management roles. Bob’s technical strengths are in project evaluation, mine planning, mine site and project reviews (audits), and technology implementation. He is particularly specialized in In-Pit Crushing and Conveying evaluations as well as assessments for the application of pre-concentration using various approaches. Bob is considered an open pit mine specialist, and as such is a qualified/ competent person for mineral reserves as defined in NI 43-101/JORC. He is also a qualified financial modeller for mining projects.
Jeff Parshley, Corporate Consultant (Environment) has over 40 years of environmental and closure experience in the mining industry. Jeff specializes in closure planning and closure cost estimation. In addition to doing planning and analysis work for mines, he has been involved in the management of abandoned mines and the implementation of closure works at several mines in the western United States. Having worked with legal and policy aspects of mining projects since his early career, Jeff regularly contributes to World Bank and IFC compliance projects and is one of SRK’s most experienced mine closure strategists and regulatory specialists. He has helped develop regulatory guidelines for mine closure and closure cost estimating and has also helped clients develop corporate standards and guidance documents for closure planning, implementation, and cost estimating.
Jane Joughin, Corporate Consultant (Sustainability), has 30 years of experience providing sustainability consulting services to the mining industry, mostly in Africa, Europe and Central Asia. She has much experience undertaking assessment, permitting and auditing of mines, coupled with a thorough understanding of ESG concepts and key standards. She also provides ESG input to mineral resource and mineral reserve estimation and the planning of mining projects. Currently she is assisting clients with updating of capital project study guidelines to address new corporate commitments to ESG and responsible mining standards.
IV. Morning Workshop: (A.) How to Quickly and Reliably Estimate Mining Costs by Costmine Intelligence on Thursday May 11 from 8:00 to 9:45 am. Registration and breakfast start at 7:15 am. (B.) Valuing Mineral Assets & Operations: Understanding Valuation Issues in a Changing World: Alan Stagg Consultants from 10 to 11:45 am. Registration includes lunch.
(A.) How to Quickly and Reliably Estimate Mining Costs: Realistically estimating the costs associated with mining and mineral processing are vital steps in creating mining financial models, such as for valuations and funding decisions, that are highly relevant to a singular mining project. But the practice of mining cost estimating is often intimidating as evaluators are asked to consider all costs over the life of a project using technical data from unfamiliar fields. In this way, engineering-based (i.e., bottom-up) methods of cost estimation can be particularly time consuming and may be seen as unachievable depending on the evaluator’s background. However, modern solutions exist to guide evaluators through this process, and enable them to easily handle the significant volume of work associated with engineering-based estimates in a timely manner. This workshop (led by Sam Blakely, Costmine’s Senior Mining Engineer) offers a chance to learn how to, at a scoping- through pre-feasibility-level, efficiently create defendable engineering-based mining and mineral processing cost estimates using Sherpa, a suite of web-based cost estimating applications from Costmine. Emphasis will be given to open-pit mining cost estimating using Sherpa Surface. The opportunity to explore three other Sherpa applications (Underground, Processing, and Reclamation) will also be provided to interested participants during the later portion of the workshop.
Sam Blakely began his career in mining as a geologist and is now employed as the Senior Mining Engineer with Costmine in Spokane, WA USA. He has experience with diverse commodities, from precious metals through industrial minerals, contributing to mineral development and exploration projects in East Africa, South America and across the United States. Sam now concentrates on engineering-based mining cost estimating for Costmine; he contributes to many of Costmine’s publications, works to improve and expand a suite of mining cost estimating software alongside a team of developers, and consults directly for clients. Sam holds a B.S. in Geology as well as an M.S. in Mining Engineering and Management and serves on the board of the Columbia Section of SME.
Mike Sinden, Vice President, Costmine Intelligence has over 20 years experience in the natural resources sector, predominantly in the area of research and data collection, as well as product management. He spent 18 years at Wood Mackenzie, working in metals and ferrous market research, well as supporting institutional investor clients leverage the platform for research and mining due diligence purposes. At Costmine, he leads the research business as we grow our mine property database, equipment and labor cost data, estimation tools and software, where we serve engineers, financial professionals and governments. Mr. Sinden holds a B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University as well as an MBA from Duke University.
(B.) Valuing Mineral Assets and Operations: Understanding Valuation Issues in a Changing World: The need to establish the value of mineral assets and operations arises in many contexts—acquisitions and divestitures, investment decision-making, collateralizing assets, public reporting, financial accounting, shareholder disputes, and a variety of other adversarial actions. Each can entail a different set of issues and, accordingly, each may require the determination of a different standard of value. Societal changes, notably the increasing emphasis on Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) investing, is taking the mining world into uncharted waters relative to the concept of “value,” and the workshop will identify some of the areas of tension that have or can be expected to arise.
In conducting any valuation, two concepts should be kept in mind: 1) value is a perception and 2) there are various standards of value. Regarding the first, it should be noted that value is not inherent in the goods, commodity, or service to which it is ascribed but rather is created in the minds of those who make up the market. Regarding the second, it should be noted that value expresses an economic concept and, as such, is never a fact but always an opinion. In expressing such an opinion, the term “value” must be accompanied by a specific definition of the term and the term must also be qualified, for example: market value, liquidation value, investment value, and so forth. This workshop is designed to provide participants the basic foundation to allow the selection of appropriate standards of value and valuation approaches and techniques. This workshop is intended to benefit both those who conduct valuations and those who may be required to use them.
Alan K. Stagg, PG, CMA is President & CEO, Stagg Resource Consultants, Inc. Alan is an economic geologist with 59 years’ experience in the mining, minerals, and energy industries with the last 45 including an increasing emphasis on mineral appraisals and economic evaluations. He had conducted appraisals in more than 40 states in a variety of venues and internationally, and has participated in numerous acquisition-related due diligence activities. Stagg is a registered or licensed professional geologist in 15 states, a Certified Mineral Appraiser by the International Institute of Minerals Appraisers, and an SME Registered Member.
Thursday May 11, 2023 – Afternoon Workshops at Shearman & Sterling
Afternoon Workshop V registration and lunch start at 11:45 am. Workshop V will begin at 12:30/45 pm and end at 4:30 pm.
11:45 am Registration and Lunch – Sponsor RESPEC Consulting
12:30/45 pm Workshop Start
V. Afternoon Workshop Pathway to Mining Project Success by Independent Project Analysis (IPA): Baqun Ding, Master Analyst, and Astor Luft, North America Regional Director. Registration and lunch at 11:45 am, workshop begins at 12:30 pm and ends at 4:30 pm, with a 20 minute refreshment break at 2:20 pm.
The journey from discovering a mineral deposit to turning it into a profitable operational asset is long. Along the way, many decisions are made by different groups of people. Clear understanding of the risks and use of lessons learned from others to avoid/mitigate risk should be part of the main stream of work from the beginning to the end. Over the course of IPA’s 36 years in business, we have continuously worked with companies from different industry sectors across the world, advising on best practices for capital project planning and management. We have collected and verified the results of thousands of projects with different sizes and complexities, via face-to-face interviews with owner project teams. Using the data collected, we then conducted research studies to identify the key factors that consistently enable project success. Through individual project consulting and evaluation services, we share the learnings with current projects. These include not only industry-specific learnings, but also cross-industry, cross-regional, and special case learnings. IPA’s Pathway to Success facilitates the sharing of our projects experiences with the industry. The pathway lists all the critical factors of a mine asset development journey, and highlights what, who, and how this path should be established, so that the project outcomes, or final path destination, will meet all the business and project targets.
In this workshop, we will walk our audience through IPA’s pathway to mining project success, and elaborate on each factor to provide an understanding of the important tasks along a mine asset development venture. This workshop will include a roughly 2-hour long presentation introducing the basics of key factors that drive mine asset project success, followed by a 1-hour long case study of a project evaluation, and a Q&A session.
Baqun Ding is a Master Analysis with IPA. His main role is supporting project analysts in conducting complex project analyses and research analysts in project studies and IP development. Dr. Ding was the business area manager for IPA’s MMM sector and a member of IPA’s Review Board. Over the past 17 years, he has also worked as a Senior Analyst, involved in the analysis of hundreds of complex projects from different industries. His expertise covers orebody evaluation, feasibility studies, and mine planning and design. Before joining IPA, Dr. Ding was an assistant professor at Delft University of Technology, a Researcher and Project Coordinator at Queen’s University in Canada, and a Senior Mining Engineer with China Gold. Dr. Ding was educated in mining engineering at Wuhan University of Technology (B.Sc.), the University of Science and Technology, Beijing (M.Sc.) in China, and Queen’s University (Ph.D.) in Canada.
Astor Luft is IPA’s Director of North America. In this role, he oversees IPA’s North American operations, leading a team of analysts and senior consultants on the delivery of IPA services to our North America-based clients. He is also responsible for strengthening IPA’s relationship with global and local clients in the region and forging new partnerships with owner companies in the energy, minerals, infrastructure, chemicals, pharmaceutical, and consumer products sectors. Astor’s areas of expertise include project system improvements, portfolio management, and megaproject risk assessment. Astor holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Federal University of Parana and a specialist degree in Project Management from the FAE Business School, both in Brazil.
4:30 pm Workshops End and CTMF 2023 Conference Concludes
NY SME’s 8th Current Trends in Mining Finance Conference (CTMF 2023)
Managing Risk and Identifying Opportunities in a Disruptive World - Where Finding, Financing and Securing Supply is Critical
Connecting Mining, Finance and Engineering Executives™
Monday May 8 - Thursday May 11, 2023
For updates revisit the Schedule at a Glance