Gary Artmont - Director
Gary Artmont brings 33 years of mining experience to the company’s operations. He has served as chief geologist for Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. In that capacity he oversaw the completion of 120,000 meters of drilling in 17 prospect areas that led to the discovery of the 8 million ounce Wabu gold deposit. He is also credited with evaluating acquisition opportunities in Eastern Europe, South America, Southeast Asia and Mongolia, with his work focused on minable deposits of copper, iron, coal and nickel.
Dr. Willem Fuchter - Director, President & CEO
Willem Fuchter, PhD, has been an independent mining consultant working in various countries with Falconbridge Gold Corp., Ivanhoe Group, Kinross Gold Corp., Lonmin PLC and Oregalore, Inc. His responsibilities have included project generation, property appraisal, acquisitions and development of ore reserves. Dr. Fuchter has also been responsible for inventory management for several gold mines in Africa. More recently, he has served as chief executive officer of several junior exploration companies in South America.
Patrick C. Gorman - Director
Mr. Gorman is the president of Resource Consultants, a brokerage specializing in precious metals. For 18 years, Mr. Gorman has hosted Hard Money Watch, which is now the longest-running financial talk radio program in the Phoenix area. He is the author of the best-selling book, The Value of Honest Money and of Wealth Protection, a monthly investment newsletter dealing with opportunities in precious metals. He is widely respected as an expert on the markets for gold and silver.
Kenneth Phillippe - Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Phillippe is a Chartered Accountant licensed to practice in British Columbia. He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia in 1976 and obtained his professional accounting designation five years later, after articling with the firm of Thorne Riddell (now KPMG). In 1982 he established a private accounting practice, which continued for 18 years.
From 2000 to 2005, Mr. Phillippe was employed by Urodynamix Technologies Ltd., a public, Vancouver-based medical device company, as Chief Financial Officer, director and chairman of the audit committee. In 2006 he accepted the position of Chief Financial Officer of Columbia Goldfields Ltd., a junior gold mining company that reports under the U.S. Exchange Act. In addition, Mr. Phillippe served as the Secretary, Treasurer, Chief Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer of Amazon Goldsands Ltd. from 2006 to 2008 and of Constitution Mining Corp. from December 2007 to September 2008, both of which companies report under the U.S. Exchange Act.
Since 2006 Mr. Phillippe has been Chief Financial Officer of Exchequer Resource Corp and of Bold Ventures Inc., the latter of which achieved a listing on the Toronto Venture Exchange in October 2007. In 2009 Mr. Phillippe was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Advanced Proteome Therapeutics Corporation.
Michael Stocker - Chairman of the Board
Dr. Stocker holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Saint Gallen, Switzerland, and an MBA degree from the Community of European Management Schools, ESADE University, Barcelona, Spain. He has lived and worked in Latin America (chiefly in Chile, Colombia and Costa Rica) since 1993. Dr. Stocker was responsible for impact analysis of the Latin American activities of FUNDES International, a private organization promoting the sustainable development of small and medium sized companies. He afterwards served as Regional Manager of PROPEL, a private consulting firm specializing in eco-efficient technologies for Latin America. He also has worked as Senior Consultant for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), in its offices in Mexico, Spain and Switzerland, in connection with the development of Knowledge Management strategies, e-business programs for several Fortune 500 companies.
In January 2004, Dr. Stocker founded The Stocker Group, in Santiago, Chile. The Stocker Group now has offices in 5 countries, executes projects in 11 Latin American countries and advises international clients on Corporate Social Responsibility and Knowledge Management. From time to time, Dr. Stocker has been retained as an adviser and consultant by the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Alois Wiget - Director
Alois Wiget has accumulated extensive business experience in the areas of banking and accounting with Swiss firms including Nestle and Geneva Finabank. He has also practiced as a chartered accountant in Switzerland. Mr. Wiget has served on the board of Witrag Management Consultants SA, Vicorp SA and Atos-Origin. He is currently a senior member of the Swiss Economic Association in Zurich.
Dr. Miles Worsley - VP Exploration
Dr. Worsley holds a PhD in practical and applied geology of epithermal gold deposits from James Cook University in Australia. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and of the international Society of Economic Geologists. Dr. Worsley has served as Chief Geologist for Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., Director of Ivanhoe Hereward Ventures EOD (Bulgaria) and General Manager of Ivanhoe Ventures Mining (Serbia). He practices as a consultant to private exploration companies and has worked professionally on all seven continents.
Robert Van Tassell - Director
Robert E. "Dutch" Van Tassell holds a degree in Geology from Mount Allison University, where he graduated two years after beginning his mining career as a summer intern with Giant Yellowknife Mines. He is credited with leading the discovery of the Husky Mine in Canada, the Minto Copper Deposit and GoldCorp's High Grade Zone in Red Lake, Ontario.
Mr. Van Tassell has served as Vice President of Exploration for Dickenson Mines (a predecessor company to Goldcorp), as a director of the Yukon Chamber of Mines (two terms as its president) and as a director of the Prospector's and Developers Association of Canada, including terms as chairman of its Environmental Committee.
Mr. Van Tassell is currently a director of Lexam Explorations Inc., Plato Gold Corp., Rupert Resources Ltd. and Amazon GoldSands Ltd.
Hernan Zaballa - Director & VP Latin America
Hernan Zaballa is an experienced mining lawyer with extensive knowledge of both international and commercial law. His clients have included Barrick Gold Corporation, Yamana Gold, Newcrest Mining, Crown Resources, Newmont Mining, Penoles Mining and Meridian Gold. Mr. Zaballa has also served as a legal consultant to the government of Argentina. He is a member of the Mining Committee of the International Bar Association and has lectured on mining topics at a variety of international forums. He is the co-author of Establishing and Conducting a Mining Business in Argentina.
