Management
John Lee, CEO & Executive Chairman
20-year experience in mining Mr. Lee specializes in M&A and raised over C$120 million. Lee identified, negotiated and financed Pulacayo acquisition in 2015, Gibellini in 2017, and Minago 2021. Mr. Lee graduated from Rice University with bachelor’s degrees in Economics and in Engineering
Rob Van Drunen: Chief Operating Officer
Robert Van Drunen, who is based in Thompson, Manitoba, has over 30 years of experience with Vale and Inco. He started his mining career with Inco in 1990 and progressed through his career with increasing levels of responsibility, including Mine Manager and most recently Senior Project Manager of the Thompson Operation. In the latter role, he led multi-disciplinary teams in all aspects of mining, including operations (both underground and open pit), maintenance, exploration, procurement, supply chain management, and contract management.
Mr. Van Drunen holds a Masters Certificate in Project Management from York University. He specializes in process improvement and cost control, as well as an award winning track record for zero-harm safety culture.
Ron Espell, VP U.S. Operation, VP Environment and Sustainability
Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Mr. Espell is a highly regarded specialist in U.S. federal and Nevada state mine permitting, with over 30 years of experience in corporate environmental management, permitting in conformance with applicable regulatory and performance standards, mine waste management, reclamation, and closure planning.
Prior to joining Silver Elephant Mining Corp, Mr. Espell was the corporate environmental director of McEwen Mining Inc. Within 18 months from the time he joined McEwen Mining, Mr. Espell led his team to successfully obtain the Gold Bar project’s environmental impact statement (EIS) approval from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Battle Mountain District office in November, 2017.
Prior to his time with McEwen Mining, Mr. Espell was a principal consultant at SRK Consulting and vice-president of environment for Gibellini’s prior operator, where he lead efforts in the preparation of Gibellini’s baseline studies and plan of operation.
Mr. Espell’s wealth of experience includes being an environmental management specialist at the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, as well as working for 17 years in positions of increasing responsibility at Barrick Gold Corp., from being environmental superintendent, environmental manager of Barrick Goldstrike, regional environmental director — Australia Pacific, and corporate environmental director.
Papers by Ron Espell
July 2020, Streamlining Mine Permitting Under Secretarial Order 3355
A Summary of Implementing the S.O. 3355 Process for Permitting A New Mine in Nevada
Joaquin Merino-Marquez, Advisor
Joaquin is a professional geologist with 27 years of experience in the mining industry. Prior industry affiliations include roles as vice-president of exploration for Primero Mining Corp. and vice-president of exploration for Apogee Minerals Ltd.
Prior to Apogee, Mr. Merino-Marquez was the exploration manager for Placer Dome at the Porgera mine and a mine geologist at Hecla Mining’s La Camorra mine. Mr. Merino-Marquez is a native Spanish speaker and fluent in English. He holds a master of science from Queens University and a bachelor of science in geology from University of Seville (Spain). He is a member of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario.
From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Merino-Marquez lived in Bolivia and led Apogee’s 85,000-metre drill campaign at Pulacayo and Paca silver projects. The drill campaign was a success and defined over 90 million ounces of silver resources according to independent, third party estimates (which are now considered historic in nature and should not be relied up on as they are no longer National Instrument 43-101 compliant).
Andrew Yau, CPA, CGA: Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Yau is an accomplished financial executive with diverse merger and acquisition experience in the mining sector complemented with strong international financial reporting standards (IFRS) and public company compliance knowledge. Mr. Yau previously held senior financial positions with several Toronto Stock Exchange- and TSX Venture Exchange-listed companies, most recently as executive vice-president and chief financial officer of Orea Mining Corp.
Mr. Yau, CPA, CGA, holds a bachelor of commerce and business administration degree from the University of British Columbia and has been in accounting and finance roles with publicly listed companies since 2006.
Directors
John Lee, CEO & Executive Chairman
20-year experience in mining Mr. Lee specializes in M&A and raised over C$120 million. Lee identified, negotiated and financed Pulacayo acquisition in 2015, Gibellini in 2017, and Minago 2021. Mr. Lee graduated from Rice University with bachelor’s degrees in Economics and in Engineering
Greg Hall, Co-Founder & Director
Greg Hall is a Co-Founder of the Company and has been an Independent Director since October 2009. As corporate director of several public companies since 2003, Mr. Hall has been involved in strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and investment decisions. Currently Mr. Hall is President and Director of Water Street Assets, Director of CanX CBD Processing and a Member of the Institute of Corporate Directors. Mr. Hall is a graduate of the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, SME Enterprise Board Program, and a Member of the Institute of Corporate Directors.
Masa Igata, Director
Mr. Igata has more than 35 years experience working in Asian financial markets. Previously, he was managing director at Nikko Citigroup with a leading role in Japanese equity sales and investor relations. Mr. Igata has been advising and investing in resource companies in Asia in the last 30 years and now focuses in North America as well. Mr. Igata received his graduate of law from Kyoto University and is a member of the Securities Analysts Association of Japan.
Nigel Lees
Mr. Lees has over thirty years of experience in merchant and investment banking in the U.K. and Canada. His career in Canada commenced with RBC Dominion Securities as a research analyst. During his career in Canada, he has been a partner and director of several investment dealers and has assisted in financing companies in the process of going public on the Canadian stock exchanges.
He has served as a member of the Listing Committee of the Toronto Stock Exchange as well as an officer and board member of several publicly listed junior mining companies. He was a founder and past director of TVX Gold Inc., a significant North and South American gold producer, which merged with Kinross Gold in 2003. He served as a director of Yamana Gold Inc. for seventeen years until 2020 where he served as the Chairman of the compensation committee.
Consultants
Robert Davidson P. Eng, M3 Engineering
Gibellini EPCM
14 years experience in engineering, procurement, construction management with M3, a well known international firm.
Managed over 60 EPCM projects that include Hudbay’s Rosemont (Copper Heap Leach, SX-EW) and Southern Peru Copper’s Cuajone project (120,000 tpd).
Michael Milczarek GeoSystems Analysis Inc.
Gibellini heap leach hydrodynamic studies
Mr. Milczarek has over 25 years of experience with the development, implementation, and management of hydrogeologic and geochemical studies. He has a broad range of project management experience on groundwater recharge studies, mine waste cover system design, riparian habitat restoration and monitoring, monitoring of natural groundwater recharge in a variety of environments, and heap leach hydrodynamic studies. He has authored or co-authored over 40 refereed publications on groundwater recharge, vadose zone characterization and modeling, mine reclamation and habitat restoration. His Heap Leach Hydrodynamic clients include
Barrick Gold (several properties)
Kinross Gold (several properties)
Minera Escondida Limitada
BHP Olympic Dam
Papers by Mr. Milczarek
September 14-16, 2015 – Investigating Leaching Alternatives for Heterogeneous Heap Leach Pads
November 10−13, 2014 – Characterization of gold inventory and impediments to recovery at an active heap leach facility
September 23-25, 2013 – Ore permeability methods of evaluation and application to heap leach optimization
September 23-25, 2013 – Characterization and in-situ monitoring of large scale heap leach fluid dynamics