Directors
Richard Nemis
Chairman Emeritus
Wesley (Wes) C. Hanson
President and CEO, Safety, Health and Environmental Committee, Director
Mr. Hanson was formerly Vice President Mine Development for Western Goldfields, before the recent announcement of its business combination with New Gold Inc. and he previously held the position of Vice President, Technical Services for Kinross Gold Corporation. Mr. Hanson has held several senior positions in the mining industry throughout his 28 year career, where he has been directly involved in the engineering construction and commissioning of numerous mining projects in Canada, the US, Brazil, Chile and Russia. Mr. Hanson has a Bachelor of Science, Geology from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.
Darren Blasutti
Chair Audit Committee, Director
Mr. Blasutti is former Senior Vice President of Corporate Development for Barrick Gold Corporation. He reported to the Chief Executive Officer and played a lead role in the strategic development of Barrick for over 13 years and executed over 25 gold mining transactions including Homestake Mining, Placer Dome and the consolidation of the world class Cortez property from Rio Tinto. The hostile acquisition of Placer Dome is Barrick's largest acquisition and one of the largest in the mining industry. Darren also led the creation of Barrick Energy, which was an innovative strategy to hedge Barrick's exposure to energy prices and protect Barrick's operating margins, and was integral to the IPO of African Barrick Gold. During his tenure at Barrick, he also led the Investor Relations function. Mr. Blassutti was previously at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he planned, supervised and managed audits for a variety of clients. He is a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Joseph Hamilton
Chair Corporate Governance and Compensation Committee, Safety, Health and Environmental Committee, Director
Mr. Hamilton is President of PICKAX International Corp., a consulting company. Mr. Hamilton has over 25 years of experience in mineral exploration and development in the Americas and Africa. Previously, he served as co-interim CEO of Noront Resources Ltd.. From 2005 to 2008 Mr. Hamilton was Chief Executive Officer of African Copper Plc, an international exploration and development company listed on the TSX and the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. Mr. Hamilton obtained a Master's of Science (Applied) from Queen's University in 1991 and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto in 1985. Mr. Hamilton is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Professional Geologist. He is currently a member of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario, Canada, a member of the CFA Institute and a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors. He is currently a director of the following public companies: Malbex Resources Inc. and Unigold Inc.
Keith McKay
Audit Committee, Director
Mr. McKay is currently Chief Financial Officer of Dalradian Resources Inc. and the Chief Financial Officer of Continental Gold Limited. Mr. McKay was previously Chief Financial Officer of Andina Minerals Inc.. Mr. McKay went to Andina from Aurelian Resources Inc., where he was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Previous to this, Mr. McKay was Senior Vice President, Financial Operations for international engineering and project management services firm. Prior to that, he was Controller at Rio Algom Ltd., a Canadian-based mining company that produced copper, gold, uranium, molybdenum and coal in North and South America. Mr. McKay also served as Vice President, Finance for Potash Company of Canada and has worked with the Bank of Montreal. Mr. McKay obtained his Chartered Accountant designation with Coopers and Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers)
Paul Parisotto
Chair of the Board of Directors, Compensation Committee, Safety, Health and Environmental Committee
Mr. Parisotto is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Chantrell Ventures Corp. He was formerly the President and Chief Executive Officer of Arizona Star Resource Corp.
From November 2008 to June 2009 he was the Co-Interim CEO of Noront Resources Ltd and most recently was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Tamaka Holdings Inc., a private gold exploration and development company. Previously, Mr. Parisotto provided investment banking services to the mining industry.Mr. Parisotto has been President of Coniston Investment Corp. from October 1999 to the present. Coniston is a private firm specializing in providing investment banking services including the raising of equity and debt and providing mergers and acquisitions advisory services to small market capitalization companies which are either private or public.
Prior to these current responsibilities, Mr. Parisotto was Manager, Original Listings at The Toronto Stock Exchange from 1985 to 1994. During his tenure at the TSE he was involved in the listing process for over 250 companies.
Ted Bassett
Chair Safety, Health and Environmental Committee, Audit, Compensation and Corporate Governance Committees, Director
Mr. Bassett is a Professional Engineer with over 40 years of experience in mine engineering and project management. Mr. Bassett has a successful track record in the supervision and construction of large capital projects including but not limited to the BHP Olympic Dam Expansion Project in Australia, the Goro Nickel Project, the Voisey’s Bay Nickel Project and the Diavik Diamond Project.
Mr. Bassett has held several senior project management positions over the course of his career. Most recently he was the Project Director, Jansen Potash Project (August 2010 to August 2011) and previously President of BPM Project Management Inc., a private company providing consulting services to the resource industry (October 2009 to August 2010) and Project Director, Olympic Dam Expansion Project, BHP Billiton Inc., Australia (November 2006 to October 2009).
Li Lin
Director
Mr. Lin has held the position of Vice President Finance with Baosteel Resources International Co. Ltd. from September 2010 and Baosteel Resource Co. Ltd. from May 2009.
Previously, Mr. Lin has held several senior positions within the Baosteel Group Corporation including Director of strategic Development (August 2007 to May 2009) and Director of Business Development (February 2006 to August 2007). He was also a Vice President of Baosteel Limited Trading Branch (June 2005 to February 2006).
Mr. Lin holds a Senior Economist designation from the State Bureau of Metallurgical Industry in China, a Doctorate and Masters of Finance from Fudan University in Shanghai, China and a Bachelor of Engineering from the Beijing Agricultural Engineering University.