Investing in Exploration: Which Teams Have What It Takes?
Dive into the world of mining exploration with this event, designed for forward-thinking investors and industry experts. Discover the secrets behind assembling high-impact exploration teams and learn about cutting-edge exploration techniques and technologies shaping the future of mineral discovery.
Tue, February 27, 2024 at 2:00 PMendedReplay
Investor webinar replay
Meeting Overview The meeting focused on the human aspects of leadership in the exploration industry, featuring a panel of CEOs from various exploration companies. Each speaker shared their personal journey to becoming a CEO and discussed the qualities and characteristics needed to build effective teams in this challenging field. Key Discussion Points - Personal journeys of each CEO to their current positions. - The importance of teamwork and the diverse skill sets required in exploration companies. - Characteristics of effective exploration teams, including technical expertise, marketing skills, and financial acumen. - The need for geologists to be versatile and engaged beyond their technical roles. - The challenges faced in the current market conditions for exploration companies. Decisions Made - No explicit decisions recorded. Action Items & Next Steps - [Unassigned] : Explore further discussions on team dynamics and characteristics in future meetings. - [Unassigned] : Consider or...
Mr. Skanderbeg was most recently President and CEO of Claude Resources Inc. since November 2014 – which was acquired by Silver Standard Resources Inc. for $337 million. He previously worked for Goldcorp, Inco Ltd. and Helio Resources, holding positions in both exploration and operations. Mr. Skanderbeg is also a director of Wesdome Mines. He holds a B.Sc. from the University of Manitoba and an M.Sc. from Rhodes University, South Africa. He brings extensive experience in the exploration and evaluation of gold systems, operational management, cost and asset optimization and strategic analysis.
Mr. Bliss has over 20 years experience in the mineral exploration industry having studied geology at the University of New Brunswick.
From 1995 to 2000, Mr. Bliss was an independent consulting geologist, responsible for exploration projects for NunaMinerals A/S, formerly Nunaoil A/S in Nuuk, Greenland and, in 2000, for Crew Development in Norway.
In Greenland, Mr. Bliss worked in some of the most remote and rugged terrain using a model driven approach to efficiently explore large tracts of land despite short explorations seasons. He has used a similar approach to generate targets in Ontario, including the discovery of a layered intrusion on the Highbank Lake Property and volcanic-hosted massive sulphides at the Wabassi and Tempest properties.
Mr. Bliss has served as President of Northern Shield since its inception in 1999.
Since 2018, Mr. Atkinson has been the President and CEO of Talisker Gold, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Advance United. An experienced exploration geologist and project manager with over 45 years of experience, Mr. Atkinson has spent his career in both mineral exploration and mining and the environmental field as Vice President, Exploration Manager and Regional Manager with junior and major mining companies such as Newmont, Billiton and Agnico Eagle. He has reviewed, evaluated and acquired projects around the world and recently was part of the team responsible for mergers and acquisitions at American Silver. He has worked with investors to form and manage junior exploration companies. In the area of mineral exploration, James has designed and managed multimillion-dollar programs searching for and discovering various commodities including industrial minerals. These projects, comprised of up to 100 staff, involved geophysical, geochemical and drilling programs as well as prospecting and geological mapping. He has also negotiated option and purchase deals for mineral properties.
Rob Bergmann is CEO, director, and co-founder of Relevant Gold. A passionate, professionally trained geologist, Rob has over 14 years of exploration and mineral development experience across North America on commodities including gold, silver, copper, nickel, uranium, industrial minerals, and rare earth elements. Rob co-founded Big Rock Exploration in 2010 and has led the company through 10x growth. Today Big Rock is a premier North American mineral exploration service provider with over 45 scientists working with some of the largest mining companies in the world. In addition to Relevant Gold, Rob is also president and co-founder of several privately held, innovative mineral resource companies, including Exsolve Recycling Technologies, F3 Gold, and Relevant Copper Corp. Rob has a B.Sc. in Geology from Winona State University and is a member of the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG), Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME), and several other mineral resource-related organizations.
Replay transcript excerpt
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to today's discussion on investing in exploration. Speaker 1: We'll try and delve into the human aspect of this technical industry and determine which teams have what it takes. This is a live event so if you are in the audience and have a question that contributes to the conversation at hand, please submit it in the chat in the bottom right corner of your screen and I'll try my best to incorporate Speaker 1: it into the discussion at hand. Speaker 1: Today Speaker 1: we are joined by Brian Skanderbeg, Speaker 1: President and CEO of GFG Resources, Speaker 1: Ian Bliss, CEO of Northern Shield Resources, Speaker 1: Jim Atkinson, Speaker 1: CEO of Advanced Gold Exploration, Speaker 1: and Rob Bergman, CEO of relevant gold. Gentlemen, thanks for joining me today. Let's just kick things off with a quick round of introductions. Could each of you share how you came to be a CEO of an exploration company? What drove you to take on this role considering the many hats required Speaker 1: and Speaker 1: the odds of success are stacked against you. Maybe we'll start with you, Rob. Speaker 2: Sure. Yeah, well, thanks for having me today. I'm happy to join this panel with some of our colleagues here in the industry and looking forward to the discussion. Speaker 2: As far as kind of what drove me into the CEO role at Relevant Gold, it really was a natural progression in my career. Speaker 2: I had been working on the private side of the industry Speaker 2: for a long time, building a number of profitable businesses Speaker 2: with our co-founder, Brian Lentz, Speaker 2: 1 of which is 1 of the kind of top tier exploration consulting groups in North America, servicing Speaker 2: a variety of majors, Speaker 2: big rock exploration. Speaker 2: And really, yo...
