James (Jim) Gowans
Non-Executive Chair
Mr. Gowans has more than 40 years of experience in the resource sector through an extensive career as a senior executive with several major mining companies and his role as past chair of the Mining Association of Canada. He has extensive mining knowledge and perspective on the importance of sustainability and stakeholder relations. He has held executive positions with Debswana Diamond Company in Botswana, DeBeers SA, DeBeers Canada Inc., PT Inco in Indonesia, and Placer Dome Ltd. He was also interim president and CEO of Trilogy Metals Inc., President, CEO and a director of Arizona Mining Inc. and senior advisor to the Chair of the Board and Co-President of Barrick Gold Corporation. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mineral Engineering from the University of British Columbia and attended the Banff School of Advanced Management. He currently sits on the board of directors of Cameco Corporation, Premium Nickel Resources Ltd. (Chairman) and Trilogy Metals Inc. He is a member of the Company’s Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee and Technical, Health, Safety and Environment Committee.
Jeremy Wyeth
CEO and Director
Mr. Wyeth is Chief Executive Officer and a Director of the Company. Prior to this, Mr. Wyeth was Operations Director at Wood Canada Ltd. a large engineering company, where he led the Oakville office with a strong focus on both local and international projects. Mr. Wyeth started his career with De Beers, and worked on mines around the world in Canada, Russia, Brazil and South Africa. With De Beers, he moved to Canada to lead the development, construction, commissioning and ramp up of the Victor Diamond Mine in Northern Ontario. He took the Victor Project from pre-feasibility study to nameplate capacity. The Victor Project had a capital budget of $1 billion and under Mr. Wyeth’s leadership, it was completed nine months ahead of schedule and under budget. Over his career, Mr. Wyeth has held various senior management positions, including with Excellon Resources and Anglo American. He previously served on the Boards of Vector Resources Inc., DRA Americas Inc., DRA Brazil and the Ontario Mining Association. He holds a BSc in Mining Engineering from the University of Witwatersrand.
Morgan Lekstrom
President and Director
Mr. Lekstrom joined the Company as President and a Director following the Company’s acquisition of Blackwolf Copper and Gold Ltd., where he was CEO and Director. He has over 17 years of mining and industry experience in progressively senior roles from executive management, project management, operations and engineering management. Previously, he was CEO of Tearlach Resources, a lithium company he helped grow from grassroots into a multi asset company which included, building a world class team and, within a month having exploration success via the drill bit on their Gabriel project which he negotiated and structured the joint venture in Nevada. Prior to Tearlach, he was President & CEO of Silver Hammer Mining Corp. and a co-founder of a publicly-traded uranium company. Mr. Lekstrom has an established track record of delivering successes across numerous projects, capital raises and defining strategic direction for multiple companies. He had senior technical roles at Freeport McMoran’s Grasberg site in Indonesia and Rio Tinto’s Oyu Tolgoi Project in Mongolia, and he co-led the design, construction and commissioning of a new steel grinding media plant for Arrium (Moly-corp) in Canada and Peru. He played an integral role in the development and revival of Golden Star Resources’ Prestea underground mine in Ghana, West Africa. He has also branched out into supply chain infrastructure development, including construction, commissioning, development of asset strategies, and engineering at the Port of Vancouver’s largest grain Terminal, G3 Terminal Vancouver. He served as engineering manager at Sabina Gold and Silver Marine Laydown and Back River project, where he was responsible for the first phases of execution at the Back River Marine Laydown Project, leading the project from the office and on the ground.
Michele Ashby
Director
Ms. Ashby is the CEO and Founder of Ashby Consulting Enterprises LLC., a consulting firm located in Denver, Colorado that provides corporate board training and certification for women. She is an engaged independent director in finance and mining on seven corporate boards of directors since 2005 with over 30 years’ experience in the mining sector globally. Her professional career experience as former sell-side mining analyst, includes over 25 years in finance, mining, energy, marketing, and international business, working with hundreds of CEO’s of public and privately-held companies and large institutional investors to improve values and capitalize major projects. She is the Founder and former CEO of the Denver Gold Group, an international trade association, which became an industry institution and is still globally recognized, Having served on its board for over 17 years while CEO for the association. She was selected one of the top 100 Women In Mining 2022 and has over 25 years of collective board experience in corporate, non-profit and trade association boards. She currently serves on the Board of Andean Precious Metals Corp. Ms. Ashby is Chair of the Company’s Compensation Committee and a member of the Audit Committee.
Andrew Bowering
Director
Andrew Bowering, a former independent director of Blackwolf Copper and Gold Ltd., joined the Board on July 3, 2024 as an independent director following the Company’s acquisition of Blackwolf. He is a renowned venture capitalist with over 30 years of experience in global mineral exploration and development and a track record of building shareholder value. He has founded, funded, and led teams in the pursuit of various metals, from initial exploration to production. Mr. Bowering has held senior management roles, overseeing asset acquisitions, sales, and raised hundreds of millions in development capital. He was a founder of Millennial Lithium Corp (acquired by Lithium Americas) and is actively involved in other publicly traded companies in the battery metals and precious metals sectors, such as Prime Mining Corp and American Lithium Corp. He is a member of the Company’s Audit Committee, Compensation Committee and Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee.
Robert McLeod
Director
Rob McLeod is a geologist and accomplished Mining Executive with over 30 years of experience in mineral exploration and mining. He joined the Board on July 3, 2024 as a non-independent Director after the Company’s acquisition of Blackwolf Copper and Gold Ltd., where he was Executive Chair. He was worked for a variety of major and junior mining and exploration companies, primarily in Alaska, B.C., Yukon, Nunavut, Ontario and Nevada. He was President and CEO of IDM Mining Ltd. recently acquired by Ascot Resources Ltd., and prior to that, a founder and VP Exploration of Underworld Resources acquired by Kinross Gold Corporation. Rob is a director of Dolly Varden Silver and advisor for West Red Lake Gold Mines. He is an active industry volunteer, as past-Chair of AMEBC and as a director of the Britannia Mine Museum. He is a member of the Company’s Technical, Health, Safety and Environment Committee.
Paul McRae
Director
Mr. McRae is a corporate director with a distinguished reputation in project and construction management in the mining industry for projects of all scales and complexities. His career spans more than 40 years and includes a track record of on time and on budget projects. Mr. McRae served as Project Manager on the highly successful De Beers Victor Project in Northern Canada, and he has held leadership roles with numerous other projects from concept, construction and into operation in Australia, Canada, USA, Spain, Chile and Portugal. Prior to retirement he served as Senior Vice-President Projects of Lundin Mining from 2012 to 2018 during which time he led the Eagle Mine in Michigan into production. Mr. McRae has served on the board of Southern Hemisphere Mining, Bluestone Resources and Filo Mining. He recently stepped down as a director of Lundin Gold where he chaired the Board Technical Committee for the last seven years. Mr. McRae is currently a director of Westhaven Gold and McEwen Copper. He is a member of the Company’s Compensation Committee, Chair of the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee and Chair of the Technical, Health, Safety and Environment Committee.
Margot Naudie
Director
Ms. Naudie has more than 25 years of capital markets experience with expertise as a Senior Portfolio Manager for North American and global natural resource portfolios. She has held senior roles at leading asset management firms including TD Asset Management, Marret Asset Management Inc. and CPP Investment Board. She was cited as a Brendan Wood TopGun Investment Mind (Platinum) for five consecutive years. Ms. Naudie is an active and engaged independent Director on public and private Company Boards. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Economics from McGill University, an MBA from Richard Ivey School of Business, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder. She is Chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee.