Seminars

Area of Expertise: Social License to Operate in Extractive Projects

Andres specializes in the processes to deliver solid and sound strategies of corporate social responsibility in the mining sector.

He was born in Peru and moved to Canada in 1996 after obtained an MBA from Eastern University in Pennsylvania.

Andres started his professional career as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse in Lima. After this he held progressively senior positions with oil & gas exploration companies and international development organizations.

In Canada, he worked with World Vision Canada as Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean. In this role he became deeply involve with sustainable social development processes. Also, in this role he adapted corporate social responsibility strategies of large mining companies.

In 2004 he started a faculty position at Humber College in Toronto teaching Management of International Nonprofit Organizations at the graduate level.

He was part of the staff of Barrick Gold’s Pueblo Viejo Mine Project in the Dominican Republic. His main role was to devise community engagement strategies and managing the resettlement of 250 families. Also, he played a key role training local staff in community engagement, public consultations, and grievance mechanisms.

He has provided consultancy services to the Inter-American Development Bank in the expansion of their Social Entrepreneurship Program in Latin America.

Andres has established a reputable consultancy practice in Toronto serving different companies and organizations related to the mining sector operating in Latin America.

In 2009 he was appointed as International Advisor for the Small Mining Society in Peru. This Society represents all small mining cooperatives and firms in Peru. In 2011 he was appointed as Associate to the Artisanal Gold Council. In this role, he represented AGC in the working groups in Peru and Bolivia to suppress the use of mercury in artisanal mining.

In 2010 accepted the challenge to transform a socially distressed project into a $2.0 billion market capitalization. This was with Torex Gold Resources in Southern Mexico. This process took five years of constant engagement and conflict prevention measures. It finally rendered a solid social license to operate.

Andres is a speaker and member of The Prospector and Developers Association of Canada, Canadian Business Ethics Research Network, Canadian Institute of Mining, International Canada, Artisanal Gold Council, Small Mining Society of Peru, and several others.

Principle Consultant (Geology) at SRK Consulting

Anna Fonseca has over 25 years of experience in mineral exploration. In 1993 she obtained a BS degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and in 1998 an MSc from the University of British Columbia. She started her career in the Yukon Geological Survey, went on to work as an independent consultant throughout the Americas and Middle East, and taught Economic Geology at the Ecole Polytechnique LaSalle Beauvais, France. In 2012 she joined SRK’s Structural Geology group as a structural and alteration geologist. Since joining SRK she has been focusing on deciphering the structural controls over hydrothermal alteration, and prioritizing prospective faults through field based and remote sensing infrared spectroscopy.

Principle Geologist, SRK Consulting

Blair Hrabi, MSc, PGeo is a Principal Consultant (Structural Geology) with SRK based in the Toronto office. He is a structural geologist with 22 years of experience gained in the exploration industry, government geological surveys, and academic settings, predominantly in Archean and Proterozoic terranes of the Canadian Shield and the Cordillera of North and South America.

Blair is an expert in the regional- and deposit scale structural controls on ore deposits, including orogenic gold, epithermal silver-gold, and base metal deposits. He has extensive experience integrating field, open pit and underground mapping to build geologically sound 3D structural and lithological models to support exploration targeting, resource estimation, and underground and open pit geotechnical studies. He has a special interest in the compilation and integration of diverse data sets to understand the evolution and geometry of complex, mineralized terranes, and to aid in GIS-based prospectivity analysis.

Technical Specialist Geochemistry and Mine Closure, Agnico Eagle Mines

Chris Kennedy has worked for the past 15 years in the mining industry, mostly as a consultant with SRK consulting focused on Environmental Geochemistry, but also a short amount of time in mining finance and post doctoral academic research. Most recently he has joined Agnico Eagle Mines as a technical specialist focused on identifying and managing geochemical risk for new mining projects, operations and closed sites. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a BSc in Geology and Zoology, and a PhD in Microbial Geochemistry.

Chris Nind is a senior geophysical consultant based in Oakville.  He was the General Chair of the  Exploration ’17 conference  held in Toronto, and he is the past-President of the Canadian Exploration Geophysical Society.  Since graduating in 1977 from Queen’s University with a BSc in mathematics, he has worked as a geophysicist with Geoterrex, Dighem and Fugro Airborne Surveys in various management positions.  From 2004 to 2013, he was the President & CEO of Scintrex Ltd.  He has authored and co-authored numerous technical papers on exploration geophysics and presented papers at many international conferences.

Principle Consultant, CPetch Consulting

Christine provides fit-for-purpose risk management and project management solutions for the resources sector since 2014. Prior to consulting, Christine was Director of Enterprise Risk Management at Xstrata Nickel (2010-2013) where she worked closely with C-level executives and diverse teams from the boardroom to the mine site to develop and implement the company’s risk management strategy. With over 20 years in the industry, Christine has worked on grassroots, advanced and underground exploration projects across Canada.  In 1998, she discovered the Kikialik nickel deposit at Glencore’s Raglan Mine in northern Québec, which began production in 2011.  She was the Site Manager for the Kabanga Nickel Project in Tanzania during its scoping and pre-feasibility stages (2005-2008). Christine has also held a variety of corporate roles within the business development, sustainability and strategic leadership teams at Xstrata Nickel/Glencore. Christine received her B.Sc. in Geology and Geophysics from McGill University and her M.Sc. in Geology from Queen’s University. She is a Professional Geoscientist in the Province of Ontario.

President & CEO – RGCI

David is a professional geologist with 20 years of mining industry experience who founded RGCI in September 2014.  Prior to RGCI, David held technical roles involving geochemical exploration, project evaluation and corporate development with several reporting issuers.  David’s professional expertise includes geochemistry, QA-QC and project management gained from his work experience with gold, platinum group metal and uranium projects.  Within the last few years, David’s career had moved into the financial sector where he was an associate mining analyst at a boutique investment firm.  His research focus was gold deposits throughout West Africa.  David holds an honours degree in Geology from McMaster University, is a professional geologist with the Association of Professional Geoscientists, is a member of APGO Council and is also a member of the Association of Applied Geochemists.

Vice President, Exploration – Canada, Kirkland Lake Gold

Doug Cater is a professional geologist with over 30 years of industry experience gained while working with senior Canadian based mining and exploration companies. Most recently he served as the Vice President of Exploration with St Andrew Goldfields Ltd. since 2012 and was responsible for resource expansion, and testing targets on the company’s 120 kilometre strike length of claims along the Porcupine-Destor Fault Zone. Mr. Cater previously held the position of Project Manager, Back River Gold, with Sabina Gold and Silver Corp., from 2009 to 2012 and Exploration Manager with Dundee Precious Metals Inc., from 2005 to 2009. Mr. Cater also worked as Chief Geologist from 1995 to 1997 at the Macassa Mine while under operation by Kinross Gold Inc. Mr. Cater is a University of Waterloo graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree and is a council member of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (APGO), representing the Southwest Ontario district, and member of the Minister’s Mining Act Advisory Committee (MMAAC). Mr. Cater is also a Director of Sierra Metals Inc.

Graduated in Geology-Chemistry in 1958 and obtained M.Sc. (Geology) in 1960 with specialization in mineralogy and petrology. He received his PhD (Mineralogy) from the University of London King’s College in 1964. He was a Lecturer, then Associate Professor, on the faculty of Geology Department, Punjab University from 1960 to 1973. His pioneering contributions to the geology of Himalayas include (i) the first ever reconnaissance geological mapping of the 4500 sq.km. region between Swat and Indus rivers (ii) first ever discovery of rare Silurian/Devonian fossils in Pakistan and (iii) discovery of the rare Nepheline Syenite (1965), which at 600 billion tonne is tonnage-wise the largest mineral resource ever discovered in the Himalayas and iv) discovery of even rarer Carbonatite rocks (1967), not previously known to occur in the Himalayas; a potential rare earths resource. 

 Fuzail Siddiqui is one of the senior most members of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (APGO), with over 56 years of active service in the geological sciences, including experience of over 25 years working in operating mines/metallurgical plants, mainly in the Zambian Copper Belt. In Zambia, from the initial appointment as Process Mineralogist, he advanced to progressively more important positions, reaching the highest geological position in the billion dollar mining conglomerate – ZCCM. There, by applying a combination of mineralogy and chemistry, he resolved numerous major production shutdown problems in copper/cobalt metallurgical plants. In ZCCM he managed a major capital project to establish computer aided 3D geological/mine modeling for four mines.

In 1998 he moved to Canada. Within two years he was among the winners of the international web-based ‘Challenge’, competition launched by Goldcorp of Toronto, Canada in 2000. His gold exploration proposal for Red Lake gold mine, Ontario, Canada was judged worthy of an award of US$10000. He also received the Rouge River Keeper’s award for excellence in environmental stewardship in Ontario, Canada.

Currently he is an independent Consulting Geoscientist for several Canadian and foreign clients and has also worked on mineral and relevant human resource management for IBM, Ernst and Young, USAID and numerous government and defense organizations. Currently he is consultant to Ernst and Young on restructuring of a provincial Mines and Minerals Department, in Punjab, Pakistan. He has the distinction of being the focal person and principal author of Mineral Policy 2014 for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. He has a recognized “Qualified Person” status as a Professional Geoscientist registered with (APGO). He can be contacted on siddiquf@yahoo.com.

Director of Mineral Resources Evaluation at Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd.

Guy Desharnais obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, which focused on belt-scale geochemistry of mafic-ultramafic rocks and related sulphide mineralization. He worked five years as an exploration geologist with Xstrata Nickel (Glencore). He joined SGS in 2010, where he completed a wide range of projects internationally, from resource estimations, economic evaluations, metallurgical sample selection, geometallurgical studies, and audits of resources and reserves. He led the team which won the Integra Gold Rush Challenge in 2016 ($500k) which applied a combination of geology, virtual reality, weight of evidence and machine learning techniques to identify the most prospective exploration targets. He is currently working as Director of Mineral Resource Evaluation with Osisko Gold Royalties, and is on the Mining Technical Advisory and Monitoring Committee for the Canadian Securities Administrators. 

Hrayr Agnerian is President of Agnerian Consulting Ltd., an Independent Consulting firm.  Since 1987, he has been practicing as a Consulting Geologist.

Mr. Agnerian has more than 50 years’ experience in the mineral industry, with expertise in exploring for precious metals, base metals, industrial minerals, rare earth elements, and uranium.  He has worked in a variety of geological environments across Canada, USA, South America, Africa, Western Europe, Middle East, Central Asia, and China.

Mr. Agnerian has published on estimation of Mineral Resources, on lithologic guide to unconformity related uranium mineralization, and on valuation of exploration properties.

Prior to working as a senior executive in the mining industry, Jennifer practiced as a securities lawyer, firstly working with senior debt instruments in the oil and gas sector, and thereafter in a niche mining practice specializing in corporate finance and property transactions for junior mining issuers. 

In 2000 Ms. Boyle parlayed her experience into holding senior executive roles as a founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of various junior mining companies, working and living globally where she was responsible for developing all corporate infrastructure comprising corporate finance, negotiation and structuring of joint venture, partnership and property acquisition transactions, building and maintaining geological teams, and working with governmental regimes for  mineral rights customs for the import of heavy equipment.

More recently, Ms. Boyle was the Chief Executive Officer and Director of St. Eugene Mining Corporation when the Company was purchased by Claude Resources Inc., a mid-tier gold producer (which was recently purchased by Silver Standard Resources), and she acted as Chair of the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Carlisle Goldfields Limited throughout the acquisition of Carlisle by Alamos Gold Inc.

Currently, Ms. Boyle sits on the Advisory Committee of the TSX Venture Exchange, and is a member of the board of directors of Satori Resources Inc. a company that she founded in 2012 which holds a former gold producing mine in Manitoba.  Her primary position is with the Velocity Trade Group of Companies where she holds the position of Head of Global Corporate Finance and General Counsel.  Velocity Trade is a financial services company that provides wholesale foreign exchange and institutional equities and commodities trading services throughout its global offices in Toronto, Montreal, London, Sydney, and Cape Town.

Ms. Boyle has been a key-note speaker at various mining and finance forums, and is a guest lecturer in the engineering and geology departments of Queens University, Western, and University of Toronto where she provides seminars on “The Corporate Side of Resources”.

 Ms. Boyle continues with her consulting business of advising senior board members on challenging corporate governance matters, and structuring financings for mining issuers.

​Executive Vice President of Strategic Development and Director, ​Osisko Mining Inc

Mr. Vizquerra is currently Executive Vice President of Strategic Development & Director at Osisko Mining. For over four years, Mr. Vizquerra served as the President & CEO of Oban Mining Corp. (“Oban”), where he led the successful change of business strategy that resulted in Oban’s acquisition of Corona Gold, Eagle Hill Exploration Corp. and Ryan Gold to form what is now Osisko Mining. Mr. Vizquerra previously worked as Head of Business Development for Compania de Minas Buenaventura, prior to which he worked as production and exploration geologist at the Red Lake gold mine. He is currently a board member of Alio Gold Inc, Sierra Metals and Discovery Metals. Mr. Vizquerra holds a M.Sc. from Queens University in MINEX, and is a Qualified Person (AIGP). Mr Vizquerra is currently advancing the General Management Program (GMP) at the Wharton School of Business.

President of Analytical Solutions Ltd.

After earning a M.Sc. at Queen’s University in Geological Sciences, she gained experience as an exploration geochemist planning and interpreting geochemical surveys across Canada, and in many South America and African countries. She is recognized as a world-expert on assay methods and has traveled extensively worldwide to review sampling and analytical procedures. Since 1989, she has also gained public company experience (Citadel Gold Mines, Augen Capital, Canadian Shield Resources and Halo Resources) as a senior executive and director.  Her experience includes financing, regulatory reporting, corporate governance, joint venture negotiations and exploration planning. 

 Lynda was awarded the 2013 Queen’s Jubilee Medal award for her dedicated volunteer work in the mining industry. She served as a director of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (2005-2014), Chair of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy-Toronto Branch and is a past councillor of the Association of Exploration Geochemists and the Geological Association of Canada.  She serves on advisory boards including the Ministry of Natural Resources-CANMET Advisory Committee, Canadian Securities Administrators Mining Technical Advisory and Monitoring Committee and the Canadian Mining Innovation Council- Footprints Project Advisory Board.

Managing Director of Innovation, McEwen Mining

Nathan joined McEwen Mining as V.P. Technology in March of 2014 and was promoted to the position of Managing Director in July 2014.  With 30 years of international industrial experience, Nathan also worked at various major mining companies including Barrick Gold Corp., Noranda Inc. and Falconbridge Limited.

Nathan holds a Ph.D., in Metallurgy and Materials from the University of Toronto and a B. Eng. in Mining and Metallurgical Engineering from McGill University.

Nathan is currently a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO), and was V.P. International of the CIM.  Nathan is a Past-President of MetSoc. He is also a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt. 

Independent Analyst and Director, Toronto

I was born and grew up in New Zealand. The bedrock geology in my home-town, Wellington, is uninspiring but its impressive landforms encouraged me to follow studies in geology at Victoria University of Wellington; then McGill, Carleton and Queen’s.

The topic of my Ph.D. thesis was the geology of the Archaean Flavrian and Powell Plutons, which I identified as feeders for the volcanoes and heat engines for the mineral deposits of the Noranda district.

After a few years in the bush, as often happens, my wife tapped me on the shoulder and suggested I look for a desk job. As a result, I began work as a financial analyst for investment dealers in Toronto while pursuing both a Diploma in Business Administration at the University of Toronto and courses at the Canadian Securities Institute.

An association of my peers, the Mineral Resource Analysts Group of Toronto, has declared me to be an Analyst Emeritus. I am also a Life Member of the Toronto Geological Discussion Group,  a group I ran for 18 years.

Research on mineral economics resulted, in 2000, in my trademarking the term “pinch-point”TM, which refers to a critical level of the inventories of a  commodity. I have also published, in a Geological Association of Canada text, a chapter on NSR modelling of mineral deposits:  https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/GC/article/view/3740/4254. And one of the results of my work on relationships between the resource industry and key stakeholders was, in 2005, the publication of a book, Inco comes to Labrador by Flanker Press of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. https://www.amazon.ca/Inco-Comes-Labrador-Raymond-Goldie/dp/1894463757 .

I’ve become known across the country as a frequent guest on television shows, most notably BNN in Toronto.

I hold Directorships of several Canadian exploration and mining companies, and of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. 

Cofounder of Orix Geoscience

Shastri Ramnath is a mineral exploration geologist and executive with a 15-year track record of growth and success working in Canada, the United States, South America and Africa. Her geological expertise spans exploration, resource estimation, 3D modeling and target generation, and project evaluation across a range of deposit types including magmatic sulphide, gold, VMS and porphyry copper. She has demonstrated expertise managing advanced exploration and development projects in brownfield and mine environments, and in grassroots exploration. Shastri has extensive management and leadership experience as CEO of a TSX-listed junior company, founder and President of Orix Geoscience Inc., and as a director of junior mining companies.

Principle of BRIDGE

Siri is the principal and founder of BRIDGE ©, a business leader with a successful track record working in numerous countries and across a broad spectrum of roles and responsibilities. Her knowledge and expertise span over 20 years working on complex major capital projects. Siri is particularly sensitive to the importance of culture and prioritizes its integration into all facets of business, strategic planning risk and commercial management. It is core to her approach to Social Responsibility and Stakeholder Management.

Siri brings to the table particular experience in the integration of workforce with local communities and indigenous people, aligning capacity and training. Where required, she has the ability to work with international workers, unions and teams on the ground. She is comfortable engaging with all levels of stakeholders, internal and external to projects, including governments, agencies and industry. Siri has consistently worked with the Board Room and the Project Delivery teams, bridging gaps and creating vision through strategic leadership.

Siri’s strengths are based on innovative approaches. She is comfortable in challenging and changing environments and adopts an approach which fosters positive sustainable outcomes. Siri builds bridges between the project world, organizations and communities to achieve cost-benefit driven results. Siri builds simple solutions that make sense and are realistic.

Siri has carried out a number of Training Programs in her areas of expertise, including Social Responsibility and Mediation, Risk Management and Contracting Strategies. Siri has been a guest lecturer on numerous occasions at various Canadian universities, including Rotman School of Management, Schulich School of Business, and University of Toronto’s faculty of Mining Engineering. Siri is a regular guest speaker at conferences and forums, speaking on CSR, Risk Management, Project Management and Diversity in the Industry and in Mining.

Siri’s background as a lawyer and mediator has provided her with extensive experience in project financing, as well as administrative and labour law. She brings to the table an ability to “translate” and simplify complex agreements and facilitate their negotiation and interpretation for the needs of the project and the stakeholders. Her claim management strategy is based on strong communication with contractors and targets complete claim avoidance.

Siri is a Canadian and her family is from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and grew up in South America, France, Algeria and Spain and the UK. In the course of her career she has worked in Egypt, Russia, Malaysia, New Caledonia, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Panama, Argentina, Australia as well as Canada, Alaska and the Arctic. She obtained her University degrees at McGill and the Université de Montréal. She is perfectly fluent in English, French and Spanish. Siri is a member of the CSR Committee and the Student of PDAC as well as a strategic partner for Women-in-Mining Canada.

Director and Principal Geotechnical Engineer, Adiuvare Geology and Engineering Ltd.

Will is a principal geotechnical engineer with more than 30 years’ experience in rock engineering for both mining and civil projects. He has project experience in Africa, Europe, Central Asia, the Americas and Australia.

Will started his career as a learner mine official in Zimbabwe before undertaking a degree in mining engineering. He graduated from the Camborne School of Mines in 1984 and returned nine years later to obtain an MSc in Geotechnical Engineering.

Will worked at the Blyvooruitzicht Gold Mine in South Africa where he became interested in rock mechanics and obtained the South African Chamber of Mines Certificate in Rock Mechanics. Following his South African experience, he spent two years with a mining advisory group in the UK. Will joined Golder Associates in 1988 and was based initially in the UK, before moving to Toronto in 1997.

Will joined AMC Mining Consultants in 2011 and spent a year at their offices in Vancouver where he was the Geotechnical Manager for the Vancouver team. In 2012 he moved back to Toronto to assist AMC with the development of the Toronto office and in 2013 he became the Toronto office General Manager.

In 2016 Will and his wife Cath Pitman set up Adiuvare Geology and Engineering Ltd. AdiuvareGE provide independent professional advice in the areas of geology and rock mechanics engineering.