CORPORATE
Advisory Board
Mackenzie Watson, B.Sc, P.Eng
Mr. Watson, B.Sc., P.Eng., has over 50 years of experience in exploration, finance, development, and operations in the mining industry. Mr. Watson has spent his career in the junior mining sector, notably serving as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lynx Canada Exploration Ltd. until 1985 and as Chief Executive Officer of Freewest Resources Inc. commencing in 1985, until its acquisition by Noranda in 1994. He was then CEO of Freewest Resources Canada Inc until its acquisition by Cliffs Natural Resources in 2010. Among his many achievements, Mr. Watson was awarded the Prospectors and Developers of Canada’s Bill Dennis award in 1991 for his contribution in the discovery of the Harker Holloway gold mine (Ontario), the Icon-Sullivan copper mine (Quebec), the Long Lake zinc mine (Ontario), the Ellison gold deposit (Quebec) and the Hebecourt copper deposit (Quebec) and again in 2010, for his contributions to the mineral discoveries in the Ring of Fire area in Northern Ontario. Mr. Watson is also the first person to have received the Bill Dennis Award for a Canadian Discovery and/or prospecting success twice: a first time in 1991 for numerous discoveries; and again in 2009, as part of the team responsible for chromite discoveries in the Ring of Fire. He was also awarded the Quebec Prospector of the Year Award in 1992, for his participation in the discovery of the Pusticamica and Verneuil gold deposits in Quebec. In January 2015, Mr. Watson was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.
Donald Hoy, B.Sc.
Donald Hoy brings over 35 years of experience, acting in both technical and senior management capacities, for junior and major mining companies. Recently, he served as President of Wolfden Resources Corporation and prior to that, as Vice President Exploration and Development for Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. as well as Freewest Resources Canada Inc. During his tenure with Freewest, he was a recipient of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada 2009 Bill Dennis Award, as 1 of 5 persons credited with the ‘Ring of Fire’ discoveries, in northern Ontario. Mr. Hoy holds a B.Sc. degree from the University of Western Ontario and a M.Sc. degree (Mineral Exploration) from Queen’s University.
Robert Weicker, Chief Geologist
Bob's 5 year stint at Hemlo included the role of Chief Geologist at the Williams Mine (at the time, the largest gold mine in Canada) for Lac Minerals Ltd., and was with the project from late exploration, through development and construction, to production at 6000 tonnes per day. Bob also has extensive exploration experience in the Hemlo, Thunder Bay area, and Abitibi greenstone belts, for gold and VMS (Volcanogenic massive sulphide) deposits. In the USA, Bob was with Equinox Resources Ltd. (taken over by Hecla Mining Company) and involved with the exploration, permitting and underground development of the Rosebud gold deposit in Pershing County Nevada, which was successful mined by Hecla and Newmont. Bob has worked on projects in every county in Nevada, in addition to Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Washington, New Mexico and California.
Bruce Durham, Advisor
Bruce Durham is a Professional Geologist who graduated from University of Western Ontario in 1976. Between 1998 and 2007, he held various management positions with Canadian Royalties Inc., including President, & Vice President Exploration. He has worked in mineral exploration for over 30 years with junior and senior mining companies exploring for precious and base metal deposits in Ontario and Quebec, but also with companies exploring across Canada, in the USA, and in Africa.
Garry Clark, P.Geo, Advisor, QP
Garry Clark is the Executive Director of the Ontario Prospectors Association (OPA). He has been a Director, Vice President or President of OPA since its formation in the early 1990s. Garry currently serves on the Minister of Mines Mining Act Advisory Committee (Ontario) and the Ontario Geological Survey Advisory Board. He graduated with an HBSc (Geology) from Lakehead University, Thunder Bay. Mr Clark brings to the company extensive experience in managing large scale exploration and development programs internationally including Asia and North America. In addition to over 30 years of consulting experience, he had held geological positions with a number of mining companies and has served as a director of other TSX Venture Exchange listed companies including his current position with Challenger Deep Resources Corp., Scientific Metals Corp., and Elissa Resources Ltd.
Gerry Rayner, Advisor
Mr. Rayner is an independent technical consultant who has over 40 years of experience in the mining industry and has practiced his profession on every continent except Antarctica. The bulk of his time has been spent in Western North America including Mexico and Central America, in Australia and the South Pacific, including Indonesia and other parts of Asia, and in various South American countries. Mr. Rayner's primary areas of expertise lie in reconnaissance exploration and in the evaluation of mineral properties at the earlier stages of exploration and development. While with Kennecott, Mr. Rayner was also in charge of exploration in Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific where efforts during this period resulted in the discovery of several porphyry copper deposits including the Ok Tedi Mine.
Catherine Fitzgerald, M.Sc, P.Geo
Ms. Catherine Fitzgerald, M.Sc., P.Geo. is a Professional Geologist with over 15 years of experience in mineral exploration and resource development in both the public and private sector. She was directly involved in mineral deposit definition and resource development for diamond deposits such as the Renard Mine, Quebec's first diamond mine, and the Chidliak Project, which was acquired by De Beers Canada through a friendly takeover of Peregrine Diamonds Ltd in 2018. As part of the Renard and Chidliak resource development teams, direct contributions by Catherine resulted in a combined NPV increase of $1.1 billion CAD. She is currently Principal Resource Development Geologist for High Power Exploration, a private company exploring and developing projects around the world that include Ni-PGE-massive sulphide, porphyry Cu-Au-Mo, polymetallic vein deposits and iron ore. Catherine holds a M.Sc. in Geology from the University of Victoria and is a registered Professional Geoscientist in B.C. and NT/NU.
