Board of Directors

Stephen Dattels, Chairman

Stephen Dattels is a seasoned senior mining executive and resource financier who has founded and/or financed numerous mining ventures in several continents in diverse commodities including gold, lithium, uranium, copper, nickel, iron ore, coal and potash with Circum. He is also an active investor in oil and gas exploration in Africa and was one of the founders of two successful private African oil and gas exploration companies, Signet Petroleum Ltd. and Regalis Petroleum Ltd.

Mr. Dattels was a senior executive and director of Barrick Gold Corporation, and has founded several companies including International Pursuit Corporation; International Gold Resources Corporation; Caledon Resources PLC; Oriel Resources PLC; UraMin Inc.; Polo Resources Limited; West African Minerals Corporation and Regent Pacific Group Limited.

Mr. Dattels is currently active as Chairman of TSX-listed LSC Lithium Corporation and of Regent Mercantile Holdings Limited, a private investment company. Mr. Dattels has a Bachelor of Arts degree from McGill University, a law degree (cum laude) from the University of Western Ontario and has completed the program for Management Development at Harvard.

John Ian Stalker, Executive Director

Mr. John (Ian) Stalker has recently been appointed CEO of Circum Minerals, he has served as a director of Circum since 2013. He is a mining executive with over 45 years’ experience in mine development and operations in Europe, Africa, Oceania and Australia. He is currently Managing Director of Helium One Ltd., a privately-held helium development company. He was previously Chief Executive Officer of LSC Lithium Corporation. and Chairman of Plateau Energy Metals Inc. Mr. Stalker served as CEO of K92 from May 2016 to August 2017 and was previously CEO of K92 Holdings International Limited from 2014 until 2016. He was Chair of Azincourt Energy Corp. from May 2013 until June 2018. Mr. Stalker has extensive public company experience and has acted in the capacity of CEO for Brazilian Gold Corp., Berkeley Resources Ltd., Niger Uranium Ltd. and UraMin Inc. He was a Vice President of Gold Fields Ltd. from April 2001 to October 2005, where he was involved with its international operations. Mr. Stalker holds a Bachelor of Science degree (Honours) in Chemical Engineering, from Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland.

Luke Knight, Executive Director

Luke commenced his career in the mining sector in 1997 working as a Manager for New Projects with the Olympus Mining Group and Miranda Minerals Ltd. His activities saw him supervise mineral exploration projects in various countries in Africa and South America. Luke, was a founding member of Platmin Ltd and the COO of its South African operating subsidiary. His responsibilities included the acquisition of mineral rights, liaison with government regulatory bodies, environmental management, human resources, accounting, payroll and all other tasks involved with the day to day operations of the company and its administration. Luke joined AMED Funds, a Luxembourg based private equity fund focused on investments in the mineral/commodity space in Africa as a director responsible for portfolio monitoring. Luke brings a wealth of experience in the management of exploration and development projects in Africa.

Nejib Abba Biya, Executive Director

Nejib has over 30 years of leadership experience in technology, finance, mining and energy. He is the founder and Chairman of Rift Geothermal, currently developing an initial 300 MGW power plant with TMGO and Corbetti in Ethiopia. He Co-Founded Allana Potash Corporation a company with potash assets in Argentina and Ethiopia before listing the company on the Toronto Stock Exchange and later selling it to ICL (Israeli Chemical Ltd), one of the largest potash and speciality chemical companies in the world. Nejib also Founded EGC gold which he listed on TSX (now East African Metals). The company is due to start construction of its gold mine in Northern Ethiopia in the fourth quarter of 2020.

After his departure from Toshiba, where he served as Vice President in the office systems division, he purchased two ailing office equipment companies, Office Solutions and Canadian Business Systems and built them into highly profitable companies before selling them to multinational corporations. Office Solutions was acquired by Danka Business Systems, a multibillion dollar US company and CBS was acquired by Pitney Bow (the largest mailing equipment manufacturer and distributor in North America) in 2004. Nejib then exited the office equipment industry and joined Forbes and Manhattan, a merchant bank as a Vice President where he launched several mining projects. He has served as Vice President of Aberdeen International and Avion Gold Corp among others. Nejib graduated from Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto.

Carlo Baravalle, Non-executive Director

In 2011 Carlo Baravalle co-founded AMED Funds, where he currently leads the structuring, financial and tax aspects of the investments, in addition to the structuring and operations of the Fund, investors relations and compliance.

After 4 years’ experience in finance with an Italian fashion group, Carlo completed his BA in economics at Turin University and obtained an MBA at INSEAD. He then spent several years in strategic consulting, working on assignments for many large French conglomerates between Paris and the USA. Carlo then moved to the telecoms industry, firstly with BT, starting new ventures outside the UK, and then as a Director of the Corporate Finance Telecoms team at Warburg. He returned to the industrial side of telecoms with a senior global position at Lucent Technologies. At this point in his career he started getting involved with the private equity industry, first taking a senior board-level assignment with a company owned by Apax Partners, and later as Senior Vice-President for EMEA for LCC, a telecoms engineering company initially invested by the Carlyle Group.

In 2006 he co-founded NCP, a private equity fund of funds aimed mainly at Italian institutional investors, which raised over $150million and is successfully invested in mid-cap and restructuring funds and co-investments globally.

Bradford Mills, Non-Executive Director

Brad Mills is Managing Director and Principal at Plinian Capital Ltd., a private mine investment company. Mr. Mills is also currently serving as Executive Chairman of Mandalay Resources Corporation, a Canadian based mining company listed on the TSE, involved in the discovery, development and production of mineral commodities including gold, silver and antimony in Australia and Chile. Mr. Mills was previously Executive Chairman of West African Minerals Corporation, an iron ore development company listed on AIM, and Chief Executive Officer of Lonmin Plc, a major platinum and platinum group metals (PGM) producer from 2004 to 2008. Prior to that, he was President at BHP Billiton’s Base Metals Division. He is also a former non-executive director of Norilsk Nickel, a major producer of nickel and palladium and has served on the boards of several companies including Magma Copper Company, Echo Bay Mines, Rio Algom, Nimini Holdings Limited and Helio Resources Corp.

Mr. Mills is a Stanford University graduate, with a B.Sc in Geology and an M.Sc in Minerals Economics. He has in excess of 30 years of experience in the natural resources industry, and has worked in a wide variety of capacities including strategy, corporate transformation, information systems, communications, ore body development and worldwide exploration.

Mike Beck, Non-executive Director

Mike Beck, a co-founder of Circum Minerals, is the founder and Managing Director of Regent Advisors LLC, a corporate finance advisory and investment firm. He has advised on equity and debt financings for private and public companies in the natural resources sector, including LSC Lithium Corp., Cobalt 27 Capital Corporation, Signet Petroleum Limited, West African Minerals Corporation, Polo Resources Limited, Direct Petroleum Exploration Inc., Titanium Resources Group, Copper Development Corporation, UraMin Inc., Diamond Fields International Ltd., Weda Bay Minerals Inc., Regent Pacific Group Limited and CCEC Ltd.

Mr. Beck was a Managing Director at N M Rothschild & Sons (Washington) LLC, with responsibility for the firm's mining, oil and gas advisory and investment activities. Prior thereto, Mr. Beck was the founder and President of Librion Group Inc., a corporate finance boutique. He also was with the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group, where he oversaw the structuring and financing of a large number of natural resource projects in Africa. Mr. Beck has also been a founder or co-founder of a number of companies listed on the Canadian, Australian and London stock exchanges. He has an M.S. in Engineering from Princeton University and a B.S. (High Honors) in Engineering from Rutgers University.