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.

David Twist, Co-Chairman

Dr. David Twist has more than 30 years' experience in geological research, exploration and developing mineral resource projects. He is a founding partner of African Minerals Exploration & Development (AMED Funds) where he combines technical expertise with business acumen to guide the fund. He is an accomplished and highly experienced PhD geologist who has worked his entire career in Africa. Among others, he is the co-founder of Sephaku Flouride (Pty) Limited, African Precious Minerals and APM Mining, Sephaku Holdings Limited, Taung Gold (Pty) Limited and Sedibelo Platinum Mines Limited (formerly Platmin Limited), where he also served as CEO until 2006. Dr Twist has served as an executive and non-executive director on a number of private and listed companies, including most of the companies listed here.

Dr. Twist has a BSc (Honours) in geology from the University of Reading (U.K.) and a PhD in Geology from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (U.K.). Dr. Twist is a registered member of the South African Council of Natural Scientific Professions, a member of the Geological Society of London and a member of the American-based Society of Economic Geologists. 

Bradford Mills, 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.

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. 

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.

John Ian Stalker, Non-executive Director

Ian Stalker is currently the CEO of Lithium Corporation, the Chairman of Plateau Energy Metals Inc., the Chariman of Azincourt Energy Corp., and is on the board of directors at UrAmerica Plc. Mr. Stalker has more than 45 years of development and operational mining experience in countries across the world.  Mr. Stalker was previously employed as Chief Executive Officer of Brazilian Gold Corp., Vice President of Gold Fields Ltd., Chief Executive Officer of Berkeley Resources Limited,  Chief Executive Officer of Andulela Investment Holdings Limited, Chief Executive Officer of Niger Uranium Limited, and was a Managing Director of Ashanti Goldfields Co. Limited.  He has served on the boards of Polo Resources Limited, Regent Pacific Group Limited, Premier African Minerals, Elemental Minerals Limited, and Templar Minerals Limited. Mr. Stalker has a chemical engineering degree (Honours) from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.