Speakers

Alex is a Principal Consultant based in CRU’s New York office. Alex relocated to New York in 2015 after eight years working for CRU Consulting in London. Alex now works across a broad range of commodities supporting predominately North American customers, whilst also providing important contributions to consulting projects related to his commodity specialties. Over the last three years Alex has predominately focused on working in the battery metals space, as lead author and editor of CRU’s Lithium Market Outlook and having completed several projects looking in detail at the implications of battery demand for nickel and cobalt.

Andrew O’Donnell was born into a family that lived and breathed the financial industry. Many a family meal was spent discussing markets, wealth accumulation, estate planning, tax strategies and new products and services for companies and families. A graduate of Ridley College, he obtained his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario. Both of these school allowed Andrew to build lasting relationships with people from around the world, providing a truly global perspective to his approach. He began his career in Calgary as an advisor with Standard Life but branched out to include stocks, bonds and derivatives products when he took his book to Merrill Lynch. The focus was on providing thoughtful planning, high performance and structured strategies.

​Throughout his career Mr. O’Donnell has worked at various levels of the financial service industry culminating as a Managing Director of an offshore ‘captive insurance company’ in Barbados which he created with Willis Canada for a land banking company. He has created structured products and is always looking for innovative, interesting market advantages. ​

Over 20 years of experience in financial analysis, corporate development, strategy and investment banking including mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance.

Mr. Vicens previously worked as Vice President in Scotiabank’s Investment Banking Mining team and participated in over $10B of M&A transactions and well over $5B in equity and debt issuances.

Chris has been an independent analyst since 2009 with a focus on Energy Metals supply chain analysis. This includes lithium, cobalt, graphite, copper, and vanadium. 

He works with asset managers, banks, mining companies, and academia across six continents to better understand how disruptive trends in energy, strategic metals, and technology create opportunities. Before shifting focus to analysis of these trends, Chris gained twelve years of capital markets experience in New York.  He is also currently an independent director of two companies with a focus on the lithium and battery recycling markets.

He has been featured in the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN International and numerous other platforms providing insights around raw material supply chain dynamics.

Chris graduated from The Virginia Military Institute with a BA in International Studies in 1997 and obtained an MBA from Fordham University in 2007. He is currently writing a book on the role of Energy Metals in the global energy transition.

Daniel Major, Chief Executive Officer, GoviEx Uranium is a mining engineer from the Camborne School of Mines in the UK. His career spans over 30 years in the mining industry where he has established a solid track record initially with Rio Tinto at the Rossing Uranium Mine in Namibia, and Amplats and JCI Ltd in South Africa. Mr. Major was a rated mining analyst with HSBC Plc followed by JP Morgan Chase & Co. in London. More recently Mr. Major was Chief Executive and later Non-Executive Chairman of Basic Element Mining and Resource Division in Russia, and held leadership positions in several Canadian listed mining companies with exploration and producing assets in Canada, Russia and South America.

Daniela Cambone is the Editor-in-Chief for Kitco News, covering global markets, economic news and commodities, including oil, silver and copper with a primary focus on gold. She is based in New York City. Her work is simultaneously featured and covered on Jim Cramer’s TheStreet.com

Prior to joining Kitco News in October 2008, Daniela worked as a liaison between the Canadian and Italian government as the Communications Director for the Italian Ministry of Research in Rome where she was often invited to present findings at the European Parliament in Brussels. During her five years in Rome, Daniela also worked as a political and current events reporter covering high-profile events including the United Nations High-Level Summit on Food & Agriculture (FAO). Prior to this and immediately upon finishing her B.A., Daniela covered Canada’s insurance and banking sector for Montreal-based Magazine Finance and The Insurance Journal.

Daniela has interviewed such high profile figures as Congressman Ron Paul, Senator Rand Paul and investors including Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Barbara Corcoran, George Foreman, Jim Rogers, and Steve Forbes. Daniela Cambone is a frequent moderator and speaker during Cambridge House Events in Vancouver and Mines and Money NYC and Toronto. She is often invited to cover closed door events including the Sohn  Investment Conference, Clinton Global Initiative and the BMO Capital Markets annual gathering.

Daniela graduated cum laude from The University of Rome, earning her Master’s degree in Communications; she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Montreal’s Concordia University.

Diego is a seasoned investment banker with over 25 years of experience in the provision of a broad array of sophisticated financial and advisory services for natural resources. Over the years, he has been involved in transactions totaling about USD 4 billion in value.

Founding partner and MD of Natural Resources SA, an investment banking boutique, where Diego leads the Mining & Natural Resources practice.  Since 2012, he has strengthened his focus on mining foreign investment helping foreign investors entering or currently working in Argentina, by screening opportunities, providing local support and direct interaction with the federal and provincial governments and regulators.

Since 2016 he has started to invest in precious and energy metals, where he combines his international approach as speaker in mining investment conferences, with a deep knowledge of mining provinces.

Douglas Groh, Portfolio Manager

Mr. Groh is a Portfolio Manager at Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. He serves as a Co-Portfolio Manager of the Tocqueville Gold Fund as well as other investment vehicles in the Gold Equity Strategy. He joined Tocqueville in 2003. Prior to joining Tocqueville, Mr. Groh was Director of Investment Research at Grove Capital from 2001 to 2003. From 1990-2001, he held investment research and banking positions at J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, and ING Bank. During the late 1980s, Mr. Groh served as a portfolio manager of gold mining equity funds for U.S. Global Investors and IDS Financial Services, after beginning his career as a mining and precious metals analyst in 1985 at U.S. Global Investors. Mr. Groh earned a B.S. in Geology/Geophysics from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and an M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, where he focused on mineral economics.

Dr. Soroush Nazarpour, B.Sc, M.Sc, Ph.D. founded Group Nanoxplore Inc. in 2011. Dr. Nazarpour has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of Group Nanoxplore Inc. since 2011. He is a published author of two books and a number of scientific journals. Dr. Nazarpour started his academic career with a Materials Engineering degree from the Sahand University of Technology. He has been a Director of Group Nanoxplore Inc. since February 14, 2014. Dr. Nazarpour continued his studies at the University of Barcelona where he obtained his Masters in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and a Ph. D. in Nanoscience.

Ethan Levine is a Managing Director and Co-Head of Natural Resources at Commonfund Capital. Ethan rejoined Commonfund Capital in 2011 to work primarily on the firm’s natural resources programs, while also contributing to the private equity, venture capital and distressed capital teams. He originally joined Commonfund Capital in 2007 as an Associate in the Commonfund Capital Associate Program. Prior to 2007, Ethan specialized in energy markets at Charles River Associates, an economic and litigation consulting firm in Boston, MA. While at business school in 2010, Ethan also worked at Rockland Capital, a private equity firm, where he conducted due diligence on potential power generation asset acquisitions and helped manage existing portfolio investments. Ethan is a member of the advisory boards of several private capital limited partnerships. He is a member and prior chairperson of the Dartmouth College Hillel Board of Overseers. Ethan received a B.A., B.E. and M.E.M. from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Geoff Stanley graduated with honours from the University of Tasmania in 1982 with triple major in geology, geophysics and physical geography. He spent 6 years as an exploration geologist with Billiton in Australia before commencing a long and successful career in the capital markets. This included 20 years as a mining analyst, ultimately earning recognition (Wall Street Journal) as the number one ranked metals and mining analyst in North America. In 2007 Mr. Stanley established Riverfield Capital – a mining, investment and capital markets business based in New York.

Anthony George Gero is currently a Managing Director – Financial Consultant with RBC Wealth Management, RBC Capital Markets.  With over 125 years of collective experience, Mr. Gero and his team have over $1billion in assets under management.

Prior to RBC Dain Rauscher, Mr. Gero was a Senior Vice President of Legg Mason Wood Walker, Inc.  Before Legg Mason, Mr. Gero was a Senior Vice President of Investments, First Vice President of the Futures division and a President Council Member of Prudential Securities.  Mr. Gero was a First Vice President of Prudential Securities Incorporated, for 22 years.

Mr. Gero has been a member of the NYMEX since 1966, where he has served on the Board of Directors for 30 years. And serves on Comex Governors Committee.  He guided the Clearing House Committee in revising the Clearing House Rules for which the Board of Directors adopted a special resolution of commendation.  He now serves on the  NFA Hearing Board.

Previously, he served as a member of the Joint Task Force, Steering Committee, Swap and OTC Derivative Product Committees of the Security Industry Association and the FCM Committee of the FIA.  Mr. Gero was a Director of Research and Director of International Divisions of several New York Stock Exchange firms.

Mr. Gero graduated from the New York University School of Commerce.  He received his Investment Banking Certificate from the Investment Bankers Association at the Wharton School in 1965, and is an Associate of the Institute of Financial Accounting of Great Britain.  Formerly, he taught a commodity trading course at the New School.  He is fluent in five languages and his former currency review was published in three of them.

George R. Ireland founded Boston based Geologic Resource Partners LLC in 2004 and serves as Chief Investment Officer and CEO. Mr. Ireland has almost forty years of experience in the mining and metals industry in positions ranging from field geologist to operations to banking and venture capital. From 2000 to 2004, he was General Partner of Ring Partners, LP, a predecessor investment partnership to GRP. From 1993 to 2000, Mr. Ireland was an analyst for and a partner in Knott Partners LP where he specialized in resource investing. Prior to 1993, Mr. Ireland held a variety of positions at Cleveland-Cliffs Inc, The Chase Manhattan Bank, ASARCO Inc. and VenturesTrident LP. Mr. Ireland graduated from the University of Michigan with a Batchelor of Science degree from the School of Natural Resources and is a Fellow in the Society of Economic Geologists. Mr. Ireland is the Chairman of the Board of Lithium Americas Corporation and serves on the boards of Amerigo Resources Ltd, Rathdowney Resources Ltd., Redstar Gold Corp. and Merrill & Ring Inc, a private timber company in the US.

Mr. Berzins holds a B.Sc. in Mining Engineering from Queen’s University and is a registered professional engineer in Alberta and British Columbia. He has more than 35 years= experience in all areas of mining including engineering, operations, maintenance, human resources and senior executive positions. He managed three complex underground gold mines in Canada including the Con Mine, Lupin MIne and Rice Lake Mine.

JJ Jennex has been active in both the junior resource industry and the international real estate sector for over 15 years. During this time he has held numerous positions with both private and publicly listed companies, including La Mancha Resources, Hathor Exploration and Leisure Canada. Mr. Jennex has been with Excelsior Mining since 2010 and he is responsible for all aspects of corporate communications with shareholders, media and potential investors.

Johann Wiebe is a Lead Precious Metals Analyst at GFMS, Refinitiv. He has 8 years of experience in analyzing precious metals, base metals and the steel markets. In his current role he is responsible for the broader demand research coverage of precious metals, and has an additional geographical focus on the America’s. He heads up the Silver Survey for GFMS, Refinitiv as well, which is conducted for The Silver Institute.

Jorge Ramiro Monroy is mining entrepreneur and investor based in Hong Kong.

He is the Founder and Managing Director of Emerging Markets Capital, an investment firm based in Hong Kong investing primarily in mining exploration equities listed on the TSX and ASX and which have commodities that play a crucial role in the growth of the Asian economies such as Cobalt, Lithium, Zinc, Silver and Gold.

Prior to Emerging Markets Capital, Jorge worked for Frontier Securities, a Japanese owned investment advisory and securities brokerage. He was part of the natural resources investments advisory team, advising and capital rising for mining and infrastructure companies with projects in Mongolia looking for investors in Asia and the Middle East.

Jorge has advised numerous Chinese and other Asian companies that are looking to acquire or invest in Gold, Iron Ore, Copper, Silver, Zinc, Nickel and Potash assets in North America.

He is a regular speaker at natural resources conferences and is a contributor for Latin America focused mining magazines and is in the Advisory Board of Mines and Money Americas.

Jorge was a founding member of the Mexican Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. He is currently a Director for Pacific Minerals 2015 Corp, a nickel exploration company in the Philippines and a Director of Arabian Shield Resources, a private exploration company focused in mining exploration projects in Saudi Arabia.

Jorge holds a Bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York, an MBA in Finance from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and currently doing a Certificate in Mining Studies from the University of British Columbia.
Jorge is fluent in English, Hindi, Spanish and Portuguese and has passed the level III HSK Chinese Fluency Exam.

Justin Machin is a Vice President at Denham Capital, responsible for analysis, origination, structuring, execution and monitoring of its Mining investments. He rejoined Denham in 2018 and brings nine years of experience to the firm.

In addition to his prior experience in Mining Private Equity at Denham, Justin spent several years with Waterton Global Resource Management in Toronto. Previously, he also spent a number of years in Mining Investment Banking, working as an Associate in the Global Metals and Mining Mergers & Acquisitions Team at Standard Chartered and as an Analyst in the Global Mining and Metals Corporate Finance Team at National Bank Financial.

Justin holds an Honours Business Administration degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Mr. Mabvuto Chipata joined ZCCM-IH in July 2012 and served as Chief Financial Officer up until 2017, after which he took up the position of Chief Investments Officer in 2018. He is currently Acting Chief Executive Officer and an Executive Director of ZCCM-IH. Mr. Chipata has over 20 years senior management experience in Accounting, Finance and Investment management in a cross section of industries. Mr Chipata holds a Bachelor of Accountancy Degree and is a Chartered Certified Accountant (FCCA). He is also a trained Stockbroker and a Fellow of the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants.

As deputy GM of Corporate Development and HK office of Zijin Mining, Ms. Huang main responsibilities is cross-border M&A and investments in Zijin Mining.

Ms. Huang has successively served in areas including cross boarder M&A, corporate strategy, private equities and investor relations in both the USA and China. She has in-depth knowledge and extensive firsthand experience in international capital markets, including China, USA and Canada. In 2018, Ms. Huang, lead the cross-border M&A team of Zijin Mining, completed investment transactions totaling 1.8 billion USD, which includes 100% acquiring and privatizing Canadian listed company Nevsun Resources Limited and acquiring absolute controlling stake of RTB Bor, the largest state owned copper producer in Serbia.

Ms. Huang has attained her Bachelor Degree in Business Management and Master Degree in Financial Management in the US. Ms. Huang is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Australia.

Mr. Valdes joined RCF in charge of the Latin American office in 2015 following a fifteen year investment banking career that included positions at J.P. Morgan and Citigroup in New York and as a Partner of Hudson Bankers, a Latin American M&A boutique based in Chile. During all this time he conducted several M&A and other transaction advisory services across Latin America, North America and Europe. Mr. Valdes has an MBA with distinction from the University of Michigan Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the Universidad Catolica de Chile.

Michael is President and CIO of SBP Management. He has over 11 years of experience in financial services, investment strategy development, positioning, and intended messaging for companies across a broad spectrum of sectors and geographies. Michael uses this expertise to bring strategic and growth-oriented value to his current portfolio companies. With over ten years of experience in the investment and business development industry, Mr. Danov has strong relationships with hedge funds, mutual funds, operators, pension funds, family offices, analysts, and bankers, giving him unique access to high quality deal flow. Mr. Danov was previously at Stanley Capital,  and Kingston Advisors. He earned his B.S. in Finance at CSI-CUNY

Michael DiRienzo serves as the Executive Director of the Silver Institute, an international association whose membership comprises the major participants in the silver industry.  In that capacity, Michael manages the Institute’s overall daily activities, budget development and management, implementing the annual plan, public affairs, and government relations’ activities.

Michael also served as Vice President of the Gold Institute, managing that association’s government and public relations activities.   He represented a member company of the Toyota Group as Director of Government Relations.  Formerly, Michael served as Legislative Assistant and Press Secretary to the Chairman of the House Rules Committee, U.S. Congressman David Dreier (R-CA).  During his tenure with the Chairman, Michael worked on the Rules Committee, and issues before the Financial Services and Small Business Committees.

Michael has been the Publisher of the Prospector News since 2008 and done communications work for the Junior Mining Sector since 2002. Prior to that he had a 10 year career in News Radio in Canada, TheProspectorNews.com provides daily news and commentary about the Junior Mining sector and the investment opportunities that exist. We are on Twitter @prospectornews

Mike Rosenstreich is an international mining executive with more than 30 years of experience. Mr Rosenstreich started his career as an exploration and mine geologist, spending more than a decade with Homestake Gold and Dominion Mining; before a shift to corporate finance with Rothschild Australia where he spent six years as a resources banker. His career also included five years as principal of Keystone Resource Development providing corporate, technical and financial consulting services to mining and exploration companies, resource lenders, investors and corporate advisors.

From 2004 to 2013, Mr Rosenstreich was founding Managing Director of ASX-listed Bass Metals. He was involved in identifying, negotiating and acquiring the company’s projects, and led the Company from pre-IPO stage to its listing on the ASX and forging its exploration and resource development strategy towards success. He spent more than five years at the helm when the company commenced base and precious metals production, arranging project financing, equity raisings and hedging facilities as well as concentrate off-take agreements.

During his career, Mr Rosenstreich has been involved in a wide range of commodities from gold and base metals to industrials such as tantalum, feldspar and mineral sands and he has worked across the globe.

Mr Rosenstreich became Managing Director of Hexagon Resources in March 2017 and since then has been instrumental in charting Hexagon’s path to commercialise its McIntosh Graphite project, located in Western Australia. Having formed a joint venture with Mineral Resources Limited (MinRes) on the project, which sees McIntosh funded through to commercial production, Hexagon is focused on the downstream processing of its graphite concentrates to add value and its transitioning from exploration to an advanced materials business. Its work to date has achieved “five nines” (99.999%) purity from its McIntosh graphite.

Mr Rosenstreich is a Fellow of the AusIMM and a member of the AICD. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Geology from the University of Otago and Masters in Mineral and Energy Economics from Macquarie University

Mr. Pereira is a Principal Investment Officer in the Mining Division at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group. As project lead, Mr. Pereira is involved in identifying, structuring and executing new transactions, as well as the ongoing management of a number of portfolio projects. His experience includes working on projects in Africa, Latin American & the Caribbean and East Asia. Mr. Pereira joined IFC in Washington, DC in 2003 and prior to this, spent 4 years working with Citibank, N.A. in Nairobi, Kenya, focusing on corporate finance transactions across the Africa region. Mr. Pereira has a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and a Master of Business Administration degree from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Mr. Pereira is also a CFA® charterholder

Noah Munro Lehrman is Senior Vice President of Hudson Metal & Alloy, a supplier of raw materials to the superalloy, aerospace, and energy industries. He speaks internationally on the Chinese metals industry and trade relations with the US. Noah is North American Chair of the Minor Metals Trade Association. Noah’s father Daniel founded Hudson Metals and was among the first Americans to deal with China. Noah graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and preforms around the world as a drummer-percussionist and singer-songwriter. His work in both metals and music has been featured in global publications from Relix to The Economist magazines, and in the nonfiction book “The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age”.

Peter Grosskopf has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. At Sprott, he is responsible for strategy, and managing the firm’s investment capital and lending business. His career includes a long tenure in investment banking, where he managed many strategic and underwriting transactions for companies in a variety of sectors. Prior to joining Sprott, Peter was President of Cormark Securities Inc. He has a track record of building and growing successful businesses including Newcrest Capital Inc. (as one of its co-founders) which was acquired by the TD Bank Financial Group in 2000. Mr. Grosskopf is a CFA^® charterholder and earned an Honours Degree in Business Administration and a Masters of Business Administration, both from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Shayne McGuire is an Emerging Markets portfolio manager focused on the Asia Ex-Japan region for Teacher Retirement System of Texas (AUM of $150bn). He also manages the Gold Fund for the Trust, which was launched in 2009. Shayne has spent 16 years at TRS starting as a senior international analyst and later as a portfolio manager for Southern Europe. Prior to TRS, Shayne was a Senior Analyst for ING Barings and Deutsche Bank in Mexico City, where he was twice recognized as being among the top Latin American analysts by Institutional Investor. He received an undergraduate degree in History and Political Economy at Fordham University, and an M.A. in History and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. Shayne is author of three books on precious metals investing, including Hard Money: Taking Gold Investment to a Higher Level.

Steve Letwin was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of IAMGOLD on November 1, 2010. He has been a member of the Board of Directors since joining the Company.
Specializing in corporate finance, operational management, and merger and acquisitions, Steve brings over 30 years of experience from the highly-competitive resource sector. Steve actively leads his executive management teams with a clear and pragmatic approach to driving business results, creating shareholder value, and achieving sustainable growth. Under his leadership, IAMGOLD has developed a diverse portfolio of strategic assets with extensive management and operational expertise. Steve was named the top CEO of 2017 in Financial Post Magazine’s CEO Top 100 Scorecard.

Prior to joining IAMGOLD, Steve was based in Houston, Texas, where he was the Executive Vice President, Gas Transportation & International, with Enbridge Inc. Steve was responsible for Enbridge’s natural gas operations, including overall responsibility for Enbridge Energy Partners, as the partnership’s Managing Director. In 1999, he joined Enbridge as President and Chief Operating Officer, Energy Services, based in Toronto, Canada.
Before joining Enbridge, Steve served as President and Chief Operating Officer of TransCanada Energy and was Chief Financial Officer, TransCanada Pipelines Limited, Numac (Westcoast Energy), and Encor Energy. He holds an MBA from the University of Windsor, is a Certified General Accountant, a graduate of McMaster University (B.Sc., Honors), and a graduate of the Harvard Advanced Management Program.
Throughout his career, Steve has actively demonstrated his commitment to voluntary leadership. His most recent community affiliations have included Director, Corporate Campaign Committee of Texas Children’s Hospital; Patron, UNICEF Alberta, Canada; and Director, YMCA Calgary, Canada. For his commitment to the community, Steve was awarded the 2006 Alberta Centennial Medal. He was made an Officer of National Order of Burkina Faso in 2011 and Grand Officer in the Honorary Order of the Yellow Star of Suriname in 2018.