Directors & Management
Directors
The names and details of the Company's Directors are as follows.
Where applicable, all current and former directorships held in listed public companies over the last three years have been detailed.
EDWARD (TED) J ELLYARD, B.Sc (Geology), Grad.Dip, MAusIMM, MAAPG
Non Executive Chairman, member of Audit and Remuneration Committees
Ted Ellyard is a geologist with over 30 years experience in mineral and petroleum exploration, development and production. Mr Ellyard graduated from Curtin University, Perth in 1974 and has worked for several major Australian and international resource companies. More recently, Mr Ellyard was Managing Director and CEO of Hardman Resources Ltd from 1996 to late 2004. In that role he oversaw the international expansion of Hardman Resources Ltd into the Mauritanian oil/gas discoveries and its dramatic market capitalisation growth from less that $5 million to over $1.5 billion.
Mr Ellyard has been involved at Board level in the management of listed Australian resource companies for the past 20 years and has been a founding director of several companies. Currently, Mr Ellyard is a Director of Key Petroleum Limited and Minemakers Limited. Mr Ellyard has been a director of Hardman Resources Limited within the last 3 years.
MICHAEL W WOODBORNE, M.Sc, (Geology), MAusIMM, MAIG
Managing Director
Mike Woodborne is an M.Sc. graduate in Geology from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and has been involved in the diamond exploration and mining industry for more than 21 years. He has specialist knowledge of marine exploration, mining and technologies related to diamond placer deposits as well as marine geophysics. His management experience includes senior positions in both private and corporate companies in the resource industry.
He spent 7 years in the Marine Geoscience Unit of the Geological Survey of South Africa where his work on the evolution of the diamondiferous placer deposits on the west coast of Southern Africa was the subject of his M.Sc. thesis in 1986. In 1990 he co-founded an independent consulting firm, Marine & Coastal Geo Consultants (Pty) Ltd. This company was responsible for compiling independent expert reports and also directed several key exploration and technical projects that resulted in the discovery of new marine diamond deposits and the subsequent development of underwater mining operations.
In 1999, he was appointed as exploration director for Namco South Africa (Pty) Ltd, where he was involved with establishment and operation of a dedicated prospecting vessel as well as resource development for the offshore mining operations. In 2002, he took up a position in Perth with a survey company providing services to the oil and gas industry, prior to joining the Company. Mr Woodborne has not held any former directorships in listed companies in the last 3 years.
DENNIS W WILKINS, B.Bus., AICD, ACIS
Finance Director, member of Audit and Remuneration Committees
Mr Dennis Wilkins is an accountant who has been a Director, Company Secretary or acted in a corporate advisory capacity to listed resource companies for over 20 years.
Mr Wilkins previously served as the Finance Director and Company Secretary for a mid tier gold producer and also spent five years working for a leading merchant bank in the United Kingdom. Resource postings to Indonesia, South Africa and New Zealand in managerial roles has broadened his international experience.
Mr Wilkins has extensive experience in capital raising specifically for the resources industry and is the principal of DWCorporate which provides advisory, funding and administrative management services to the resource sector. Mr Wilkins is a director of Key Petroleum Limited, Marengo Mining Limited and South Boulder Mines Limited. Mr Wilkins has not held any former directorships in the last 3 years.
ANDREW J DRUMMOND, B.Sc.(Hons), F.AusIMM, C Man, MAIG, MGSA
Non Executive Director, chairman of Audit and Remuneration Committees
Andrew Drummond is a geologist with over 35 years of industry experience in exploration, development, mining and management. He has had senior management and/or directorship roles with Zephyr Minerals NL, Black Range Minerals NL, the ACM Group and Homestake Gold Australia Ltd. He is currently the Managing Director of Minemakers Limited.
Within the last three years he has also been a former director of Westonia Mines Limited, Westgold Resources NL and Carpenter Pacific Resources NL.
He has extensive experience with gold and diamonds and other commodities in hardrock and alluvial environments in Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines, Russia and China.
JOHN C ROBERTSON, B.Sc.(Hons), PhD
Non Executive Director, appointed 18 September 2007
John Robertson began his career in 1970 with J. Henry Schroder Wagg, the London merchant bank and, in 1972 he joined the corporate finance department of Cannon Street Investments. In 1975, he joined the Ultramar group of companies where he held a number of senior positions in London, Montreal, Toronto and New York and gained experience in corporate development, investor relations and supply operations. Much of his career at Ultramar was with the principal Canadian subsidiary, Ultramar Canada, where he was senior vice president corporate development and subsequently senior vice president supply operations.
In 1992, he returned to London and joined Durlacher, a UK stockbroker where he advised corporate finance clients. From February 1995 until his retirement in June 2005 he was a director of Nabarro Wells & Co., the London based independent corporate finance advisory firm where he brought a number of significant oil and gas and mining companies to AIM.
He is non-executive chairman of Elixir Petroleum Limited, the ASX and AIM listed oil company with exploration activities in the North Sea. Since its admission to AIM in May 2006 he has been a non-executive director of Prosperity Minerals Holdings Limited, a Channel Island holding company for a group with cement manufacturing operations in the Guangdong Province of China and an importer of iron ore into the PRC. He is a non-executive director of Telrock plc, a developer of software solutions for mobile based transaction services. Mr Robertson has not held any former directorships in the last 3 years.
Management
JOHN RIBBONS, B.Bus. CPA, ACIS
Company Secretary
Mr Ribbons is an accountant who has extensive skills in company secretarial duties and worked within the resources industry for over 15 years.
Mr Ribbons has extensive knowledge and experience with ASX listed production and exploration companies. He has considerable site based experience with operating mines and has also been involved with the IPO processes of several exploration companies on ASX. Mr Ribbons has experience in capital raising, ASX compliance and regulatory requirements.
ROGER DANIEL, B.Sc., (Hons.) Geology
Commercial Development Manager
Mr. Daniel is a registered professional geologist and Fellow of the South African Institute of Mining & Metallurgy, with over thirty seven years world wide practical mining experience encompassing mineral exploration, project assessment, and mine and project management at both operating and board level.