Board of Directors and Senior Management
Christian Schaffalitzky – Executive Chairman and Managing Director
EurGeol, FIMMM, Pgeo, CEng. 40 years experience in mineral exploration. Founder of CSA international. Numerous discovery credits including Lisheen zinc deposit in Ireland. Also chairman at Kibo Mining Plc.
Dmitry Suschov – Non-Executive Director
Commodities trading veteran (primarily various grades of metallurgical and thermal coals) who has successfully built a major Pulverized Coal Injection (PCI) franchise throughout Asia, Europe and America with an annual turnover of up to $100 million, therby accumulating around 2.5% of the global PCI market share. He is also an investment banker with extensive experience in the Russian resources industry having previously worked with IG Capital, MDM Bank, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst&Young as mining & metals leader in corporate finance for Russia and CIS.
Gary Fitzgerald – Non-Executive Director
30 years experience in investment management, prior director of Framlington Investment Management.
James Nieuwenhuys – Non-executive Director
James has held senior positions including Chief Operating Officer at Polyus Gold, Russias largest gold miner, and is currently Chief Executive Officer at South African Lesego Platinum Mining Limited. James has an engineering background and has also held senior positions at a number of EPC organisations.
Iain Rawlinson – Non-executive Director
Iain is an experienced board member and a corporate strategy consultant. He has a law degree from Cambridge University, is a qualified barrister, and is also an experienced corporate financier. Iain started his career in investment banking with Lazard and Robert Fleming and was one of the initial partners of Fleming Family & Partners (FF&P) where he led the listing of Highland Gold PLC in 2002. Iain’s independent board appointments in the corporate sector include Lithic Metals and Energy PLC (2007 to 2009), Dana Petroleum PLC (2005 to 2010), The Monarch Group (2009 to 2014), and Parkmead Group PLC (2010 to 2020). Iain’s board positions in charities include Tusk Trust (Trustee from 2002 and Chairman from 2005 to 2013). He is currently a Non-executive Director at the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (since 2017).
Alexei Churakov – Strategic advisor to the board
Mr. Churakov is a former Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley senior investment banker specialized in the mining sector. He has a background in cross-border M&A transactions operating from Moscow, London and New York. Alexei brings his extensive experience in mining M&A as well as maintaining a hands on approach at operational level.
Alexander Sushchev – Strategic advisor to the board
Alexander is a metallurgist by background and a former Chief Executive Officer of SMCM (molybdenum and rhenium metals producer) as well as a former manager at Norilsk Nickel.