Management

Colin Smith

CEO

Mr. Smith is a registered Professional Geologist (P.Geo.) in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, and the Northwest Territories with over 17 years' experience advancing exploration and mining projects in North and South America, ranging from early-stage project generation and exploration, to M&A takeover.

He has garnered a technical expertise in epithermal and mesothermal gold, ultramafic associated platinum group metals, porphyry copper-gold, diamonds, unconformity-related uranium, and coal. Mr. Smith was appointed VP of Exploration for ValOre Metals Corporation in 2021, and continues in this role. Before joining ValOre, Mr. Smith was Senior Exploration Geologist at the Seabee Gold Operation (>1.5 Moz gold produced) for Claude Resources Inc. Claude was subsequently acquired by SSR Mining Inc. in 2016 for $337M CAD. Smith designed and implemented all Seabee-based exploration activities, resulting in multiple auriferous discoveries and resource delineation.

Mr. Smith holds a B.Sc. degree in Geology from the University of British Columbia, and an M.Sc. degree in Economic Geology from the University of Victoria.

Charles Straw

President, Director

Mr. Straw is a second-generation economic geologist with over 26 years’ experience in mineral project assessment and exploration management in the Americas, Australia and China.

He has more than 15 years experience in executive management for both private and listed junior explorers on major global stock exchanges. His expertise includes company financing, joint ventures, resource definition and feasibility studies plus economic analysis and project management of all phases of project assessment from target generation to BFS. Mr Straw’s experience is largely on metalliferous minerals projects in a broad range of deposit styles and geological terranes. Mr Straw has a broad international network of technical, management, drilling and funding teams providing access to high-quality people, projects and capital.

Monty Sutton

CFO

Mr. Sutton brings more than 35 years of experience in public markets, corporate governance, senior administration and accounting and has served on the management teams and boards for many private and publicly traded companies. Starting on the trade floor of the Vancouver Stock Exchange in 1987, Mr. Sutton worked most of his career as an Investment Advisor, Equities Trader, and Insurance Specialist with PI Financial Corp. During this time he focused on the resource exploration industry and participated in raising over CA$100 million while managing over 1,500 client accounts. Mr. Sutton then served as CFO for Exploits Discovery Corp. and Corporate Development Manager with eCobalt Solutions as it completed a base shelf prospectus for $100-million, raising over $30-million for the development of its Idaho cobalt project. Prior to joining PI in 1997, Mr. Sutton was a Senior Management Accountant with MacMillan Bloedel.

Michael Rapsch

Vice President Corporate Development

Mr. Rapsch has over 16 years of in-depth capital markets experience in the resource sector, including several senior roles as Vice President Corporate Communications and Corporate Development. In these roles, he was responsible for the implementation, management and execution of all marketing and investor relations-related programs. His tenures included 4 years at SilverCrest Mines until the acquisition by First Majestic for $154 million in 2015. From 2015 to the end of 2018, he was leading the investor relations activities for SilverCrest Metals which owns the Las Chispas silver and gold project in Sonora, Mexico. During his career, he was also instrumental in assisting companies with capital raises. In early 2019, Mr. Rapsch founded Cologne Communications Corp. and has been successfully providing investor relations consulting services to publicly-trading resource companies.

Kevin Rafferty

Senior Geologist

Mr. Rafferty has over a decade of experience in classical field geology and extensive knowledge of the North American Cordillera. His technical expertise includes geological mapping, structural geology, stratigraphy, clastic sedimentation, and regional target generation. Before joining Gold Basin, Kevin spent 4 years advancing both brownfield and greenfield exploration projects in North and South America with SSR Mining Inc.

Mr. Rafferty graduated with a B.Sc. in Geology from Weber State University and is a current graduate student (M.Sc.) in Geology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Jacqueline Collins

Corporate Secretary

Ms. Collins is a Securities/Corporate Finance Paralegal with over 30 years of experience as a legal administrator, corporate secretary, and paralegal at independent and national law firms and with public companies. She specializes in the preparation, finalization and filing of all securities documents with Canadian securities regulators including all continuous disclosure documents.

Jonathan Lotz

Chairman & Director

Mr. Lotz is the senior lawyer and the founder of Lotz & Company. Prior to Lotz & Company, he worked as a partner at the international law firm, Heenan Blaikie LLP, where he headed the firm's Vancouver corporate securities and mining practices. He has represented public and private companies in all aspects of corporate and securities matters, and has acted for a variety of clients in the natural resources, energy, real estate and technology sectors in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Mr. Lotz is a member of the Bars of British Columbia and New York, and holds a B.Comm and LL.B from the University of British Columbia.

John Robins, P.Geo.

Director

John Robins is a professional geologist, prospector and entrepreneur with over 35 years of experience in the mining industry. In 2022 he was the recipient of the AME's Murray Pezim Award for his significant contribution to the financing of exploration and development projects over the last 20 years. He was also awarded the Spud Huestis Award in 2008 for having made significant contributions to mineral exploration in British Columbia and Yukon. 

Mr. Robins has been involved in several notable discoveries, including the 5M oz Coffee Gold deposit in Yukon, the Three Bluffs gold deposit in the Committee Bay greenstone belt, the Aviat / Churchill diamond districts of Nunavut, and the Great Bear project in north-western Ontario. Through his entrepreneurship, John has been instrumental in over CDN$3B in M&A activity and has generated over $1B in direct and indirect mineral expenditures throughout Canada, Latin America, and Australia. Notable recent successes include the sales of Great Bear Resources Ltd. to Kinross Gold Corp. for $1.8B, Great Bear Royalties Corp. to Royal Gold Inc. for $200M, and Kaminak Gold Corp. to Goldcorp for $510M.

John’s outstanding strategic guidance, technical expertise, strong industry relationships, and steadfast adherence to ethical practices, underpin his status as a leading steward of the junior mining industry. He currently acts as Chairman of Fireweed Metals Corp. and K2 Gold Corp.  Mr. Robins is also a Director of Elemental Altus Royalties and a Strategic Advisor to Defense Metals Corp., Kodiak Copper Corp., ValOre Metals Corp., and Prospector Metals Corp. 

Grant Duddle

Director

Mr. Duddle has over 20 years’ experience in equity markets as a stock-broker focused on extractive industries. He has extensive experience raising capital for mining and exploration projects in a wide range of jurisdictions and commodities.

Jim Paterson

Director

Mr. Paterson is a principal of Discovery Group and has been actively involved in marketing and corporate development activities for the group’s companies since 2002. He has 22 years of industry experience, including capital raises, acquisitions, joint-ventures, spin-outs, RTOs, and IPOs. Mr. Paterson is the Chairman and CEO of ValOre Metals Corporation and was a driving force behind more than $60 million in equity financings for ValOre that lead to multiple discoveries. 

He was a long-standing and active director of Kaminak Gold Corp. (acquired by Goldcorp.), and a founding director of Northern Empire Resources Corp. (acquired by Coeur Mining) and Bluestone Resources Inc. (until 2020). In 2007, he founded Corsa Capital Ltd. Corsa's 2008 IPO lead to a 2010 transaction which created a leading U.S. metallurgical coal producer with a C$250M market capitalization. He is also a founder and principal of Brunswick Capital, a private merchant bank.

David Sadowski

Advisor

Mr. Sadowski is a finance industry professional who has spent two decades focused on the metals and mining sector. He currently serves as Managing Director and a senior leader of mining investment banking at Canaccord Genuity, a premier global financial services firm and the largest independent investment dealer in Canada. Mr. Sadowski’s experience includes years as an exploration geologist and top-ranked equity research analyst in mining asset evaluation, including visiting more than 150 global projects and mines, with a focus on corporate finance and M&A advisory, leading to billions of dollars in total transaction value.