Paul Summers is the Executive Director of Torian Resources (ASX:TNR), a highly active Australian gold company that is focused on discovering the gold mines of tomorrow. Torian is continuing with its exploration strategy aimed at making significant gold discoveries that have near term production potential. The Company is entering an exciting phase in its development as its  exploration to date has already resulted in several gold discoveries and provided a greater understanding of its existing projects.

What’s your journey in becoming an Executive Director?
I have been the Company’s lawyer for many years and also acted for the subsidiary Cascade Resources Ltd prior to its merger with Torian.  In April 2018, I was initially appointed as a non-executive director to take a review of the management structure of the Company. I immediately undertook a compliance review of the Company’s previous performance. I remained a non-executive director until early this year however I became heavily involved in the day to day conduct of the Company since mid-2019, which eventually led to my executive role. Since the appointment of our chairperson Louie Simens I have for the first time been able to work with a like-minded individual who clearly shares a common vision for the conduct and future of the Company. This relationship gives me great confidence that the Company will be able to finally develop its valuable asset portfolio.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
We have very exciting ground around some major mines in the prolific Kalgoorlie and Leonora gold Belts. The business model is simple four projects are at different stages of the exploration cycle and expenditure requirements.

1. Mt Stirling Gold Camp (Surrounds Red 5’s (ASX:RED) ground which host the King of The Hills mine)
2. Mt Monger (Surrounds Silverlake Resources (ASX:SLR) Flagship project)
3. Zuleika JV (Dampier earning in)
4. Credo JV (Dampier earning in)

The Stirling and Diorite blocks that make up the Mt Stirling camp border Red 5’s King of the Hills project to the west, which itself has been given a new lease of life through exploration that has bolstered the combined open pit/underground resource to 3.1 million ounces at 1.5 grams of gold per tonne.

The project is also proximal to St Barbara’s flagship Gwalia mine and Saracen Mineral Holdings’ Thunderbox operation, giving us plenty of confidence that it is in the right neighbourhood to make a multi-million-ounce discovery.

The review by the Geological team uncovered data from historic drilling from the Stirling block that has helped shape new geological theories that Torian intends to test through an aggressive exploration program.

There’s a real feeling that the company has a much greater asset on its hands than originally thought.

We are also particularly excited with the potential opportunity at our Mt Monger and Wombola Gold project with SilverLake Resources Flagship project being in our immediate neighbourhood. We are confident that this region is a great place to be looking for new major discoveries.

These projects, combined with our Zuleika Project, located in the world-class Zuleika Shear, now present four opportunities for a major re-rating of the company, in the immediate, medium and over the long term.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
The health and safety of our people and the safe operation of our site is of paramount importance. Keeping our operation running is critical for jobs, our communities and for the WA economy. We are not a business that can do all of our work remotely and we are fully focused on action to reduce the risk of transmission at our sites and in our offices. In light of COVID-19, we know the situation is difficult and we are encouraging our workforce to look out for each other, their families and communities as we manage through this together.

Operations at Credo and Mt Stirling continue with additional monitoring and procedures in place to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission among our workforce. As things currently stand, there have been no material impacts on our operations or supply chain with our workforce able to access our safely and operate effectively.

Torian’s supply chains are still open and we currently have adequate supplies to operate and maintain critical equipment.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
To keep it simple, Opportunity to make a major discovery and we have multiple targets on multiple sites in highly prospective ground.

The projects are phenomenal, in the right address and we will systematically explore each off them. We certainly have the best in the business on the case with vast experience influencing discoveries at Fruta del Norte, Hemlo Camp, Detour Lake, Red Lake and The Estelle Gold Camp, as well as geologists with local knowledge with experience working in the Eastern Goldfields.

How do you measure success?
Success is measured differently for each stakeholder in Torian Resources, and my success is when each of those stakeholders is successful. For our investors, it is the share price and resource growth. For the staff, its making that big discovery or a multiple of discoveries and growing the resource base to potential multi million ounces across our projects

What do you think is the most important quality of being an Executive Director of a listed company?
For any Director, its resilience. Ability to problem solve as the challenges come up. Progressing the project regardless what is thrown at you and most importantly looking after your people and all stakeholders each step of the way. 

What is your favourite book?
Heather Morris’s The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the story of how Slovakian Jew Lali Sokolov fell in love with a girl he was tattooing at the concentration camp. A great read.

Life a memoir by the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, written with the assistance of journalist James Fox. The book chronicles Richards’ love of music, charting influences from his mother and maternal grandfather, through his discovery of blues music, the founding of the Rolling Stones, his often-turbulent relationship with Mick Jagger, his involvement with drugs, and his relationships with women including Anita Pallenberg and his wife Patti Hansen. Just loved the history in this read.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
We have four highly prospective gold projects with many targets on them respectively with great opportunity for major discovery. We are out hunting Elephants and not rabbits. We only need one of these to work for 100 bag potential in the stock from where we sit in terms of Market cap.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Website: https://www.torianresources.com.au/

Scott Williamson is the Managing Director of Blackstone Minerals (ASX:BSX), a leading battery and precious metals exploration and development company focused on the flagship Ta Khoa Nickel PGE (Cu Co) sulfide project. Nickel and Cobalt are used in the most dominant battery chemistries for electric vehicles (EVs) – NMC (Ni Mn Co) and NCA (Ni Co Al).

What’s your journey in becoming a Managing Director?
I’ve always had an affinity for leading people and was positioned in leadership roles at school, after university I moved around the mining industry working in many different mines across Australia and Africa. I was able to gain a broad exposure to the mining industry through working with some of the industry’s best technical people across many different commodities and mining methods. It was really my time in the finance industry and capital markets that set me up for the role of CEO. When leading a publicly listed company, it’s all about dealing with the various stakeholders and most importantly knowing how to keep the shareholders happy.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
At Blackstone we are looking to restart the Ta Khoa Nickel-PGE project in northern Vietnam. The Ta Khoa project includes the previously operating Ban Phuc Nickel mine which operated from 2013 to 2016 during a period of low nickel prices. We are planning to turn the mine back on with a focus on developing battery metals products for Asia’s growing Lithium-ion battery industry. We have a partnership with EcoPro, one of the world’s largest nickel-rich cathode manufacturers and together we are looking to build a downstream processing facility in northern Vietnam to produce the required inputs to deliver cathode materials into the electric vehicle revolution.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
At Blackstone we are lucky that Vietnam has responded to the situation almost better than any country in the world. With a rapid and focussed response starting back in January the Vietnamese government has been able to keep the total number of cases in Vietnam to less than 300, this is an extraordinary achievement given a population of nearly 100 million people. At Blackstone, we have been able to run our exploration business with minimal impact, except the typical social distancing and isolation practices we are all becoming well accustomed to. Personally, I’ve been enjoying an atypical extended period of time at home with the family which has been very special after what was an extremely busy year of international business travel in 2019.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
I enjoy being able to build and lead the strategy for the business and as a team achieve the common goals that deliver success for the Company. At Blackstone, we are particularly focussed on sustainably sourcing and delivering the natural resources required for the electric vehicle revolution. Electric vehicles and the clean energy movement have the potential to deliver an improved environmental situation for future generations. It’s exciting to be working on something that will add value beyond our lifetime and working as a team to deliver goals bigger than can be achieved as individuals.

How do you measure success?
Success is defined by an ability to find inner peace with oneself and absolute happiness in our experiences. Success is defined and measured by the strength of our relationships and the impact that one leaves on the world.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a Managing Director of a listed company?
Adaptability is one of the most important qualities of being a CEO, in this everchanging world it’s extremely important to be able to adapt and pivot quickly. The current situation we are in is a great example of this, whereby those who adapt quickly will survive and those that don’t will be left behind.

What is your favourite book?
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
The EV revolution is a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity, position your capital now before it’s too late.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Website: http://blackstoneminerals.com.au/

Alex Molyneux is the CEO of Galena Mining (ASX:G1A), a mining company that owns 86.16% of the Abra Base Metals Project (Abra) located in the Gascoyne Region of Western Australia. The Abra deposit was discovered in 1981 and remains one of the biggest undeveloped lead deposits in the World. Abra is within a granted mining lease. The Galena team has prior experience at bringing an exploration project through all stages of development and into production.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
It was a little accidental. I was a specialist resources investment banker based in Hong Kong and enjoyed that. I enjoyed the physical aspect of my client’s business and understanding the practical difficulties they had. Mining is a risky and difficult business, then one day around 11 years ago, Robert Friedland asked me to join his Ivanhoe group of companies. I was immediately transplanted into a CEO role at one of his companies. Since then I’ve always been a public mining company CEO and board member.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
I joined Galena Mining as CEO 1.5 years ago. The economics of its main project, the Abra Base Metals Project appealed to me as probably the best undeveloped base metals project in Australia in terms of investment returns. In terms of commercialising it, I’m leading a capable team who’ve completed permitting, engineering studies, lining up suppliers / contractors and even commenced the first phase of construction. At the same time, we’ve been sourcing the financing to complete the project to production. We did A$100M in equity deals in 2019, being A$90M as an investment from Toho Zinc of Japan for a 40% stake in the Abra Project, plus A$10M for a strategic stake in Galena from one of the largest family offices in Australia. Now we’re working to finalise a project financing loan to contribute the remaining financing.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
Personally, COVID-19 hasn’t affected me much. I’m spending the crisis in Taiwan where I have a home and which is probably one of the least affected places globally. In a work sense I’ve always been good on Zoom / WhatsApp etc. and miners are used to working in teams that are remote of each other with project sites separate to corporate offices and a lot of travel involved in the industry.

On a business front, the crisis has definitely slowed down our debt funding process. The banks are struggling a bit and also practical issues of getting financiers to site visits etc. have presented themselves. However, on the other hand we can see that the Abra project looks very robust at COVID-low commodity prices and that its reassuring. Plus, we’ve kept the company well-funded so we’re in good shape to ride things out.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
Mining is a tough business as I said. Challenges present themselves everywhere. Technical risks, macro conditions etc. all affect how quickly or even if at all you can reach your goals… so it becomes a ‘no stone unturned’ business in both a literal and a figurative sense. It’s a business where if you give up on ‘roadblocks’, you won’t go far. You must run multiple ideas in parallel to account for contingencies and pursue every angle to its end course. That’s how you find the best technical solutions for problems but it’s also how find financing support when the market conditions are working against you… the excitement comes by succeeding against those odds.

How do you measure success?
Success is a varied thing really. I don’t really think about it. There’s no finish line, I guess. There’s one problem solved and another one around the corner. Maybe in that regard, persistence itself is success.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
I think honesty is most important.

What is your favourite book?
I can’t say I have a favourite… I’m reading When Money Dies by Adam Fergusson right now. It’s a history of hyperinflation in Weimar Germany.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
Your readers are investors. My message is that COVID has set off a fundamental change in markets they need to consider. In the last couple of decades central banks printed money to stave off crises and issues that threatened to cause deflation… it generally made leveraged trades cheaper and caused a few fun bubbles here and there. However, this time the rate of money printing has accelerated to a degree that we may reach the point where faith in money evaporates completely. Investors need to be exposed to the forgotten real asset classes, commodities being key. The global market cap of the entire mining industry is roughly the size of Apple Inc., maybe a just bit more. In a relative value sense, hard asset industry has slowly been decimated but I see that cycle changing now. Buy gold, buy base metals, buy miners, you will want to inflation protect some of your portfolio.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Galena Mining Website: https://www.galenamining.com.au/