Neil Young is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Elixir Energy Ltd (ASX:EXR), an oil and gas exploration and development company.  It is focused on exploring in Mongolia for natural gas in the form of coal-bed methane (CBM). In Australia, CBM is also known as coal seam gas (CSG).

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I’ve worked for about 25 years in the energy sector in various business development, commercial and financial roles – both upstream (for oil and gas companies large and small) and also downstream (in areas such as electricity generation and gas trading).  I became the CEO of Elixir in 2018 following a back-door listing of a Mongolian focused gas exploration company I founded nearly a decade ago. 

There are many different journeys one can take in becoming a CEO – mine was one of an entrepreneur rather than a professional manager.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
We are exploring for gas (in the form of coal bed methane – CBM) in Southern Mongolia – i.e. just North of the Chinese border.  We are the first company to do so in the country and earlier this year announced Mongolia’s first gas discovery.  If we discover a suitably large resource then of course it could be pipelined South – as well as supply diverse local markets. 

Australia is the global leader in CBM.  It ships gas to China and other Asian countries by boat and faces a much higher delivered cost structure than gas discovered in Mongolia would.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
I was last in Mongolia in late January and even at that stage the country was becoming very active in controlling its borders to keep the virus out.  It has been remarkably successful in doing so to date.  We are getting on with our exploration & delineation program – with a new drilling and seismic campaign starting in July.  Our local staff and sub-contractors have the experience and capabilities to manage the program, notwithstanding international travel restrictions.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
Seeing the company progress from what was just a vision of replicating Australia’s CBM experience in Mongolia into one of conducting real work on the ground – and now making our first discovery.  That would not have been possible without developing very close business relationships inside Mongolia – with people I am now very pleased to call good friends.

How do you measure success?
As CEO of a listed company the share price is constantly in your face – as you manage investors’ monies which they are naturally very keen to see grow.  However, the longer-term measure of success I would most like to see is validation of our endeavours by delivering the outcomes of a successful exploration program to a much larger company with the balance sheet and capabilities to undertake a major gas development.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
The key challenge for a CEO is dealing with the fact that the proverbial buck stops with you and you have a wide range of stakeholders with different aims who need to be juggled – whilst still focusing on the good of the company as a whole.  That needs resilience and empathy – but ultimately you have to lead, which means making decisions that cannot please everyone.

What is your favourite book?
I’ve been reading the successive volumes of Robert A Caro’s Years of Lyndon Johnson for more than 30 years – a masterpiece of not only political biography but also the history of America – and a study in the eternal moral conflict between means and ends.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
I think our company’s asset and strategy will particularly resonate with an Asian readership that is intimately familiar with the ever-growing economic interactions between China and the Eastern Asian region.  If readers think China would like to satisfy more of its rapidly growing gas demand from the likes of Mongolia rather than e.g. America – then there is no lower priced way of playing that theme than buying EXR shares.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Company Website: https://www.elixirenergy.net.au/

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Matthew Gill is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director at White Rock Minerals (ASX:WRM), a minerals resources exploration and development company based in the historic mining centre of Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. White Rock owns the Red Mountain project in central Alaska – a high-grade zinc-silver-lead-gold project – and the advanced Mt Carrington gold-silver project in New South Wales.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I am a mining engineer by qualification and have worked right across that career spectrum – from an underground labourer, supervisor, department head, site general manager and then into the corporate world. I started as COO of White Rock Minerals in 2015 and was given the opportunity to the lead the company as MD & CEO in 2016. I was tasked at that time with taking our advanced Mt Carrington gold and silver project in New South Wales through the necessary studies and permitting, construction and commissioning and operation. This also included the attendant shareholder, stakeholder, corporate governance and capital markets activities. My prior experiences were well suited to that task having been an MD & CEO for 2 previous gold companies looking to variously build and commission gold mines – one in Western Australia and one in Victoria.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
White Rock Minerals is a Junior resources company listed on the ASX. Since I joined, we have completed the Pre-Feasibility Study for our advanced Mt Carrington gold and silver project in New South Wales, and are looking at how to progress the next step – the Approvals required to then build and operate the mine. We are open to discussions with interested parties on this opportunity.

During my time at the helm, we also acquired and have grown a very exciting high-grade zinc and precious metals VMS Project in central Alaska, conducting two field seasons on-ground there in 2018 and 2019. The VMS deposits contain high-grade zinc and silver, with significant quantities of gold and lead also, with multiple further exploration targets yet to be tested. Excitingly, earlier this year, we announced the discovery of a large and robust gold anomaly called Last Chance, in geology akin to the likes of Pogo, Fort Knox and Donlin. This gold anomaly is the current focus of our activities.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
White Rock’s base is essentially my study at home and that of my exploration manager – Rohan Worland – at his home; we closed our small office over a year ago. So we were already practicing social distancing! Given the nature of field exploration and the relative remoteness of Alaska, COVID safe practices come more naturally to manage. So aside from a restriction on face to face meetings and travel (which are important when engaging with shareholders, investors and the invest relations and financial markets), we have been able to conduct our business as usual. A great example was our ability to raise over A$7M from the capital markets to progress our exploration in Alaska, without one road show!

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
All Junior companies believe in the quality of their projects, that they are under-valued and under-appreciated by the Market, and that they have a great Board and Team. Well – I am no exception. Getting the White Rock story out there, and seeing when others latch on to this and the compelling investment proposition that White Rock offers, is very gratifying.

How do you measure success?
Success is measured differently for different stakeholders. Exploration success is a key driver for a small Junior company like White Rock. Being able to attract the quality of investor we have been able to do just recently to fund our upcoming 2020 exploration program at Last Chance in Alaska is a great endorsement by others on what we see – a large, robust, un-tested and highly prospective gold anomaly. Success for our shareholders is a key of course – exploration success and an appreciating share price are good metrics here.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
I believe a CEO needs to have broad and deep business experiences in the field they work in – this then brings the collection of life experiences, good and bad, necessary to apply perspective, business understanding, and the leadership qualities of listening, learning, encouraging and strategic direction and communication.

What is your favourite book?
To be honest, I have not read a book in a while – I did deliver a course on Leadership, Culture, Risk, Media and Crisis Management to under-graduate mining engineers and did enjoy reading about the many varied opinions about what makes good leadership and organizational culture.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
White Rock offers the astute investor a great exposure to a near-term gold and silver producing asset in a safe jurisdiction like Australia, and to a zinc, silver and gold exploration success opportunity in another safe justification Alaska. We have a broad shareholder register, that includes investors from not just Australia, but Singapore, China, the USA and Canada, and we would welcome more interest from our nearest neighbours in Asia.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Company Website: http://www.whiterockminerals.com.au/

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Tom Revy is the Managing Director at BlackEarth Minerals (ASX:BEM), a junior graphite development company that is focused on identifying, evaluating and, if warranted, acquiring resource projects and assets in Australia and overseas that have the potential to add their shareholders value. Having scoured the globe for prospective flake graphite systems which meet their strict criteria formulated from decades of experience in the resources industry and mining in, it is their key asset in Madagascar where BlackEarth owns 100% of the highly prospective Maniry and Ianapera Graphite Projects, and meets all of our stringent benchmarks. This asset is a cornerstone of strategy to fast track BlackEarth project’s to cashflow.

What’s your journey in becoming a Managing Director?
Over the last 35 years, I’ve been fortunate to have had a journey that has included project design & development, operations, recruitment and equity markets experience; one might say, “Jack of all trades, master of none.”

Two roles that stand out for me in my career and have had a major influence on where I am today were my position as Director Developments at GRD Minproc (a global provider of EPCM services to the mining industry) which provided me a huge insight into project development and my current role as Founder and Managing Director of BlackEarth Minerals; starting a company from scratch has been a highly rewarding experience.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
BlackEarth Minerals NL (ASX:BEM) is a graphite development company which listed in January 2018. Our focus since day one has been to get the business into cash flow as soon and responsible as possible. The Company’s primary asset is located in the south of Madagascar, a country with a rich history in quality graphite production and global sales. Depending on market conditions, which appear highly favourable for graphite, our aim is to start project construction in 2021; a huge effort by our team given that we only put our first drill hole in the ground some 2 years ago.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
As a Company, we have focused on ensuring the safety of our staff and contractors first and foremost and have consequently introduced procedures to minimise the probability of catching and or spreading the virus both in Australia and Madagascar. Project-wise our definitive feasibility has been progressing with large scale pilot test work due to commence in Q3 2020, a major milestone for us.

Personally, I live in the “lucky country” (Australia) which successfully initiated and maintained strict protocols dealing with COVID-19 matters. The family and I are all safe, happy and healthy and I couldn’t ask for much more than that

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
Having founded the Company, I’m extremely proud of what the BlackEarth team has accomplished in such a short space of time. It’s exciting to not only reflect on what has been done, but more importantly the enormous potential that lies in front of us as we head towards commercialisation.

How do you measure success?
While it may sound cliché, I measure business success by how happy all our stakeholders are; shareholders, employees, contractors and of course the local communities in which we operate. If they are all happy and kept informed, then the financial benefits should follow — market dependent.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a Managing Director of a listed company?
Tenacity is one of the key attributes of a successful CEO/MD; others would include empathy, focus, not to mention the old adage, “there’s no substitute for experience”.

What is your favourite book?
As someone who has always had an interest in art, I would have to say any book depicting the works of M C Escher. As much today as when I was a child, I have always been mesmerised by the unique talents and artistic quirkiness of this man.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
The junior end of the resource market today still provides investors opportunities to invest in the commodities of tomorrow. Graphite although in use over the past 500 years, has its real future ahead of it; lithium ion batteries, fire retardant expandable graphite and the ongoing benefits of graphene. BlackEarth is uniquely positioned to take advantage of these growing markets as it heads closer and closer to commercialisation.

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

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