Management & Board

240 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN MINING

Mining professionals with expertise in every part of the mine development cycle – exploration, development, and operations
The Company’s directors and management are industry experts across a number of disciplines –mineral exploration, mine development, operations, capital markets, investment banking, and government/community relations.

JESÚS NORIEGA

Interim Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Noriega is based in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. He is the General Manager of Ranchero’s wholly owned subsidiary in Mexico. Mr. Noriega is an operations manager with over ten years of experience managing service companies in the mining industry. He is an industrial engineer with a master’s Degrees in Business Management and Organizational Management from the Universidad del Valle de Mexico.

OMAR GONZALEZ

Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Gonzalez has over 20 years of experience in audit and assurance in South America, included five years of public and private audit practice, financial analysis, and corporate development in Canada. He is bilingual in English and Spanish and has led many assurance and non-assurance engagements for companies in the energy, mining and natural resources, real estate, manufacturing, and consumer business sector. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant in Ontario and Venezuela and holds a bachelor’s degree with major in Accounting from the Santa Maria University.

MARTYN BUTTENSHAW

Director

Mr. Buttenshaw is a senior mining executive and experienced non-executive director with over 20 years of mining experience, and was previously Chairman & CEO of Melior Resources. Most recently, he was an Operating Partner at Antarctica Capital where he was responsible for managing investments in the metals and minerals sector, with a particular focus upon the raw materials supply chain for the non-fossil fuel energy sector. Previously, Mr. Buttenshaw was a Managing Director with Pala, a metals and minerals focused investment company, responsible for deal origination, mergers and acquisition, strategy development, and project financing across a range of commodities and metals and mining related industry sectors. Additionally, Mr. Buttenshaw has held senior roles with Anglo American in business development and as a Senior Mining Engineer with Rio Tinto.

Mr. Buttenshaw is a Chartered Mining Engineer and holds an MBA with distinction from the London Business School and a MEng (First Class) in Mining Engineering from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London.

GUSTAVO MAZÓN

Founder and Chairman

Mr. Mazón is the CEO of the Mazón family group of companies and was responsible for the acquisition of multiple mining projects including Santa Daniela. He is an experienced executive and successful entrepreneur with a strong focus in growth. He is an expert in good management practices and control implementation. He has had exposure in a wide variety of industries and engaged in large-scale infrastructure projects. He is currently also a Director of Tonogold Resources.

Mr. Mazón holds a Bachelor of Business and Finance from ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico.

KEN BALLEWEG

Technical Advisor

Mr. Balleweg is a seasoned exploration geologist with more than 30 years of exploration and production experience, including 20 years in Mexico. He held the position at Placer Dome as Senior Project Geologist at the Cortez and Getchell Mines (Nevada) where his work at the Cortez/Pipeline complex led to the discovery of the Gold Rush deposit which eventually evolved into a 10 million ounce deposit.

In Mexico, his positions included five years as Placer Dome’s Mexico Mine Exploration Manager for the Mulatos project. Subsequently, he held positions with Alamos Gold over a 14-year period with progressively senior management roles including serving as Alamos Gold’s Vice President, Exploration. His exploration successes while at Mulatos resulted in an addition of over two million ounces of gold reserves (five million ounces of gold resources). His expertise is primarily centered on volcanic-hosted epithermal gold deposits, particularly high and low sulphidation deposits, as well as Carlin-type systems.

He has a B.Sc. in Geological Engineering and M.Sc. in Geology from the Colorado School of Mines, and is a registered professional geologist with the American Institute of Professional Geologists.

STEVE RISTORCELLI

Technical Advisor

Mr. Ristorcelli has over 40 years of experience in minerals exploration and development. For the last 29 years he has been a principal of Mine Development Associates. His primary focus has been in deposit modelling, identifying and correcting sampling problems, conducting geologic evaluations, and directing exploration programs. He is classified as a “Qualified Person” for Canadian Securities Exchanges. He has worked with a wide variety of commodities including but not limited to gold, silver, copper, base metals, cobalt.