Key Personnel

Our mining and geology team are located in Calgary, Vancouver, Fernie, and South Africa consisting of individuals, most with mine operations backgrounds with senior personnel having a minimum of 25 years consulting or operations experience in metals, coal, or oils sands. All are highly skilled in using mine software applications, specifically MineSight ®. Brief biographies of key staff with coal, oil sands, and hard rock geology and mining experience are provided below, and their resumes are available on request.

Bob Fong, P. Eng., Mining Engineer:  Bob Fong has over 25 years of mine planning, design, management and operating experience in oil sands, coal and other soft-rock and base-metal mining operations.  Bob spent 13 years in operating roles at a number of coal mines in Western Canada. dealing with start-ups, operations, Mine engineering, environmental affairs, mine decommissioning and reclamation, including Byron Creek (now Coal Mountain) and Fording’s Fording River and Genesee Operations.  He was the Mining Lead on the Antamina mine feasibility study in 1997-98. He has worked on major oil sands projects since 1997, in various roles and responsibilities that include resource evaluations, cost studies, mine planning/design, and mining/project lead including Deer Creek’s Josyln project, Synenco’s Northern Lights project, Suncor’s Steepbank, Lease 86/17, Millennium and Voyager projects, Mobil’s Kearl Lake project, and Lease OS9 for PanCanadian. Bob is an NI 43-101 QP.

Don Guglielmin, Mine Software Application:  Don is a mine software applications specialist, with over 25 years experience in providing support to mine operations and major project studies specifically for Fording Coal, and Byron Creek. He has provided technical support to resource modeling, database management, mine design, production scheduling, development and enhancement of specific software applications. He has modeled hard rock projects from copper and gold to diamonds, coal/strataform deposits, and oil sands projects. He is currently employed by Mintec Inc. and has been instrumental in developing complex coal software for the MineSight suite of programs. Don is available to team up on a consulting basis.

Bob Morris, P. Geo., Geologist:  Bob is an experienced geologist with over 27 years in operations and consulting on metals, soft rock, coal, and oil sands projects and is an NI 43-101 QP. As VP of Exploration, he managed High American Gold’s exploration program in Argentina and the winter drill program for Synenco’s Northern Lights project in 2002. Coal  related assignments include exploration and development at all five of the mines in the Crowsnest  and Elk Valley coal fields as well as regional mapping in southeast BC. Other coal work includes property evaluations in the NE Coal fields of BC as well as work in Northumberland (British Coal), Iran, Indonesia, and Thailand. Oil sands work includes due diligence review on the Fort Hills project for Teck-Cominco, geology and resource reviews for both Suncor and Mobil, and winter drill program for OSLO. Bob also has extensive experience in hard rock projects in Canada, the USA, South America, and Asia.

Greg Trout, Civil Engineer: Greg has diversified mining experience at a large open pit coal operation including tailings pond and infrastructure construction, production planning and scheduling, mine design, drilling and blasting, operations supervision, and mine maintenance. As Superintendent of Maintenance at Fording Coal’s Fording River operation he was responsible for all aspects of Preventative Maintenance, Predictive Maintenance, Planned Component Replacement, programs as well as analysis of new equipment purchasing programs and new equipment erection and major overhaul contracts. Since leaving Fording Greg has been involved with bridge construction projects, equipment manufacturing, and fleet maintenance programs as well as mine planning and operations consulting. He specializes in mine maintenance, mine start-up planning, and evaluation of the operability of mine plans

Denis Gaspe, P. Eng., Mining Engineer: With over 30 years experience in the mining industry, Denis provides Executive Management Consulting in the Mining Industry conducting due-diligence reviews of coal property transactions with particular attention to supplier and client contracts, mine management structures, long term viability of equipment, mine plans, coal reserves and finances. Denis’ experience at Fording Coal progressed from junior Engineer through Engineering and Operations and ultimately as General Manager of Fording River Operations. From there he was responsible for bringing Fording’s Genesee Mine into operation. He then was transferred to Fording’s Head office in Calgary as Vice President Corporate Planning and Alberta Operations. This position included development of metallurgical coal data base and market intelligence and coordination and supervision of 3 Alberta based operations and new business opportunities through expansions, acquisitions, and development. Since leaving Fording Denis has been providing Executive Management Consulting in the coal and oilsands sectors.

Mike Takkinen, AScT. Coal Mining Specialist: Mike has worked 24 years at the Byron Creek/Coal Mountain Mine in all aspects of the operations. This includes Exploration, Mine Planning, Coal Quality assurance, Coal Processing, and Environmental planning. He is trained as an ISO 9001 auditor and has been involved with ISO 14001 development. Mike is a specialist in the use of MineSight software in complex coal and in coal Resource modeling. He is also using his planning skills and operations experience in consulting in hard rock projects.

Tracey Meintjes, Engineering Systems: Tracey is a Process Engineer & Business Analyst with process design, project evaluation, project management and contract management experience. After immigrating to Canada from South Africa he has been involved with project evaluation work using MineSight software and Excel based cost modeling. He has been involved with copper, gold, coal, molybdenum, project evaluations and is a specialist in pit and schedule optimization. He is also responsible for creating the mining cost model and equipment data base used for the project evaluations. Tracey is now located in South Africa.

Jim Gray, P. Eng., Mining Engineer:  Jim has 30 years of consulting and mine operations experience encompassing resource estimation, conceptual scoping studies, strategic planning, detailed designs, production schedule optimization, capital and operating costing, detailed design, permitting, new mine start-up, operations management, and operations planning and supervision. He has worked in underground tin in Tasmania and open pit operations in Canada for Fording Coal in the Elk Valley and in Prairie strip mining. Since leaving operations he has been consulting internationally for 15 years in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Australia, Iran, and North America. Jim was involved with the Quebrada Blanca project in Chile from original conceptual planning through resource development, financing, start-up and productions reconciliation for non-recourse funding conditions. He is a NI 43-101 QP, has provided review consulting for Transalta, Teck-Cominco, Placer Dome, and consulted on numerous projects around the world.  Jim has been involved in equipment control and production monitoring systems for large mining equipment and fleet management as a Director of Aquila Mining Systems.

Jesse Aarsen, P. Eng., Mining Engineer: Jesse has 4 ½ years at the Elk Valley Coal Corp. Greenhills mine. His work experience includes drilling and blasting, short and long range mine planning, and production scheduling,  and Engineering studies for the operation. He also has experience with fleet management systems, and Runge and MineSight Mine Planning software.

Marc Schulte, Mining Engineer: Marc was recently employed by Finning providing specialty engineering support for equipment selection, productivity and costing analysis, financial modeling, and field support for Caterpillar productions systems. His previous student experience (including a Co-Op term), includes assignments at Fording Greenhills Operations and Luscar’s Line Creek (now Elk Valley Coal Corp.)  and Fording’s Mildred Lake oilsands. Pre-stripping operation. Since joning Moose Mountain, Marc has been involved with Mine Design, Mine Scheduling, and Costing on various open pit projects using MineSight and in house software applications.  He has finished his EIT experience and is in the process of applying for P. Eng. status.

Cathy Pasemko, P. Geo., Geologist: Cathy is a Fernie based coal geologist with experience on exploration projects in the Elk Valley. She is providing support to Bob Morris in reviewing and evaluating the drillhole and geology data bases for coal projects.

Jesper Kofoed, Geologist: Jesper has 14 years experience in exploration geology, mainly from Greenland, Scandinavia, East Africa and SE Asia. His experience covers the development and management of a series of advanced exploration programs of mainly Gold, PGE’s, and Molybdenum in Greenland, and SE Asia.  He was instrumental in the early stage development of the Nalunaq gold project now a producing mine, and he has been project geologist on the Malmbjerg molybdenum project for three years. Jesper is a GIS professional using ArcGis. He also spent three years as an advisor to the UN Environment Programme on geological natural hazards and mining issues in East Afrca. Jesper is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.