Patrick J. Burns, Geologist

Patrick J. Burns is a Canadian geologist with over 40 years' experience throughout Canada the Caribbean, Central and South America, Mr. Burns was directly involved in the initial exploration and drilling that lead to the discovery of the Escondida porphyry copper deposit in Chile in 1981, as well as the Escondida Norte and, Zaldivar deposits. Additionally, he was the first Project Manager of all three projects. He is one of the senior discovery team members that authored the history of the discovery of the Escondida Porphyry Deposit, published as a chapter in Mining Latin America, (W.J. Wilkinson et al, copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Dordrecht,1986). The Escondida Mining complex is currently the world’s largest copper producer. 

In addition to the Escondida discovery, Mr. Burns has a substantial record of accomplishment in copper and gold exploration that includes his direct involvement and leadership roles in a number of significant discoveries in the Americas (North, Central and South) including the following:

• The Sustot Copper deposit in Northern British Columbia, while working with Falconbridge Ltd. for which he was rewarded with a royalty.
• The Momotombo Geothermal Project while working in Nicaragua, turned out to be the second largest in the country, located on the flank of the Telica volcano. Momotombo is a5-megawatt geothermal power project, located in Managua, Nicaragua.
• The San Cristobal gold deposit in Chile, the deposit was acquired by Niugini Mining of Sydney, Australia, which subsequently mined approximately two million ounces gold plus a significant silver credit.
• Co-discoverer of the Soledad high-grade Au-Ag-Cu tourmaline breccia deposits in Peru. The deposits were optioned to Chakana Resources of Lima, Peru.

In addition to these discoveries, Mr. Burns is the owner of the Cristal porphyry copper project in Northern Chile which is currently optioned to World Copper Ltd. (www.worldcopperltd.com).

Along with his exploration achievements, Mr. Burns has negotiated numerous international resource and exploration funding deals. He was awarded a $2.1 million grant from the Inter-American Development Bank (“IADB”) to conduct mineral exploration in southern Chile. This being the first time the IADB had given a grant for mineral exploration. He partnered with the University of Chile to execute several exploration programs in the region, the IADB continues to provide funding grants for resource exploration in the developing world.

Mr. Burns has been involved in management and director roles in numerous publicly traded mining companies in Chile, Canada and, the USA throughout his career. He currently serves on the Boards of World Copper Ltd, (WCUFF; OTCQX) and Norsemont Mining Inc., (NRRSF; OTCQB)

Mr. Burns holds a B.Sc. in Geology from the University of British Columbia.

Harvey McKenzie, CPA

Harvey McKenzie is a (life Member) Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA-CA), granted by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario, Canada. Mr. McKenzie's current principal occupation is the provision of consulting services primarily in financial reporting areas. From June 2011 to August 13, 2021, he has been the (part-time) CFO and Corporate Secretary of Omai Gold Mines Corp. (TSXV: OMG.V), from November 2015 to April 30, 2017, he has been the part time) CFO and Corporate Secretary of Ellipsiz Communications Ltd. a technology company (TSXV: ECL). From June 2011 to November 2015, he was a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Li3 Energy (listed on the OTC); Chair of the Audit Committee of Latin American Minerals Inc. from September 2006 to June 2010 as well as directorships of some small shells listed (or pending listing) on the TSX.

Prior thereto, Mr. McKenzie served as the CFO of several Canadian publicly listed exploration, development and producing mining companies, including Red Crescent Resources limited from January 1, 2013 to March 2014, Martina Minerals Corp. from February 2005 to December 31 2012, Eurotin Inc. from May 2011 to September 2011, Sino Vanadium Inc. from May 2010 to March 2011, Iberian Minerals Corp. from July 2007 to June 2009, Carlisle Goldfields Limited from July 2006 to July 2007, and Asian Mineral Resources Limited from July 2006 to January 2008. From August 2005 to July 2007, he was the CFO and a director of Card One Plus, Ltd., an electronic payment solutions company. Prior thereto he was the CFO of Thistle Mining Inc. from March 1999 to August 2005 (TSXV: TMG.V).

Luis A. Vega, P.Geo

Luis Vega is a senior geologist with over 40 years of experience in working for publicly traded mining companies involved in exploration for precious and base metals His work has focused on investigation of polymetallic and porphyry copper deposits, as well as porphyry gold and sedimented hosted gold deposits throughout North America and South America. Mr. Vega is bilingual speaker in Spanish and English, and has extensive experience in business negotiations in Latin America with both private and governmental entities. He has directed exploration programs in the US, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras and Argentina and conducted submittal evaluations in Panama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile.

He has worked for or contracted with companies such as Utah International, Duval Corporation, and Battle Mountain Gold Company, (BMGC),. While at BMGC, he established an exploration office in Chile and discovered the Angelina Porphyry copper/gold occurrence, which was sold to Gold Fields Corporation. He also participated in the discovery and definition of El Higo epithermal gold deposit in the Dominican Republic and, the Casposo Epithermal gold deposit, Argentina. In Bolivia, he supervised and conducted the early geologic work at the Kori Kollo Mine resulting in the definition of over 8 million ounces of gold resource.

While with Utah International he assisted with the definition drilling of several poly-metallic exploration projects in Utah.

During his time with Duval Corporation as head of exploration at the Mineral Park Mine near Kingman, Arizona, Mr. Vega directed the exploration programs that resulted in identification of additional copper and molybdenum reserves. He also co-established and managed the exploration operation for Duval in Argentina. Duval is a division of Pennzoil Corporation.

Mr. Vega is a co-author of several technical papers including:

Geology and Ore Deposits at Mineral Park: Mohave County, Arizona by William H. Wilkinson, Jr., Luis Alfonso Vega and Spencer R. Titley, in Advances in Geology of the Porphvrv Copper Deposits. Southwestern North America, 1980.

Exploration in Lessor Explored Countries: A Geologist's Perspective by Kirk P. Kinart and Luis Alfonso Vega; in Mining Engineering, February 1993, Vol. 45 No. 2, pp 145147.

Cuerpo Subvolcanico en la Quebrada del Chorrillo, Nueva evidencia de mineralizacion en Cordillera Frontal; San Juan, Argentina by Gustavo Sotarello, Irma Belvideri, Ivan Grassi and Luis Vega, in XVI Geological Conference Abstracts, 1997.

Mr. Vega is a member/fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) and the American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG) (Ret) He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology and a Master of Science in Economic Geology from the University of Arizona, Tucson.