Denis Simoneau
Chairman, Director
Mr. Simoneau, joins Volta Resources as Chairman of the Board as well as a Director. He was the past President-CEO of Birim from 1995 to 2006 and then the Executive Chairman from 2007 until joining Volta in March 2008 . He has been instrumental in the procurement of the Dunkwa and Bui District concessions in Ghana and the subsequent discovery of the Mampon Deposit and its sale to Golden Star Resources. Prior to Birim Goldfields, Mr. Simoneau, a geologist, was with SOQUEM, acting as Exploration Manager and VP-Industrial Minerals for 16 years, and with Falconbridge as Project Geologist for 9 years. Mr. Simoneau is based out of Montreal, Canada.
Kevin Bullock
President & CEO and Director
Kevin Bullock is a registered Professional Mining Engineer in the province of Ontario. Kevin is Goldcrest's founding President and has been CEO since its inception in 2002. Kevin has over 15 years experience, at senior levels, in mining exploration, mine development and mine operations. Mr. Bullock has a wide knowledge base in the mineral industry and has completed several exploration and mining projects, both in North America and abroad, including projects in Mexico, Sweden, and West Africa, where he was Iamgold Corporation Ltd's General Manager. Throughout his career, Kevin has been involved in projects from inception through exploration to development and production and until recently was VP, Operations for Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. Kevin was instrumental in the reopening of the Macassa Gold Mine in Kirkland Lake, Ontario.
Victor King
Chief Operations Officer and Director
Mr. King holds a BSc. (Hons) in Geology from the University of Cape Town. He has more than 15 years of senior management experience in exploration, development and production in the gold mining industry in Africa. Mr. King's involvement in West Africa goes back to 1992, as a member of the initial Gold Fields management team for the Tarkwa Project in Ghana. As Exploration Manager, he led the exploration team which expanded the resource of a small state-owned underground gold mine to a large open pittable resource, leading to the development of the world class Tarkwa Mine, a core asset for Gold Fields today which has total Resources (including Reserves) exceeding 22 million ounces. Subsequently, Mr. King was Birim's first Chief Operating Officer based in Ghana for furher 5 years. Thereafter Mr. King rejoined Gold Fields Limited as Regional Exploration Manager for Africa with Gold Fields Limited from January 2001 to December 2006, where he was responsible for generating and managing exploration projects in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Tanzania, Eritrea and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mr. King is based in the UK.
Rob Whittall
Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and Director
Rob Whittall is a chartered accountant and a professional engineer (Queen's University, Mining) with over 20 years experience in the minerals industry including nine years in public accounting. He has worked in senior management positions for a variety of exploration and operating mining companies, was a founder and director of Goldcrest Resources and is also a director of Andina Minerals Inc., First Nickel Inc, and Viking Gold Exploration Inc.
Guy Franceschi
Vice President Exploration
Guy Franceschi graduated from the University of Ghent, Belgium in 1975, majoring in applied geology. He has over 30 years of international experience in base- and precious metals exploration and project development in Africa, Europe, South-east Asia and Latin America. At the core of his experience is a 12 year career (1976-1988) with United Nations' development agencies which brought him in Burkina Faso (1976-1983), Kenya, Haïti and in Rwanda. In these projects he has been involved as exploration geologist, geochemist and chief geologist in gold, ferrous- and base metals exploration. During his career he has been instrumental in the discovery and initial development of a number of base- and precious metal deposits. These include (not exclusive) Perkoa (Burkina Faso, 7Mt @17.7% Zn), Kiere and Kwademen (Burkina Faso, gold), Wire Hill (Kenya, base metals), Dialafara (Mali, gold), Al Uweynat (Libya, gold) and Bleyberg (Belgium, >1Mt 13% Zn and 5% Pb). He has identified and recommended several available prospects which were subsequently developed by his clients, such as Larafella (Burkina Faso, now about 0.5Moz. gold), Hiré (Ivory Coast, now about 200.000oz. Au), Duc Bo (Viet Nam, VMS on-going) and several deposits in the D.R. Congo. Mr. Franceschi is a member of the European Federation of Geologists.
Dylan Pillay
Controller
Dylan Pillay is a graduate of the University Durban-Westville in South Africa. He has in excess of 20 years of accounting/finance experience in the mining industry in both South Africa and Canada having worked for both senior and junior mining companies during that time. Prior to joining Volta, he held the position of Group Controller for South American operations at Kinross Gold Corporation. He has been employed by publicly traded companies such as Curragh Resources, Caledonia Mining Corporation and TVX Gold Inc. amongst others.
Gordon Bogden
Director
Until recently, Gordon J. Bogden was Vice Chairman and Head of the Mining Group, Corporate and Investment Banking at National Bank Financial Inc. Before joining National Bank in October 2003, Mr. Bogden was President and Managing Director of Beacon Group Advisors Inc. Prior to forming Beacon in January 2001, Mr. Bogden was Director of Investment Banking at Newcrest Capital Inc. from November 1999 to December 2000, before it was sold to TD Securities Inc. He was also Managing Director of NM Rothschild & Sons Canada Limited from June 1997 to October 1999 and Managing Director of Investment Banking with CIBC Wood Gundy Securities Inc. from January 1990 to May 1997. Mr. Bogden also worked for nine years as a professional engineer and geophysicist, having co-founded Quantech Consulting Inc. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Geology from Queen's University and is a member of the Professional Engineers Ontario. Mr. Bogden is also a member of the board of directors of several public mining and investment companies.
Lew Lawrick
Director
Mr. Lawrick brings 20 years of experience in the merchant banking, mining exploration and brokerage businesses to Volta Resources as a Director. He is the President and CEO of Anaconda Minerals Inc., and Managing Director of Toronto-based Thorsen-Fordyce Merchant Capital Inc., a private merchant bank focused principally on the natural resource sector. Mr. Lawrick is also a director of several public junior mining exploration and development companies; including Franconia Minerals Inc., Serengeti Resources Inc., and Normabec Mining Resources Inc.
Bob Francis
Director
Mr. Francis is a retired senior partner of the Toronto office of Deloitte & Touche LLP, having enjoyed an extensive career in public accounting, which included leading the Resource Sector Mining Group practice. Mr. Francis will serve as Chairman of the Volta audit committee. Mr. Francis obtained a BASc (Mech.Eng.) from the University of Toronto in 1968 and became a CA in 1972. Bob is a recent graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors -- Directors Education Program. He has served as a Member of the Board of Governors of the William Osler Health Centre for 12 years in various capacities including Vice Chair, Treasurer and Chair of the Operations Management Committee; and was formerly on the Board of the Etobicoke General Hospital as Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee. For the past year he served as an Honorary Member of the Board. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the William Osler Health Centre Foundation. He is a past President of the University of Waterloo Advisory Council, an organization established to bring advice from Canadian industry, business and government to the University in the continuing development of its education, research and administrative programs.
Craig Pearman
Exploration Manager
With 16 years of industry experience in both large mining corporations and junior exploration companies, Mr. Pearman has been active in the generation of exploration targets and the implementation of exploration programmes in Africa. Prior to Birim Mr. Pearman was employed by Mineral Services South Africa where he headed an initiative to diversify the company from diamonds to base metal, gold and industrial minerals, and by JCI Tanzania and JCI Ghana for whom he conducted gold exploration in those countries. He also worked for Gold Fields South Africa in underground gold mining and gold and base metal exploration. He is currently based in Ghana, West Africa where he has been managing exploration in Ghana and Burkina Faso. Mr. Pearman holds a Bachelor of Geology (Hons) from the University of Natal, South Africa.
