Our People

Since the 1980s, Executive Chairman David Sproule has worked across Australia and in Africa, leading the development of several successful gold mining and processing operations. Mr Sproule specialises in value creation when developing mine projects by applying an ‘owner build’ model, which has proven to significantly reduce development costs.

Mr David Sproule has a Bachelor of Metallurgical Engineering from the Western Australian School of Mines and has been self-employed in the Australian mining industry for most of the previous 35 years.

Mr Sproule has specialised in value creation within the minerals industry, founding and managing, a private group which developed 8 Australian gold projects over 25 years. An “owner build” model was applied to all operations significantly reducing typical mine development costs. The projects collectively returned +1,350% in fully franked dividends on initial shareholder investment.

Notable experience includes:

• Significant experience as a contractor and junior equity partner on a number of successful gold projects in WA during the 1980’s.
• Owning Canbelego Tailings Project (1992 – 1995) recovering Ag and Au from the retreating of complex supergene flotation tailings purchased from Pasminco’s Elura Pb/Zn mine.
• Owning Magellan Lead Project (1997-1998) and subsequently introducing Irish company Ivernia west as a JV partner then selling project for $8.0M.
• Developed two open cut pits over the historic Mt Boppy workings treating the ore on site returning significant increase on initial capital invested.
• Acquisition of Nimbus Silver Mine in SA (2004 – 2006) from Barrick for $1.0M + 5% NSR which went on to produce 3Moz silver and 5,000oz gold over 18 months.
• Established a 50% JV with Exco contributing $6.0M in cash to modify and bring the Hellyer Concentrator back on line to retreat the Hellyer Tailings recovering Pb, Zn and Ag during the period 2006-2008.

Mr Sproule was previously Chairman of Polymetals Mining Limited from its listing on ASX in 2011 until the company merged with Southern Cross Goldfields.

He has maintained a close involvement with the gold industry and first invested in the Guinea Project in 2017.

Non-Executive Director Alistair Barton has 45 years of experience in the mining industry including exploration, project development, mining operations, contract mining and engineering services, consulting, capital fund raising and public company management. He has delivered projects across Australia and internationally covering exploration management, project valuation, independent expert reports, JORC 2012 resource estimates, compliance, feasibility study management and due diligence.

Mr Barton has held the positions of Managing Director for ASX listed Probe Resources, General Manager of Exploration for Barrack Mines, General Manager of Operations for Barrack Mines, Operations Manager for McIlwraith Minerals and various Project Management positions.

Mr Barton has operated his own consultancy practice providing technical and corporate advice to the resources sector, carrying out numerous resource project due diligence

studies, feasibility studies and independent experts reports for project funding and developments. He was also a joint venture partner in the Wolfram Camp Mine development in Far North Queensland.

Highlights of specific experience Mr Barton brings with him to Polymetals include:

• Extensive exploration experience in Critical Minerals including Au, Ni, Cu, Pb, Zn, Ag, Sn, W, Mo, Li, and Co commodities around Australia and overseas.
• Significant mine development experience at various stages of his career, including: commodities around Australia and overseas.
  • The development of the Mt. Percy Gold Mine,
  • the doubling of capacity at the Wiluna Gold Mine,
  • the development of the Horseshoe Au Mine to a Cu, Au and Ag Mine,
  • the development of the Croydon Gold Mine and
  • the development of the Wolfram Camp W and Mo Mine.
• Extensive experience in managing Scoping Studies, Prefeasibility Studies and Feasibility Studies on a variety of projects including epithermal gold projects in the Solomon Islands and the Philippines and porphyry copper projects in the Philippines and China.

B.E (Hons, Mining), M Eng Sc, FAusIMM, GAICD

Mr Gill is a mining engineer with over 40 years’ experience. He has a strong technical, operational and executive management background; having worked as an underground miner, mine planning engineer, supervisor, general manager and CEO/Managing Director in Australia, Papua New Guinea, India, Ghana and Bolivia. He holds three First Class Metalliferous Mine Manager’s Certificates of Competency and has been instrumental in the development of four gold mines (Porgera (PNG), Beaconsfield (Tas), Ballarat (Vic) and Morning Star (Vic)). He is a three-time winner of the Australian Mine Manager of the Year Award and received the AusIMM Leadership Award in 2008. Previously, CEO and MD of ASX listed White Rock Minerals for seven years, with projects in Victoria, NSW and Alaska, he has also held the role of Group Chief Operating Officer for Singapore-listed LionGold Corp, and has worked for Castlemaine Goldfields, Rio Tinto, WMC, Placer Pacific and Renison Goldfields. Mr Gill has also held the position of board member and president of the Tasmanian Minerals Council, has been chair of the MCA Victoria division, and deputy chair of AMEC Victoria.

B.Sc, (Geol), Member AIG

Mr Oram is an experienced exploration geologist with over 30 years’ practice in mineral exploration and management across a variety of commodities, companies and countries. He has significant experience in uranium, base & precious metals exploration and has been involved in mineral discovery, resource delineation and expansion and mining feasibility studies. Mr Oram is currently the Senior Vice President – Exploration for ASX listed Paladin Energy. Mr Oram has previously worked with CRA Exploration, Xstrata, RGC, and private companies Heathgate Resources and Polymetals Mining Limited. Mr Oram also served as Exploration Manager, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of ASX listed Cauldron Energy as well as Non-executive Chairman of ASX listed Critical Resources Limited.

Mr Haley has worked for over 40 years in management, finance and accounting with a focus on the Australian mining industry. His experience includes Executive and Non-executive Board positions, management, CFO and Company Secretary roles of publicly listed junior mining companies in Australia and internationally. He was a founding Director and Officer of three ASX listed companies, Metallica Minerals Limited, MetroCoal Limited and Cape Alumina Limited (the latter two subsequently merged to form MetroMining Limited).

Mr Haley holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Queensland, and a Marketing Diploma from the Queensland University of Technology. He is currently studying a Llb at the Queensland University of Technology. He was a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants until he retired from the Institute in June 2021.

Mr Lowien is a Resource Geologist with over 25 years’ experience in the mining and extractive industries in operational, technical, management and consulting roles. He has extensive experience in open cut and underground mining environments with highly developed skills in mining production, supervision and resource evaluation.

A geologist, Mr Sproule has 8 years’ experience with Alternate Capital, Private Credit, Corporate Finance, Business Strategy & Development. Linden has extensive international experience throughout Asia and has worked across a range of multi-faceted private equity transactions and credit deployments within the metals & mining industry. His role is to assist with origination, structuring and advising on viable financial & strategic solutions for the Company’s current and future activities.

Mr Creighton is a Process Engineer with over 15 years’ working across all facets of the mining industry, including pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, project infrastructure and processing. His experience includes mine construction and commissioning, operations management and mine closures within the base and precious metals sector. Specialised in improving the metallurgical and financial outputs of projects with technical and operational challenges often implementing novel solutions. His experience also extends to the renewable energy sector, process design, financial modelling and technical analysis of energy projects.

Mr McDowell is a geologist with over 30 years’ experience specialising in exploration. He was most recently with BK Exploration and Gympie Eldorado Mining and has held senior roles with Newcrest, Resource Service Group (RSG) and Rox Resources. He has extensive experience in copper, gold and base metals systems in multiple geological environments.

Mr Garman is a geologist with over 50 years’ experience in exploration and production in Australia and Internationally. Mr Garman’s various roles and relevant base metals project experience includes:

• Senior Geologist – Chatree Gold Mine
• Underground geologist with Electrolytic Zinc at the Rosebery Cu/Pb/Zn mine,
• Evaluation of the Beltana zinc silicate deposit and extensive exploration for similar deposits in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia including the discovery of the Aroona zinc silicate deposit, and
• Extensive experience in all phases of exploration including program design, budgeting, prospect evaluation, geological mapping, geochemical orientation studies, geochemical surveys, geophysical surveys, drilling programs, ore reserve calculations and feasibility studies.