Directors Executive Team

Murray Edward Black

Non-Executive Chairman

Mr Black has over 44 years’ experience in the mineral exploration and mining industry and has served as an executive director and chairman for several listed Australian exploration and mining companies.  He part-owns and manages a substantial private Australian drilling business, has interests in several commercial developments and has significant experience in capital financing.  Mr Black Is currently a non-executive director of Great Boulder Resources Ltd (appointed 6 April 2016).

Christian Ervin Easterday

Managing Director

Mr Easterday is a geologist with over 20 years’ experience in the mineral exploration and mining industry.  He holds an Honours Degree in Geology from the University of Western Australia, a Masters degree in Mineral Economics from Curtin University of Technology and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Curtin’s Graduate School of Business.  Mr Easterday has held several senior positions and exploration management roles with top-tier gold companies including Placer Dome, Hill 50 Gold and Harmony Gold, specialising in structural geology, resource development and mineral economic valuation.  For the past five years, Mr Easterday has been involved in various aspects of project negotiation drawing together his commercial, financial and project valuation skills.  This work has involved negotiations and valuations covering gold, copper, uranium, iron ore, nickel, and tantalum resource projects in Australia and overseas.  Mr Easterday is a Member of The Australian Institute of Geoscientists.  Mr Easterday has not held any directorships in any public listed company in Australia in the last three years.

Dr Allan Trench

Non-Executive Chairman

Dr Trench is a geologist/geophysicist and business management consultant with over 28 years experience across a broad range of commodities. His minerals sector experience spans strategy formulation, exploration, project development and mining operations. Dr Trench holds degrees in geology, a doctorate in geophysics, a Masters degree in Mineral Economics and a Masters degree in Business Administration.  He currently acts or acted as independent director to Pioneer Resources Ltd, commenced 5 September 2008, Enterprise Metals Ltd, commenced 3 April 2012 and Emmerson Resources Ltd, commenced 3 March 2015.

Dr Trench has previously worked with McKinsey & Company as a management consultant, with Woodside Petroleum in strategy development and with WMC both as a geophysicist and exploration manager.  He is an Associate Consultant with international metals and mining advisory firm CRU Group and has contributed to the development of that company’s uranium practice, having previously managed the CRU Group global copper research team.

Dr Trench maintains academic links as a Professor at the University of Western Australia (UWA) Business School and also research professor at the Centre for Exploration Targeting, UWA.

Roberto de Andraca Adriasola

Non-Executive Director

Mr de Andraca Adriasola is a business manager with 25 years’ experience in the financial and mining business.  Over the last five years he has been working in the main Iron Ore and Steel Producer in Chile, CAP S A. He also oversaw the construction of the first desalination plant dedicated 100% to producing water for mining companies in the north of Chile.  Mr de Andraca Adriasola has finance experience working at Chase Manhattan Bank, ABN Amro and Citigroup, working both in Chile and in New York and holds an MBA from the Adolfo Ibanez Business School of Chile.  He is a director of Puerto Los Losas, a port in the Atacama Region of Chile. He was elected to the board of directors of CAP S.A. on April 18th 2017, until that date he held the position of VP of Business Development.

Randall Nickson

Non-Executive Director

Mr. Nickson has more than 36 years of global experience in the mining industry, including 14 years based in Chile devoted to copper exploration.  His career includes work across a range of base and precious metals, bulk commodities and energy.  He holds an honours degree in Geological Engineering and a Masters degree in Business Administration.

Mr Nickson is currently engaged as an independent consultant to the exploration sector, specializing in business development, commercial advisory and business evaluations.  Prior to that he spent 16 years with BHP, where he worked in a variety of senior technical, exploration management and business development roles while based in Chile, Brazil and Australia.  He is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada.  Mr Nickson has not held any directorships in any public listed company in Australia in the last three years.

Lloyd Flint

Company Secretary

Mr Flint, BAcc, FINSIA and MBA is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years’ experience in the corporate and financial services arena. He has held a number of management and senior administrative positions as well as providing corporate advisory services as a consultant to corporate clients.

Grant King

Chief Operating Officer

Grant has 18+ years experience in the mining industry, including underground contract mining, production roles, work in the mining software sector, and has been consulting internationally for the past 11 years.  Grant has expertise in project valuation and management, ore reserve estimation, mine planning in both underground and open pit realms.

Grant’s project experience ranges from small-scale narrow-vein deposits through to large-scale massive sub-level open stopes and block caving; from the cost constraints of nickel/ gold to the ventilation issues of underground uranium and high-altitude mining.  He has built mining process models and has trained engineers and geologists in the breakdown of technical processes and the application of software.

Grant is undertaking a Masters in Mineral Economics where he has developed exhaustive financial models, included quantifying the Mineral Resource Rent Tax in Australian iron ore, applying the Chilean fiscal regime to copper mining projects and predicting share value accretion from simulated, multiple-asset addition, decision trees for investment funds.

Melanie Leighton

General Manager- Technical Services Group

Ms Leighton holds a degree in Geology from the University of Western Australia, is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, and has almost 20 years’ experience within the mineral exploration industry.  She has held project and senior geologist roles with several Australian listed companies including Hill 50 Gold, Harmony, and Terra Gold, gaining practical and management experience within the areas of exploration, mining and resource development.  Ms Leighton has extensive experience in mineral exploration and resource development and acts in a project management role for Hot Chili in regard to resource estimation, land management, systems development and data integration and stakeholder relations.  Ms Leighton is currently a non-executive director of Great Boulder Resources Ltd (appointed 6 April 2016).

José Ignacio Silva

Country Manager & Chief Legal Counsel

Mr Silva gained his law degree at the University of Chile, and studied Masters in International Business Law at the University College London. He has more than 10 years’ experience in litigation, commercial and mining law and business negotiations and in Tier 1 law firms in Chile. Mr Silva has also completed 2 years’ work experience in London, UK in Financial Fraud at the Serious Fraud Office, where his team successfully prosecuted a high level case of corruption of foreign officials. Mr Silva has been working with Hot Chili since July 2009 and in 2011 became Chief Legal Counsel. He is responsible for mining rights acquisitions, mining consolidation, deal negotiations and business development among other things, working directly with the board of Hot Chili.