Management
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Joanne C. Freeze, P.Geo.
President & CEOJoanne (Joey) C. Freeze has over 40 years of experience in the mining sector, with strengths spanning exploration and engineering through feasibility, finance strategy, and stakeholder relations, including engagement with shareholders, governments, and local communities. Since entering the mineral exploration industry in 1979, she has worked extensively in copper and gold exploration across Canada, Peru, and Mexico, serving for more than 25 years as an executive in the junior resource sector. Earlier in her career, she directed exploration programs and evaluated mineral projects for both junior and major international mining companies, including Utah Mines (now BHP), Placer Dome Inc., Arequipa Resources Ltd., Dia Met Minerals Corp., Mountain Province Mining Inc., Queenstake Resources Ltd., and the Hughes/Lang Group.
From 1994 to 1997, Ms. Freeze lived and worked in Peru, where she conducted project generation and property evaluations for Canadian and Peruvian companies. During this time, she co-founded Candente Resource Corp. in 1997 with Peruvian geologist Ing. Fredy Huanqui, co-discoverer of the Pierina gold mine. As President and CEO, she led the company from its early private stage through its public listing in 2000/2001 and was instrumental in advancing significant mineral assets. She also spearheaded the 2009 restructuring of Candente Resource Corp. into Candente Copper Corp. (was Alta Copper Corp., recently sold to Fortescue Metals Group) and Candente Gold Corp. (now Xali Gold Corp.). Under her leadership, the Candente group of companies has collectively raised over $140 million in equity financings and achieved listings on the TSXV, TSX, and the Lima Stock Exchange (BVL), while advancing multiple assets.
Ms. Freeze holds a B.A. in Geography from the University of Western Ontario (1978) and a B.Sc. in Geology from the University of British Columbia (1981). She is a Fellow of the Geological Association of Canada and is registered with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia.
A strong advocate for collaborative governance, Ms. Freeze brings a proactive and engaged approach to board service, emphasizing alignment between management and directors. She has served on the board of Durango Resources Inc. and on advisory boards for True North Gems and Canaco Resources as well as the Society of Economic Geologists.
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Sheri Rempel
Chief Financial OfficerMs. Rempel has more than 30 years of accounting and financial management experience. Ms. Rempel started her career with public companies in 2001 and currently provides senior financial advisory services to Canadian private and public corporations, acting in officer or Controller capacities. She founded ARO Consulting Inc. to provide 'one-stop' financial reporting and corporate services to public companies on the TSX and TSX-v exchanges.
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Matthew Melnyk, M.Sc., CPG
Director of OperationsMr. Melnyk is a Professional Geologist (AIPG) with 20 years of experience throughout the Americas, Africa and Australia. With Aquiline Resources he was responsible for identifying the geochemical anomalies that led to the company's acquisition of the Navidad Silver Deposit in Argentina and ultimately the buyout of Aquiline by Pan American Silver in 2009. For Aurelian Resources, his work on drill target definition contributed to Aurelian's march toward the Fruta del Norte discovery in Ecuador and eventual acquisition by Kinross in 2008.
He served as Manager of Project Evaluations for Agnico Eagle's Southern Business Unit from 2015-2018 with a focus on identifying district scale opportunities in Latin America. His expertise is Structural Geology which he has utilized most recently in tackling structurally complex projects with Silver Bull Resources in Coahuila, Mexico and Titan Mining in New York State.
Mr. Melnyk holds a M.Sc. in Geology from the University of Southern Mississippi and a B.A in Geology from SUNY Buffalo. He studied Structural Geology towards a graduate degree at the University of Toronto on work that he has published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. -
Ing. Wilder Garcia Haro
Exploration ManagerIng. Garcia is a bilingual geological engineer with more than 30 years of international exploration and mine development experience, having held senior technical and management positions with several leading mining companies, including Rio Alto, Tahoe Resources, Newmont, Barrick Gold, Gold Fields, and Antamina.
Ing. Garcia has managed exploration drilling, mineral resource replacement and reserve expansion strategies, coordinated multidisciplinary teams supporting mine development and operational continuity. His expertise includes precious metal deposits, particularly high- and low-sulphidation epithermal systems, vein-hosted deposits and disseminated gold mineralization, as well as strategic exploration planning, project evaluation and technical team leadership. Ing. Garcia's experience spans greenfield target generation, brownfield exploration, resource expansion, mine geology and strategic project evaluation across Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Nicaragua. During his tenure at Tahoe Resources' (formerly Rio Alto Mining) La Arena and Shahuindo operations, he successfully led exploration programs that consistently replaced mineral resources and extended mine life while supporting long-term mine planning and operational optimization across high-sulphidation gold systems transitioning into underlying porphyry copper-gold mineralization.