About Us
Board of Directors
Richard Warke
Chair
Mr. Warke is a global business executive with more than 35 years of experience in the international resource sector. In 2005, Mr. Warke founded the Augusta Group of Companies which founded, managed, and funded three world class mineral discoveries until 2018. Ventana Gold, discovered the La Bodega gold deposit in Colombia, now reported to host over 10Moz of gold, Augusta sold the company for $1.6B in 2011. Augusta Resource advanced the Rosemont copper project in Arizona through drilling, feasibility and permitting to become one of the largest copper deposits in United States, it was sold for $667M in 2014. Arizona Mining discovered the Taylor deposit and grew the Hermosa-Taylor deposit into one of the top five primary zinc deposits globally, largest in United States, prior to its sale for $2.1B in 2018.
Daniel Earle
President, CEO & Director
Daniel Earle has over 20 years of experience in the mining sector and capital markets, most recently serving as the President and CEO of Solaris Resources. At Solaris, Mr. Earle led an award-winning team credited with revitalizing a dormant copper discovery in Ecuador and launching it into a secular bull market for copper. Solaris delivered rapid socioeconomic development and returns for its shareholders by advancing its flagship project to the development stage and growing it to ten-times its original size. Prior to joining Solaris in 2019, Mr. Earle was a Vice President and Director at TD Securities, covering the mining sector for more than 12 years. Mr. Earle is a graduate and scholar of the Lassonde Mineral Engineering Program at the University of Toronto.
Thomas Whelan
Director
Mr. Whelan has over 30 years of experience in the mining industry. Mr Whelan currently serves as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Development for Coeur Mining (“Coeur”). Prior to joining Coeur, Mr. Whelan served as CFO of Arizona Mining Inc. from September 2017 to August 2018, when the company was acquired from South32 Limited. Previously, Mr. Whelan served as CFO for Nevsun Resources Ltd. from January 2014 to August 2017. He is a chartered professional accountant and was previously a partner with the international accounting firm Ernst & Young (“EY”) LLP where he held many leadership roles including the EY Global Mining & Metals Assurance sector leader, the leader of the EY Assurance practice in Vancouver and EY’s Canadian Mining & Metals sector leader. Mr. Whelan graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University.
Federico Velasquez
President Peru & Director
Mr. Velasquez has over 20 years of experience in project and operational roles in the natural resources sector leading strategic, regulatory, environmental, government, indigenous, sustainability, community, and crisis management duties in Africa, North and Latin America, and Australia. Most recently Mr. Velasquez was President, Latin America at Solaris Resources where he led Solaris Resources´ Warintza Project in Ecuador, successfully implementing an unprecedented participatory mining model with Shaur communities.
Jerrold Annett
Director
Mr. Jerrold Annett has most recently been responsible for leading Capstone Copper’s investor relations, marketing and metal sales activities. He joined Capstone in September 2019 and has over 29 years of global mining and capital markets experience, providing strategic direction and executive oversight for several junior exploration and development companies. His mining career started at Teck Resources and Falconbridge as a metallurgist and within their commercial metals sales groups, followed by 10 years in capital markets, most recently with Scotiabank where he was Head of Mining Institutional Sales. He is a Professional Engineer and has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mining and Mineral Engineering from Queen’s University in Canada.
Javier Toro
Director
Mr. Toro is a Mining Engineer with over 25 years of experience leading the design and execution of engineering and economic studies for global scale open pit copper projects including the Constancia mine in Peru, Copper World mine in United States and Copper Mountain mine in Canada. Mr. Toro is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Solaris Resources. Prior to joining Solaris in January 2024 Mr. Toro was with Hudbay Minerals for over 11 years in progressively more senior capacities and most recently as Vice President, Mining Technical Services. Prior this, Mr. Toro worked at Golder Associates Peru S.A. leading a team to produce the mining design, schedule and cost estimations for various projects. Mr. Toro holds a Bachelor of Mining Engineering with Honors from the National University of Engineering in Lima, Peru.