Board of Directors

Mr. Furey is a distinguished educator and lawyer with deep roots in the community. Mr. Furey is a native of Newfoundland and Labrador and most recently served as the 45th Speaker of the Senate of Canada. He was appointed to the Privy Council of Canada on May 12, 2023. Mr. Furey attended Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador where he earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree, a Bachelor of Education Degree in 1970, and a Master of Education Degree. During his career as an educator, he was a teacher with the Roman Catholic School Board in St. John's, a Supervising Vice-Principal with the Port-au-Port Roman Catholic School Board and a Supervising Principal of the Placentia-St. Mary's Roman Catholic School Board. After a successful career in education from 1969-1980, he attended Dalhousie Law School and completed a Bachelor of Law Degree in 1983.

Mr. Furey was called to the Bar of the Law Society of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1984 and was subsequently named a partner at the St. John's law firm of O'Brien, Furey & Hurley. While in his second year of practicing law, he successfully challenged the Criminal Code language on sexual assault and proved that with the advent of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, certain Criminal Code provisions were unconstitutional. In 1989, he was named Senior Partner at the firm O'Brien, Furey & Smith and in 1993 was appointed to the Provincial Police Complaints Commission. He was subsequently appointed as Queen's Counsel in 1996.

Mr. Furey is a widely respected community leader, giving his time to numerous voluntary groups, professional boards and provincial commissions, including: the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers' Association; The Boy Scouts of Canada; St. Clare's Mercy Hospital Ethics Committee and the Gonzaga High School Council.

Mr. Bullock is a registered Professional Mining Engineer in the province of Ontario. Mr. Bullock was Volta Resources Inc.’s President and CEO and was the founding President and CEO of Goldcrest (a Volta predecessor company) since its inception in 2002. Mr. Bullock was instrumental in the growth of Volta from a shell company through to the ultimate sale of the company to B2Gold at the end of 2013. Mr. Bullock has over 30 years of experience, at senior levels, in mining exploration, mine development, mine operations and capital markets. Throughout his career, Mr. Bullock has been involved in projects from inception through exploration to development and production. Mr. Bullock was most recently the CEO of Mako Mining Corp. and is currently a director of B2Gold.  Mr. Bullock has also worked for Kirkland Lake Gold and Iamgold Corporation.

Ted Kavanagh, until his retirement in March 2021, was Director of Metals & Mining Finance, Americas for Société Générale where he originated and executed corporate and project finance facilities, marketed metals and foreign exchange hedging and trading lines, and provided related advisory services. From 1991 until joining Société Générale in 2013, he acted in a similar capacity for a series of banks including Standard Bank of South Africa, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., Republic National Bank of New York, and Mase Westpac Inc. His clients at these institutions ranged from greenfield project developers to the largest international mining corporations, and featured project finance across the commodity spectrum, including precious and base metals, ferro-alloys and steel production.

Prior to 1991, Mr. Kavanagh held senior geological and business development positions with companies including FMC Gold Company, Meridian Minerals Corporation and Denison Mines (US) Inc.

Mr. Kavanagh holds a Master’s degree in Geology from Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire) and an Honours Bachelor of Science degree from Western University (London, Ontario).

Mr. Lawrick is currently the President & CEO of Magna Terra Minerals Inc., a TSXV listed precious metals exploration company, as well as the Managing Director of Thorsen-Fordyce Merchant Capital Inc., a private Toronto based merchant bank focused principally on the mineral industry. Mr Lawrick was the Founder of Anaconda Mining Inc., after merging his private company – Colorado Resources Inc with Anaconda Gold Corp in 2007. He served as President & CEO of the Anaconda until 2010, and has served as an officer and/or director of several other private and public mining and mineral exploration companies, including Volta Resources Inc. (TSX), Franconia Minerals Corporation (TSX), Brionor Resources Inc. (formerly Normabec Mining Resources Ltd.) (TSXV), and Serengeti Resources Inc. (TSXV). Mr. Lawrick holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree (BCOM) from the University of Calgary.

Ms. Oke is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA -CA) and currently provides senior financial and advisory services to organizations assisting them to improve the efficiency and productivity of their businesses. Ms. Oke was previously with Hudbay Minerals Inc. where she was the Vice President, Finance and the Chief Financial Officer of the Manitoba Business Unit. She was responsible for global financial reporting, and for the Manitoba operations finance, tax, and treasury functions, financial planning and analysis, procurement, contract administration, warehousing and logistics. She has experience in treasury, capital structuring, systems implementation, organizational redesign, M&A due diligence, and M&A integration. Prior to joining Hudbay in 2007, Ms. Oke was a senior manager in the Transaction Tax Practice of Ernst & Young LLP, where she developed more than 10 years of Canadian income tax experience.

Mr. Pritchard is has over 30 years of experience in project and operations management in the mining industry both in North America as well as internationally, including, in particular, Brazil. Mr. Pritchard’s mining experience includes the management of pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, engineering, procurement and construction management projects. He has held senior executive positions at various organizations worldwide including Belo Sun Mining, Troilus Gold,  SNC-Lavalin and De Beers Canada.