Mark Travers
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER
Management – Brazilian Nickel
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Mark Travers was the Executive Vice President, Vale S.A. and CEO of Base Metals up until the end of 2021. In this position Mark was responsible for Vale’s Base Metals business, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, consisting of nickel and copper operations in Canada, UK, Brazil, Indonesia and Japan. He led Vale’s efforts to transform Base Metals and helped prepare the business and its strategy for the global transition to a net zero economy.
Mark is passionate about sustainability and building a positive social, economic and environmental legacy in the communities where the businesses operated, through responsible mining practices. In his 20 years in the mining industry with Inco Limited and Vale, Mark held progressively senior roles in legal, institutional relations, communications and sustainability, including serving as General Counsel. Prior to joining Vale, Mark was a corporate and securities lawyer practicing in Toronto, Canada.
Mark holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Western Ontario. As well, he holds both a Bachelor of Laws Degree from Osgoode Hall Law School and a Master of Business Administration from York University.a
Mike Oxley
FOUNDER & STRATEGY AND
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
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Mike is a chartered mining engineer from the Royal School of Mines with over 30 years’ experience in the mining industry and has extensive nickel laterite project development experience. He began his career with Billiton PLC, working on corporate planning and mine development projects. In 1999 Mike began work with European Nickel as its project manager completing concept studies for the application of heap leaching technology to the Albanian nickel laterite deposits.
Mike then led the Çaldağ Feasibility in Turkey which included the start-up of a profitable direct shipped ore mining operation and the successful completion of the Bankable Feasibility Study which helped secure US$ 360 million of debt and equity investment to build the project. He then oversaw initial construction activities at the project before leading the Acoje nickel laterite heap leach project pre-Feasibility Study in the Philippines. This was completed in 2008 when he then became European Nickel’s Business Development Manager.
Following the merger of European Nickel with its joint venture partner at Acoje and the company’s decision to focus on the development of that project, Mike left to set up Alyssum Ventures to build a new company dedicated to nickel laterite heap leaching.
Mike has visited and studied over 20 of the known nickel laterite projects in the world in Indonesia, the USA, Russia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Greece, Turkey, the Philippines, New Caledonia, Kazakhstan, and Poland. Mike has worked extensively in Latin and South America including projects in Surinam, Chile, and Mexico.
Anne Oxley
FOUNDER & TECHNICAL
DIRECTOR
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Anne is a chartered metallurgical engineer from the Royal School of Mines, London and has over 30 years’ experience in the natural resources sector. Anne has been involved in nickel heap leach and project development work in over 40 different nickel laterite deposits in 15 countries. She is also a scientific associate of the Natural History Museum in London where she contributes industrial advice to fundamental nickel and cobalt research. In 2022 Anne was named one of the inaugural ESG champions by the Natural Resources Forum.
Anne began her career working at international engineering companies Technip and ABB Lummus before moving onto ENK Plc in 2003. At ENK Anne was the Group Technology Manager and was responsible for the design, construction and operation of the Çaldag˘ pilot heap leach and downstream processing facility in Turkey. Anne lead a team of international and local metallurgists and operators in the plant operation to provide all the metallurgical design criteria for the full-scale operation. Anne later set up a team in the Philippines to do the same at a newly constructed pilot heap leach facility for the Acoje feasibility study.
Following her departure from ENK in 2010 Anne co-founded Alyssum Ventures to further develop and commercialise nickel laterite heap leaching technology.
Anne is passionate about ESG, in particular, gender and inclusivity in the mining industry and is a Mentor for the International Women in Resources Mentorship program launched in 2018.
André Simão
CHIEF FINANCIAL
OFFICER
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André Simão has over 25 years of experience within the mining, technology and finance sectors, specialising in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, venture capital and private equity, and digital transformation.
André was CFO at Brazil-focused Ferrous Resources, which acquired, developed and operated distressed mining assets, and was later sold to Vale. More recently, André structured and negotiated over $100 million in structured finance for developing and acquiring new mining and technology assets at SJK Capital and Genesis Mining, as CEO and CFO. During his career, André has held Partner and CFO roles at HVC Par Investments & Rede Vera Cruz, Fir Capital, and was a Senior Audit Manager at Arthur Andersen (currently Deloitte), all of which were based in Brazil. André has also worked at Flex International in the US.
Patrick Boitumelo
CHIEF OPERATING
OFFICER
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Patrick Boitumelo has a BA (Hons.) Engineering degree from the University of Leeds and holds a Master’s degree in Business Leadership from the University of South Africa. Patrick joins Brazilian Nickel from Lundin Mining Corporation, where he was part of the executive leadership team and held the position of Senior Vice President Technical Services and Growth. In this position, he was responsible for global exploration programs, major projects studies, technical services and information technology. He has previously held various senior positions, including Global Head of Technology & Innovation and Head of Atlantic Operations at Vale Base Metals. Prior to Vale, he held several senior roles with Rio Tinto and DeBeers, including President & COO of Diavik Diamond Mines in Canada and General Manager positions in South Africa and USA.
Jorge Tapia
PROJECT
DIRECTOR
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Jorge Tapia has over 25 years’ experience in managing small and large-scale projects, overseeing engineering, construction, and maintenance programmes. Jorge was previously Project Manager for Antofagasta Minerals’ MLP INCO and Antucoya projects, in Chile, and for Anglogold Ashanti’s La Colosa project in Colombia. His earlier work also included working as Engineering Manager at BHP’s Spence SX-EW project.
Adrian Harvey
COMPANY
SECRETARY
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Adrian Harvey is an experienced chief financial officer with a corporate background spanning 28 years in natural resources, energy and international power engineering projects, working in both public company and operational management in the UK, Asia, USA, Africa and India. During the last 14 years he has been involved in five admissions to AIM and LSE Premium Segment and has managed all financial aspects pre and post-IPO including equity placings, debt funding, listing and subsequent corporate and financial management. He commenced his corporate career with BTR plc as Business Controller of its Hawker Siddeley Electric Power Group, managing a portfolio of UK and international power generation projects, before moving into mine equipment engineering and clean energy businesses as chief financial officer or finance director.
In 2004 Adrian joined AIM-listed Toledo Mining Corporation plc as chief financial officer and company secretary. Adrian then joined the team which floated the Kazak oil and gas E&P business, Max Petroleum plc on AIM, spending five years with Max as group financial controller and company secretary.
Adrian is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.
Omar Caceres
GENERAL MANAGER
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
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Omar is a Metallurgical Engineer from the “Universidad Industrial de Santander” (Industrial University of Santander) in Colombia with over 20 years of experience in the mining industry. Omar started his career working for BHP Billiton in Colombia, where he stayed for 14 years working on process engineering, information management systems, business improvement (six sigma projects), business and production planning, corporate reporting, cost controlling, and business and investment valuation.