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Donald E. Ranta | Randall J. Scott | Jaye T. Pickarts | David Suleski | Mark T. Brown | Jim Clark | George G. Byers | Norm Anderson | Norman Burmeister | Gregory Mckelvey | Paul Schlauch | Winnie Wong
Management
The management team of Rare Element Resources combines a high degree of experience in developing and financing mining companies. Its background includes former senior positions with Price Waterhouse Coopers, Teck Cominco Ltd., Miramar Mining Corporation, Phelps Dodge and many successful, publicly traded resource companies.
Donald E. Ranta, Ph.D., P.Geo.
Chairman
Donald Ranta, former President and CEO, is an exploration and development mining executive experienced in planning, implementing and directing successful exploration and acquisitions throughout North and South America and internationally. He is also a former president and board member of SME and is currently the Vice President, Finance and board member of AIME. He has successfully directed and led innovative exploration efforts resulting in the discovery, evaluation and/or acquisition of several major deposits including Montana's McDonald gold and Mexico's Santa Gertrudis gold ore bodies. He has also participated in the acquisition or discovery of a number of other gold deposits including Baja California's Paradones Amarillos, Idaho's Kiglore, Montana's Seven-Up Pete, Mexico's Dolores gold-silver, Burkina Faso's Youga gold and Russia's Kuranakh gold. In addition, he serves as a director of Animas Resources Ltd. and has been a Vice President of Exploration for Echo Bay Mines and Manager/Vice President for North American Exploration at Phelps Dodge Mining Company.
Randall J. Scott
President & CEO
Mr. Scott is a metallurgical engineer with over 30 years of experience in the industry. His experience includes leading performance teams in operations, administration, project development, program management, business development, and major improvement initiatives. Most recently, Mr. Scott was Vice President, Corporate Responsibility and Strategy, with Thompson Creek Metals Company. His prior experience includes Senior Vice President and Vice President of Cyprus Amax Coal Company with responsibilities ranging from Western Operations, including mines in the Gillette area of Wyoming, Appalachian Operations, and process management. He also worked for Cyprus Metals Company as Vice President and General Manager of the Bagdad Mine and also of the Sierrita Mine, both in Arizona. Earlier he worked for Pincock Allen & Holt as Executive Vice President.
Mr. Scott holds a Bachelor of Science degree in metallurgical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and an MBA degree from the University of Arizona.
Jaye T. Pickarts, P.E.
Chief Operating Officer
Jaye Pickarts is a senior process engineer with more than 25 years of leadership in project management for project development, acquisitions, engineering design, permitting and reclamation, mine closure, water management, and process operations. He has extensive experience with projects in North and South America, Australia, Africa, and Kazakhstan. His mine operations experience includes supervisory, maintenance, and engineering positions working with precious metals, base metals, and industrial mineral companies, including test programs, capital and operating cost estimates, and start-up and operations assistance. He contributed to the Company's Scoping Study published in November 2010.
David Suleski, B.B.A.
Chief Financial Officer
David Suleski, a past Certified Public Accountant, has held senior financial roles at various international mining companies. Most recently, he was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Atna Resources Ltd., a TSX-listed company with an operating gold mine and several advanced stage gold exploration projects. In addition, Mr. Suleski has held financial and accounting positions with increasing levels of responsibility at diverse financial, accounting and mining companies including Arthur Young and Company, Coopers and Lybrand, Cyprus Amax Mineral Company, Pulte Mortgage, Apex Silver Mines Corporation and NM Rothschild & Sons (Denver) Incorporated.
Mark T. Brown, B.Comm., C.A.
Director
Mark Brown is president and director of Pacific Opportunity Capital Ltd. Headquartered in Vancouver, BC, Pacific Opportunity is a financial consulting and merchant banking firm active in venture capital markets in North America. Mr. Brown is also an officer and/or director of a number of public and private companies, including Almaden Minerals, Animas Resources, Avrupa Minerals, Pitchstone Exploration, and Tarsis Resources. His corporate activities include transactions, financings and corporate financial planning. Prior to joining Pacific Opportunity, Mr. Browns background included managing financial departments of two TSE 300 mining corporations: Eldorado Gold and Miramar Mining.
Mr. Brown has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia and became a Chartered Accountant while with PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Jim Clark, Ph.D
Vice President, Exploration
Jim Clark brings 30 years of industry experience to Rare Element Resources. He has planned, organized, and conducted all aspects of project exploration and target generation work as an employee and a consultant for a variety of mining companies, including Molycorp and Hecla Mining Company. Dr. Clark has a strong field orientation with extensive supervisory and project management experience in exploration programs for industrial minerals, precious and base metals, and specialty metals. He was senior geologist, then exploration supervisor, for Hecla from 1986 -- 1992, and played a key role in identifying Rare Element Resources' current Bear Lodge REE resource and the property's underlying gold mineralization potential, now joint ventured with Newmont. Dr. Clark has extensive experience in exploration and academic studies of commodities related to alkaline igneous rocks, including REE's, Nb, and gold. He is the current owner and Chief Geologist of Applied Petrographics, a consulting company he formed in 1998 to provide petrographic and microanalytical services to the mining industry. Clients include Barrick Gold, Newmont Mining, Hecla Mining, AngloGold, and CVRD, as well as many smaller companies. He holds a Ph.D. in volcanic geology and igneous petrology from the University of Oregon, an M.S. in geological oceanography from Oregon State University, and a B.S. in geology from The Ohio State University. He is a licensed geologist in the state of Washington.
George G. Byers, M.A.
Vice President, Government and Community Relations
George Byers is a 35-year mining and energy industry veteran with extensive executive experience in federal, state and local government relations. He has worked extensively in a variety of settings including dealing with public policy issues involved with mineral exploration, project siting and development, land use and public affairs issues in the Western United States. He has been a consultant to the precious metals, rare earths, copper, and uranium industries on a variety of public and government issues. He began the Company's government and community relations initiative in the spring of 2010.
M. Norman Anderson, P.Eng.
Director
Mr. Anderson has had a long and distinguished career in the mining industry. Since 1987 he has been an active consultant, with a focus on due diligence and evaluation for financial institutions and mining companies. Prior to this, he worked for Cominco during which time he spent a four-year period in an executive position with Amax Lead Zinc. Inc. In 1978 he became President and Chief Operation Officer, and in 1980 he assumed complete responsibility for Comincos business as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Anderson brings a wealth of experience in specialized metals to Rare Element.
Norman Burmeister, P.Eng.
Director
Norman W. Burmeister graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in Mining Geology in 1961 and has over 50 years of experience in the mining industry. He holds a professional engineer license from the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia. He was Chief Geologist for Silver Standard Resources from 1965 to 1978, responsible for two grass roots discoveries, the Minto copper deposit in the Yukon and the Mill Creek gold deposit in Nevada, both of which became producing ore bodies. In 1980, he founded Bull Run Corporation and served as its Chairman/CEO until 1992. During that period Bull Run successfully found, explored and developed a significant gold mine in Elko County, Nevada. From 2003 to 2007, he was the President and CEO as well as a director of Bayswater Uranium Corp. In 1998, Mr. Burmeister identified the Bear Lodge opportunity and was responsible for its acquisition. From 2003 to 2005, he was the President and CEO of the Company and its predecessor companies. Since 2006, he has been the President, CEO and a director of Saratoga Gold Company Ltd.
Gregory Mckelvey
Director
Mr. McKelvey, MS. Geol., has more than forty years of extensive, international experience in Latin America, Africa, and Europe in expanding responsibilities for significant mining companies such as Kennecott, Cominco, Homestake, and Phelps Dodge. He also acts as an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of Arizona in their International Center for Mining Health, Safety, and Environment and worked for the USGS in Latin America. He has also consulted for Lundin, Codelco, Phelps Dodge, Newmont Mining, Gerald Metals, and Quadra Mining. He is currently President of Animas Resources Ltd.
Paul Schlauch
Director
Mr. Schlauch has over 40 years of legal experience in the mining industry having recently retired as a partner of Holland & Hart, one of the leading law firms specializing in mining law in the United States. His former practice included providing legal counsel on diverse mining issues including operational and regulatory matters, litigation, arbitration, structuring and negotiation of mining related transactions, and many other legal activities associate with mining, exploration and development of operations. Additionally, Mr. Schlauch has worked extensively on public land legal issues as they relate to location, maintenance and patenting of mining and mill site claims, land exchanges, acquisition of various property use rights and the resolution of claim conflicts. Mr. Schlauch is a past president of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation and a past president of the International Mining Professionals Society as well as being an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Denver School of Law. He is also an Honorary Lecturer and Course Director on the Faculty of the Center for Energy, Petroleum and Minerals Law and Policy at the University of Dundee, Scotland.
Winnie Wong
Corporate Secretary
Winnie Wong C.A received a Bachelor of Commerce Degree (Honours) from Queen's University in 1996 and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia. She is currently Vice President of Pacific Opportunity Capital Ltd. Her role is to manage the financial administration team and to assist Pacific Opportunity Capital Ltd.'s management group on corporate finance projects. Prior to joining Pacific Opportunity Capital Ltd., Ms. Wong was the controller of Pivotal Corporation a company providing software, services and support to a variety of businesses. Between 1996 and 1999, Ms. Wong worked with Deloitte & Touche, Chartered Accountants.