The Critical Minerals Association United Kingdom (CMA UK) is delighted to announce the formation of its Advisory Board. The Advisory Board is formed of industry experts representing our founding members. The Advisory Board members bring a breadth of knowledge and experience from across the value chain including finance, law, academia, commodity analysis, environment, and mining.
CMA’s advisory board members are:
Alex Lemon, President & Co-founder, Mkango Resources
Ben Lepley, Consultant (ESG), SRK Consulting
Dennis Rowland, Senior Geologist & Project Manager, Cornwall Resources
Ed Loye, Founder & Director, E-Tech Resources
Guy Winter, Partner, Fasken
Henry Finnegan, Chief Operating Officer, TechMet
Jeremy Wrathall, Founder & CEO, Cornish Lithium
Julian Kettle, Senior Vice President, Wood Mackenzie
Mike Armitage, Honorary Chairman, Critical Minerals Association UK
Robert Pell, Founder & CEO, Minviro
The Advisory Board recognises that steps need to be taken to improve diversity and will focus on bringing on board candidates from diverse backgrounds over the coming months. The Advisory Board is made up of volunteers who represent our founding members, and the CMA is grateful for their involvement and time commitment to supporting our activities.
Mike Armitage
Honorary Chair of Critical Minerals Association United Kingdom
Dr Mike Armitage (CEng, FGS, MIMMM, FGS, BSc, PhD), is a mining industry consultant who has almost forty years of experience in the industry, thirty of which were with SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd. He has written several papers on resource and reserve estimation methodology and spent several years as joint course co-ordinator of an MSc in Mineral Resources at Cardiff University and then as external examiner for the MSc in Metals and Energy Finance at Imperial College, University of London. He has also been a council member and Vice President of the Geological Society and is currently Chairman of the Applied Earth Science Division of IOM3.
Dr Armitage is a previous Managing Director and Chairman of SRK (UK), Chairman of SRK (Russia) and SRK (Kazakhstan) and also served six years as the SRK Group Chairman. Since leaving SRK, Dr Armitage has jointly founded and is CEO of, Sarn Helen Gold Ltd, a private company focused on exploring for gold in Wales, has taken up roles as a non-executive director of Central Asia Metals PLC and Tertiary Minerals PLC and has established a consulting company, Mike Armitage Consulting Ltd.
Guy Winter
Partner, Fasken
Guy Winter is a Partner in Fasken’s London office. He is recognized for his particular experience in Equity Capital Markets, Private Equity / VC, Public and Private M&A, JVs and complex reorganizations in the Energy & Natural Resources sector.
Guy is a member of the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’s new Critical Minerals Expert Committee, formed pursuant to the UK Net Zero Strategy published in October 2021, having previously advised the Department of Energy and Climate Change (now BEIS) on renewable energy legislation. He advises clients across the entire battery minerals value chain, from upstream mining companies through battery energy storage projects to electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Robert Pell
Founder & CEO, Minviro
Robert Pell PhD is the Founder & CEO of Minviro, a spin-out company from the University of Exeter. Minviro is a technology and consultancy company that supports primary production, recycling and technology companies to measure and mitigate their environmental impacts. Minviro uses life cycle assessment approaches, highlighting environmental hotspots and opportunities for improvements during the development and operational stages of projects. Robert completed his PhD at Camborne School of Mines (University of Exeter) and Tsinghua University as part of the NERC-funded SoSRare project on the topic ‘responsible sourcing of rare earth elements'. During this project novel, life cycle assessment approaches were developed and applied to rare earth projects in the pre-feasibility stage of development. A unique method to apply life cycle assessment to mine planning was also developed and these technologies have been further refined and applied in commercial settings.
Julian Kettle
Senior Vice President, Vice Chair Metals and Mining, Wood Mackenzie
Julian brings over 30 years of experience in the analysis of metals and mining to his current role as Senior Vice President, Vice Chair Metals and Mining, where he is responsible for senior stakeholder engagement and relationships. He is a recognised authority on the metals and mining industry across the value chain from mining through to end-use analysis. His in-depth understanding of the key factors influencing the industry and issues that stakeholders face is of critical importance in his work providing strategic advice to clients.
Since joining Wood Mackenzie, he has carried out the role of Manager – Metal Market Services, Global Head of Metals Research, and Global Head of Metals and Mining Research.
Julian travels extensively and regularly presents to senior industry and financial community stakeholders on the energy transition and the criticality of metals in achieving decarbonisation.
Jeremy Wrathall
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Cornish Lithium
Jeremy has over 30 years of experience in the mining finance industry and has advised mining companies on transactions globally.
Following his graduation in Mining Engineering from the Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall, he spent three years working as a mining engineer in the South African gold mining industry. Jeremy then pursued a career in mining investment banking in London which included senior roles at global investment banks, including his most recent role as Global Head of Natural Resources – London at Investec Bank plc.
He has advised on transactions on all of the world’s major mining exchanges and has served as a non-executive director of mining companies listed on AIM and on the ASX stock exchanges. Jeremy is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Having founded Cornish Lithium in 2016, Jeremy decided to fully focus on the company and left his career in investment banking in March 2017.
Ben Lepley
Consultant (ESG), SRK Consulting
Ben is a Chartered Geologist and a practising ESG consultant in the exploration and mining industry. He is passionate about sustainability and focuses on reducing impacts on people and the planet. Ben is involved in a wide range of commodities and mineral deposit types predominantly in Northern Europe and West Africa, including bulk commodities, speciality and technology metals, and industrial minerals. Ben trained as a Geologist at Cardiff University and has worked at SRK since then, first as a geologist, and now as an ESG consultant. Ben is a Council Member of The Geological Society of London and also a member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Ben is particularly keen to increase public understanding of the exploration and mining industry through outreach and engagement with all stakeholder groups.
Henry Finnegan
Chief Operating Officer, TechMet
Business executive with 10 years’ experience across corporate operations, investor relations, and managing new business ventures in developing markets. Previous to the founding of TechMet, he spent 6 years as Director of Market Development of the Kemet Group, a private investment group, managing new businesses across sectors including (private banking, agribusiness, tourism, tech) in African markets.
Henry is a former British Army officer, including running front line operations in Afghanistan. He holds the Investment Management Certificate; the Certificate in Corporate Finance; and Level 1 of the Chartered Alternative Investment Advisor (CAIA). B.Sc. (Hon.) Biology, University of St. Andrews.
Dennis Rowland
Senior Geologist & Project Manager, Cornwall Resources
Dennis is a Geologist with more than 10 years of experience. Having started his career in geological research and mapping, Dennis gained experience in exploration and mining projects in Australia, before returning to the U.K., where he has worked on three mining projects and additional studies.
In addition to playing a role in developing projects, at various stages, from licence area research, scoping studies, exploration programs, feasibility and navigating the U.K. planning, permission, and regulatory process. Dennis has a keen interest and experience in community interaction and social licence to operate.
Dennis is currently Senior Geologist and Project Manager for Cornwall Resources Limited’s world-class Redmoor Tin-Tungsten-Copper project, in Cornwall. Dennis graduated in Geological Sciences from the University of Leeds and is an FGS and MAusIMM.
Alex Lemon
President & Co-founder, Mkango Resources
Alex is a graduate of the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London (MSc Dic in Mineral Exploration) and Oxford Brookes University (BSc Geological Sciences). He has 27 years of experience in mineral exploration and business development. Alex is a founding Director and President of Mkango and Mkango’s major Shareholder, Leominex. From 1994 to 2001 he was the Managing Director of a gold mining company that owned and operated a producing gold mine in Central Asia, where he gained extensive operating experience in emerging markets including government negotiations and project management. From 2001 to 2005, he worked for a family office, Allied Commercial Exporters as an investment adviser. Since 2005, he has been involved in the exploration and evaluation of a variety of projects throughout Africa, Central Asia and Europe. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society, a Fellow of the Geographical Society and a Member of the Southern African Institute of Mining & Metallurgy.
Ed Loye
Founder & Director, E-Tech Resources
Ed is the Founder and Director of E-Tech Resources who are actively developing the Eureka REE deposit in Namibia. Ed was previously a project manager for the SoS RARE consortium assessing REE deposits worldwide. Ed is passionate about knowledge transfer between academia, explorers, developers, producers, and manufacturers. Ed holds two Masters degrees from Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter and specialised in niche technology metals.
the Critical Minerals Association welcomes new members to help us shape the critical minerals agenda. Find out more here.
Article by Olimpia Pilch, International Partnerships & Business, CMA
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