Board of Directors
J. Birks Bovaird
Chairman of the Board
For a majority of his career, Mr. Bovaird’s focus has been the provision and implementation of corporate financial consulting and strategic planning services. He was previously the Vice President of Corporate Finance for one of Canada’s major accounting firms. He is Chairman of GTA Resources and Mining Inc. (TSX-V:GTA)as well as a member of the audit and compensation committees. He is an independent director of Noble Mineral Exploration Inc. (TSXV:NOB) where he is a member of the audit committee and chair of the compensation committee. He also serves as an independent director and member of the audit committee of Interactive Capital Partners Corporation (ICPC) which is a reporting issuer whose common shares are not currently trading. ICPC is in the process of preparing the necessary financial reports in order to bring the company back into good standing with the Ontario Securities Commission. Mr. Bovaird has previously been involved with numerous public resource companies, both as a member of management and as a director. He is a graduate of the Canadian Director Education Program and holds an ICD.D designation.
Mark Chalmers
President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Mr. Chalmers is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Energy Fuels, a position he has held since February 1, 2018. From July 1, 2017 to January 31, 2018, Mr. Chalmers was President and Chief Operating Officer of Energy Fuels, and from July 1, 2016 to July 1, 2017, he was Chief Operating Officer of the Corporation. From 2011 to 2015, Mr. Chalmers served as Executive General Manager of Production for Paladin Energy Ltd., a uranium producer with assets in Australia and Africa, including the Langer Heinrich and Kayelekera mines where, as head of operations, he oversaw sustained, significant increases in production while reducing operating costs. He also possesses extensive experience in in situ recovery (“ISR”) uranium production, including management of the Beverley Uranium Mine owned by General Atomics (Australia), and the Highland mine owned by Cameco Corporation (USA). Mr. Chalmers has also consulted to several of the largest players in the uranium supply sector, including BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and Marubeni, and until recently served as the Chair of the Australian Uranium Council, a position he held for 10 years. Mr. Chalmers is a registered professional engineer, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering from the University of Arizona
Benjamin Eshleman III
Mr. Eshleman is the President and CEO of Mesteña, LLC, a privately held energy company headquartered in Corpus Christi, Texas. As President and CEO, he is responsible for the oil, gas, and uranium leasing activities under 200,000 mineral acres located in South Texas. Mesteña built, operated, and mined several million pounds of uranium through its Alta Mesa plant in the mid-2000’s. Mr. Eshleman also sits on the board of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, a well-known business association advocating land owner rights. Ben is a 1979 graduate of Menlo College, with Bachelor of Science in Business Administrati
Ivy Estabrooke
Dr. Estabrooke is currently the Vice President of Operations and Corporate Affairs at IDbyDNA Inc., a venture backed commercial stage biotech company. From 2018 to 2020, she served as the Vice President of Corporate and Government Programs for PolarityTE, Inc. and, from 2014 to 2018, she served as the Executive Director of the Utah Science, Technology and Research Initiative. Other roles have included technical program manager to the U.S. Department of the Navy and science advisor to the Governor of Utah. Dr. Estabrooke has led innovative research and development programs in both the public and private sectors delivering technology solutions for national security and public health challenges. She earned her doctorate in neuroscience at Georgetown University in 2005, received a master’s degree in national resource strategy from the National Defense University in 2013 and a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Smith College in 1998. She serves on the board of the Girl Scouts of Utah and is a member of the Utah District Export Council.
Barbara Filas
Ms. Filas is internationally recognized as a thought-leader on a variety of topics including mining, waste management, environmental and social responsibility, leadership, and sustainability, and she has experience in both developed and developing countries on six continents. Ms. Filas currently serves as the Nominations Chair and Chair of the Board of Governors for the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville, Colorado and is a part-time Professor of Practice at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. From 2003 to 2009, Ms. Filas served as the President and Chief Executive of Knight Piésold and Co., a leading global mining and environmental consulting firm, where she held various roles of increasing responsibility from 1989 to 2009. From 2011 to 2013, Ms. Filas served as the President of Geovic Mining Corp., a publicly-traded mining company with an advanced cobalt, nickel and manganese exploration project in Cameroon, among other exploration ventures. From 2015 to 2016, she was a Director of Moroccan Minerals Ltd., a private company that explored for copper, gold, and silver prospects in Morocco and Serbia. Ms. Filas’ operational background includes hands-on experience with operating gold and coal mines and processing facilities; executive experience in consulting, public companies, and non-profits; and technical expertise in base and precious metals, coal, uranium and industrial metals in various engineering and environmental capacities. In addition, Ms. Filas was the first female President of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (“SME”), the world’s largest technical mining organization. Ms. Filas is a graduate of the University of Arizona, and a Licensed Professional Mining Engineer in Colorado and Nevada.
Bruce D. Hansen
Mr. Hansen is Chief Executive Officer and a director of General Moly Inc., a position he has held since 2007. Prior to that, Mr. Hansen was Senior Vice-President, Operations Services and Development with Newmont Mining Corporation. He worked with Newmont for ten years holding increasingly senior roles, including CFO from 1999 to 2005. Prior to joining Newmont, Mr. Hansen spent 12 years with Santa Fe Pacific Gold, where he held increasingly senior management roles including Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Vice President Finance and Development. Mr. Hansen holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of New Mexico and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Mining Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. Mr. Hansen is also a director and serves on the Audit Committee of ASA Gold and Precious Metals Ltd. (NYSE).
Jaqueline Herrera
Ms. Herrera has over 23 years of experience in water treatment and process improvements in multiple industries including the oil refinery, petrochemical, chemical, mining & mineral processing and food and beverage industries. From 1998 to 2019 she worked for Nalco Water, an Ecolab Company and leader in water hygiene, treatment and process improvements and energy and air solutions, in increasingly senior management roles, including sales-operations, and global industry development for the base metals and iron ore industries. In that role, Ms. Herrera worked in the bauxite mining and alumina processing sectors in South America, the United States and the Caribbean then expanded her career into global base metals with a focus on the copper and molybdenum markets in various regions. In 2019, Ms. Herrera moved to the Food & Beverage Division within Ecolab Inc., where she currently leads the protein segment, responsible for corporate account business operations and sales in the United States and Canada. She is a US Patent holder on functionalized silicones for froth flotation. Ms. Herrera has volunteered for UNICEF and Water for People in remote communities in Latin America, providing education and technical expertise in water treatment for drinking water to schools in remote communities. Ms. Herrera is an active member of the Society of Women Engineers and is a board member of a non-profit organization to help youth in disadvantage financial conditions to develop leadership skills. She holds a Bachelor of Science in both metallurgical engineering and industrial engineering from the Universidad Nacional Politécnica “Antonio José de Sucre” in Venezuela, a Master of Sciences in material science from the Universidad de Oriente, Venezuela, and a Master of Business Administration in operations from the University of Phoenix, Baton Rouge LA. She is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and English.
Dennis Higgs
Mr. Higgs has been involved in the financial and venture capital markets in Canada, the United States, and Europe for over thirty years. He founded his first junior exploration company in 1983 and took it public through an initial public offering in 1984. Since then, Mr. Higgs has been involved in the founding, financing, initial public listing, and building of several companies. Mr. Higgs was directly involved with the founding and initial public offering of Arizona Star Resource Corp. and the listing and financing of BioSource International Inc., both of which were the subject of take-over bids. Most recently, Mr. Higgs was one of the founding Directors and subsequently Executive Chairman of Uranerz before it merged with Energy Fuels. Mr. Higgs was Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Uranerz from February 1, 2006 until June 18, 2015. Mr. Higgs is currently President and a director of Austin Gold Corp., a gold exploration company listed on the NYSE American Stock Exchange (NYSE: AUST). Mr. Higgs holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia.
Robert Kirkwood
Mr. Kirkwood is a principal of the Kirkwood Companies, including Kirkwood Oil and Gas LLC, Wesco Operating, Inc., and United Nuclear LLC. Mr. Kirkwood has been with the Kirkwood Companies for over 35 years and has been involved in all aspects of oil and gas exploration and operations. From 2000 to date, the Kirkwood Companies have grown from less than 500 barrels of oil per day and 7 employees to over 3,000 barrels of oil per day and 60 employees with field offices in: Ft. Washakie, WY; Baggs, WY; Moab, UT; and Ely, NV. The Kirkwood Companies have identified, evaluated, negotiated and closed over $110,000,000 of production acquisitions in the Rocky Mountain States. Bob is a 1982 graduate of the University of Wyoming, with a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering.
Alex Morrison
Mr. Morrison is an accomplished mining professional with strong management, technical, governance and financial skills in the precious and base metals industries. He also has significant hands-on experience in financial reporting, capital raising, audit, and deal-making. He is currently a board member of Taseko Mines Ltd, Gold Resources Corporation, and Gold Standard Ventures. He previously served as a director for Pershing Gold Corporation and Detour Gold Corporation. From 2007 to 2010, Mr. Morrison served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Franco-Nevada Corporation, and from 2002 to 2007, he served for Newmont Mining Corporation as Vice President, Information Technology, Vice President, Operations Services, Group Executive, Operations Services, and Group Executive, Internal Audit. Mr. Morrison also has 13 years of experience with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he provided business advisory, financial audit, and operational audit services to a diverse group of mining clients.
Michael Stirzaker
Mr Stirzaker has over 40 years’ commercial experience, mainly in mining finance and mining investment. He began his career in Sydney as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG, before moving into investment banking with the HSBC Group and then Kleinwort Benson Limited in London.
From 1993 to 2007 he was part of the natural resource advisory and investment firm, RFC Group Limited, where he became Joint Managing Director. He has also been a shareholder and director of Tennant Metals Pty. Limited, a privately owned physical metal trader and investor, was the finance director of Finders Resources Limited, an ASX listed company producing copper in Indonesia.
From 2010 until 2019, Mr Stirzaker was a partner with private equity mining fund manager, Pacific Road Capital Management.
For the past five years Mr Stirzaker has acted as a non-executive director of several junior mining companies and is currently also a non-executive director of Southern Palladium Ltd.
Mr Stirzaker was Chair of the Base Resources Board until its acquisition by Energy Fuels.
