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Lotus Gold Corporation is a private Canadian gold exploration and development company, focused on the Egyptian Eastern Desert. Lotus Gold’s interests include 10 blocks and a leading in-country land package of 1,740 km2 within the highly prospective Arabian-Nubian Shield. Lotus is advancing exploration on the Umm Samra, Wadi Zeidun and Wadi Ghozah properties, with a focus on orogenic, VMS and porphyry mineralization.
In an effort to modernize the Egyptian Mining Sector, and to attract foreign investment and global mining expertise, the Egyptian Government legislated a new mining code and launched an International Bid Round No.(1) 2020 for gold concessions across the Egyptian Eastern Desert. The bid process was managed by EMRA, the Egyptian Mineral Resources Authority, and falls under the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.
Lotus Gold participated in Bid Round 1 and was awarded seven licence sectors (blocks) covering 1,214 km2 in November 2020. The exploration agreements were formally signed with the Minister of Petroleum and Minerals on January 20, 2021. These properties were officially handed over by the government to Lotus Gold in November and December 2021, following the issuance of governmental, environmental, and security approvals.
EMRA announced a second bid round in November 2020, Bid Round 1 2020 – 2nd Round. Following Covid related delays to the submission date, Lotus submitted a bid document to EMRA for additional sectors on June 30, 2021. The results of the second bid round were announced by EMRA on May 26, 2022, with Lotus securing a further three blocks to increase the company ground holdings to 1,740 km2.
Mike Silver is co-founder, CEO and a Director of Lotus Gold Corporation. He has 20 years of resource sector experience, including advising, structuring, and executing on billions of dollars in value-enhancing M&A transactions and industry-leading financings across a full array of product groups and commodities. Previously, Mike led HSBC’s Americas mining advisory franchise. Prior to HSBC, he held similar roles with Stifel GMP Securities, BMO Metals & Mining, as well as BofA Merrill Lynch Investment Banking. Mike has an MBA from RSM Erasmus University (Netherlands), and a BComm from Dalhousie University (Canada).
Heye Daun is the co-founder and President & CEO of Osino Resources. He is also the co-founder of the former Auryx Gold Corp. which advanced the Otjikoto gold project in Namibia until sale to B2 Gold Corp for US$160m in 2011. As the former President & CEO of Ecuador Gold & Copper Corp. (“EGX”), Heye was instrumental in the formation of Lumina Gold Corp. through the C$200m merger of EGX with Odin Mining, before founding Osino Resources in 2015 with Alan Friedman. Heye is a mining engineer and MBA and has extensive experience in mining operations, working for Rio Tinto, AngloGold-Ashanti and Gold Fields, and stints in mining finance with South Africa’s Nedbank Capital and Old Mutual Investment Group. For the last 12 years Heye has been a successful public markets mining entrepreneur. Heye is a Director and also co-founder of Lotus Gold Corporation.
Omar A. Nasser is co-founder, Country Manager and a Director of Lotus Gold Corporation. He is also founder of NPC, where he grew it to become one of Egypt’s leading oil and gas upstream exploration and production companies. Omar has 23 years’ experience in financing and operating companies in the Egyptian resource sector. Omar holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA from York University.
Dave has 30 years of broad exploration experience in Africa and other parts of the world acting in executive and senior technical roles for major and junior exploration and mining companies. Since January 2017, he has been the Vice President of Exploration of Osino Resources Corp. in Namibia. Since June 2020, Dave has been a technical advisor for Lotus Gold. He was a co-founder of BHK Mining Corp., where he served as the Vice President of Exploration from 2014 to 2015, operating in Gabon. Between 2008 and 2013, Dave has held roles with Newmont Mining Corporation, AngloGold Ashanti Limited and Anglo American, focused throughout Africa, as well as various consulting assignments including for RoxGold in Burkina Faso. He has a BSc (Hons) degree, is a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geology, and is a Registered Professional Scientist with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions.
Alan Friedman is a South African-trained lawyer and public markets entrepreneur with significant success in a range of sectors such as mining, oil & gas, cannabis, e-gaming and others. As a result of being involved with North American public markets for over 20 years, his little black book is brimming with the Who-is-Who in Finance and Acquisitions and he has played an integral role in the financings and go-public transactions for many resource companies onto TSX and AIM. He is also a director of the Canada-Africa Chamber of Business. Alan is a Co-founder and Director of TSX-V listed Eco (Atlantic) Oil and Gas Ltd., and co-founder of Auryx Gold Corp and Osino Resources. Alan is a Director and also co-founder of Lotus Gold Corporation.
Jon is a geologist with more than 30 years of experience in Exploration and Mining Geology. His career has been focused on the Africa and Middle East regions and includes diverse experience in precious, base and rare metals and industrial minerals. He has held exploration Manager and senior consulting positions with several major and junior mining companies listed on all major international stock exchanges. Jon was responsible for the start up and management of the Osino Resources Corp exploration projects in Namibia from 2016 to 2020 and was also involved in the early days of Lotus in the period leading up to the Bid Round 1 applications.
Ian Brown has 20 years of exploration experience across various African countries, from grassroots through resource definition to evaluation and mine production. Ian has worked with various consultancy groups and exploration companies, in a variety of different commodities. For the last five years Ian was exploration Manager for West African Resources, managing regional exploration and definition of the Sanbrado Mine (Burkina Faso).
Charles Stafford is responsible for Lotus Gold Corporation’s ESG program in Egypt as well as for managing the field operations. Charles is an environmental, social and governance professional with over 25 years of experience in the Mineral Exploration Industry, including four years in the MENA region. He worked for AngloGold Ashanti, Thani Ashanti, Anglo American, Lonmin, BHP Billiton as well as numerous junior companies. During 2012 and 2013, Charles was the Regional Safety Manager for Thani Ashanti, based in Egypt, and responsible for all safety, health, environmental and community matters for their operations in Egypt, Djibouti and Ethiopia. Charles holds qualifications in Environmental Sciences and in NEBOSH Occupational Health and Safety, and he is a technical member of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).
Dan has a BSc (Wales) in Geology; a Diploma in Polar Studies (Cambs); an MSc (Bham) in Mineral Chemistry and a Certificate in Management Development (Unisa). He is a Chartered Geologist and Fellow of the Geological Society of London (CGeol FGS) and also a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Since 1984 he has worked in the international mining and mineral exploration industry and has spent much of the last 16 years focused on the Arabian-Nubian Shield in Egypt, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. He is currently working as a geological consultant for Lotus Gold in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.
Chris holds a BSc (Hons) Degree in Geology from Leicester University and an MSc in Mineral Resources from Cardiff University. He is a Chartered Geologist and Fellow of the Geological Society of London (CGeol FGS). Chris spent his early career working and living in Southern Africa, initially with De Beers and later with JCI. Following the completion of an MSc in 1999, he worked for mining industry consulting groups in the UK and several mining/mineral exploration companies globally. His expertise ranges across all stages of mineral exploration, from initial target generation and grassroots reconnaissance through to resource estimation and feasibility study. Chris has extensive experience of running mineral exploration programmes in Central Asia and the MENA region, with the Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS) being a particular area of expertise. He managed the resource drill-out of the Ad Duwayhi gold deposit (Ma’Aden, Saudi Arabia); the exploration, drilling and resource estimation of the Abu Mahmoud VMS deposit (Orca Gold affiliate, Sudan) and the Jebel Ohier porphyry copper deposit (Qatar Mining, Sudan). Chris has joined Lotus Gold Corp as Exploration Manager for its operations in Egypt in early 2021.
Tony has been consulting to Lotus Gold in the capacity of Chief Financial Officer since August 2020. He has been the Finance Director of the subsidiary companies of Osino Resources Corp. in Namibia since 2017, and as of March 2021, has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of Osino Resources Corp., a gold exploration company listed on the TSX-V with its corporate head office in Vancouver, Canada. He was part of the executive team responsible for the listing of Osino Resources Corp. on the TSX-V and has been an integral member of the management team as the point person on all equity raising initiatives for Osino. Tony has been a key member in setting up the corporate structure of Lotus Gold, managing all aspects of the financial administration and reporting responsibilities and working with its CEO in anticipation of listing Lotus Gold in the foreseeable future. Tony has a BCompt., BCom. (Hons) degree, and is a Registered Chartered Accountant in South Africa (CA(SA)) since 2004.
Walid Gad has more than 15 years of experience as a finance and operations professional within Egypt’s resource sector, including and not limited to budgeting, analysis, reporting, and implementing internal controls and procedures. He is also the Finance Manager of National Petroleum Company SAZ, a leading indigenous on-and-off-shore Egyptian oil company. Previously, Walid led ENAP Sipetrol’s finance department in a similar capacity, as part of the core team that secured and collaboratively worked with the Egyptian government on ENAP’s Joint Venture with the government. He holds a bachelor’s degree in financial management from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, Egypt.