Management & Directors

Mr. Walter H. Berukoff is the founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lion One Metals Limited. Mr. Berukoff was the founder and C.E.O of Miramar Mining Corporation, Northern Orion Resources, and La Mancha Resources, and has operated or commissioned gold mines in seven countries. Mr. Berukoff is also Managing Director of Red Lion Management, a merchant banking company, and has raised over $1 billion for global mining and real estate projects.

Mr. Tony Young has over 17 years’ experience in financial roles for mining companies operating in both Canada and Latin America.  Mr. Young was most recently the Director of Finance at Red Eagle Mining Corporation, where he guided the company’s transition from mine development to production, including the construction of a 1,200 tonne per day processing plant at the San Ramon gold mine in Colombia.  Mr. Young was also the Corporate Controller for Luna Gold Corp. (Trek Mining Inc.), an 80,000 ounce per year gold producer with a 6,000 tonne per day processing plant in Brazil.  Mr. Young was previously Senior Manager at KPMG LLP providing assurance and tax services to mining and resource-based companies in Canada.  Mr. Young is a Chartered Professional Accountant and Certified Public Accountant (Illinois) and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia.

Mr. Hickey has over 40 years of experience as an engineer and executive in the design and construction of world class mining, petroleum, and power generating operations throughout the world. He has worked for some of the world’s leading operators, including Mobil in the USA and in the Middle East, Power in the Czech Republic, BHP Oil Refining in Hawaii, Kinross Gold Corp. in Africa and Spain, and Newmont Gold in Indonesia and Peru.

From 2010 to 2014 Mr. Hickey was Chief Executive of the African operations for Kinross Gold Corp., where he was responsible for eight Kinross subsidiaries and projects such as the Tasiast Gold Mine in Mauritania, and the Chirano Gold Mines in Ghana. Prior to that from 2008 to 2010 he served as the President and Managing Director for Sherritt International for the $4.5 billion Ambatovy nickel-cobalt mine in Madagascar, and from 2004 to 2008 served Newmont Mining as the President and Director of the $2 billion Batu Hijau copper-gold mine in Indonesia, and General Manager of the Yanacocha and Minas Conga gold projects in Peru. Mr. Hickey is currently the President and Director of PHNG, a mining consultancy based in Denver, CO.

Mr. Cattalani is an experienced economic geologist with over 35 years of experience and distinguished leadership in mineral exploration around the world. Following 3 years in an applied research position with the Mineral Exploration Research Institute in Montreal, Sergio accepted the position of senior geologist for Cominco based out of Noranda, Quebec.  Sergio then moved on to Inco, then CVRD-Inco for 12 years as senior geologist where he was responsible for project generation and technical evaluations in Ontario, Quebec, and NWT in Canada, in Turkey, Indonesia, Tasmania and Western Australia, China and Brazil. In 2008 he was appointed Senior Geologist for Hecla Mining focused on South American projects before being appointed Vice President Exploration for Osisko Mining Corporation in 2009 where he managed their exploration and evaluations team in Canada, and subsequently their USA exploration portfolio before Osisko was acquired by Yamana Gold and Agnico Eagle Mines for C$3.9 billion in 2014.

In 2016 he was appointed VP Exploration at Newcastle Gold to oversee a 40,000 meter drill program on the Castle Mountain gold project in California prior to the combination of Newcastle, Trek Mining, and Anfield Gold that created Equinox Gold Corp. in 2017. Mr. Cattalani was then appointed by Equinox as Vice President Exploration and retained responsibility for all aspects of exploration at Castle Mountain which now has P&P Reserves of 3.6 million oz. @ 0.56 g/t gold and expected to produce 30,000-40,000 oz. of gold in 2021.

More recently, from 2018 to Dec. 2020 Sergio was Economic Geologist in the business development unit of Denver-based EMX Royalty Corp. working with EMX’s Capital Group on technical evaluations for investment opportunities worldwide, and in developing EMX’s Canadian business unit.

Mr. Greig joined the Company in 2010 prior to the merger between American Eagle Resources and X-Tal Minerals Corp.and was appointed VP Investor Relations in November 2011, and Director in June 2012. Directly and indirectly Mr. Greig has raised over $50 million in public equity financings and has experience in various public market roles including investor relations, corporate finance, and administration.

Mr. Richard Meli is a director of Lion One, having been a director of its predecessor company since 2004. He is an independent businessman and a former senior executive at Rio Tinto (1996-1999) where he managed the company’s global mergers and acquisitions, and President of Rio Tinto subsidiary Luzenac America (1999-2001). From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Meli was an independent consultant to the mining and oil and gas industries and was President of La Mancha Resources (2004-2006). Mr. Meli worked for Kennecott Corp., then one of the world’s largest copper producers, from 1980 until it was acquired by Rio Tinto in 1989. At Kennecott, Mr. Meli served in a number of planning, analysis and financial management positions, lastly as Senior Vice President. Mr. Meli began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers (formerly known as Price Waterhouse & Co.) in 1971, spending eight years in the firm’s New York office, becoming a CPA and reaching the level of Audit Manager. He earned a B.S. in Economics in 1969 and an M.S. in Accounting in 1971, both from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. David Tretbar joined the Lion One board in June 2020. From 2010 to 2022 he held the position of Vice President of Exploration and Mineral Resources for Summit Mining International, a 100% -owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation of Japan. His duties with Summit included new business development, technical evaluations, and providing exploration and operations support to Sumitomo’s global mineral program. Previously Mr. Tretbar worked as Chief Geologist at Minera San Cristóbal Mine in Bolivia, Senior Exploration Geologist for Alamos Gold at the Mulatos Mine in Mexico, Mill Manager of the Ashdown Molybdenum Mine in Nevada, and as Process Mineralogist for Barrick Gold at the Goldstrike Operation in Nevada. He spent many years working as an underground mine geologist at various Nevada gold mines.

Mr. Tretbar holds a Bachelor of Science from Northern Arizona University and a Master’s of Science in Geochemistry from the Mackay School on Mines, University of Nevada, Reno. He is a Registered Professional Geologist in the state of Arizona and Certified Professional Geologist through the American Institute of Professional Geologists.

Kevin Puil is a Chartered Financial Analyst with over 15 years’ experience in investment management. From 1996 to 2005 he was a financial advisor with Goepel McDermid (Raymond James), and a partner at Bolder Investment Partners in Vancouver, BC. From 2008 to 2013 he was a portfolio manager at Malcolm Gissen & Associates and Senior Analyst at the Encompass Fund in San Francisco, focusing on natural resources. He holds a degree in economics from the University of Victoria (and the University of British Columbia) and obtained the CFA designation in 2003.

Darren Holden is a geology graduate of the University of Otago (NZ) & The University of Western Australia. He has worked in both mining and mineral exploration environments all over the world and is a recognised leader where he brings passion, verve and creativity to mineral exploration. Darren is a specialist in hard rock mineral exploration including epithermal and mesothermal gold & silver, porphyry copper gold, base+precious metal, base metal vms,  mafic hosted nickel-copper-pge, and sedex deposits. Corporately Darren is well connected in Australian and North American financing scenes and is a noted presenter and speaker and has helped raise over $100M for the mineral exploration industry.

Dr. Quinton Hennigh was appointed as Technical Advisor for the Tuvatu Gold Project March 2019. Dr. Hennigh is an internationally renowned economic geologist, with over 25 years of exploration experience and expertise with major gold mining companies such as Homestake Mining Company, Newcrest Mining Limited, and Newmont Mining Corporation where he last served as senior research geologist in 2007. He has since made a number of significant gold discoveries for Canadian exploration companies such as the 3.8 million oz. Springpole alkaline gold deposit near Red Lake, Ontario, for Gold Canyon Resources, and the Rattlesnake Hills gold project for Evolving Gold. He is currently Chairman and President of Novo Resources Corporation, which he founded in 2010.

Dr. Hennigh holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Missouri, and M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in geology and geochemistry from the Colorado School of Mines. He is a member of the Society of Economic Geologists, the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America and the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario.

Mr. Li joined Lion One in 2017 after serving three years at Pretium Resources Inc., as the Project Controls Manager for the Brucejack gold project in northern British Columbia. Mr. Li’s career spans over 30 years with extensive experience in heavy industrial and construction project management. Mr. Li’s previous experience includes positions as the Project Manager at Monument Mining for the construction of the Selinsing gold mine expansion in Malaysia, Senior Project Scheduler at SNC-Lavalin for Barrick Gold’s Pueblo Viejo gold mine in the Dominican Republic and SaskPower’s Yellowhead power plant in Saskatchewan, Project Controls Manager at Fluor Canada on the Sulfolix Copper Mine in Chile, and over 13 years as the Civil and Structural Engineer and Project Manager at China’s Dongfang Electric Corporation.

Will Ostrenga commenced his exploration career in 2012 as a contract geologist with Teck Resources at the Noatak lead-zinc project in the Red Dog Mine complex in Alaska, prior to joining Rangefront Consulting in Elko, Nevada, where he managed major drilling programs over the next eight years for client companies such as Kinross Gold and Sumitomo.

In May 2019 Mr. Ostrenga was appointed as a Representative Geologist to Novo Resources Corp. for Sumitomo Corporation of Japan where he developed large-scale paleo-placer exploration programs and led reconnaissance teams that discovered new gold prospects in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Mr. Ostrenga now resides in Nadi and works alongside the Lion One Fiji exploration team. He holds a BSc in geology from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and holds the designation of Certified Professional Geologist (AIPG).