Hon Ian McDonald 
Minister for Mineral Resources  
NSW Government

Ian Macdonald has been a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council since 1988. Currently he is the NSW Government Minister responsible for Primary Industries, State Development, Mineral Resources and Energy.

Previously, Ian served as Minister for Agriculture (2003-04), Minister for Fisheries (2003-04) and Minister for Natural Resources (2005-07) and as Parliamentary Secretary (1999-2003).
He was a member of the Legislative Council’s State Development Committee for 11 years and a member of the Procedures Committee since 2003.
As a founding member of Country Labor, and a farmer, Ian has been a strong advocate of rural and regional issues in the Parliament and has worked hard to deliver important legislation to improve the way of life for families in regional and rural NSW.
As Minister for Primary Industries he oversaw the creation of a dedicated ‘super’ department designed to provide a comprehensive service to meet the needs of NSW’s diverse primary industries including agriculture, fisheries and forestry.
As Minister for Mineral Resources Ian is working closely with Premier Morris Iemma to ensure that NSW is leading the nation in the development of vital clean coal technology. 
Ian’s current portfolios represent the economic engine room of NSW.
Committed to a consensus based approach to policy making Ian is working with business, unions, and the community to ensure continuing job creation and sustainable economic growth for NSW.
Ian holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in History from La Trobe University (1973) and was subsequently a Research Officer for the Australian Council of Overseas Aid, the Australian Senate, and the NSW Attorney General’s Department, and a Senior Policy Analyst with the NSW Housing Department.
He is Vice-President of the Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club; Vice Chairman of the South Sydney District Cricket Club and a member of a range of organisations including the NSW Cricketers' Club and Essendon Football Club; NSW Farmers Association; Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Barwang Bush Fire Brigade; and Chairman of the Lambing Flat Chinese Tribute Garden Foundation. He has also been Chairman of the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Palestine since 1998.
Ian lives in Orange and is involved in a joint venture in the Towac Valley, where he and some partners are further developing a Murray Grey cattle stud.
He has been successfully showing cattle at Sydney and regional shows since 1992. He has had a number of Show successes, including one of his bulls taking out the Reserve Champion Senior Bull at Melbourne Royal Show.

Roy is Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Gresham Private Equity Limited. He is also a Director of Gresham Partners Limited and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee.
He has more than 18 years experience in the Private Equity industry as a Director of 3i plc in Europe and as Managing Director and Head of DB Capital’s Asian business located in Hong Kong and Sydney prior to joining Gresham as Managing Director.
Roy holds a Bachelor of Science in Production Engineering from the University of Strathclyde, an MBA from the University of Edinburgh Management School and has completed the Senior Investors Program at INSEAD in Paris.
He is a Director of Noel Leeming, GEON, Witchery and Barminco.

Mr McManus is a mineral processing professional with over 25 years experience in the mining industry.  He has worked in operational, technical and corporate roles for RioTinto, RGC and Bemax.  He has experience at many sites in Australia and overseas, including Eneabba, the Murray Basin, Madagascar, Indonesia and the USA.

He has a Mineral Processing degree from Leeds University and an MBA from Curtin University.  He has been the Managing Director of Mineral Sands Ltd since January 2007.

Colin Milton holds the position of Head of International Business Development at the London Stock Exchange Group. 

His department is responsible for attracting new international companies to the London markets, including the Main Market, Professional Securities Market, Specialist Fund Market and AIM, managing the Exchange’s relationships with its existing quoted international companies and the corporate advisory community.  Colin also has direct responsibility for the Exchange’s regional offices in Hong Kong and Beijing.

Prior to joining the Exchange, Colin worked in equity capital markets’ roles for HSBC, ABN Amro Rothschild and Schroders having been based in Asia for thirteen years.

Colin holds a BSc Honours degree in Technology and Business Studies.
mmonwealth Bank

David Moore works as Commodity Strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and is focussed on monitoring, analysing and forecasting trends in the major non-ferrous metals including aluminium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc, as well as gold and oil. David has twenty-five years experience in economic and financial market research. David worked for the Commonwealth Bank from 1983 to 2002, spending time as an industry analyst and also working in financial and foreign exchange markets, then worked for the ASX until early 2007, before rejoining the Commonwealth Bank

Ian Mulholland is Managing Director of ROX RESOURCES LIMITED, a Perth-based junior exploration and development company.

Ian holds a Masters degree in exploration and mining geology from James Cook University and has 25 years broad experience in a number of commodity groups including gold, nickel, base metals, uranium and diamonds. His experience covers exploration activities, feasibility studies and mining operations with both major and junior companies.
He has been directly involved in several gold and base metal discoveries during his career, including the Mt Windsor copper-lead-zinc and the Mt Carlton gold-silver deposits in Queensland; the Nimbus silver-zinc deposit, the Mount Martin gold deposit, and several nickel laterite deposits in Western Australia; and the Toka Tindung and Mount Muro gold deposits in Indonesia.
Rox currently has its focus on zinc-lead projects in Australia and Laos where it has discovered McArthur River style and Mississippi Valley Type sulphide mineralisation.

Greg Peel is the senior writer and a principal of FNArena.com, an internet-based financial news, data and analysis service with a database of over 21,000 registered readers. He became a financial journalist in 2003 after a period of financial market consultancy work. In 1994 Greg left his role as director of the Equity Derivatives Trading division of Macquarie Bank.

Mr Richards has over 20 years experience in the mining and mineral processing industry, with extensive experience in the development and operation of nickel/cobalt and iron ore businesses. He commenced his career at Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd in 1985 and moved to Western Australia in 1997 as the Refinery Manager of the Murrin Murrin Nickel-Cobalt Project. He has been involved in the design, construction, commissioning and ramp-up of several significant Brownfield and Greenfield Projects within Australia. Mr Richards recently fulfilled senior executive roles within BHP Billiton Iron Ore, as the Deputy Vice President of Boodarie Iron in Port Hedland and the Project Integration and Commissioning Leader for BHP Billiton’s mine, port and rail expansions. Mr Richards joined Brockman Resources Limited (formerly Yilgarn Mining Limited) on 1 August 2007.

John Robertson has worked as a business strategist and investment market professional for over 30 years. He was responsible for resources sector investment strategy at a leading institutional broker before being appointed chief economist.  He has managed futures market trading activities for an international resources group.  He has been chief financial officer of an ASX listed investment company.  For the past two years, he has been a manager of the Emerging Resources Company Share Fund.  His corporate valuation and advisory work has covered resources, consumer goods, financial services and IT.  He began his career as a Treasury economist before spending several years as a staff member of then Treasurer, John Howard.

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Troy Schwensen is a full time investor/trader. He is the editor of The Global Speculator newsletter and a research analyst with www.goldnerds.com.au. Troy is a CPA with previous accounting and finance roles with The Fosters Group and Goodman Fielder.

Russell Skirrow has a broad mix of technical, financial and management experience from his 12 years in the global mining industry (working with both Gold Fields South Africa Ltd. and Western Mining Corp,) and 17 years in the investment banking/stockbroking industry. Prior to joining Helmsec, Russell was the Global Chairman of Merrill Lynch Metals and Mining investment banking team, based in London.

Russell achieved an honours degree in geology from University of Durham (1979) and PhD in minerals geochemistry from Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, University of London (1983) with D.I.C. (Diploma of Imperial College). Russell is a Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (M.I.M.M.M.), Chartered Engineer (C.Eng.), Fellow of FINSIA (F.FIN.), and also a Non Executive Director of Russian precious metals miner, Polymetal, listed in Moscow and London.

Tony oversees the investment decision making and analytical processes for the EIM Capital Managers Emerging Resources Company Share Fund.  He has been involved in the Australian resources industry and funds management for 18 years.  He has a technical and financial background, being employed as a geologist with experience in several Australian underground and open cut mining operations before becoming an institutional equities analyst and investment manager.  For seven years, he has managed funds, including specialised resources sector equity portfolios, for various institutional funds management companies before founding E.I.M. Capital Managers. EIM Capital Managers distinguishes itself by a focus on undervalued emerging producer natural resources companies and the use of an advisory panel of highly qualified and experienced industry practitioners. 

Mr Young (47) is a geologist and a graduate of Queens University in Canada. After two years of uranium and gold exploration in Canada at temperatures of -40C, he migrated to Australia in 1987 becoming a citizen in 1991. Mike unwittingly commenced his Australian odyssey at the Great Victoria gold mine at Marvel Loch.

From 1991, he worked for Dominion Mining Limited and headed the team who pegged the Justin-Case gold, and Abednego nickel prospects. He then moved onto work with Mining and Resource Technology which become part of Golder Associates from 1994 to 2003. During that time, he specialised in resource estimation and feasibility studies on a wide variety of deposits and commodities: including: Century Zinc, Escondida Copper, and Koolyanobbing iron mine. In 2003 he joined Cazaly Resources as Exploration Manager where he was responsible for exploration and resource development. Mike was a founding director of Bannerman Resources Limited.

Mr Young’s experience has a strong focus on exploration, resource estimation and development. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Mike is also a member of the JORC Code complaints committee for the AIG and a councillor for the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies.

He is a proud West Australian whose interests include mountain bike riding (and not much else).