Key points
- Anthony O’Sullivan, formerly of BHP Billiton with 17 years of industry experience, joins as chief operating officer.
- Michael Johnston, Justin Baulch and Glenn Creed join from Placer Dome as vice-presidents of corporate development, exploration and sustainability respectively.
- Johnston, Baulch and Creed previously worked on the Solwara project, a joint venture between Placer Dome and Nautilus.
- Chief executive officer David Heydon said the team has more than 90 years of combined experience in mineral exploration, development and production.
Following its successful listing, Nautilus Minerals Inc. has employed an experienced management team comprising:
Chief operating officer: Anthony O’Sullivan
Vice-president, corporate development: Michael Johnston
Vice-president, exploration: Justin Baulch
Vice-president, sustainability: Glenn Creed
Chief operating officer: Anthony O’Sullivan
Vice-president, corporate development: Michael Johnston
Vice-president, exploration: Justin Baulch
Vice-president, sustainability: Glenn Creed
This team, along with David Heydon the chief executive officer, has in excess of 90 years experience in mineral exploration, development and production for most commodities in most regions of the world. The team has a good mix of entrepreneurial, large-company management and technical expertise.
Mr. Johnston, Mr. Baulch and Mr. Creed join the team from Placer Dome, where they worked on the Solwara project in joint venture with Nautilus, providing invaluable project continuity, and offshore exploration capability and experience.
Mr. O’Sullivan — chief operating officer
Mr. O’Sullivan has joined Nautilus from BHP Billiton, where most recently he managed the company’s exploration for bulk commodities.
Mr. O’Sullivan has 17 years of industry experience, 15 of which were with BHP Billiton. He has wide commodity experience, ranging from base metals, nickel — platinum group elements — and gold, to industrial minerals and the bulk commodities (coal, iron ore and bauxite). From 2001 to 2004, he was responsible for managing BHP Billiton’s global base metal exploration effort. As a member of the BHP Billiton’s exploration management team since 2001, he has operated globally, but has specific experience in Australia, South America, India and Vietnam. Experience has included project generation, project management, business analysis, mine geology and exploration management and, most recently, he lead the exploration component of the WMC integration.
Mr. Johnston — vice-president, corporate development
Formerly general manager of exploration with Placer Dome, Mr. Johnston oversaw Placer’s exploration efforts in Australia and Asia, where he was a senior member of Placer’s exploration and Asia-Pacific operations management team.
Prior to this role, Mr. Johnston was technical services manager for Placer at the massive Porgera gold mine in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, where he managed the technical teams responsible for exploration, geology, geotech and engineering within the 210,000-tonne-per-day open pit and 3,000-tonne-per-day underground operations.
With 20 years of experience in the mining industry, the last 11 of which were with Placer Dome, Mr. Johnston brings to Nautilus a strong knowledge of the mining industry, people, decision makers and laws throughout the Asia-Pacific region. He also has extensive ore-reserve and project-evaluation experience, a record of finding orebodies, and a strong understanding of all aspects of deep-sea mining, through his management of Placer’s involvement in Nautilus’s Solwara project.
Mr. Baulch — vice-president, exploration
Mr. Baulch joins Nautilus from Placer Dome, where most recently he was manager of the Solwara project on the Nautilus offshore tenements, where he was involved with the project from due diligence onward.
Mr. Baulch has over 10 years of experience in minerals exploration and production, mostly with Placer Dome. After graduating with a BAppSc (honours) in geology from the University of South Australia, Mr. Baulch joined Placer Dome at the Granny Smith mine in Western Australia and was part of the team that discovered the world-class Wallaby deposit, the largest gold deposit found in Australia in the last 15 years. In 2002, Mr. Baulch completed an MSc in mineral economics through the Western Australian School of Mines and, as part of the Placer Dome global exploration team, Mr. Baulch has been involved in project generation, acquisition and management of gold, platinum group elements and base metals projects in the Asia-Pacific region.
Mr. Creed — vice-president, sustainability
Mr. Creed joins Nautilus from Placer Dome, where he was a global safety and sustainability co-ordinator for exploration and construction.
Mr. Creed has 12 years of mineral industry experience after completing a bachelor of applied science in environmental studies at James Cook University, North Queensland, Australia, in 1994. He has experience in risk management, environmental permitting, community consultation and indigenous landholder relations from working as an environmental manager at various mining and exploration operations throughout Australia.
Mr. Creed was intimately involved in Placer Dome’s Solwara drilling and sampling program in 2006, advising and assisting in the co-ordination of the scientific program and on board risk management.
Nautilus chief executive officer, Mr. Heydon, comments: “At a time when it is difficult to recruit people in the mining industry, Nautilus has successfully managed to assemble a quality team. I think this reflects well on the potential of the company and the quality of its projects. With this team we are well placed to move forward to our goal of becoming the first company to economically produce metal from the sea floor.”
