Mark Lochtenberg – Non-Executive Chairman
Mr Lochtenberg graduated with a Bachelor of Law (Hons) degree from Liverpool University, U.K. and has been actively involved in the coal industry for more than 30 years.
Mark Lochtenberg is the former Executive Chairman and founding Managing Director of ASX-listed Baralaba Coal Company Limited (formerly Cockatoo Coal Limited). He was a principal architect of Cockatoo’s inception and growth from an early-stage grassroots explorer through to an emerging mainstream coal producer.
Mark was also formerly the co-head of Glencore International AG’s worldwide coal division, where he spent 13 years overseeing a range of trading activities including the identification, due diligence, negotiation, acquisition and aggregation of the coal project portfolio that would become Xstrata Coal.
Prior to this Mark established a coal “ swaps” market for Bain Refco, (Deutsche bank) after having served as a senior coal trader for Hansen Neuerburg AG and as coal marketing manager for Peko Wallsend Limited.
Mark has previously been a Director of ASX-listed Pacific American Coal Limited and Cumnock Coal Limited and of privately held United Collieries Pty Limited and is currently a Director of Australian Transport and Energy Corridor Pty Limited, (ATEC) and listed public company Nickel Mines Pty Limited.
John Braham – Managing Director
John is an experienced Mining Finance and Investment professional with a 24-year career at Macquarie Bank, the last 11 of which were as an Executive Director within the Mining Finance Division. John is currently a non-executive director of ASX listed Castile Resources Limited.
John built and ran a successful mining finance business in New York for Macquarie Bank from 2001 to 2008, providing capital to the junior mining industry. This involved providing debt and equity to exploration companies and mine developers in both North and South America including companies operating in Argentina, Peru and Chile.
On returning to Australia, John built from scratch a successful bulk commodity finance business for Macquarie Bank which he ran from 2008 to 2015 based in Sydney. He was made co-head of Macquarie’s global Mining Finance business in 2016. John left Macquarie Bank in 2017 to be Principal of JR Braham Consulting Pty Ltd which provides advice to junior resource companies seeking capital.
Damien Koerber – Executive Director
Damien graduated from the UNSW completing a BSc. Geology (Hons Class 1) in 1989, is a bilingual, Australian geologist and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG).
Mr Koerber holds 30 years of exploration experience, mainly throughout and based in Latin America. He has held senior management and consulting exploration and business development positions in companies including Billiton Gold (Northern Territory and Western Australia), North (Chile), Rio Algom (Chile), Newcrest (Chile, Argentina and Peru), MIM (Argentina and Brazil), Patagonia Gold SA (Chile and Argentina) and Mirasol Resources (Chile and Argentina).
During his career, he has been directly involved in several discoveries including Cleo-Sunrise Dam (Western Australia), Tanami (Northern Territory), Union Reefs (Northern Territory) and Cap Oeste-COSE (Argentina).
Robert Yeates – Non-Executive Director
Robert Yeates is a graduate of the University of NSW, completing a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours 1) in 1971 and a PhD in 1977 and then an MBA in 1986 from Newcastle University. He began his career with Peko Wallsend working in a variety of roles including mining engineering, project management, mine management and marketing.
He became General Manager Marketing for Oakbridge Pty Limited in 1989 following a merger with the Peko Wallsend coal businesses and went on to become Managing Director of Oakbridge, which was the largest coal mining company in NSW at that time, operating one open cut and five underground coal mines.
Dr Yeates has gained operating, business development and infrastructure experience as a director of Port Waratah Coal Services (Newcastle Port), Port Kembla Coal Terminal, Great Northern Mining Corporation NL and Cyprus Australia Coal and for the past 18 years has been principal of his own mine management consultancy, providing a wide range of technical, management and strategic planning services to the mining industry. Until last year he was also Project Director then CEO of Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group, which has developed and is operating coal export facilities in Newcastle.
David (Ted) Coupland – Non-Executive Director
Ted Coupland graduated from the University of New England, completing a Bachelor of Science in Geology. With a Post-Graduate Degree in Geostatistics from the Paris School of Mines, Post-Graduate Diploma in Mineral Economics from Macquarie University and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia. Ted is a Corporate Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM).
Ted has had a comprehensive technical career in the resources sector covering exploration, mine geology, resource estimation, risk analysis, resource consulting and business management. Ted spent 6 years between 2013 and 2018 working in Macquarie Bank’s Mining Finance team where he specialised in technical due diligence, deal origination, client relationship management, principal equity investing, mezzanine finance, structured project finance and commodity derivative structures. As a professional Geologist and Geostatistician, Ted has been involved with many technically challenging resource projects around the globe covering a range of commodities including gold, silver, copper, base metals, PGM’s, bauxite and coal.
Ryan Austerberry – Non-Executive Director
Ryan Austerberry has over 15 years of experience in the resource industry with a background in Mining Engineering, predominantly undertaking technical roles and operations management. Ryan has had comprehensive technical roles and operations management through a variety of mining engineering roles into project work.
Ryan has been with Mandalay Resources Corporation (TSX:MDN) (‘Mandalay’) for most of his career, he is the current General Manager of Operations at Costerfield in Victoria and previously was General Manager of Björkdal in Sweden. Ryan has previously assisted with developing Cerro Bayo and has operational knowledge of the Cerro Bayo Mine in Chile.
Ryan holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Mining from the University of Ballarat, and an MBA from the Australian Institute of Business. Ryan is a Chartered Professional in Mining with the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM).