JOHN CUMMING
B.A., L.L.B., L.L.M. – EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN
Mr. Cumming holds Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees from the University of British Columbia and a Masters in Laws degree with specialty in corporate and commercial law from King’s College, University of London. Mr. Cumming has served as a director and officer of numerous public resource corporations since beginning his legal career in 1978. From 2005 to February 2017 Mr. Cumming served as Executive Vice-President and CFO of Merrex Gold Inc., a company that was active in the West African gold space for over 12 years. In 2008 Mr. Cumming negotiated the Merrex-IAMGOLD exploration Joint Venture deal which in 2014 discovered the Diakha gold deposit in West Mali. In December 2016 Mr. Cumming lead both the Merrex negotiating team and the transaction legal team that successfully negotiated and concluded the sale of Merrex to IAMGOLD Corporation in the $43 million share takeover deal that closed February 28, 2017. (Merrex Gold News Release December 22, 2016)
J. FRANÇOIS LALONDE
ENG. (B.SC. CIVIL ENGINEERING) – PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
An engineer by profession, Mr. Lalonde has acquired more than 25 years of experience on the international scene working for major engineering and construction multinationals such as SNC-Lavalin, Groupe Pomerleau and Bouygues TP, a French organization where he currently acts as International Business Development Consultant. He has particular knowledge of markets in Africa, the Middle East, United States and Canada, where he has notably participated in large-scale energy, motorway and other infrastructure development projects. Mr. Lalonde has served as a Director of Stellar Africagold since 2011 and as CEO since April 2021. The company has announced a gold discovery at the Tichka Est project in Morocco and has been granted a license for the Zuenoula project in Côte d’Ivoire under his leadership. He also serves on the Board of Directors of other public companies listed on the TSX Venture Exchange
YASSINE BELKABIR
CEng, MIMMM, MSc DIC – DIRECTOR
Mr Belkabir is the founder and managing partner of the African Bureau of Mining Consultants (ABM) of Casablanca, Morocco. He served previously as Director of Mergers and Acquisitions for Managem Group, a publicly traded mining group listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange. Mr Belkabir has extensive experience assessing mineral properties and managing multidisciplinary teams. He supervised multiple transactions in Africa, including Stellar’s acquisition of the Tichka Est Gold Project in Morocco, the sale of Stellar’s own Balandougou Gold Project in Guinea, and for Managem Group, the sale of Pumpi Copper-Cobalt Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the acquisition for the Tri-K Gold Project in Guinea. He is also a Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) London, England, and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101. Mr Belkabir is a chartered engineer with a Diploma in engineering from INPT-ENSEEIHT and a master’s Degree in Metals and Energy Finance from Imperial College London.
Dr PAUL KITTO
Dr Kitto has over thirty years’ experience working within the mining industry having served on a number of ASX Boards and holding senior level management positions around the world. Dr Kitto is currently Technical Director for Meteoric Resources (ASX:MIE) and Non-Executive Director for Peako Ltd (ASX:PKO). From 2019 – 2024 he was a Non-Executive Director for the Cote d’Ivoire gold miner Tietto Minerals (ASX:TIE) prior to its takeover by Zhaojin Capital.Most recently Dr Kitto was Exploration Manager, Africa for Newcrest Mining Ltd and prior to that, was Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of ASX listed Ampella Mining Ltd from 2008 until 2014, when Ampella was acquired by LSE/TSX listed Centamin PLC. Throughout his career, Dr Kitto has led or been part of exploration teams that have discovered numerous multi‐million ounce gold deposits in Africa, Australia and Papua New Guinea. Dr Kitto has extensive experience associated with a wide range of deposit types, predominantly associated with gold and base metals.
LAUREN MCCRAE
DIRECTOR – Ms McCrae is an award-winning public affairs and brand researcher. She is multilingual and holds a BA in International Studies from Glendon College, York University, Toronto, a Masters in International Security from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (SciencesPo), Paris, and a MSc in International Political Economy with distinction from the London School of Economics and Political Science, London. During her career she has served as: Senior Consultant, Policy & Evaluation Unit of Ipsos MORI, London; Senior Researcher for One World Trust, London, where she investigated and reported on the accountability of international organizations including the World Bank, World Health Organization and World Trade Organization; Policy Analyst for The Serco Institute, a London-based think tank producing research endorsed by the British Cabinet Office; and as Researcher for the 2020 Public Services Trust, London, delivering large research projects on public service reforms during which time she reported to high-profile, cross-party Trustees including five members of the House of Lords. Ms McCrae has authored and co-authored several published papers on public policy and research methodology. She is currently Manager of Stakeholder Engagement at WorkSafe BC
Francis M. Y. BOULLE
DIRECTOR – Mr. Boulle is the founder and CEO of American Terbium Corp., a company commercializing a new and disruptive geological model that has defined high grade rapidly leachable Dy-Tb (Dysrosium-Terbium) deposits in the United States and Canada.
Mr. Boulle is British born, fluent in English and French. He studied Philosophy and Economics at the University of Edinburgh. Boulle has 17 years experience in mineral exploration, development and production after starting his career at 19 with Madagascar Resources, working on the Toliara Mineral Sands project in southern Madagascar. This project was later acquired by Base Resources for US$85 million.
At 23, Mr. Boulle co-founded a mining services company in Ghana, that provided contract mining services to West African gold explorers including TSX-listed Xtra-Gold Resources Corp. He is also a co-founder of Electrum Discovery Corp. [TSX-V:ELY], which went public in January 2024 on the TSX Venture Exchange through a reverse takeover and was recently selected for the prestigious BHP Xplor 2025 cohort.
Raised in a family with deep roots in mining, Mr. Boulle was exposed to the resource exploration and development industry from an early age, gaining invaluable insights from his father and four uncles.
As an accomplished director and corporate development expert, Mr. Boulle has established and funded businesses across diverse sectors worldwide, including mining and metals, fast-moving consumer goods, entertainment, and technology.
Anthony Trevisan
DIRECTOR – is Chairman of the Transcontinental Group which he founded in 1980. It is active in exploration and development in the mineral, oil and gas, real estate development and the IT and industrial sectors, and has established and managed more than 20 public companies listed on stock exchanges around the world, and additional private companies. With over 30 years of experience, Mr. Trevisan played a pivotal role in a wide range of corporate and commercial scenarios – including substantial equity and debt financing, mergers and acquisitions, the restructuring of industrial, petroleum and mineral resources-based public companies, and the establishment of significant and successful businesses.
Mr. Trevisan has extensive experience in acquisitions and the establishment of commercial operations, together with raising and structuring financial instruments to fund the development of significant projects in Australia and overseas. He has been responsible for public offerings and the floating of companies with a combined value of more than $1 billion on the Australian Stock Exchange and other major global exchanges.
Mr. Trevisan has held senior executive positions in companies with a wide range of petroleum, mining, industrial and high technology interests, including Arabex Petroleum NL (Rubiales Petroleum Discovery), Callina NL (petroleum work-over project in Russia, Komi, Oil Field), Trident Petroleum Ltd (joint venture with Conoco, now ConocoPhillips in Papua New Guinea), Continental Goldfields Ltd, Aqua Vital (Australia) Ltd (now owned by Coca Cola), Cable Televisions Services Ltd (now part of Foxtel), Atlas Pacific Ltd and Mediterranean Oil & Gas plc, and Ausgold limited.
He has also been responsible for successfully negotiating joint venture agreements with major corporations including BHP, Phillips, EcoPetrol and Mannai Qatar. In 2009, Mr. Trevisan’s Group funded a significant exploration programme in partnership with the Centre for Exploration Targeting of the University of West Australia.