Mr. Ball served as President of McEwen Mining Inc., where he was responsible for overseeing the Company’s production and exploration programs throughout Mexico, Argentina and Nevada. Mr. Ball is credited with leading the team that built the El Gallo 1 Mine, in addition to making the El Gallo 2 discovery in Mexico. Previous to his position with McEwen Mining, he worked for McEwen Capital. He originally began his career with Goldcorp in 2004 and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree.
Mr. Thompson has 30 years of experience in building and operating open pit and underground, precious and base metals mines in Canada, Australia and the Middle East. From 2012 to 2017, he was President and Chief Operating Officer of Huckleberry Mines Ltd., which owns and operates the open-pit Huckleberry copper and molybdenum mine located in west central British Columbia. Mr. Thompson has supervised large development projects including the roughly $100 million expansion of the Huckleberry Mine and the $450 million construction of the Jabal Sayid mine in Saudi Arabia for Equinox Minerals. More recently, he worked on optimizing operations for the Silvertip Mine in northern British Columbia prior to the takeover of JDS Silver by Coeur Mining. Previous board experience includes directorship for Minto Explorations in the Yukon and the Mining Association of British Columbia. (Randall Thompson is of no relation to Chairman & CEO, Gary R. Thompson.)
Mr. Highsmith has more than 30 years of international experience including operational, exploration and business development roles with major companies such as Newmont Mining, BHP, Rio Tinto, and Fortescue Metals Group. He also has co-founded, and/or acted as a director or senior executive in several junior companies. His junior company pedigree includes Canadian listed companies such as: Lithium One, Bellhaven Copper & Gold, Pure Energy Minerals, Champion Electric Metals, and FireFox Gold, for whom he is co-founder and chairman of the board. He is currently President & CEO of Timberline Resources, which announced in April 2024 its acquisition by McEwen Mining Inc. Mr. Highsmith holds degrees in Geological Engineering and Economic Geology (Geochemistry) from the Colorado School of Mines.
