Grant Thomas is a geoscientist with 30 years' professional experience covering mineral exploration, project acquisition, resource evaluation and valuations for several commodities including copper, lead, zinc, uranium, coal, gold, diamonds, phosphate and fluorspar in Australia, China, South Africa, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia and Mongolia. As managing director of Tianshan Goldfields, Mr Thomas discovered the 2.4Moz Xinjiang Gold Mountain deposit (Xinjiang, China) and led teams that completed resource estimates, evaluation and pre-feasibility studies for the project. As managing director of Celsius Coal, Mr Thomas established exploration and mining operations in Kyrgyzstan and led teams that defined the first JORC code compliant resources of coking coal at Tuyuk and Kargasha deposits. Mr Thomas has completed several substantial capital raisings in London, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore. Prior to Tianshan Goldfields, he held senior positions with Rio Tinto Exploration (Australia, Brazil and China) and Hamersley Iron and was involved in major projects such as Century and Dugald River (Zn/Pb), Westmoreland (U), and discovery of Homestead deposit (Fe). Mr Thomas has consulted for Dragon Mining Consulting (HK) primarily as a Competent Person and Valuer to various international and Chinese coal companies listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In this role, he completed Technical and Valuer reports including JORC conversions, for several coal projects in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang provinces of China and Tajikistan and gold projects in South Africa. Mr Thomas' expertise includes exploration (several discoveries), project generation, project acquisition, resource evaluations and valuations, mine establishment and strategic planning; liaising with Australian and international Resource Departments, negotiating with foreign governments and joint venture partners; statutory and Stock Exchange reports; and presentations to companies, stockbrokers and financial institutions. Mr. Thomas holds a Bachelor degree in Science from Adelaide University in Australia and is a Member of AusIMM and AIG.
