Company Officers
Santana Minerals has an highly experienced board with a proven track record of exploration and operational success.
Tony McDonald
Non-Executive Director
Mr McDonald graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from Queensland University of Technology and has extensive experience as a lawyer and a director of listed public companies. Mr McDonald is also a director of ASX listed PPK Group Limited.
Richard E Keevers
Non-Executive Director
Mr Keevers graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of New England in NSW. He is a qualified and experienced geologist, having held senior positions with BH South Limited and Newmont during his 20 years in the mining industry.
Subsequently he was an executive director of Pembroke Josephson Wright Limited, an Australian share brokerage firm, for ten years.
Mr Keevers is currently a Director of Renascor Resources Limited.
Frederick James Leslie Bunting
Non-Executive Director
Mr Bunting is a geologist with 48 years of exploration experience, graduating with BSc (Hons) from Auckland University NZ in 1971 and with MSc (distinction) from Rhodes University South Africa in 1977.
A passionate explorer, Mr Bunting worked in Southern Africa for over a decade with Anglo American Corp identifying new primary and secondary uranium deposits in Namibia, and new zinc, iron ore and manganese deposits in South Africa’s Northern Cape. After managing Anglo’s New Zealand subsidiary, Gold Mines of NZ in 1984, he moved to private company operations and identified alluvial gold resources in both the West Coast and Otago Provinces of NZ which were subsequently commercially mined.
A move to Asia in 1991, was the start of a decade of exploration in both Indonesia and Malaysia, identifying new alluvial gold in Kalimantan, and whilst managing a Perilya Mines-Mamut Copper JV until 2001, new satellite porphyry copper-gold deposits to the Mamut Copper mine in Sabah Malaysia.
On return to New Zealand in 2005, researching the Otago goldfields led to his company Depot Corporation acquiring prospecting permits over the Dunstan Range from 2011. Fieldwork identified new orogenic gold extensions outside the historical Bendigo goldfield and known Rise & Shine Shear zone (RSSZ).
Mr Bunting co-founded Matakanui in 2014 to advance the Bendigo-Ophir project and has overseen growth of Matakanui and project, including award of the RSSZ permit area to Matakanui in 2018, consolidation of permits, securing land access for exploration and mining, and upgrade of resources to JORC compliance with ongoing new exploration successes.
Warren Batt
Non-Executive Director
Mr Batt is a highly experienced geologist and mining professional with over 45 years of experience in the Australian Mining and exploration industry including senior roles in management and well as directorships of former ASX-listed Perilya Limited and RedfireResources Limited (subsequently CBH Resources Limited).
As manager of Homestake NZ Exploration Limited, Mr Batt was responsible for acquiring and managing the Macraes gold project prior to sale of Homestake’s NZ interests to BHP in 1987. Following this he was Exploration Director of Perilya from 1988 to 2001. During this period Perilya grew from a junior exploration company capitalised at $2 million to a medium sized mining company with a market capitalization of $100 million. The company produced 60,000 oz gold per year between 1994 and 2001 from its Fortnum gold mine in Western Australia and acquired an extensive portfolio of gold and base metal exploration projects in Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand.
Mr Batt retired in 1999 until 2009 when he co-founded privately owned Waikaia Gold Limited which until 2019 was New Zealand’s largest alluvial gold miner producing 10,000 to 20,000 oz per annum over 6 years. As Managing Director of the company he was responsible for acquisition, evaluation, permiting, financing and subsequent oversight of development and mining operations at Waikaia in Southland, New Zealand.
Mr Batt has been a director and co-founder of Matakanui since 2014, during which time the company has significantly expanded the area held under permit in the Bendigo-Ophir project area, including obtaining the grant of exploration rights over the key Rise and Shine area, which has recognised potential for a large low grade resource amenable to heap leaching and has raised $ 2 million from private investors to advance exploration.
Craig J McPherson
Corporate Secretary
Mr McPherson graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Queensland and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. He has twenty years of commercial and financial management experience and has held various roles with ASX and TSX listed companies over the past ten years in Australia and overseas.