Board of Directors

Mr. Maxwell has over 30 years of minerals industry experience in operations, exploration, business and project development, project finance, equities, executive leadership, risk management and ESG. He is an Operating Partner with Pacific Road Capital, is deeply involved in the firm’s investment program, and chairs Pacific Road’s ESG Committee. He is currently an Executive Director of North Coal Limited, a high CSR low carbon metallurgical coal development company and a director of Corbin Road Land Company Limited, a large land company and biodiversity reserve in southeastern British Columbia. He previously led the global coal business at BHP, and BHP’s exploration and business development group. Prior to BHP, had substantial corporate mining strategy and business development experience with Rio Tinto and Anglo American, and markets-facing experience with Citigroup.
Mr Maxwell is Pacific Road Capital’s nominated Non-Executive Director of the Company and the Chairman of Safety, Health, Environment and CSR Committee.

Mr De Pretto has 40 years of experience in the diamond mining industry. Prior to his current appointment, Mr De Pretto was Chief Operating Officer and acting Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company. He began his career in 1982 as a trainee engineer at De Beers and has occupied various operational and leadership roles including Production Manager of Venetia Mine, General Manager of Namaqualand Mines and Technical Manager for De Beers Consolidated Mines. He transferred to Anglo American in 2010 to look after the Technology Development portfolio and the Anglo Research Laboratories prior to joining Diamcor as General Manager. Mr De Pretto is a metallurgical engineer with a Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand. He also completed the Management Advancement Programme at Wits Business School and the Executive Management Programme at London Business School. He is a registered Professional Engineer and a Fellow of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and a Member of the South African Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Mr Stirzaker has 40 years of commercial experience, mainly in mining finance and mining investment. He began his career in Sydney as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG before moving into investment banking with the HSBC Group and then Kleinwort Benson Limited in London. From 1993 to 2007 he was part of the natural resource advisory and investment firm, RFC Group Limited, where he became Joint Managing Director. From 2010 until 2019 Mr Stirzaker was a partner with the private equity mining fund manager, Pacific Road Capital Management, and since 2019 has served in various non-executive director roles. He is currently the Non-executive Chairman of Akora Resources Limited, Base Resources Limited and Southern Palladium Limited. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Cape Town and is a qualified Chartered Accountant in Australia. Mr Stirzaker was previously Pacific Road Capital Management’s nominated Non-Executive Director of the Company and is the Chairman of Audit Committee.