David Smith has been in the minerals exploration business for over 20 years. His experience spans the exploration industry and includes work in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Chile, and China on a wide range of ore deposits with particular emphasis on gold and precious metals.
In 1991 Dave worked for INCO's American subsidiary American Copper and Nickel at the Mineral Hill Mine in Jardine, Montana, where he did research on the high-grade Archean lode gold deposit, which was published in Economic Geology.
As Chief Geologist, he ran the exploration operations of La Esperanza Gold Explorations in western Mexico from 1995 to 1998, and was involved in discovering and drilling the Solidaridad deposit, now in development. Solidaridad has the potential to be one of the principal new ore deposits in Mexico, with an estimated 750,000 ounces gold, 2.3 million ounces silver, and 44 million pounds copper.
Dave was Chief Geologist for China Global Mining Resources in 2009 at the Xiaonanshan Mine in eastern China, where he mapped the complex hydrothermal magnetite iron deposit and directed a six-rig diamond drilling program and resource modeling that tripled the project's resource. During 2010 he was Vice President of Exploration and Sustainability for Standard Gold, where he managed the company's exploration and project evaluation activities.
Dave excels at careful geologic observations and their synthesis in understanding ore-forming systems; management of all aspects of mineral projects from acquisition to mapping, drilling, resource modeling, and development; first-rate geologic report writing and editing skills; sustainable innovations for mining, and an understanding of the business components necessary for successful resource projects.
Dave holds a BA from Carleton College, 1986; a MS from the University of Oregon, 1995; and
a MBA from Bainbridge Graduate Institute, 2007. He has also worked as a hydrogeologist and
technical editor. He earned a grade of A+ in the University of MichiganŐs geology field camp, and
was nominated for USGS Summer Field Training Program. He was awarded Reviewer of the Year
in 1996 by Mineralium Deposita, Europe's top mineral deposits research journal. He is a Certified
Professional Geologist with the American Institute of Professional Geologists.