Corporate

Michael Konnert is a mining entrepreneur with deep expertise in deal-making, financing, team leadership and strategic corporate development. As the Founder, President, Director and CEO of Vizsla Silver Corp. (NYSE:VZLA), he has successfully led the company in consolidating one of Mexico’s highest-grade silver and gold districts, positioning it to develop one of the world’s largest single-asset silver producers. He is also co-founder and Managing Partner of Inventa Capital, a natural resource incubator company dedicated to acquiring and developing assets in the natural resource sector. Since its founding in 2017, Inventa has raised over C$800M in capital, focusing on discovering emerging opportunities in the industry.

In 2017, Michael co-founded CobaltOne Energy Corp, a battery metal exploration company, which he successfully led to acquisition by Blackstone Minerals (ASX: BSX). He also serves as Executive Chairman of Vizsla Royalties and holds board positions at Vizsla Copper (TSX-V: VCU) and Summa Silver (CSE: SSVR). Michael’s career is marked by his strategic vision, commitment to sustainable development, and innovative approach to the mining industry.

Mr. Liyanage is a seasoned, organized, and responsible Chartered Professional Accountant with more than 20 years of experience across diverse industries. Special strengths in Canadian public company reporting and regulatory compliance, business spin-offs/mergers and acquisitions, treasury management, Canadian and US tax compliance. He has many years of experience with Mexican mining companies and specializes in helping Canadian companies achieve optimal operations in Mexico. He was most recently with Evrim/Orogen and in the past he had worked with the Manex Resource Group.

Mr. Cmrlec is a highly experienced senior engineer with over 30-years of industry experience who has been a director of Vizsla Silver since its formation and has most recently held the position of Chief Operating Officer of Ausenco, a global mining engineering and consulting firm. He has extensive experience in building mining projects around the world and across a number of different commodities and will be tasked with advancing Vizsla Silver’s world-class Panuco silver-gold Project towards production, with the goal of becoming one of the world’s largest single-asset silver producers.

Mr. Cmrlec began his career with Western Mining Corporation (WMC) at its Olympic Dam Mine in South Australia where he held several technical and operations roles. He was an Owners Representatives for the Olympic Dam Expansion Project (ODP) where he supported the design, construction and commissioning of the Smelter and Hydrometallurgical facilities. Following the completion of the ODP project Mr. Cmrlec joined Kvaerner and was involved in the construction and commissioning of various base metals, iron ore and gold projects in the US, South America, Middle East and South Africa. In 2001, he joined Inco on the Goro Nickel project in New Caledonia as the Project Manager responsible for the Refinery facility. Mr. Cmrlec held a number of roles on the Goro Nickel project including Senior Project Manager and Construction director in his eight years there. Mr. Cmrlec joined Ausenco in 2009 as the Manager, Project Delivery before assuming the role of President APAC/Africa. In 2015, Mr. Cmrlec moved to Canada and became Ausenco’s President North America before transitioning to President Americas in 2017 and the Chief Operating Officer in 2019.

Simon attended the Gartrell School of Mining, Metallurgy and Applied Geology at the University of South Australia and graduated with a B.Eng (Hons) in Metallurgical Engineering in 1994.

Mr. Pettingell is a geologist with over 10 years of experience working in both pre-producing and operating mines, as well as the capital markets. Prior to joining Vizsla, Michael spent the last four years working in equity research at Canaccord Genuity covering junior precious and base metal explorers and developers in the mining and metals sector. Prior to Canaccord, Mr. Pettingell worked for Hecla Mining, first in exploration at its Lucky Friday unit, and then in corporate development located in Vancouver. Michael started his career as an exploration geologist for Romarco Minerals at its Haile Gold mine prior to it being acquired by OceanaGold in 2015. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science in both Geology and Economics from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Applied Science in Mining Engineering from the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Velador has more than 20 years of experience in precious metals exploration, specializing in epithermal systems. Recently, he worked with Fortuna Silver Mines Inc., where he managed brownfields exploration programs in Mexico and Peru. Dr. Velador previously served as Director of Exploration for First Majestic Silver Corp., where he managed the exploration team that discovered the silver and gold deposit at Ermitaño, located adjacent to the company’s Santa Elena mine in Sonora, Mexico. Dr. Velador started his career working for Industrias Peñoles where his work was instrumental in the discovery of the Valdecañas Vein at the Juanicipio project, a Fresnillo – MAG Silver joint venture. Jesus earned a B.Sc. from the University of Chihuahua, a M.Sc from the University of Texas at El Paso and a Ph.D (Epithermal deposits) from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

Mr Rueda is a Professional Geologist with 20+ years of experience.

Former Regional Exploration Manager at Capstone Mining and former Project Evaluation Manager with Agnico Eagle.

Jennifer is a dedicated and versatile Senior Professional that brings more than 22 years of excellence in all aspects of human resource management, accounting, and administration, by generating invoices, resolving problems quickly, designing email system, processing income statement requests, administering HR functions, and achieving outcomes through a people-first method.

Through the course of his career, Mr. Parry has been a founder, director, CEO, senior executive and geologist working across a broad range of commodities with several companies.  He is currently Lead Director of Skeena Resources Ltd and has been a Director since December 15, 2016. He is the Executive Chairman and CEO of Vizsla Copper Corp. (since September 1, 2021).  He is a founder and Chairman of Vizsla Silver Corp. (since December 18, 2018). He was a founder, CEO and/or director of Valkea Resources Corp., Gold Bull Resources Corp., IsoEnergy Ltd (TSXV:ISO), NexGen Energy Ltd (NYSE:NXE), EMR Capital, Tigers Realm Coal (ASX:TIG), Tigers Realm Minerals, and G-Resources Group. He worked for Rio Tinto from 2000 to 2008.

Mr. Parry has led teams and been involved in a number of exceptional discoveries and resource projects including Vizsla’s discovery of new veins at its Panuco-Copala silver district, IsoEnergy’s Hurricane uranium deposit, NexGen’s Arrow uranium deposit and Tigers Realm Coal’s Amaam and Amaam North coking coal deposits.

Mr. Parry graduated from The University of New South Wales and holds a Bachelor of Science (Applied Geology) with first class Honours and the University Medal. He is a member of the AusIMM.

Capital Markets Executive with 30+ years experience in mining and technology. Former Managing Director at Macquarie Capital Markets, CEO of Hive Block chain, Director of Kore Mining, Gold X Mining Corp., BQ Metals Corp, Lithium X and Fiore Exploration.

David is a veteran investment banker with 25 years of financial services experience. Currently, he is Vice Chairman of Metals and Mining, Macquarie Group where he is responsible for sourcing and leading merger, acquisition, sale and defence transactions for clients ranging from exploration and development companies to global metals & mining companies. David clients are based in Canada, US, U.K., South Africa and Australia.

In addition, David has extensive experience in global commodity and securities markets. David joined Macquarie in 2011 as a Managing Director, Head of Mining, Macquarie Capital Markets Canada. Prior to joining Macquarie, David worked at CIBC World Markets and CIBC Capital Partners for 13 years in various capacities, including as a Managing Director, Global Mining Investment Banking and Managing Director, Equity Capital Markets.

David holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, University of Western Ontario and Masters of Business Administration (MBA), Harvard Business School.

Mr. Luna has spent over forty years in the precious metals mining industry and has held prior senior executive and board positions at several companies including Industrial Peñoles, Goldcorp Inc., Luismin SA de CV, Wheaton River Minerals Ltd., Alamos Gold Inc., Dyna Resource, Inc. and Primero Mining Corporation.

He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rochester Resources Ltd., a junior natural resources company with assets in Mexico. He formerly served as a member of the Board of Directors of Wheaton Precious Metals Corporation. Mr. Luna is the former President of the Mexican Mining Chamber and a former President of the Silver Institute.

He is an inductee in the Mexico Mining Hall of Fame and serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Faculty of Mines at the University of Guanajuato where he received a degree in Mining Engineering.

Ms. Gill currently serves as a partner and is a member of the executive committee at Smythe LLP. She is a Chartered Professional Accountant with 23 years of experience and specializes in providing audit and assurance services to publicly traded companies operating in the resource industry, as well as private companies across several industries in both Canada and the United States. Ms. Gill is also a director of Skeena Resources Limited. She was previously on the board of directors for the Provincial Health Services Authority and British Columbia Emergency Health Services. Ms. Gill is passionate about forging connections and collaborating with diverse groups of people. She is committed to continuous learning for students and professionals at Smythe LLP.

Dr. Peter Megaw, C.P.G., has a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Arizona and more than 30 years of relevant experience focused on silver and gold exploration in Mexico. He is a certified Professional Geologist by the American Institute of Professional Geologists and an Arizona Registered Geologist. Dr. Megaw has been instrumental in a number of mineral discoveries in Mexico including new ore bodies at existing mines, Excellon Resources’ Platosa Mine, and MAG Silver’s Juanicipio and Cinco de Mayo properties; discoveries for which he was given PDAC’s 2016 Thayer Lindsley Award. Peter is the author of numerous scientific publications on ore deposits and is a frequent speaker at academic and international exploration and mineralogical conferences.

Mr. Berdegué is a Mazatlán-based entrepreneur with a BA Degree in Financial Management from Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey and a Masters Degree in International Management from Instituto de Empresas Business School in Madrid, Spain. He holds a degree in Finance with a specialization in corporate law (ITESM), and a Masters in Management (IE Business School), and holds certificates in mining studies (UBC) and advanced corporate finance (LSE). He is a Founding Partner and CEO of Durango Gold Corp., a private US-based mining exploration company with a strong focus on ESG, and was a Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor to Tonogold Resources, Inc. until 2020, which consolidated the historic Comstock Lode in Nevada and where he proposed an innovative multidisciplinary approach for exploration. He brings to the Company a diverse range of education, experiences, and interests including law and humanities, environment, sustainability, governance, venture capital, and responsible mining, including  extensive experience in Mexican business as a Member of the Advisory Board of the family business, El Cid Mega Resorts (CIDMEGA.MX).