Dr. Keith Barron has been involved as an Exploration Economic Geologist and entrepreneur for over 39 years, in more than nineteen countries. His major expertise is in gold and precious gems, though he has considerable experience in base metals, uranium and industrial minerals. His doctoral thesis documented the world’s oldest epithermal gold-silver deposit at Springpole Lake in Canada. In 2001, he privately co-founded Ecuador gold explorer Aurelian Resources Inc., which was listed on the TSX-V in 2003 and made the colossal Fruta del Norte gold discovery in 2006. The company was bought by Kinross Gold in 2008 for $1.2 billion. He is President and Director of Firestone Ventures (TSXV:FV) and President of Potentate Mining in Montana, USA, the world’s second largest sapphire miner. He has served as a Director of several other listed companies. At the PDAC convention in March 2008 he was awarded the Thayer Lindsley International Discovery Award for his role in the discovery of the Fruta del Norte gold deposit and he was also jointly named the Northern Miner’s Mining Man of the Year 2008. He holds a PhD in Geology from the University of Western Ontario and a BSc. (Hons) in Geology from the University of Toronto.