Mining's young guns

Grams per tonne, net smelter return royalties and bankable feasibility studies are all very well and good. But any mining-stock veteran will tell you it’s the people involved - as directors, promoters or executives - who indicate the quality of a project.

How do you spot the hot up-and-coming names? Newletter publisher Casey Research has come up with “Casey’s NexTen: Our Top 10 Rising Stars in the Natural Resource Sector.”

Here’s the link to the report.

The inaugural list is:

• Kevin Bambrough, president & CEO of Sprott Resource Corp. (SCP-T) and president of asset manager Sprott (SII - T) Inc. We interviewed the 39-year-old Tuesday on Commodities.
• Brian Dalton, 36, a Newfoundlander who is president and CEO of Eastern Canadian project-generation and royalty company Altius Minerals (ALS-T).
• Pat DiCapo, 36, managing director of merchant bank PowerOne Capital Markets and a director of Petrolifera Petroleum Ltd (PDP - T).
• Amir Adnani, 32, president and CEO of Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC - N), which plans "near-term uranium production in the U.S."
• The team of Dr. Nicole Adshead-Bell, 36, and Kevin Campbell, 34. Adshead-Bell is a former vice-president of investment banking at Haywood Securities who recently left to pursue new opportunities, while Campbell remains a VP of investment banking at Haywood.
• Jorge A. Ganoza Durant, 40, geological engineer, president and CEO of Fortuna Silver (FVI - T). Fortuna owns the Caylloma mine in the southern highlands of Peru and a project in southern Mexico.
• Morgan Poliquin, 38, is the son of mining industry legend Duane Poliquin, who identified the Santa Fe gold property in Nevada and the Trinidad gold deposit in Mexico. Morgan Poliquin is president and COO of Almaden Minerals Ltd (AMM - T) Almaden says it “reduces the risk and cost of exploration by joint venturing our ideas to other companies which fund further exploration on our projects in order to earn an interest.” Duane Poliquin is chairman.
• Govind Friedland is the 38-year-old son of mining tycoon Robert Friedland and president and CEO of privately-held Govi High-Power Exploration.
• Nolan Watson, 31, President and CEO of royalty player Sandstorm Resources Ltd. (SSL - X) and a director of Gold Wheaton Gold (GLW – T) Corp.
• Robert John “Lucky Shot” McLeod, 39, director of Underworld Resources Inc. (acquired by Kinross); a director of Keegan Resources Inc. (KGN - T); director and VP exploration at Full Metal Minerals Ltd. (FMM – X) and a director of Nuukfjord Gold (now Revolution Resources). His cousins are industry players Catherine McLeod-Seltzer and Bruce McLeod.

 We also interviewed Casey analyst Marin Katusa, who talked about the criteria for making the list. Here’s the link.