About Us

Chairman

George Lloyd

MBA, B Eng Sc (Industrial), FAusIMM

Appointed January 2009

Mr George Lloyd is involved in providing advisory services to the resources sector. He is Chairman and an Executive Director of AWR Lloyd, an Asian-based firm providing mergers and acquisitions, corporate strategy, industrial research and investor relations advisory services to the mining and energy industries in Asia and Australia. He is also Chairman of ASX listed oil and gas exploration company Pryme Oil and Gas Limited and a non-executive director of Ausenco Limited, a major ASX listed resource industry engineering services firm.

Mr Lloyd has over 30 years resource industry experience and has served as a senior executive and board member of a number of listed and unlisted Australian resource companies with interests in minerals, energy, and resource industry services. Recent board positions include as a non-executive director of Goldfield Limited, AurionGold Limited and Equatorial Mining Limited.

Mr Lloyd holds a BEng Sc (Industrial Engineering) degree and an MBA degree, both from the University of NSW, and is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program.  He is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

Managing Director

Dr Paul Messenger

PhD, Grad Cert Mgt. (Tech Mgt.), MAusIMM

Appointed as Managing Director on 15 December 2009, Dr Paul Messenger had been Chief Executive Officer of Cape Alumina since February 2005 and has been the driving force behind the Company’s development since then.

Dr Messenger has 24 years experience in the Australian minerals industry and has worked extensively in the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and South-East Asia on a variety of mineral commodities. He has worked in a consultancy firm and mid-tier mining companies including a number of senior roles with the Gutnick Group of companies where he was engaged as an internal consultant and in project generation. Dr Messenger graduated with honours in geology from the University of Queensland in 1986, completed a PhD in Economic Geology in 1997 and a Graduate Certificate of Management in 2002. He is a member of the Geological Society of Australia and a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

Dr Messenger holds a BSc Hons (Geology), PhD and a Graduate Certificate in Management (Tech Mgmt).

Independent Non-Executive Director

Rennie Fritschy

BEng, BEc

Mr Rennie Fritschy has extensive bauxite mining and alumina refinery experience.  He was Managing Director of Queensland Alumina Limited (until recently the largest alumina refinery in the world) from 1995 till 2002.  He worked 18 years at Nabalco (now RTA Gove) including the roles of Technical Manager, Operations Manager and Site Manager of the bauxite mine and alumina plant.  During that period he spent 3 years on assignment in Zurich with the former Alusuisse carrying out diagnostic and design work for Alusuisse and third party alumina plants.  He has been involved in 4 major plant commissionings.

He is currently Chancellor of Central Queensland University, former Chairman and now Director of C_Management Services, a higher education provider with campuses in Eastern states capital cities and a Director elect of Cape Alumina Pty Ltd, a bauxite development company.

Mr Fritschy holds a BEng (Chemical) from Sydney University and a BEc from the University of WA.  He is a graduate of the International Advanced Management Course from IMI Geneva.  He is a Fellow of the Insitute of Engineers Australia

Non-Executive Director

Andrew Gillies

BSc (Geology) MAusIMM

Mr Andrew Gillies has been Managing Director of ASX-listed Metallica Minerals Limited and its subsidiaries since 1996.  He has been instrumental in the selection and acquisition of all the mineral assets now held by the Metallica Group and Cape Alumina.  Mr Gillies is a founding Director of Cape Alumina.  As the founder of Metallica, Mr Gillies, through his geological consultancy company, Golden Breed Pty Ltd is also a major shareholder of Metallica.

Mr Gillies’ key strength is strategic planning specialising in project generation, selection and acquisition.  He has acquired a considerable database and significant knowledge of metalliferous mineralisation and mineral deposits in Queensland.  Since 1985 he has worked continuously as a geologist in the mining and exploration industry, accruing over 20 years experience across a range of commodities.  He has been a company geologist with BHP Gold Mines Ltd, Perseverance Corporation Ltd and Cracow Mining Venture and a consulting geologist for various exploration companies until his full time role with Metallica in 1997. Over the last 22 years, he gained valuable experience in the exploration, feasibility, development, open pit and underground mining of mineral deposits.

Mr Gillies graduated from the University of Queensland in 1985 with a BSc (Geology) and is a member of the Aus.I.M.M.

Non-Executive Director

Peter Nicholson

BEng (Mining)

Mr Peter Nicholson has diverse experience in the mining industry. Mr Nicholson's experience has been in mine production, planning, management and finance. This experience has been gained at the private equity firm Resource Capital Funds (where he is currently a Partner), LionOre Australia (Nickel) Ltd and WMC Resource Ltd. Mr Nicholson has worked in eight underground mining operations and a centralised planning department. This has included managing the Emily Ann mine from a greenfields project to a successfully producing mine, supervising the twin decline development from the portals.

Mr Nicholson graduated from the University of Queensland with a BEng (Mining) and holds a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment majoring in Investment Analysis. Mr Nicholson is a Fellow of Finsia (Financial Services Institute of Australasia) and a member of the AusIMM (Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy).

Non-Executive Director

Valentine Smirnyagin

Mr Valentine Smirnyagin has been working within corporate finance and strategy for a number of steel, aluminium, mining and other industrial companies.  His career includes experience at the head offices of Alcoa Inc and Chromalox Inc in the United States and Scania AB in Sweden.  Valentine has been involved in the Greenfield mining projects in Indonesia as well as with steel companies in the former Soviet Union countries. Mr Smirnyagin graduated from University of Pittsburgh, Katz Graduate School of Business.

Non-Executive Director

Jijun Liu

Mr Jijun Liu is the General Manager and Chairman of the Xinfa Group Co Ltd, a member of various government committees and is Deputy to the Shandong Eleventh Peoples Congress.  Jijun studied thermal power plant engineering at Shandong Power Junior College.

Chief Financial Officer / Company Secretary

Scott Waddell

B.Bus, Dip.PMM (Dist), FCPA, GAICD, ACIS

Mr Scott Waddell was appointed as Cape Alumina's Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary in June 2010. Prior to joining Cape Alumina, Mr Waddell served as Head of Finance for the Monash Energy project in Victoria's La Trobe Valley, which is presently being developed by Anglo American Metallurgical Coal and Shell.

Mr Waddell's resources experience has been gained over nine years with Anglo Coal and a further eight years with Rio Tinto Alcan in a wide variety of senior roles across multiple sites. He has extensive experience and a deep understanding of the global bauxite, alumina and resources sectors and brings to the Company large-scale project financing knowledge and a range of executive skills which complement the Company's existing core competencies. Mr Waddell's strong financial and corporate governance skills, coupled with his highly developed business acumen, will fashion the future direction of the Company as it moves from advanced explorer to developer.

Mr Waddell holds a B.Bus from the Queensland University of Technology and has completed numerous post-graduate courses - including a Graduate Diploma in Applied Corporate Governance, Company Directors Course with the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), Post Graduate Diploma of Purchasing and Materials Management with RMIT and is a Fellow of the Certified Practicing Accountants.

General Manager, Exploration

John Cameron

MSc Hons (Geology) MAusIMM

Mr John Cameron joined the company in July, 2007 as General Manager, Exploration and is based in the Company’s Brisbane office.  Prior to joining Cape Alumina, Mr Cameron had over 20 years experience in the minerals industry, predominantly within BHP Billiton where his most recent role was Global Head of Health, Safety, Environment and Communities for BHP Billiton Minerals Exploration.  Before this Mr Cameron held exploration management roles for BHP Billiton in Australia (Operations Manager - Australia Asia Africa), India and the Russian Far East.  Mr Cameron has brought significant experience in the generation and delivery of exploration projects in challenging environments and the development and leadership of high performing multicultural exploration teams.

Mr Cameron holds a MSc Hons (Geology), University of Auckland and is a Member of the AusIMM.

China Business Development Consultant

Guoyan Li

BA, MBus

Ms Guoyan Li has been China Business Development Consultant since May 2006 in a shared role with Metallica Minerals Limited.  In this time, she has been directly involved in the development of business ties and relationships with key Chinese alumina companies.

Before moving to Australia, Ms Li spent 15 years at one of China’s largest copper mining and refinery groups.

Prior to joining Cape Alumina, Ms Li worked as a consultant on a part time basis for a number of Australian resource companies while studying in Australia and graduated with a Master of Business Degree from the University of Queensland in 2006.

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