Board of Directors
Mr Jerome (Gino) Vitale
Non-Executive Chairman
Mr Vitale is an experienced corporate and mining operations and project development executive with 30 years in operational, investment banking and advisory roles of experience in the mineral resources sector in Australia and internationally. His focus has been gold, base metals, ferrous and non-ferrous metals and on turnaround situations identifying and executing value-driven mergers and acquisitions. Former senior appointments held with Normandy Mining Group (one of Australia’s largest gold producers, since acquired by Newmont), Standard Chartered Bank, Burdekin Resources/Redbank Mines Ltd (ASX:RCP) (founder and CEO with operations in Australia and Fiji), Bligh Resources Ltd (ASX:BGH) (since acquired by Saracen Mineral Holdings and recently merged with Northern Star Ltd, to become a tier 1 gold producer in Australia).
Mr Vitale graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western
Australia in 1981. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, a Senior Fellow (current) and a former Vice President of Financial Services Institute of Australia (FINSIA), and member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. During the mid 2000’s he was invited onto the ASX Corporate Governance Review Committee and brought a practical perspective on compliance guidelines for small to mid-cap companies.
Mr Caue (Paul) Araujo
Chief Executive Officer
Caue is a qualified Australian-Brazilian geologist and an experienced mining industry professional. Following his early training with Vale in Brazil his subsequent roles have included General Manager of SRK Consulting Brazil, Regional Director of Investment and Business Planning at Hatch for Australia and Asia and more recently Global General Manager – Mine Finance with mining industry advisory group Palaris Australia. He has a strong aptitude for the technical and economic evaluation of mineral resource projects, having been involved in the development of numerous projects during his career working with finance providers and equity investors including emerging lithium miners and mine gate concentrate producers.
Caue is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy (AusIMM), the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and has an MBA (Project Management, Business and Finance) from Ibmec University, Brazil. Through his diverse experience, Caue has refined his abilities to lead and manage multi-disciplinary teams. He is well acquainted with the key chemical companies, battery producers and EV manufacturers’ supply chain and their requirements to secure environmentally responsible long-term sources of lithium supply.
Caue is based in Perth and brings the Oceana team both critical minerals industry experience, broader corporate leadership skills and extensive international experience.
Dr Qingtao Zeng
Non-Executive Director
Dr Zeng has been extensively involved in the lithium exploration and development sector and is well connected with potential off-take partners having acted as intermediary for the supply or purchase of spodumene concentrate for a number of producers. He has been engaged as a consulting geologist in a range of geological and commercial environments.
Dr Zeng completed a PhD in geology at the Centre of Exploration Targeting (CET) of University of Western Australia in 2013. Dr Zeng has published several academic papers on structure control orogenic gold system in different geological scales, and is a member of AUSIMM and Society of Economic Geologist (SEG). He is currently Managing Director of Australasian Metals Ltd, and a non-executive Director of Kodal Minerals plc, MetalsTech Ltd and Winsome Resources Ltd.
Mr Simon Mottram
Non-Executive Director
Resident of Brazil
Mr Mottram is a geologist with over 28 years’ experience predominantly in base and precious metals. Mr Mottram has held both executive and senior management positions with several successful mining companies in various countries He has progressed a number of discoveries through to commercial production and has been responsible for significant exploration successes.
Mr Mottram was part of the successful executive team that took Avanco Resources Limited from a small junior through discovery and into production,
building a successful mining company with an impressive portfolio, that was subsequently purchased on market by mid-tier Australian copper producer OZ Minerals for circa $440M in 2018.
Mr Mottram is currently President of Brazil focused TSX listed nickel and PGM
explorer Bravo Mining Corp (TSXV: BRVO.V, market capitalisation greater than CAD460 million. He is an Australian and British national and a permanent resident of Brazil where he has lived for the past 15 years.
Senior Management
Mr James Abson
Senior Exploration Manager
Mr Abson is a geologist with over 28 years of experience in multi-commodity mining and mineral exploration and has held various positions from public company Vice President of Exploration to CEO. Mr Abson has been involved in the exploration and technical and financial assessment of various lithium pegmatite projects globally, including the Arcadia lithium project in Zimbabwe (later sold in April 2022 to Chinese interests for an underlying value in excess of $530 million). His most recent position was Chief Geologist and Exploration Manager for Bikita Minerals’ lithium mine in Zimbabwe, where his primary responsibility was hard-rock resource exploration (spodumene, lepidolite, petalite, pollucite and tantalum) and in-pit reserve expansion.
Mr Abson provides technical and strategic input to the Company’s Board of Directors and technical oversight and leadership to the exploration team to establish and guide exploration targeting, program execution, project development strategy and evaluation and assessment of new project opportunities.
Mr Renato Braz Sue
Exploration Manager, Brazil
Mr Braz Sue is an experienced geologist with over 25 years of exploration and project development experience in his native Brazil and internationally, having worked in numerous terranes and commodities including L-C-T minerals, copper- lead-zinc in VMS-style environments, gold, nickel, quartz and manganese. His experience includes planning and execution of exploration programs from early to advanced stage and mine expansion projects and providing technical leadership for project feasibility studies and evaluation.
He has worked in senior roles in various states in Brazil for junior, mid-tier and major national and international partner companies including Yamana Gold, AngloGold Ashanti, Horizonte Minerals, CVRD/Phelps Dodge, Xstrata/Jaguar Mining, Eldorado Gold Corp, and Cougar, Brazil. He brings to the Company deep local knowledge and established relationships with professional service providers as well as local landowners.
Mr Uwe Naeher
Exploration Manager, Canada
Mr Naeher has over 30 years’ experience in a wide range of terrains and deposit types in all aspects of exploration. He is an expert in granite-hosted ore deposits and mineralisation in pegmatites, having worked the past 15 years in the African Great Lakes region in the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi.
Mr Dan Smith
Company Secretary
Mr Smith has 15 years’ experience in financial markets, including 10 years’ experience with listing rules compliance and corporate governance. He is a director and co-founder of Minerva Corporate Pty Ltd, a boutique corporate services and advisory firm.
Mr. Smith is a fellow member of the Governance Institute of Australia and holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Curtin University. Mr Smith is Chairman of ASX listed rare earths explorer DY6 Limited and acts as company secretary for a number of ASX, AIM and NSX listed companies.
Mr Nick Rowley
Corporate Consultant
Mr Rowley is an experienced resource company executive with a career spanning more than 17 years in corporate development and commercial roles specialising in M&A transactions, corporate advisory and equities markets.
Mr Rowley’s most recent role as Director – Corporate Development for Galaxy Resources (nsinxe merged with Allkem Ltd) where he oversaw all sales and marketing, business development and investor relations functions.
Ms Cintia Maia
Company Administrator, Brazil
Ms Cintia Maia is Manager, Corporate and director of the Company’s Brazilian operating subsidiary, Ceará Litio Mineração Ltda. Ms Maia is an experienced corporate manager and administrator and qualified accountant with over 20 years’ experience. She is familiar with reporting requirements for Australian public companies, having previously worked as CFO for GRD Minproc, AMEC Canada and a number of other mining and industrial companies and brings a wealth of practical experience to her role as the Company’s senior corporate officer in Brazil.
Ms Carolina Carvalho
Manager Legal Affairs, Brazil
Ms Carvalho is an experienced corporate lawyer having spent more than 15 years working with medium and large multi-nationals operating in Brazil. She has worked in mergers and acquisitions, tax planning and strategic business development across a number of industries including mining.
