SMFG is majority-owned by High Power Exploration through its indirectly owned subsidiary Euronimba Limited. Participation from the Government of Guinea is expected to reach 15% when the Amended Mining Convention signed by SMFG, Euronimba Limited and the Government of Guinea in September 2019 enters into force.
Euronimba UK Limited supports SMFG from London and is wholly owned by Euronimba Limited. Ivanhoe Liberia Limited is wholly owned by Euronimba Limited.
During his 32-year career within the resources sector, Philip Mitchell has held several senior leadership positions, including Head of Business Development and Strategy at Rio Tinto, during which he oversaw the company’s asset and commodity portfolio and the management of the BHP takeover proposal.
Mr. Mitchell’s roles have spanned finance, M&A and strategic business change, including playing leading roles in the transformation of Hamersley into Rio Tinto’s key iron ore business. In 2019, Mr. Mitchell worked as a consultant on HPX’s acquisition of the Nimba iron deposit.
Mr. Motlanthe heads the Motlanthe Foundation, which is dedicated to a range of public-benefit activities, including conflict resolution, promotion of human rights and democracy and the provision of care for pre-school-age children, along with buildings, equipment and educational support for public primary schools. Mr. Motlanthe also is a trustee of Liliesleaf Trust and the Brazzaville Foundation.
Bronwyn Barnes is a highly respected and experienced resources industry professional with extensive experience in working in Guinea and Mali, and a more than 25-year career successfully leading exploration and mining projects internationally.
With a particular skill set around working collaboratively with Government to achieve development outcomes, her achievements in the resources sector led her to be honoured in 2015 as the recipient of the Outstanding Women in Resources Award in Australia. Ms. Barnes was also inducted into the Western Australian Women’s Hall of Fame in 2019 for her services to the resources sector.
Kadiatou Konaté is the Managing Director of Sustainable Mining & Infrastructure Group (SMIG), a purpose-driven organisation designing and implementing innovative approaches for the development and funding of sustainable mining and infrastructure projects in Guinea and West Africa.
Prior to her current role, Ms. Konaté held positions as Director of Planning & Business Strategy for the Rio Tinto Minerals Group, leading the business planning and evaluating capital expansion projects. She was previously Controller and CFO for Rio Tinto Simandou’s Iron Ore Project. Her prior roles include leading risk and compliance teams.
Ms. Konaté is a certified public accountant and she holds a master’s degree in accountancy from the University of Oklahoma.
Mohamed Dia was appointed as Principal Advisor to the Minister for Mines and Geology in January 2022.
Mr. Dia has thirty years of experience working for the Ministry for Mines and Geology, where he most recently served as Deputy Inspector General until early 2022.
Moussa Magassouba has twenty years of experience in the mining sector in Guinea and internationally and was appointed as Minister for Mines and Geology in November 2021.
Mr. Magassouba graduated in 2001 from the Boké Higher Institute of Mining and Geology with a degree in Mining Engineering and began his career as a mining engineer at AngloGold Ashanti, Guinea (SAG) before being recruited by Kouroussa Gold (SEMAFO-GUINEE) in 2002.
He subsequently obtained a master’s degree in mining engineering and mineral economics from the Mackay School of Mines and from the Colorado School of Mines, and a master’s degree in international business from Columbia University, New York, USA.
Mr. Magassouba’s previous posts include Director of Mining for North America at the consulting firm ACCENTURE, Deputy CEO for mining for the Saudi Government from 2014 to 2020 and CEO at AngloGold Ashanti Guinea (SAG) from 2020 to 2021.
For over 30 years, Mr. Touré served as the manager of various mining companies and projects in the energy sector, including several projects for infrastructure and institutional development, within Government, the private sector and in collaboration with international technical partners. As Chairman of the governmental “Comité Technique de Revue des Titres et Conventions Miniers”, he led the global mining contracts review process launched by the Guinean Government in 2012.
Mr. Touré is currently a member of the board of directors of the Société de Gestion et d’Exploitation de Kaleta (SOGEKA) and is a member of the board of directors of the Agence Nationale d’Aménagement des Infrastructures Minières (ANAIM).
Ms. Moller’s highly distinguished diplomatic career spanned more than 25 years. She has left active service with the U.S. Department of State to return to the private sector where she currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of West Africa for the LNG Group and is a Board member of the BAARA Hospital in Guinea, VISTA Insurance Company, Orbis International-The Flying Eye Hospital, Orbis UK and FAYUS. Ms. Moller now consults with companies looking to do business in developing countries, many of them in Africa, and was one of the founding members of the Ebola Private Sector Mobilization Group formed in response to the 2014 West African Ebola crisis.
Ms. Sandenburgh’s career included 25 years with the ESG Department of IFC, the World Bank Group’s private sector investment arm, most recently as a Senior Manager for Latin America/Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. Ms. Sandenburgh was part of the core team that developed IFC’s 2012 Environmental and Social Performance Standards, widely considered the global benchmark for private investment in emerging markets.
Ms. Sandenburgh holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Sociology from Brown University in Rhode Island, and a master’s degree in Public Policy from The University of Michigan.
Bronwyn Barnes is a highly respected and experienced resources industry professional with extensive experience in working in Guinea and Mali, and a more than 25-year career successfully leading exploration and mining projects internationally.
With a particular skill set around working collaboratively with Government to achieve development outcomes, her achievements in the resources sector led her to be honoured in 2015 as the recipient of the Outstanding Women in Resources Award in Australia. Ms. Barnes was also inducted into the Western Australian Women’s Hall of Fame in 2019 for her services to the resources sector.
After starting his career in Brisbane in accountancy and financial analyst roles, Mr. Kay served as Finance Manager for Rio Tinto Plc. on its Simandou Project in Guinea. He joined SMFG in 2012 as Finance Manager, responsible for the functional transition of the Nimba Iron Ore Project from a unit dependent on an owner to a standalone commercial entity across its human resource, IT, financial and governance functions. Mr. Kay was promoted to CFO in 2015, and is responsible for operational and capital budgets, forecasts and reporting, financial and tax reporting, contract management, company secretarial duties, anti-bribery and corruption and information technology.
Mr. Glaser worked for much of his career for BHP (Billiton), managing various geological and mine production teams and activities in South Africa and South America. He has worked in greenfield exploration, as a mine manager and on a complex joint venture where he supported HSEC performance, operations management and cost control. Mr. Glaser joined the Nimba Project team in 2011 as the Area Manager Technical. He currently serves as the Study Manager, responsible for the completion of technical and engineering studies for the project.
Mr. Suter then worked for eight years managing environmental conservation programmes for the international NGO, Fauna & Flora International (FFI). He focused particularly on West African nations affected by conflict – Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire – and on balancing the perceived need for immediate ‘development’ in contexts of extreme poverty and socio-economic disarray, with longer-term imperatives like sustainability, protection of biological diversity & ecosystem services, and fighting corruption. Since 2006, Mr. Suter has supported exploration-level environmental management, community & external relations, and the environmental and social impact assessment for SMFG. He has been SMFG’s primary point of contact with the public on issues like world heritage, biodiversity, good governance, human rights and sustainable development.
Hadja I. Diallo has over 15 years’ experience in the Guinean mining sector. She has a practical understanding of Guinean labour laws and a strong background in management of human resources (HR).
Previously, Ms. Diallo worked as Human Resources Manager for Alliance Mining Commodities Guinee (AMC SA) from 2017 to 2021 and as Senior Human Resources Business Partner at Guinea Alumina Corporation SA, a subsidiary of Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) in Dubai from 2016-2017.
Ms. Diallo holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Rouen (France) and a Master’s degree in International Banking and Finance from the University of Le Havre (France), and in HR management from the University of Poitiers (France).
Ms. Diallo is President of the Guinean Council for HR Professionals (COGUIPRO-RH).
Ibrahim Baldé studied law at Hassan 1er University in Morocco. In 2007 he was selected by BHP Billiton for its Green Shoots talent-recruitment programme, designed to develop future leaders for BHP Billiton’s operations in Guinea.
Mr. Baldé returned to Guinea, where he joined SMFG as Human Resources Superintendent from 2009 to 2012. Between 2012 and 2013, he worked with the Nimba Project’s Study Team based in London, developing the likely terms, conditions, opportunities and constraints relating to the Project’s future operations.
From later in 2013 until present, Mr. Baldé has served as SMFG’s Government Relations Manager from its office in Conakry. He quickly developed extensive working relationships at multiple levels across government, in particular with the Ministry of Mines and Geology and with many other government departments and agencies with which SMFG interacts. He represents SMFG at the Guinean Chamber of Mines.
Oumar Sylla is a mining engineer by training with 13 years’ experience in the industry in the fields of mine planning, drill and blast engineering, project management, construction management, procurement, and operations management.
After graduating from a mining school, Mr. Sylla started his career in the bauxite mines of northwest Guinea. His connection to SMFG began when he was selected for BHP Billiton’s “Green Shoot” programme in 2007, which led him to study and work for 2 years in South Africa.
Upon returning to Guinea, he worked successively as a mine planner for a bauxite mine and drill and blast engineer for a granite quarry before rejoining SMFG in late 2011 as a drilling supervisor. Since then, he has held supervisory and managerial roles across the departments of Geology, HSE, Infrastructure, Procurement, and Operations. Mr. Sylla is currently the Lead Operations Manager at the Nimba site with overall responsibility for coordinating site activities.
Bangaly Bangoura joined the SMFG Geology Department in 2006, providing support for the laboratory team. He went on to supervise the drilling rig teams, ensuring safe operations by the drilling contractors and the accurate recording of samples.
In 2008, as Project Geologist, Mr. Bangoura joined the Exploration team in Diecké for the first drilling programme. In 2012 he became Senior Geologist and was responsible for supervising the Geology team and the preparation of reports for government agencies. Mr. Bangoura participated in the 2012 Shareholders’ Resource Range Analysis meeting in London for the Nimba North and Diecké tenements, before returning to site to join the team carrying out the Selection Phase Study drilling programme.
When the Ebola epidemic struck, Mr. Bangoura stepped up to take on the role of Administration Superintendent and regularly deputised as Director of Operations. In 2018 he was appointed as Acting Health, Safety, Environment and Technical Services Manager until 2021, when he was appointed as Site Technical Services Manager, also deputising as Site Director of Operations.
