Mr. Tory is a highly experienced resources executive with significant rare earths experience having held key leadership roles at Northern Minerals initially as CFO and then subsequently CEO while they developed the Browns Range Rare Earth Project, including the planning, building and operation of a A$70 million pilot plant.

His previous executive experience includes Managing Director of Crescent Gold Limited, after a period as CFO and Company Secretary. He has had international exposure to resources’ capital markets as well as holding key leadership roles in companies that range from exploration to development through to operating mines across commodities, including rare earths, battery materials, base metals and gold. 

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Mr. Tory is a Chartered Accountant and holds a BBus, MBA and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

Over his 45-year career, Guy has been involved in innumerable transactions across a multitude of sectors spanning all continents, including as both an advisor and principle within, equity, debt, M+A and political risk insurance. Some of the most notable activities relating to the natural resource sector include his involvement with SNIM in Mauritania over the last 40 years, Board Member and Adviser to Ivanhoe Mines over the previous 15 years and acting as a co/chairman on behalf of the EC of a committee created to facilitate the financing of large-scale Oil & Gas projects in Russia. As well as acting as an advisor to Rio-Tinto on the Simandou project, Guy has been the Executive Chairman of the Nimba project in Guinea, he was a Miga agent and advisor to MIGA clients, a strategic and financing adviser for the development of the Anaklia Port in Georgia, lead non-executive director of Norilsk Nickel, and a project finance advisor for the US$ 4bn limited recourse financing for Oyu Tolgoi alongside many others.

Alex has a B.Com. with honours from the University of British Columbia and is a CFA Charterholder. He spent eight years with Salman Partners including as a Vice-President of Investment Banking focused on mining financings and merger and acquisition transactions. In 2019, he joined Discovery Group as Strategic Advisor, Corporate Development & Investor Relations. Mr. Heath is also a director of several public mining issuers.

Dale Wallster is a prospector and geologist with over 40 years’ experience in North American mineral deposit exploration. As President and founder of Roughrider Uranium Corp., which was acquired by Hathor Exploration Limited in 2006, Dale and his team are widely credited for the discovery of Hathor’s Roughrider deposit. In January of 2012 Rio Tinto plc acquired Hathor for CAD$650 million.

Dr. Luisa Moreno is a Physics Engineer, with a PhD in Materials Science and Mechanics from Imperial College London, in the United Kingdom. She has held positions as Senior Analyst at various Toronto-based investment companies. She is known as a leading analyst in rare earths and has published several reports and articles for the investment community. Currently, Dr. Moreno is the Chief Executive Officer of Graphano Energy Ltd. and the Managing Director of Tahuti Global Inc., a company that she founded. As a strategic consultant she assists both public and private companies and institutional investors with economic and technical assessments of mineral assets and technologies. She also works with government institutions tasked with overseeing mineral development, value addition and supply chain development. Dr. Moreno is also on the board of directors of several companies exploring and developing strategic minerals and green technologies. She is a recognized strategic minerals specialist and a common valued guest speaker on television and at international conferences.

Suzanne Rich Folsom career includes senior corporate executive roles at ACADEMI, as the EVP, General Counsel, and Chief Compliance Officer, at AIG, as the Deputy GC and Chief Regulatory & Compliance Officer, and at the World Bank where she was the Counselor to the President and Director of the Department of Institutional Integrity. In addition, Ms. Folsom has held distinctive public administration roles including serving as: the Private Secretary to H.M. Queen Noor of Jordan; First Family Liaison to the Presidential Inaugural Committee; Special Assistant to Barbara Bush; Advisor to the US Delegation to the U.N. World Women’s Conference in Kenya; Chief of Staff to the Co-Chair of a U.S. national political party; and she practiced law with three global law firms. She is a frequent thought leadership contributor and speaker and has been recognized in the United States and abroad for her many contributions. Ms. Folsom holds a juris doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center and a bachelor’s degree from Duke University. Previous board service has included the boards of Advanced Metallurgical Group AMG, VELUX LLC, and Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. Ms. Folsom currently serves on the boards of the iconic Encyclopaedia Britannica, today a global digital media learning and knowledge products company, and Ecore International, a revolutionary leader in rubber circularity and a transformational waste company. She is also an Advisor to EqualFuture LLC, an AI-assisted financial wellness and education FinTech start-up.

Director of Metals & Mining Finance, Americas for Société Générale until his retirement in 2021, where he originated and executed corporate and project finance facilities, marketed metals implemented foreign exchange hedging and trading lines, and provided related advisory services. From 1991 to 2013, he acted in a similar capacity for a series of banks including Standard Bank of South Africa, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., HSBC Securities (Canada) Inc., Republic National Bank of New York, and Mase Westpac Inc.

Kristopher J.  Raffle, B.Sc., PGeo, serves as the Qualified Person for Defense Metals Corp. Mr.  Raffle is also a current director of New Placer Dome Gold Corp.  Mr. Raffle is a Partner and Principal Geologist with the Edmonton-based leading geologic consulting firm, APEX Geoscience Ltd. Mr. Raffle has over 20 years’ experience conducting property evaluation, intensive exploration data analysis, exploration-program design, and geological modelling, with respect to Archean and Calrin-type-gold, copper-gold-porphyry, gold-silver-epithermal, volcanic-hosted-massive-sulphide, rare-earth-element, and kimberlite-diamond deposits throughout Canada, USA, and Mexico.

Mr. Goode has been responsible for design, monitoring, and interpretation of several programs of beneficiation and hydrometallurgical testwork, engineering and economic evaluations of new and existing processing operations for the recovery of rare earth element (REE), and other elements from ore and other sources. John graduated from the Royal School of Mines, London University, where he obtained a B.Sc. (Chemical Engineering in Metallurgy). John spent 18 years at Kilborn Engineering, where he attained the title of Vice President, Mining and Metallurgy and Director, managing a team of mining and metallurgical engineers responsible for feasibility and due diligence studies, and the design and commissioning of REE recovery and separation facilities, and he also has experience with gold, base metal, and uranium plants.  He has over 50 years experience as a metallurgist and has worked on numerous rare earth projects located in Canada, USA, China, Australia, Russia, and elsewhere. Some of the projects include Niocan Inc. Nb, Ta, REE project; Rare Element Resources’ Bear Lodge REE project; Avalon Rare Metal’s Thor Lake project; Hudson’s REE Sarfartoq project; Appia and Pele Mountain Elliot Lake U-REE projects; Serra Verde ionic clay project in Brazil; Quest’s Strange Lake project; Pea Ridge Fe tailings project; Search Minerals Foxtrot deposit; and Polymetal/Vostok’s Tomtor REE-Nb-Sc-V-Th project in Siberia, among others.

John Robins is a professional geologist, prospector, and entrepreneur with over 35 years of experience in the mining industry. In 2022 he was the recipient of the AME's Murray Pezim Award for his significant contribution to the financing of exploration and development projects over the last 20 years. He was also awarded the Spud Huestis Award in 2008 for having made significant contributions to mineral exploration in British Columbia and Yukon. 

Mr. Robins has been involved in several notable discoveries, including the 5M oz Coffee Gold deposit in Yukon, the Three Bluffs gold deposit in the Committee Bay greenstone belt, the Aviat / Churchill diamond districts of Nunavut, and the Great Bear project in north-western Ontario. Through his entrepreneurship, John has been instrumental in over CDN$3B in M&A activity and has generated over $1B in direct and indirect mineral expenditures throughout Canada, Latin America, and Australia. Notable recent successes include the sales of Great Bear Resources Ltd. to Kinross Gold Corp. for $1.8B, Great Bear Royalties Corp. to Royal Gold Inc. for $200M, and Kaminak Gold Corp. to Goldcorp for $510M.

John's outstanding strategic guidance, technical expertise, strong industry relationships, and steadfast adherence to ethical practices, underpin his status as a leading steward of the junior mining industry. He currently acts as Chairman of Elemental Altus Royalties and K2 Gold Corp. Mr. Robins is also a Director of Elemental Altus Royalties and Fireweed Metals Corp., and a Strategic Advisor to Kodiak Copper Corp., ValOre Metals Corp., CopperEx Resources Corp., and Prospector Metals Corp.