People (February 01, 2006)

The board of Montreal-based Alcan Inc. has approved the appointment Richard (Dick) Evans as the company’s next president and CEO, effective March 12. Evans is currently executive vice-president and COO. Before assuming that role, he had overseen all four of Alcan’s business groups at different times.

Rodney A. Cooper has joined Toronto-based Baffinland Iron Mines as vice-president operations and COO, effective March 1. He was most recently vice-president of technical services at Kinross Gold and counts among his postings gold mines in northern B.C., Timmins, Ont., and the Canadian Arctic.

Dr. Matt Manson has replaced Sean Boyd as CEO of Toronto’s Contact Diamond Corp. Manson joined the company as president and COO in March 2005. Boyd will remain on the Contact board of directors.

Toronto-based Eloro Resources has conferred the job of executive vice-president exploration on Martin Bourgoin. He is also founder and president of MRB & Associates, a Val d’Or, Que.-based geological consulting firm.

Wayne Bingham has resigned his positions as executive vice-president and CFO at Finning International of Vancouver. The company is searching for his successor.

Former head of Falconbridge Oyvind Hushovd is stepping down from his role as non-executive chairman of Toronto-based Gabriel Resources, and plans to retire to his native Norway. Michael Parrett has been chosen to succeed Hushovd.

Eduardo Baer has joined GFM Resources of Vancouver as president and CEO. He is a former president of European Goldfields. Lizardo Galvan, the former president and CEO of GFM, has assumed the duties of COO.

Lundin Mining Corp. of Vancouver reports that Manfred Lindvall is its new vice-president of environment, health and safety. Until recently he held a corresponding position at Boliden.

Mesa Uranium Corp. of Vancouver has named Gregory French its new vice-president exploration. During his 25-year career he was part of the team that discovered the Gold Bar Satellite deposits in Nevada and the Grassy Mountain gold deposit in Oregon.

Vancouver’s Minco Mining and metals has selected Robert S. Tyson for the position of vice-president corporate development. He joined the company in April 2005 as investor relations manager. Dr. Heinz Frey has joined the Minco board, following the retirement of Hans Wick.

New Gold of Vancouver has announced the retirement of chairman and founder John Kuzick and corporate secretary Sharon Ross.

Pierre Julien has been named vice-president of sales and marketing for Toronto-based Norcast Castings Co. He was most recently president of Outokumpu Technology North America, and earlier served as general manager of Outokumpu’s Canadian division and manager of automation technology products.

Ottawa-based Northern Shield Resources has named former-CFO Chris de Saint-Rome as vice-president corporate development. The job of CFO will be filled by Sam Legg. Further, Northern Shield has appointed Ronald Little and Dr. Edward Schiller as consultants/advisors.

Robert W. (Bob) Bell has accepted a position as executive vice-president and COO at PINE VALLEY MINING CORP. of Vancouver. He comes to the job from Luscar Ltd., where he was vice-president marketing. Bell is a past-chairman of the Coal Association of Canada.

AMEC Earth & Environmental has hired two key individuals. Geochemist and mine closure expert Steve Sibbick joins the Geotechnical and Water Resources Group in Mississauga, Ont. He has over 17 years experience in mining and has managed numerous multidisciplinary geoscience and engineering projects related to mine closure, both in Canada and internationally. Senior project manager Dr. Xiaogang Hu is a specialist in geotechnical, hydrological and mining engineering, particularly in cold regions. Hu has over 23 years of research and engineering experience in surface and groundwater hydrology, water resource management, geotechnical and permafrost engineering, and has been involved extensively in detailed design for tailings and water retention dam designs.