Premier is led by a highly experienced team of mining professionals with significant expertise in the international mining and resource development sector with strong Africa-wide knowledge and a reputation as responsible operators.
George RoachActing Chairman & CEO
George Roach has extensive experience in natural resources sector in Africa. He has successfully obtained licenses and concluded mineral exploration and exploitation agreements in the entire SADC region, Ethiopia and most of the CEMAC and ECOWAS regions. Under the auspices of Exploration Services, he provided consultancy to prospective exploration companies and has acted in significant capacities for a number of start-ups that have subsequently listed on AIM and TSX-V. Prior to founding Premier, Mr Roach was Managing Director Africa, for UraMin Inc. Mr Roach maintains a number of other interests in start-ups which include Anglo African Agriculture that recently acquired the Southern Africa based business of Dynamic Intertrade, as well as Agriminco Inc. A TSX-V listed Agricultural developer in Africa.
Wolfgang HampelNon-Executive Director
Mr Hampel is a seasoned geologist with 27 years of experience in lithium, rare earth elements and as well precious and base metals. Before joining Premier, between 2008 and 2012 Mr Hampel was Chief Operating Officer and consulting geologist for Tantalus Rare Earths AG which discovered a rare earth ionic clay deposit on the Ampasindava Peninsula in Northern Madagascar. Between 2006 and 2008, Mr Hampel was Head of the Department for Mining Infrastructure and Mineral Exploration for Fugro Consult GmbH, a leading geological and earth sciences consultancy and previously, Mr Hampel worked for the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, the central geoscientific authority providing advice to the German Federal Government on geoscience related matters. In the 1990s, Mr Hampel was involved in the discovery and development of several gold deposits and major gold anomalies in West Africa.
Mr Hampel has a degree in Geology, Economic Geology and Petrology from the Technical University of Munich, Germany and is a member of the European Federation of Geologists (n° 1261) and the German Professional Association of Geoscientists. He is a Qualified Person for the purposes of the AIM Rules and NI43-101, JORC, the Pan-European Reserves and Resources Reporting Committee (PERC) and the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM).
Godfrey Manhambara Non-Executive Director
Mr Manhambara is Zimbabwean national and has extensive experience in business as well as a number of business interest in Southern Africa. Mr Manhambara was formerly Chief Executive of Affretair, an international cargo commercial airline that operated out of Harare. In 1999, Mr Manhambara was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the Civil Aviation Authority in Zimbabwe a position he held until 2001. Subsequent to this role, Mr Manhambara became the Chief Executive of Beta Holdings ,which is now the largest infrastructure inputs supply manufacturer in Zimbabwe. He also sits as non-executive director on several private and listed companies in Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Dr Luo Wei Non-Executive Director
Dr Luo Wei has a PhD in Mineral Prospecting and Exploration from Central South University. With more than two decades of experience in the mining and exploration industry Dr Wei has extensive experience in project management and optimisation with a focus on resource development. He has experience in the discovery and exploration of precious, nonferrous and base metal mineral resources internationally, including the DRC, Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Pakistan, South-East Asia and China and has worked in senior engineer positions for the past 12 years in a variety of locations. Dr Luo is currently Director (non-board) of Mineral Resources at Yibin Tianyi Lithium Technology Innovation Co., Ltd.