Dr Michel Bonnemaison is a French geologist with extensive experience in Europe, Africa and South America. Dr Bonnemaison spent much of the last 35 years working with the French geological survey (BRGM) and was the deputy head of its minerals resources division. He was president and chief executive of SEIEMSA, a subsidiary of the BRGM mining group in Spain. Dr Bonnemaison completed a PhD on the metallogeny of the Salsigne gold mine, and is widely recognised as one the pre-eminent authorities on gold deposits in France.