Robert Schafer has over 30 years of international experience as a geologist exploring for mineral deposits in more than 70 countries. As an executive, manager and field geologist with companies including Billiton, BHP, Kinross and Hunter Dickinson, he led teams to the discovery of several deposits in the western USA (Briggs and Griffon gold mines), as well as developing strategies that led to brownfields discoveries in western Canada, southern Africa and far east Russia (Birkachan gold mine). Mr Schafer was a past president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) as well as past president of both the Canadian Institute for Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) and the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America (MMSA). He is also an active member of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) in the USA, where he served on its board for more than a decade. Mr Schafer is a board member of both the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame and National Mining Hall of Fame in the USA. He is the recipient of the William Lawrence Saunders Gold Medal from the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) and the Daniel C. Jackling Award from SME for career achievements - two of the highest mining recognitions in the USA.
