The Founders
Sovereign Mines of Africa (SMA) was organized in 2007 by David Pearl, James Comyn and John Prochnau to identify, acquire and develop mining opportunities in Africa.
David Pearl has over 35 years experience providing financial and management services for the development of small to medium cap public companies.
James Comyn has a record of successful business development, including commercial negotiations at the highest government levels, throughout Africa.
John Prochnau is an internationally respected mining engineer specializing in gold.
Capitalizing on this unique combination of expertise and experience the founders conceived the SMA strategy of forming commercial alliances with African government entities to secure outstanding gold project opportunities and implemented its launch venture in Guinea.
The Management
Technical
John Prochnau is a mining engineer and geologist, with degrees from the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, and McGill University, Montreal, Canada. He has managed a number of private and public companies and has been responsible for gold and base metal discoveries and mine developments in North America, South America, and Australia. He was co-founder with David Pearl of Brancote Holdings PLC, which discovered the Esquel gold deposits in Argentina and was sold in 2002 for US $200 million.
John Prochnau introduced John Barry to head up the exploration team. John Barry has degrees in Geology from The State University of New York and the Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland. He has worked for over 20 years on a range of gold and base metal deposits in Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia and has discovered or sourced, and supervised feasibility studies, on multi-million ounce gold deposits in Ghana (Ahafo), Tanzania (Nyanaga) and Mali (Yanfolila).
John Barry is supported by Dr. Yury Deryugin who spent 8 years in Guinea as Chief Geologist of the Soviet Geological Expedition commissioned to evaluate the geology and mineral resources of the country. He is a recognized authority on Guinean geology and mineral deposits about which he has published a widely quoted text.
The technical group also includes a geophysicist and two geologists, seconded from the Ministry of Mines, for the duration of SMA’s exploration programme in Guinea.
Operational
A highly experienced local team is headed by Sherif Haidara (Vice President) with an MBA from Columbia and many years experience advising companies doing business in West Africa.
Abdoullaya Diallo, Managung Director (SMG), is responsible for administrative and regulatory matters in Guinea. He has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Conakry and held senior positions with government agencies and private groups before joining SMA.
Financial
SMA draws on the wide experience of a number of its Directors in the Financial Sector. David Pearl, serving as Executive Chairman, is a Chartered Accountant with extensive small and medium cap company experience. Nathan Steinberg, who has considerable public company experience in the mining sector, is part-time Finance Director responsible for accounting, financial and regulatory issues.