FYI is managed by directors with a proven track record of exploration and project development operations in Australia and globally.

Mr Edmund Babington
Non-Executive Chairman

Mr Babington holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Western Australia and is a Director of the Western Australian commercial law firm, Lyons Babington Lawyers. He is also a member of AMPLA (the Australian resources and energy law association) and is a Western Australian committee member of the Australian Institute of Business Brokers.

Mr Babington is a specialist in mining and resources law and the law relating to capital raisings, stock exchange requirements, corporate governance and compliance for public companies.

Mr Babington is Chair of the Nomination and the Remuneration committees and a member of the Audit and Risk committee.

 

Mr Roland Hill
Managing Director

Mr Hill holds a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Commerce from Curtin University.  Mr Hill was appointed to the position of chief executive officer on 4 February 2011 and to the position of Managing Director on 1 July 2014.

Mr Hill has extensive resource industry and investment, finance and funds management experience.  He has been directly associated with the mining and exploration sector for over 20 years in contracting roles and with Western Mining Corporation and Normandy Poseidon and a 7 year role as Managing Director and Chairman of Crescent Gold Limited – an ASX listed gold producer with production of ~100,000oz pa.

Prior to Crescent Gold, Mr Hill was employed by several Australian national and international stockbroking firms and investment banks in ECM and as a senior mining analyst before taking a senior role as a Portfolio Manager with Deutsche Bank in their Australian and International resources equity Fund.

Mr Hill is a member of the Nomination and the Remuneration committees.

 

Mr David Sargeant
Non-Executive Director

Mr Sargeant holds a Bachelor of Science degree in economic geology from the University of Sydney. He has more than 40 years of experience as a geologist, consultant and Company director. As such, he has been involved in numerous mineral exploration, ore deposit evaluation and mining development projects in Australia and internationally. He is a member of AusIMM and the Geological Society of Australia.

During his career, Mr Sargeant has held a range of senior positions, including that of senior geologist with Newmont Pty Ltd and senior supervisory geologist with Esso Australia Ltd at the time of the Harbour Lights Gold Mine discovery and development. Further, Mr Sargeant was the first chief geologist at Telfer Gold Mine during exploration, development and production at that project. In addition, he was exploration manager for the Adelaide Petroleum NL group of companies, manager of resources development for Sabminco NL and a technical director of Western Reefs Limited during the period in which that Company became a successful producer at the Dalgaranga Gold Project.

Mr Sargeant successfully managed an exploration and geological consulting business for 18 years, which included the formation and management of platinum and copper-gold companies in Botswana until they were taken over during the 2005 to 2007 period by United Kingdom listed public companies. He was the principal promoter in forming Empire Resources Limited.

Mr Sargeant is Chair of the Audit and Risk committee and a member of the Nomination and the Remuneration committees.

 

Dr Sandy Chong
Non-Executive Director – ESG

Dr Chong’s career experience includes being a Harvard Alumna, winner of the 2020 Executive of the Year for the US Stevie® International Business Awards, and 2016 Singapore Management Consultant of the Year. Dr Sandy Chong brings significant experience in leadership roles to the ESG domain. Having founded and chaired the United Nations Association Sustainable Development Goals forums series in WA, serving on industry councils, non-profit boards and is an Adjunct Professor for Curtin University of Technology, Dr Chong has advised government trade agencies in Australia and Singapore, corporations and businesses in international market and communication strategies.

Dr Chong has published peer-reviewed journals in Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) since 2005 and is an active contributor in international trade and economic empowerment for women and youth. Dr Chong was awarded Australia Community Citizen of the Year in 2020 and was named Asia’s Top Sustainability Women of the Year award in 2019 for her contributions both in Australia and abroad.

 

 

Phil Thick
Strategic Advisor

Mr Thick has over 30 years’ experience as a senior executive in oil and gas, mining and chemical processing in large multinational – as well as smaller, ASX-listed and privately owned – companies. In addition, he has extensive experience on many boards and has chaired many of them for extended periods. Mr Thick enjoyed a 20-year career with Shell, both within Australia and overseas and for the last three he was on the board of Shell Australia as downstream director. This was followed by five years as a director and CEO of Coogee Chemicals, then four as MD of New Standard Energy. From 2016 to 2020 Mr Thick headed up Tianqi Lithium Australia, a subsidiary of Tianqi Lithium Corp out of China, one of the world’s largest lithium companies. (Tianqi owned 51% of the Greenbushes mine in Western Australia, the world’s best hard-rock lithium resource.) Mr Thick was charged with building the world’s largest lithium hydroxide plant in Kwinana, south of Perth, an investment of nearly A$1 billion. He also chairs the boards of the Chamber of Arts and Culture WA and Perth Symphony Orchestra.

 

Phil MacLeod
Company Secretary

Mr MacLeod has over 30 years commercial experience working and consulting in a range of organisations and industries including resources, technology, healthcare, property, manufacturing, insurance and financial services.  He has provided corporate, compliance and management advice to listed and unlisted companies with operations in Australia and overseas in the roles of company secretary and director.

 

Hans op den Dries
Chief Financial Officer

Hans is a Certified Practising Accountant with corporate, business advisory and company secretarial experience. Hans has over 30 years’ experience providing a wide range of businesses with financial, strategic advice and services to small cap unlisted and listed public companies and privately owned businesses in Western Australia’s resource-driven industries. His experience spans across most commodities including the basic and specialty chemicals industry. Since 2010, he has been focused on early-stage development companies assisting them with their feasibility studies and getting them ready for construction.

 

Claudio di Prinzio
Manager – Operations and Technology

Mr Di Prinzio has over 30 years industry experience in project development management, commissioning and operations management across a range of project sizes, commodities and jurisdictions specializing in alumina and battery and critical minerals.

Graduating as a Chemical Engineer, Mr Di Prinzio spent 20 years with Alcoa in operational  and technical roles in the alumina refineries both in Australia and overseas as well as the Alcoa Technology Development group. This was followed by 6 years with Rio Tinto Iron Ore as Metallurgy Manager for the Resource Development group, contributing to the development of a number of new mines and plants.  His most recent role was the Operations Manager with Tianqi Lithium Australia a subsidiary of Tianqi Lithium Corp out of China, one of the world’s largest lithium companies. (Tianqi owned 51% of the Greenbushes mine in Western Australia, the world’s best hard-rock lithium resource.) Mr Di Prinzio was responsible for the technical and operational streams during the detailed design through to plant commissioning for the lithium hydroxide plant in Kwinana.

Raj Kandiah
Head of Commercial

Mr Kandiah holds a Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) from Deakin University and a Master of Business Administration (Executive) from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) and a graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).  He is currently studying a Master of Sustainable Development degree at Murdoch University.  Raj has over thirty years’ experience in commercial roles including as General Manager Argyle Pink Diamonds, General Manager Marketing Rio Tinto based in Perth, and Head of Commercial for various iron ore, bauxite and steel scrap companies.  Most recently he was Director, New Market Development for Alcoa investigating high purity alumina.

DEVELOPING A WORLD CLASS INTEGRATED
HIGH PURITY ALUMINA (HPA) PROJECT