Mark is a mining engineer and executive with 35 years of experience in hard rock base metal and precious metal mining. He most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer of Evolution Mining for seven years from its foundation in 2011, a leading Australian gold miner with a market capitalisation of over AUD$5 billion, prior to establishing Federation Mining with Jim Askew in 2018.
An Executive Manager with significant success driving the rapid growth of leading base metal and gold, open cut and underground mining projects and operations. With a strong focus on driving operational excellence, Mark was able to consistently grow resource bases, ensure mining and metallurgical assets deliver to target, achieve optimal capability, reduce production costs and improve safety measures while continuing to deliver growth and extend mine life. He has worked at Evolution, Sinogold, Barrick, Western Mining, and Rio Tinto.
Mark holds a Bachelor Mining Engineering Degree with Honours from the University of NSW, an MBA from University of Adelaide, and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Simon Delander
Simon is an accomplished risk executive with a track record of successful strategic and tactical leadership of business support functions in both mining and heavy industries.
Prior to joining Federation Mining in 2020, Simon has held senior group sustainability & risk roles with Evolution Mining, Minerals and Metals Group (MMG), Jacobs Engineering Group and GoldCorp. He is a results orientated risk specialist and performance leader; able to apply deep knowledge of HSEC & operations management to lead robust risk management frameworks.
Simon holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (OHS & Environment), Master in Business Administration, Master in Emergency Management and a Graduate Certificate in Governance and Risk Management.
Simon works on a range of functions at Federation including Sustainability, Corporate Governance, Permitting, Human Resources and operations support. He is also a Non-Executive director of Straterra Limited (NZ).
Bruce Higson-Smith
Bruce is a mining engineer with 35 years’ experience both with mining companies and private equity firms specialising in mining. Prior to Federation, Bruce served Golden Star Resources in a variety of roles – VP Corporate Development, VP Finance, and General Manager of Bogoso-Prestea and Wassa Mines in Ghana. Previous to that he was an investment manager with a number of mining specific private equity funds including the Emerging Markets Gold Fund and the Resource Capital Funds. Early in his career, Bruce worked underground in Zimbabwe (gold) and South Africa (shaft sinking).
Bruce holds a B.Sc. in mining engineering at the Royal School of Mines and earned an MBA in Finance at Baruch Business School in New York City.
Bruce will lead the mergers and acquisitions function for Federation.
Ian Christie
Over the last 50 years, Ian has been employed in commercial and financial management roles on mining projects around the world, particularly in the feasibility and development phases. This includes 12 years at Freeport McMoran’s world-class Grasberg copper/gold mine in West Papua, Indonesia. He has worked on mining projects in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia (14 years), Fiji and Guyana (6 years as Country Manager), which have involved a wide range of minerals, including gold, silver, copper, nickel, bauxite, iron ore, tantalum and uranium.
In addition, Ian previously served as Chairman and Executive Committee Member of the Energy Users Group of Australia, and Member of Australia’s National Electricity Market Liaison Panel.
In 1989, Ian undertook the intensive Executive MBA Program at the University of Melbourne, attaining Honours in Management Information Systems & Operations Management.
Ian is currently the Director of Southern Energy Consultants, which provides financial modelling and due diligence services to mining companies, most recently to Evolution Mining for their proposed Mungari 4.2 expansion project.