Board & Management

Mladen Ninkov, Chairman, Australian

Mladen Ninkov, Chairman, Australian, holds a Masters of Law Degree from Trinity Hall, Cambridge and Bachelor of Laws (with Honours) and Bachelor of Jurisprudence Degree from the University of Western Australia. He is the principal of Keynes Capital. He has a mining, legal, fund management and investment banking background and is admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Western Australia. He was the Chairman and Managing Director of the Dragon Capital Funds management group, a director and Head of International Corporate Finance at ANZ Grindlays Bank Plc in London, and a Vice President of Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. in New York. He also worked at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in New York and Freehill Hollingdale & Page in Australia. He has been chairman and director of a number of both public and private mining companies.

Roger Goodwin, Finance Director, British

Roger Goodwin, Finance Director, British, is a Chartered Accountant. He has been with the Company since 1996 having previously held senior positions in a number of public and private companies within the natural resources sector. He has a strong professional background, including that as a manager with KPMG, with considerable public company and corporate finance experience, and experience of emerging markets particularly in Africa, the CIS and Eastern Europe.

Adam Usdan, Director, American (US)

Adam Usdan, Director, USA, is the President of Trellus Management Company LLC, an equity hedge fund based in the U.S. Mr Usdan founded Trellus Management in January 1994 and has been in the investment advisory industry for over 25 years. Mr Usdan began his investment career in 1987 at Odyssey Partners, where he was responsible for managing long/short U.S. equity (small to mid-cap) pools of capital. Mr Usdan holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University with majors in Finance, Marketing, and Accounting, and a BA in English from Wesleyan University.

Clive Whiley, Independent  Non-executive Director, British

Clive Whiley, Independent Non-Executive Director, British, is member of the London Stock Exchange with over thirty-five years’ experience in regulated and listed company governance positions, both as an executive and non-executive director, across a wide range of industries and geographies, including extensive business experience in the People’s Republic of China since 1983. Clive Whiley is currently Chairman of Mothercare plc, China Venture Capital Management Limited, First China Venture Capital Limited and Y-LEE Limited. Formerly Chairman of Dignity plc and a Non-Executive Director of Grand Harbour Marina plc

Linda Naylor, Independent non-executive Director,British

Linda Naylor, Independent non-executive Director, British, is a graduate of the London School of Economics and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. A former partner in Grant Thornton UK LLP, her experience has been gained over more than twenty years working as a Nominated Adviser in the Capital Markets team and as an Audit Partner specialising in the natural resource sector. She was Chair of the Audit Committee whilst a Governor of Portsmouth University. As Finance Director of AIM listed Chaarat Gold Holdings Limited from 2009 to 2018, she worked as part of a small executive team. Her responsibilities encompassed financial reporting, investor relations and fund raising as that company transitioned from gold explorer to developer in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Dal Brynelsen, Director of Hebei Hua-Ao, Canadian

Dal Brynelsen, Director of Hebei Hua-Ao, Canadian, is a graduate of the University of British Columbia in Urban Land Economics. Mr. Brynelsen has been involved in the resource industry for over 30 years. He has been responsible for the discovery, development and operation of several underground gold mines during his career.

Dr Bo Zhou, General Manager

Dr Bo Zhou, General Manager China, Australian, holds a Ph.D in exploration geology from Sydney University and a BSc in economic geology from Peking University. He was Managing Director of Sinovus Mining Ltd, an ASX listed company with mineral interests in China. Before that he was the General Manager for Guangxi Golden Tiger Mining JV, a Sino-Australian JV gold company focussed in Guangxi, China, which is controlled by Golden Tiger Mining NL, an ASX listed company. He has also worked as the Senior Geologist for Silk Road Resources (A Toronto-listed company), responsible for evaluating various gold properties in Gansu Province in central western China. Dr Zhou has considerable experience of and has established extensive contacts in the Chinese resources sector

Wendy Zhang, Finance Manager

Wendy Zhang, Finance Manager China, holds a Master of Accounting degree from Macquarie University, a member of the Certified Practising Accountant of Australia and a qualified member of the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountant for 11 years. Prior to joining Griffin she spent the previous 4 years as Financial Controller for Golden Tiger Mining’s joint venture operations in China (a gold exploration and mining company listed in Australian Stock Exchange). Previously she was a Chief Accountant for Shanghai Silk Group and subsequently Ann Taylor Shanghai.

John Steel, Chief Operating Officer 

John Steel, mine manager, Australian, is a graduate Mining Engineer from the Ballarat School of Mines and holds a Master of Business Administration from Deakin University. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. John has extensive global mining experience including over a decade of in site operational expertise with tier one companies in Australia, Canada (Xstrata Mining PLC) and the Middle East (Brarrick Gold Corporation). John also has extensive supplier side experience holding country Managing Director positions in Norway (EPC Groupe) as well as General Manger positions with several explosive and technology service providers within Australia.

Glenn Sheldon, China Zinc Business Development Manager

Glenn sheldon, Australian, is a geologist holding a BSc from Adelaide University. He is a Fellow of the AusIMM and AIG, Member of SocEcGeol. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese with special emphasis on geological and mineral industry Chinese. Prior to joining Griffin he was Principal Geologist for Mining Associates, providing competent person services to inter alia the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Prior to that he was Vice President Exploration for RH Mining Resources Ltd in Hong Kong; Business Development Manager Exploration East Asia for Sandvik Mining and Construction; JV General Manager Dragon Mountain Gold in China; Exploration Manager, Lotus Resources plc in Mongolia; Chief Representative for Centerra Gold Inc in China; President and Exploration Manager for TVI Pacific’ China WOFE – Hunan Pacific Geological Exploration Inc; Site Manager Jinfeng for Sino Gold Limited; Exploration and Business Development Manager for Newmont China Limited.

Shirley Tsang, Director, China Zinc Limited

Shirley Tsang, British, is a Chartered Management Accountant (United Kingdom) and a CPA (Hong Kong & Australia). She holds a MBA (Finance) from the City University Business School, United Kingdom. She started her career as an auditor with Ernst & Whinney, and moved on to business advisory practice for international clients with Arthur Young. She had witnessed the global merger of Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young, forming Ernst & Young in 1990 and sale of business in 2002 and 2017 respectively, of the Tricor Group. She was head of the China and Hong Kong business advisory practice from 2003 to 2017 in the Tricor Group. She has considerable experience in corporate restructuring for international clients, and best practice in corporate governance. She is currently Managing Director of SEAJA Consultancy Limited.