Management

David M. Cole
President, CEO and Director

Dave Cole has been the CEO and President of EMX since co-founding the Company nearly 20 years ago. Mr. Cole has broad and comprehensive expertise in public capital markets, capital allocation strategies, and the technical aspects of the exploration, mining, and royalty business. These skillsets have been crucial in guiding EMX from a one property junior explorer in Serbia with a market capitalization of approximately C$3.3 million, to a globally diversified royalty company with over 250 mineral assets on six continents, and a market cap of over C$250 million. Mr. Cole was also a co-founder of Standard Uranium Corp. (EMX was a seed shareholder and strategic investor) as well as a Director of Energy Metals Corporation, which acquired Standard Uranium, and then went on to be acquired by Uranium One for US$1.8 billion in 2007.  More recently, he served as Board Chairman of IG Copper, an early-stage EMX strategic investment that sold the Malmyzh porphyry copper-gold discovery in Russia for US$200 million, netting US$67 million to EMX and its shareholders. His stewardship of the Company over the long haul, punctuated by serial big financial wins, have propelled EMX’s growth trajectory and consistently created value for the Company’s shareholders.  

Mr. Cole’s approach as a professional is deeply rooted in his background as an economic geologist. He studied under Dr. Tommy Thompson at Colorado State University, earning an M.S. in Geology after earning a B.S. in Geology at Fort Lewis College. Previous to EMX, he spent 17 years as a geologist with Newmont Mining. At Newmont, Mr. Cole held a number of management and senior geologic positions, gaining extensive global experience as a project, mine, and generative exploration geologist in Nevada, Southeast Asia, South America, Europe, and Central Asia. Mr. Cole’s contributions as a member of Newmont’s exploration team include exploration successes at the world class Carlin Trend, Battle Mountain, Yanacocha, and Minahasa mining districts. Subsequently, he established and managed Newmont’s exploration programs in Turkey while also identifying early-stage acquisition targets in Eastern Europe.

Mr. Cole is keenly focused on new business development ideas and exploration opportunities, and is dedicated to growing EMX into a top tier royalty company while looking out for the best interest of the Company’s shareholders.

Stefan Wenger
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Wenger is a senior executive with over 25 years of experience working in various leadership roles.  Mr. Wenger was Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Royal Gold, Inc. from July 2003 to June 2018. Royal Gold is a Denver-based publicly traded company engaged in the acquisition and management of precious metals streams and royalties. During his time at Royal Gold, Mr. Wenger lead the company in raising over $2 billion in the equity and debt capital markets, managed a $1 billion revolving credit facility and stewarded strategic relationships with a syndicate of global banks. Mr. Wenger was active in all financial aspects of corporate M&A, investor relations and corporate strategy, and was instrumental in developing a tax structure for Royal Gold that provided for significant growth internationally. Prior to joining Royal Gold, Mr. Wenger worked in public accounting from 1995 to 2003 as an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Arthur Andersen LLP.

Mr. Wenger currently serves on the board of directors of Ridgeline Royalties Inc. Ridgeline was founded in 2020 to be the leading source of royalty and stream financing for miners that supply the clean energy marketplace.

Mr. Wenger’s other board experience includes service on the Board of Directors of the Nevada Mining Association and as a member of the Board of Trustees and Treasurer of the American Exploration and Mining Association. In addition, Mr. Wenger served as a director on the boards of several Royal Gold subsidiaries, including as Vice-Chairman of RGLD Gold AG, a Switzerland based subsidiary that made investments totaling more than $2 billion during Mr. Wenger’s tenure on the board. Mr. Wenger currently serves on the board of directors of the Columbine Country Club, and he previously served in the non-profit community as the Board Chairman of the Inner-City Health Center. The Inner-City Health Center is Denver’s premier provider of high-quality clinical health services for the uninsured and underserved.

Mr. Wenger holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Colorado State University, has completed the General Management Program at the Harvard Business School, and is a certified public accountant (inactive). 

Christina Cepeliauskas
Chief Administrative Officer

Ms. Cepeliauskas is a CPA, CGA professional accountant with more than 25 years of financial accounting and treasury experience in the mineral exploration and mining industry. She recently assumed the newly created position of Chief Administrative Officer of EMX, after being EMX’s Chief Financial Officer for twelve years. Ms. Cepeliauskas received her Corporate Director designation (ICD.D) from the Institute of Corporate Directors in 2015 having completed the comprehensive Directors Education Program and is a Director and Chairperson of the Audit Committee of Daura Capital Corporation. Christina volunteered for over ten years with Fraserside Community Services Society, an organization committed to helping people overcome challenges.

Rocio Echegaray
Corporate Secretary

Ms. Echegaray has over 20 years’ experience working with various private and public-listed companies in the corporate governance and securities regulatory compliance areas. Previous to joining the Company, Ms. Echegaray served as Corporate Secretary of Prophecy Development Corp. and has provided securities and secretarial services to Goldcorp Inc. Throughout her extensive experience, Ms. Echegaray has also been responsible for all aspects of regulatory and corporate secretarial matters, with mining companies in South America, North America and Asia.  Ms. Echegaray holds a law degree from the University Federico Villarreal in Lima, Peru.

Malik Duncan
General Counsel

Malik Duncan has over 19 years of legal experience, having worked at several multinational corporations. Mr. Duncan joins EMX from Newmont Goldcorp Corporation. While at Newmont, he held various positions within the Office of the General Counsel and on the executive team of multiple business departments. Mr. Duncan has extensive experience in domestic and international transactions spanning North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Prior to joining Newmont, he worked for Lockheed Martin Space and First Data Corporation.  Mr. Duncan completed his JD/MBA at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Thomas G. Mair
General Manager - Corporate Development

Mr. Mair has more than 30 years of experience in the resource industry across several sectors, including precious metals and energy. Mr. Mair is an accomplished, senior level executive with a proven track record of success and leadership. Mr. Mair has worked worldwide with several well-respected companies including Newmont, Golden Star Resources, and Great Western Minerals. He is known for his skills in finance, investor relations, operations, and building strong environmental and social responsibility organizations. Mr. Mair earned his MBA from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada in addition to his BA. 

Dr. Eric Jensen
General Manager, Exploration

Dr. Jensen has over 20 years of industry experience including positions as mine geologist, mine-site exploration geologist, grassroots exploration geologist, and as a consultant to several major mining companies. Dr. Jensen is a co-founder of Bronco Creek Exploration and has extensive experience in the planning and implementation of regional- to project-scale exploration programs. He has relevant exploration, research and academic experience in mineral deposits related to alkaline magmatism, “high- and low-sulfidation” epithermal gold deposits, porphyry-style deposits, mesothermal lode gold systems, and iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) systems. Dr. Jensen graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1993 with a B.A. in Geology, and received his Ph.D. in Economic Geology from the Center for Mineral Resources at the University of Arizona in 2003.

Dr. David Johnson
Chief Geologist

Dr. Johnson has more than 20 years of industry experience in generative exploration and consulting for major mining companies. He is a co-founder of Bronco Creek Exploration, where his responsibilities include business development, target generation, land acquisition, and overseeing project activities. He excels in designing, implementing, and managing broad-based mineral exploration programs, ranging from region-selection to property evaluation. Past research activities focused on the application of ore genesis and mass-transfer to mineral exploration where he co-developed a new deposit model for iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposits and co-authored review papers on porphyry and IOCG deposits for the Economic Geology 100th Anniversary Volume. Dr. Johnson graduated from The Colorado College in 1988 with a B.A. in geology, and later earned his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 2000.

Johannes Holzäpfel
Exploration Manager – Europe

Mr. Holzäpfel has over 8 years of experience in the mineral exploration industry. He worked in copper and gold exploration in Indonesia and Mongolia. In the DRC Mr. Holzäpfel lead an exploration team of Ivanhoe Mines in search for copper and other base-metals in the Central-African-Copper-Belt. He also worked with Boliden in Sweden exploring for base metals in the prolific Bergslagen district. In 2011, Mr. Holzäpfel graduated with a Master’s degree in Economic Geology from the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany

Dr. Mesut Soylu
Exploration Manager Balkans/North Africa/Central Asia

Dr. Soylu’s over 30 years of experience has been directed towards base and precious metals exploration in south-eastern Europe, Caucasus and Türkiye. He worked for Rio Tinto from 1990 through 1996, initially in Türkiye exploring for VMS, epithermal, and porphyry deposits, and subsequently as Technical Manager for the Company’s program in Bulgaria. From 1996 through 2000, Dr. Soylu worked as a consultant specializing in porphyry and epithermal deposits of the Tethyan Metallogenic Belt, with clients that included companies such as INCO, Mount Isa Mines, and BHP. Dr. Soylu joined BHP Billiton in 2000 and managed that company’s porphyry copper exploration programs in Türkiye. He joined Eurasian Minerals Inc. in 2003 and established base and precious mineral exploration in Türkiye and surrounding countries. During this period, his teams discovered Sisorta, Akarca and several more mineral deposits. Later he joined Asia Minor Mining in 2013 as companies’ Head of Exploration. He served as an independent QP consultant between 2014 and 2018 and during this period he was involved in several company/project assessment studies in Türkiye, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece and, Portugal. January 2018, he joined Alacer Gold Corporation as Chief Geologist and involved in discovery of Ardich gold deposit. After Alacer SSR Mining merger he continued as Chief Geologist role in 2020. He has been author of several NI 43-101 and JORC Code reports and company new releases.

Chris Spurway
Exploration Manager - Australia and New Zealand

Chris Spurway has 26 years of industry experience including exploration management, resource definition and business development. He has a demonstrated track record of mineral deposit discovery and development in Australia, South America, and Canada. Mr. Spurway has worked with a number of major international organizations such as AngloGold Ashanti and CRA Exploration, as well as smaller, entrepreneurial junior exploration companies. Mr. Spurway holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Geology from the University of Sydney and a Graduate Certificate in Management from the University of New England. He is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (FAusIMM) and the Society of Economic Geologists (FSEG), and a member of Australian Institute of Geoscientists (MAIG) and the Geological Society of Australia (GSA).

Dr. Dante Huff
Project Marketing Manager

Dr. Huff has over a decade of experience in the mineral exploration industry, including roles in greenfields exploration, data management, and business development. She has worked as an exploration geologist in VMS, orogenic, and Carlin-type systems, primarily in northern Canada and the western United States. She graduated from McGill University in Montreal, Canada in 2011 with a B.Sc. in Earth and Planetary Sciences. In 2021, Dr. Huff received her Ph.D. in Geology from the Colorado School of Mines where she studied the temporal relationship between magmatism and sedimentary rock-hosted gold mineralization in northern Nevada. For any questions regarding exploration projects available for partnership within the EMX Royalty Corp. generative portfolio, please contact Dr. Huff directly.

Isabel Belger
Investor Relations

Isabel Belger has 10 years of experience in the investor relations and corporate communications business in the resource sector with a special focus on the European market. She developed a significant network throughout these years and connects North America especially with the German speaking countries. She holds a Master´s degree from the University of Leipzig (Germany) in Political Science and a Master´s degree from the University of Dalarna (Sweden) in International Relations.

Dr. M. Stephen Enders
Advisory Board

Dr. Enders has over 45 years of diversified executive and leadership experience in mineral exploration, project startup, and mine development and operations. He has held the positions of Senior Vice President of Worldwide Exploration for Newmont Mining Corporation and President of Phelps Dodge Exploration Corporation. Dr. Enders has led teams in a number of new discoveries, as well as in the expansion of mineral resources and reserves for many properties and mines around the world. He is well-published, a frequent speaker on industry topics, and a leader in several professional organizations, including the Society of Economic Geologists and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration. He is the recipient of several academic and industry awards, including the 2009 Distinguished Achievement Medal from the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. Enders is a graduate in Geological Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines (B.Sc.) and the University of Arizona (M.Sc.), where he also earned a Ph.D. in Geosciences. He is currently the Department Head and a Professor of Practice in the Department of Mining Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines.