It is with sadness that we note the sudden passing of Aubrey Paverd last week.
It would be fair to say that Aubrey was a passionate supporter of Amira. He joined Amira’s board in 2009 and was elected as Chairman in December 2013, in which role he led the board for 3 years. During this time he also supported various Amira projects, in particular, as Cia. De Minas Buenaventura representative, the Green Rocks projects run by David Cooke and Bruce Gemmell at the University of Tasmania.
Aubrey had a long and distinguished career, which culminated as a non-executive director of Cia. de Minas Buenaventura, a mining company with major gold, copper and silver operations in Peru. He retired as a director of Randgold Resources Ltd in 2009 after a 14-year tenure. From 1994 to 2000 he held the position of Group Executive Exploration with North Ltd., a diversified mining company with gold and base metal mines in Australia, Europe, North and South America.
Prior to joining North, he held the position of Vice President Exploration with Newmont Mining Company. He worked for the Newmont Group from 1973 to 1994, initially in southern Africa in Johannesburg as Chief Geologist, and then in Tsumeb, where he headed exploration and mining geology for Tsumeb Corporation Ltd. Transferred to New York in 1979, he was placed in charge of Foreign Exploration in 1980. He was responsible for the acquisition of Yanacocha in Peru and management of the exploration that led to the discovery and exploitation of more than 30 million ounces of gold.
He lectured in geology at Rhodes University during 1972 and 1973 and worked as a field and mining geologist in Australia and Zambia during the period 1962 to 1969. He obtained the degrees of B.Sc. (Hons) and M.Sc. from Rhodes University in 1961 and 1966 respectively and a Ph.D. from the University of James Cook in Queensland in 1972.
Aubrey had retired to enjoy his passion of travel and MG cars with his wife, Rene. Our sincere condolences to Rene and family.