Ricardo Franco, M.Sc. Eng.

(Senior Associate Geologist / Exploration & QA/QC Supervisor)

Geologist with 30 years of experience undertaking geological investigations and field exploration, for the oil, cement and mining industry, specifically in exploration of gold, strategic minerals, emeralds and amethyst in the Americas and Canada. My skills cover international experience in geological and structural mapping of mineral deposits in sedimentary, volcano-clastic & metamorphic geological settings, polarized-light microscopy / petrography, core logging and field sampling for geochemical evaluations in the oil Industries (in Colombia), industrial minerals in North and Latin America and Saudi Arabia, gold (in Canada and Colombia), strategic minerals in Canada. I have had the opportunity to do revision and supervision assessment of the CNNC NI 43-101 resource and evaluation reports for strategic minerals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with a General Assessment of Compliance and Commentaries, for WGM in Toronto, Canada. Likewise, I collaborate in the coordination of field work and activities, giving guidelines for the team of geologists working on fieldwork, that are in accordance with the regulations of good practices as established by international codes like the NI-43-101 of Canada, or the JORC.