Our Team

Our Team

Ben Yankowitz

CEO and Founder

Ben has more than 30 years of experience as a corporate attorney with leading law firms, specializing in securities, financial and merger and acquisition transactions, and has a background in financial analysis and real estate investment and development.

He was a director of Proteus Energy Corporation, a California-based private oil and gas production and development company and was its Chief Executive Officer from 2008 to 2014. During that time he developed extensive experience dealing with regulators on all aspects of environmental permitting.  B.A. Mathematics – University of California, Berkeley; J.D. – University of Southern California; LLM – University of Cambridge.

Mike Iannacchione, PE

General Operations Manager

Mike is an expert in mine management, operations, engineering, planning, valuation, and resource estimation.

Mike was the General Manager at Florida Canyon Gold Mine, a large open-pit gold mine in Northern Nevada. Mike’s other experience includes:

  • General Manager, Americas Gold & Silver;
  • General Manager, Relief Canyon Gold Mine;
  • Vice President General Manager for General Moly’s Mt. Hope Molybdenum Project;
  • Operations Manager at Goldcorp‘s Marigold Gold Mine; and
  • Vice President, and General Manager at the Round Mountain Gold Mine

B.S., Mining and Mineral Engineering – University of Nevada; MBA – University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business.

Jim Mattern

Chair, Advisory Board

Jim has 32 years’ experience as a consulting geophysical engineer in the oil and mining industries.

His experience includes evaluation of gold assay and geologic data for alluvial gold mine opportunity in Guyana, South America. Based on his evaluation, became a partner with the former Prime Minister of Guyana (Hamilton Green) and Troy Resources in the successful development and production of an alluvial gold mine in southern Guyana.  B.Sc., Geophysical Engineering – Colorado School of Mines.