The MDI directors have assessed and secured high quality gold assets in Burkina Faso, Liberia and Niger, West Africa, that are on one hand highly prospective, with abundant opportunities for discovery and development, yet at the same time offering an acceptable sovereign risk profile.  Some twenty gold project opportunities were originally identified and reviewed, from which the top eight projects were shortlisted for initial technical due diligence.  Of these, the company secured agreements on the best three available projects to comprise the starting portfolio in Burkina Faso and Niger.  Since this time the Company has secured the rights to some 3,000km2  of highly prospective ground in Liberia, a third West African jurisdiction, in the process spreading the sovereign risk profile whilst limiting administrative burden.

Middle Island currently has the rights to four projects, variously comprising sixteen granted exploration permits and two exploration permit applications covering an aggregate area of 5,532.06km2 located in the countries of Burkina Faso, Liberia and Niger in West Africa, as shown in the figures below.


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Peter Thomas (Non-Executive Chairman)

Peter Thomas LLB, B.Juris (Non-Executive Chairman) was a practising solicitor from 1980 until June 2011 specialising in the provision of corporate and commercial advice to explorers and miners.  Since the mid 1980s, he has served on the boards of various listed companies.  He was the founding chairman of Sandfire Resources NL and remains the non-executive founding chairman of ASX-listed Image Resources NL, Magnetic Resources NL, Meteoric Resources NL, Emu Nickel NL and Middle Island Resources Limited.


Rick Yeates (Managing Director)

Rick Yeates (Managing Director) is a geologist, graduating from the University of New England in 1982, whose professional career has spanned 30 years, variously working for major companies such as BHP, Newmont and Amax, prior to co-founding the consulting firm of Resource Service Group (subsequently RSG Global) in 1987.  Over the next 20 years he grew RSG and its antecedents from a small Goldfields-based firm into a highly respected international consulting group with an annual turnover >$20M, progressively establishing offices in Australia, Africa and South America, and in the process winning numerous business, technology and export awards.  RSG Global was successfully sold to Australian-listed Consulting group Coffey International Limited in 2006 to become Coffey Mining, where Rick continued to work in mergers & acquisitions and business development functions until his resignation in late 2009.

Rick has considerable international experience, having worked in some 29 countries, particularly within Africa and South America, variously undertaking project management assignments, feasibility studies and independent reviews for company listings, project finance audits and technical valuations. Rick has also been responsible for developing and overseeing all marketing and promotional activities undertaken by RSG, RSG Global and Coffey Mining over the last 23 years.

Rick is well known to the major international mining exchanges and financial institutions, has been responsible for several significant mineral discoveries, has reviewed hundreds of mining and exploration projects worldwide and has lectured in exploration geochemistry at the Western Australian School of Mines.

Rick is also a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) and the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG), a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), and has served on the boards of numerous private companies, NFP organisations and industry bodies including Austmine.  He currently serves as a non-executive director of ASX 200 nickel producer Western Areas NL, and is a board member of the Australia-Africa Mining Industry Group (AAMIG), established in early 2010 at the request of the Federal Government to facilitate Australia’s re-engagement with Africa.


Beau Nicholls (Technical Director)

Beau Nicholls (Technical Director) has 15 years in mining and exploration geology, ranging from grass roots exploration management through to mine production environments.  With a proven track record on four continents (Australia, Eastern Europe, Africa and the Americas) and in over 20 countries, Beau has been instrumental in the discovery and/or development of a number of world class deposits, variously located in Western Australia, Romania, Bulgaria, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Beau has over 10 years international consulting experience with RSG/RSG Global and Coffey Mining, including serving in the positions of Regional Manager - West Africa, based in Accra Ghana, and most recently as Geology Manager – Brazil, based in Belo Horizonte.

Beau is a graduate of the Western Australian School of Mines in Kalgoorlie, holds an unrestricted Quarry Managers permit for Western Australia and has an Advanced Diploma in Business Management from the Australian Institute of Management.


Linton Kirk (Non-Executive Director)

Linton Kirk (Non-Executive Director) is a mining engineer with more than 30 years experience in mining operations worldwide.

Mr Kirk is a Fellow of the AusIMM whose career variously encompasses mining, earthmoving, contracting, management and consulting activities covering both open pit and underground operations.  His operating experience includes gold, iron ore and copper projects in Australia, Zambia, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe and Ghana, the majority involving roles as Mining Manager and/or General Manager.

He became a fulltime consultant from 1997, servicing projects in some 20 countries over the following 15 years.  This included positions as Manager - Mining Engineering with Global Mining Services, Manager - Mining Engineering and a Partner at RSG Global, and more recently as Chief Mining Engineer with Coffey Mining following the sale of RSG Global to Coffey International Limited in 2006.  During this period, Mr Kirk was involved in and/or managed major feasibility studies, technical audits, owner mining studies and mining contract tenders on projects across the globe.


Dennis Wilkins (Company Secretary)

Dennis Wilkins (Company Secretary) is an accountant who has been a director, company secretary or acted in a corporate advisory capacity to listed resource companies for over 23 years.

Dennis previously served as the Finance Director and Company Secretary for a mid tier gold producer and also spent five years working for a leading merchant bank in the United Kingdom.  He has extensive experience in capital raising, specifically for the resources industry, and is the principal of DWCorporate Pty Ltd which provides advisory, funding and administrative management services to the resource sector.  Dennis is a director of Key Petroleum Limited and Minemakers Limited.