The Institute

Paul Bateman since 2005 has been President of the International Cyanide Management Institute and Chair of its Board of Directors.  Previously, Mr. Bateman was the chief executive of two international mining industry trade groups, having served as the Executive Director of The Silver Institute and President of The Gold Institute. Earlier in his career, Mr. Bateman held several senior posts in the U.S. federal government, including appointments to two White House staffs, and at the Departments of Commerce and Treasury.  He has a Bachelor’s degree from Whittier College.

Craig Ford is a seasoned industry executive with nearly 30 years of experience as a corporate responsibility mining executive. Currently, Craig is the President of Corporate Responsibility Solutions Inc., an advisory firm providing advice to the resource development industry in the areas of strategic planning, and the design and implementation of management systems. Craig was Senior Vice President, Health, Safety and Sustainable Development at Yamana Gold, Inc. from 2021 until its acquisition by Pan American Silver Corp. in March 2023. In this role Craig had executive-level oversight of safety, health, security, environmental affairs, community relations and development, human rights, tailings management, ESG reporting and government relations. From 2015 to 2020 Craig was a member of the three-person Independent Expert Review Panel for the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), which assesses prospective member companies’ appropriateness for ICMM membership. Craig was also Vice-President, Corporate Responsibility at Inmet Mining Corporation for 13 years until it was acquired by First Quantum Minerals in March 2013. Under his leadership, Inmet established a strong reputation for excellence in a range of corporate responsibility issues to create clear business value for the enterprise. Craig was recently recognized by the Mining Association of Canada for, among other things, his contributions in developing the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) initiative by being elected a Life Member of the Board. A geologist by training, Craig completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Geology and Geochemistry at the Colorado School of Mines.

Michael Rae is a consultant, specializing in sustainability and certification policy. For seven years, he was Chief Executive Officer of the Responsible Jewellery Council, a standards initiative for the jewelry supply chain. Earlier, he worked for almost 17 years with WWF (formerly the World Wildlife Fund), leading its international work on mining. Mr. Rae led the WWF Mining Certification Evaluation Project and has been a member of several global mining and minerals initiatives, including the IUCN Working Group on Extractive Industry and Biodiversity and the IUCN/International Council on Mining and Metals Advisory Group and the Working Group for the GRI Mining and Metals Sector Supplement. Mr. Rae was a member of the stakeholder group that developed the Cyanide Code.

Günter Becker is a mining engineer and insurance professional, who recently retired as Head of Mining in a global business unit of Munich Re. He has 30 years of underwriting experience in the Oil & Gas and Mining sectors with companies in Canada and Germany, the last 17 years with Munich Re, based in Munich. Prior to his insurance career he worked as a mining engineer in Germany and in various managerial positions in an iron ore mine in Liberia, West Africa. Mr. Becker is also a past chairman of the Mining Insurance and Risk Association. Mr. Becker also helped to establish the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management as a member of the Advisory Board. Mr. Becker holds a Degree in Mining Engineering from the Technical University in Aachen.

Philip Klapwijk is the Managing Director of Precious Metals Insights Limited (PMI), a boutique precious metals markets consultancy based in Hong Kong, which provides market analysis and business advisory services to a wide range of clients in the precious metals market in China, the United States and Europe.  His career in the precious metals market began in 1987 with Consolidated Gold Fields where he was Group Economist for the former London-based mining conglomerate.  Thereafter, he spent much of his career working at GFMS (formerly Gold Fields Mineral Services), which was the leading specialist consultancy on the global precious metals markets, where latterly he was the company’s co-owner and Executive Chairman. In 2011, Mr. Klapwijk sold GFMS to the multinational information provider Thomson Reuters, staying on at this company until February 2013 as the group’s Global Head of Metals Analytics. Mr. Klapwijk also serves as Chief Consultant to Metals Focus Limited, which is one of the market’s most important providers of statistics and other information on precious metals.  He holds degrees in economics from the London School of Economics and the College d’Europe, Bruges.

Jessica van Onselen is an accomplished communications advisor with deep experience in mining. She began her career at gold mining major AngloGold Ashanti in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she worked from 2005 to 2013, working extensively on sustainability issues and political risk management. In her final role she was head of Public Affairs for the African region, leading government relations and external affairs. Seconded to the World Gold Council in London between 2011 and 2012, Ms. van Onselen worked with the WGC’s Responsible Gold team to develop the organization’s Conflict Free Gold Standard. In 2013, she became an independent consultant and worked with the African Union and the African Minerals Development Centre, in Addis Ababa, extensively from 2014 to 2016. Later, she spent several years on the Mineral Production Monitoring Support Programme in Zambia. This EU-funded project focussed on strengthening the integrity of production data in Zambia’s mining sector, particularly copper. She has also worked as a communications advisor on projects in Mozambique, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Mali. Ms. van Onselen founded her own company BrightGuide Africa in 2020, a niche communications firm based in the United Kingdom. Most recently, she worked as the communications and marketing advisor for the non-profit Development Partner Institute for Mining (DPI Mining). Currently, she is the Communications and Marketing Director at Apolitical, a London based tech-start up supporting public servants and governments. Ms. van Onselen studied at the University of the Witwatersrand and Wits Business School in South Africa, where she was awarded both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree.

Edward Bickham holds a number of senior advisory roles in the mining, oil and gas sectors including being a Senior Adviser to Critical Resource Ltd.  He is a former Strategic Adviser to the International Council on Mining and Metals, and from 2010-14 he was Senior Adviser to the World Gold Council in which role he advised on the development of the Conflict-Free Gold Standard. He served at the Board level in the development of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative from 2005 until 2013. He is currently a member of the Steering Board for the UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises, and since 2014 he has served as Chairman of the Institute of Business Ethics’ Board of Trustees.   Earlier in his career, Mr. Bickham was Executive Vice President, External Affairs for global mining group, Anglo American plc.  Prior to that, he was Managing Director, Public and Corporate Affairs (and later Deputy Chairman), Hill and Knowlton UK from 1993 until 2000. From 1991 to 1993 he was Special Adviser to the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary. Mr. Bickham graduated in Law from St John’s College, Oxford in 1977.

Louise Laverdure worked for more than 30 years for the Canadian federal Government. At the end of her career, she was Director General of the Science Branch with the department of Fisheries and Oceans where she provided advice to science and policy decision makers. Before that, she held a number of positions with the department of Natural Resources Canada. As an Acting Director General and Director for the Geological Survey of Canada, for example, she developed a collaborative agreement with the department of Environment Canada for the integration of groundwater and surface water to evaluate the overall impacts of Climate Change for long-term water availability. She also had the opportunity to lead the Geo-mapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) to bring Northern Canada to a modern standard of geological knowledge in support of mining exploration activities and land-use decisions. Louise began her career with CANMET-Mining where she occupied a number of senior positions: A/Director General, Director of the Green Mining Programs, Director-Mineral Processing and Environmental, and Director of Mining Research programs. Her responsibilities included recommendations and liaising with senior government (DM, ADM, federal and provincial), industry (e.g.: VP Operation Vale, Cameco, Imperial Oil Limited), nongovernmental organizations and mining associations on shared issues such as the Green Mining Initiative.