Geologist by profession, entrepreneur by nature, with over 35 years of experience in the global mining industry. This includes work in Australia, China, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.

He first came to Kazakhstan in 1997 as Country Manager for Normandy Mining Ltd, which at the time was the largest gold producer in Australia (1m oz Au per annum) and was later acquired by Newmont.

He left Kazakhstan in 2001 due to the low gold price of $350/oz.

In 2004, he spent one year in Uzbekistan studying the giant Muruntau gold deposit with a team of international experts to develop an exploration model for Muruntau.

In 2011, he returned to Kazakhstan after five years working in Western China and worked as a consultant to various Kazakhstani companies operating primarily gold mines.

In late 2017, with the rising gold price, he established Scythian Mining Group Ltd, a UK company, after selecting the Kokkus deposit, as it met all the criteria for potentially being a large deposit based on the Muruntau Exploration Model.