Phone: 1-720-266-7185, Email: amm@aaronmcm.com, Location: Denver, CO, USA
• Mineral Resource Estimation • Mineral Property Valuation • Data Analytics • Stochastic Modeling • Software Development
I am an international mining professional looking to use technology and science to increase the speed and quality of investment decisions.
- Responsibility Towards Investors
- Creative Problem Solver
- True Self-starter
International business expertise (20 countries spanning six continents), Technical Communication, Leadership, Time Efficiency.
Responsibility towards Investors: Presented to institutional investors about aspects of technical due diligence. Authored several technical reports used to inform investors in public markets. Conducted due diligence for several investments ranging from USD 1 – 150M.
Creative Problem Solver: Imagined then created computer applications that: 1) increase the speed and quality of due diligence, 2) quantifies value and risk for investments in mineral exploration, 3) accelerate the mineral resource estimation process and 4) Designed and managed a study of operating and capital costs overruns for mining operations.
True self-starter: Self-taught in the fields of data analytics and software development. Managed and advised several mineral exploration drilling programs. Received the Young Scientist Award from SME’s Industrial Minerals Committee.
- Master of Science, Geology, Arizona State University
- Bachelor of Science, Geology, James Madison University
- Various short courses in Risk Analysis, Mineral Processing, Mining Engineering, Geostatistics, Machine Learning and Mine Project development.
- 2021 - Present: Founder, Tacit Vision LLC
- 2011 – 2021: Technical Manager, Resource Capital Funds
- 2006 – 2010: Senior Geologist, Pincock, Allen and Holt
- 2002 – 2005: Senior Geologist, Oglebay Norton
Aaron McMahon is an international mining professional, investment professional and aspiring entrepreneur looking to use technology and science to increase the speed and quality of investment decisions.
Responsibility towards investors has been a key focus of Aaron’s career. In his recent role as Technical Manager for Resource Capital Funds, the first Private Equity group in the Metals and Mining space, he conducted due diligence on potential investments ranging from one to 150 million USD. In a previous role, Aaron kept the public markets informed of the quality and potential value of select mineral deposits through publication of several NI 43-101 technical reports. Also, in this role, he provided due diligence services to debt providers looking to support the construction of mining projects.
His core strength lies in creative problem solving. Aaron imagined then designed a system for increasing the speed and quality of the due diligence process. He then built a computer application (“Atlas”) that implements this system, which he has been using daily for over five years. When faced with the problem of determining the expected value and associated risk of early stage mineral exploration, he imagined, designed, then built a solution that married the objective evidence of past exploration efforts with the subjective (yet highly valuable) opinions of an expert. After dissatisfaction with the speed and flow of commercial software, Aaron developed another computer application (“MRE”) that combined an improved work flow with hardware acceleration to significantly reduce the time requirements for the task of mineral resource estimation.
A true self-starter who feels quite at home in today’s knowledge economy, Aaron is fond of saying, “You can learn anything on YouTube.” Taking advantage of online resources, he gained the skills in data analytics and software development that allowed him to execute on various ideas. This independent search for knowledge has taken him into the fields of project management, finance, statistics, contract law, accounting and conflict resolution, to name a few.
Tacit Vision is a platform from which I develop and launch ideas. Many of these ideas are centered around defining and reducing the vast uncertainty faced by the mining industry.
- Gold Grade Map Takes a proprietary model that predicts the grade of gold resources and applies it to the world.
- Market Cap Is a tool that uses a machine learning model to predicts the market capitalization of a TSX or TSXV listed mining company using a few key featurs.
RCF is a private equity firm that only invests in the mining industry. Typically, the underlying assets are mineral projects spanning early stage exploration through operations for a wide variety of commodities. My general responsibilities were to provide technical due diligence on potential investments and identify risk/opportunities related to mineral resources. Due diligence tasks include review of geologic interpretation, drill hole data, assay QAQC programs, resource estimation and geometallurgy.
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Co-authored an estimated 50 Investment Committee Papers, conducted 40 sites visits within six continents and built 50 independent resource estimates helping to deploy nearly US$4 billion into the mining industry. Notable exited positions include:
- SilverCrest Metals – underground silver (Mexico)
- Pilbara Minerals – open pit lithium (Australia)
- Continental Gold – underground gold (Colombia)
- Toro Gold – open pit gold (Senegal)
- Engaged and managed technical consultants (geology, mining, mineral processing, water and geotechnical) to assist in due diligence efforts.
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Built a software tool for assessing the potential of early stage mineral properties. The output of this tool, which is influenced by a machine learning algorithm and expert opinion, reports the probability of a mineral resource being discovered along with continuous probability distributions for grade, contained metal and required drilling. This tool lead to positions in:
- Osino Resources - gold exploration (Namibia)
- Japan Gold – gold exploration (Japan)
- Sun Peak Metals – copper exploration (Ethiopia)
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Through data analysis, generated distributions for overruns in operating cost, initial capital cost and sustaining capital cost for mining operations relative to their pre-production engineering studies.
- Cost overrun distributions are lognormal
- Overruns on initial capital and operating costs are bad (+25% on half of projects)
- Sustaining costs overruns are worse (+100% on half of projects)
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Acquired then implemented skills for modeling mineral resources through advanced geostatistical methods.
- Conditional Simulation
- Local Uniform Conditioning
Pincock, Allen and Holt (now part of RPM Global) is a mining consulting firm. My responsibilities were centered on geology and resource estimation but would occasionally include mining engineering aspects. Many of my clients were Canadian junior exploration companies requiring resource estimation and drafting of NI 43-101 technical reports. Other clients included financiers needing technical due diligence of mining projects and producers requiring reserve audits of their operating mines.
- Managed a Preliminary Economic Assessment for US Gold Corporation’s multi-deposit, multi-process El Gallo District project in Mexico (silver, gold, open pit). Generated the resource estimate and participated in mine design and scheduling.
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Other published NI 43-101 Technical Reports include
- Accha-Yanque Zinc Deposit, Cuzco Department, Peru
- Magistral Gold Deposit, Sinaloa State, Mexico
- Palmarito Silver Deposit, Sinaloa State, Mexico
- Hardshell Silver-Manganese Deposit, Arizona, USA
- Cuiú Cuiú Project, Tapajos Region, North-Central Brazil
- Reserve reconciliation:
- Vale iron ore mines in Brazil
- Phelps Dodge copper mines in Arizona, US
- Due Diligence:
- Cobriza Copper Deposit, Huancavelica Department, Peru
- Port Loko Bauxite Deposit, Port Loko, Sierra Leone
- Tassawini Gold Deposit, Barima-Waini District, Guyana
- Caserones Copper-Molybdenum Deposit, Atacama, Chile
- Mina Justa Copper Deposit, Ica Department, Peru
- Kemmerer Thermal Coal Deposit, Wyoming, USA
Oglebay Norton was an Industrial Minerals company that operated silica sand, mica and limestone mines in the United States. My responsibilities varied between managing exploration drilling programs, resource estimation and ore control.