Chemaf SA (“Chemaf” – Chemicals of Africa) is a Congolese registered company, founded in 2001 by Shiraz Virji, Founder and Chairman of the Chemaf Group. Chemaf SA is a subsidiary of Chemaf Resources Ltd (previously known as Shalina Resources Ltd) a privately owned company.

Shiraz began his career helping in his father’s business exporting spices from Zanzibar and from there moved into the handicraft sector. In 1971 he moved to London in the UK where he opened a wholesale warehouse in Willesden and significantly grew his business. Ten years later Shiraz travelled to India where he started a pharmaceutical company and began exporting generic medicines to Zaire, now the DRC. He created the Shalina brand incorporating over one hundred pharmaceutical products that are now marketed in multiple sub-Saharan African countries under Shalina Healthcare Ltd. In 2001 Shiraz acquired several mining concessions in the DRC and built Chemaf’s first processing facilities. He is based in the DRC and spearheads Chemaf’s growth strategy.

Jade is a Chartered Accountant, with experience in a broad range of sectors including trading, retail, manufacturing, financial services and media. Initially trained at Arthur Anderson, she moved into industry where for over ten years she worked at Terra Firma Capital Partners where she was ultimately appointed Chief of Staff. From there she joined their investment EMI Group as EVP Group Finance and Global Support Services. More recently, from 2013 Jade was interim COO of Stemcor where she designed and implemented a new global risk framework and led both corporate services and frontline businesses through their restructuring. Her current executive role is managing the sale and wind down of the residual businesses from Stemcor demerger, where she has to date turned around and sold a 4 million tonne iron ore pellet plant, enterprise value US$150 million and collected US$140 million for lenders.

Gavin is a Chemical Engineer with a BSC (Hons) degree from The Queen’s University, Belfast and an MBA degree from the University of Cape Town. He has over 36 years experience in the African mining, metallurgical and minerals processing industries. Gavin has held senior management and board positions in Mining and Multinational EPCM Companies, as well as in Process and Project Management Consultancies. Gavin’s track record as a Projects Director includes copper, cobalt, platinum, and gold mining studies and projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, the Republic of Congo and Mozambique, amongst others. He has a strong technical background in base and precious metals, mineral processing and hydrometallurgy, with experience in audits, due diligence works and peer reviews. In addition to this, Gavin also has expertise in the development of feasibility studies and the execution of large capital projects on the African Continent for both new mines and established operations.

Abbas graduated from Cass Business School in London with an Honours degree in Business Studies. He has over 20 years’ business management experience in Europe, Africa, India, and China. Now based in Dubai, he is primarily responsible for the corporate development of Chemaf Resources Ltd., including oversight of strategic investments designed to ensure sustainable success. He is also responsible for negotiating cobalt and copper off-take contracts with long-term strategic partners. Abbas is a Director and Chief CEO of Shalina Healthcare Ltd, the pharmaceutical vertical of the Shalina Group.

Sebastien graduated from Dijon University, France in 1996 with an MA in Finance. He started his career at Ernst and Young in Luxembourg as an auditor, before moving to the Whitehall Hedge Fund in Paris as Portfolio Manager specialising in French Private Real Estate. From 2000 to 2008, Sebastien held a position concentrating on European Equities as Multi Fund Manager at the Russell Investment Group before being appointed as Chief Financial Officer for Chemaf.

Neal is an accomplished mining executive with over 14 years’ experience in the mining industry in gold, coal, copper, cobalt and PGM’s. Having commenced his mining career at Pan African Resources in 2009 and holding various positions. In November 2019 he was appointed at the CFO of the Glencore owned Mopani Copper Mines in Zambia, and later held the Glencore African CFO role overseeing KCC, Mutanda and Mopani, which represented a significant portion of the global cobalt production. In July 2021, Neal joined Chemaf Resources Ltd as the Chief Operating Officer and is responsible for corporate development, strategy and reports to the Chemaf Resources board. Neal is a qualified South African Chartered Accountant, and was nominated as a top 35-under-35 CA(SA) in 2018 for his various roles held in the mining industry.

Nico is a Chartered Accountant CA(SA) with a Master’s degree in business leadership (MBL – UNISA). He specialises in Operational Change Management, Strategic Management and Strategic Financial Management. He has over 30 years’ experience in mining operations across Africa, often at remote sites. Nico joined Chemaf in late 2019 as Chemaf CFO and has since been promoted to Chemaf Deputy MD in July 2020 and Chemaf MD in January 2022. His past experience includes two years as VP and Regional Financial Controller with Endeavour Gold Mining, where the regional management team oversaw construction of the US$400 million Hounde mine. Nico also spent 6 years with AngloGold Ashanti (Vice President – Finance) and 3 years with Gold Fields Ghana (Country CFO). He has a proven track record of working with culturally diverse teams in remote and challenging environments to deliver exceptional results whilst complying with international best practice for companies listed on the TSX, LSE and NYSE.

Born in Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo Ghislain was educated in Lubumbashi and obtained his graduate degree in Applied Sciences of Mining in 1994; and then his B.Sc. Mining Engineering in 1997 from Lubumbashi University. Ghislain began his career with Chemaf in 2003 and is currently one of the longest serving employees at Chemaf His first position was Operating Engineer at the Etoile mine, from where he was promoted to Mine Manager, Sr Mine Manager and then General Manager. In 2011, Ghislain was appointed as General Manager Mining and Business Development until 2020; and is currently the CSR and External Relations Director and General Secretary of Chemaf SA. He has more than 20 years of experience in Mining Engineering and Operations, particularly in pit designs, blasting, development and operation of copper and cobalt open pit mines, management of mining contracts, exploration activities, mining development projects, management of the environment and the sustainable development of communities impacted by mining operations and projects.