Management

Peter Espig

President, Chief Executive Officer and Director

Mr. Espig assumed the role of President and CEO on November 7, 2013 and guided the Company through its restructuring, which included entering the company into CCAA and successfully exiting on November 21, 2014. He is experienced in the analysis of investment opportunities, raising capital, deal sourcing, financial structuring, and corporate turnaround. Mr. Espig has structured over US$2.0 billion in private equity and pre-IPO investment transactions from the principal side and is a pioneer of SPACs, having completed over $1.0 BN in transactions.

Mr. Espig served as Vice-President of the Principal Finance and Securitization Group and Asia Special Situations Group for Goldman Sachs Japan. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Mr. Espig was Vice-President of Olympus Capital, a New York private equity firm, where he participated in corporate restructurings, investment analysis and financing negotiations for both domestic and international investments.

In 1989, Mr. Espig received his B.A. from the University of British Columbia and later received his MBA from Columbia Business School, where he was a Chazen International Scholar.

Mr. Espig has been active in the turnaround of mining projects and has functioned in management and director roles for numerous mining companies.

Will Whitty

VP of Exploration

Mr. Whitty has over fifteen years of advanced-stage exploration experience working on a variety of porphyry copper +/- molybdenum deposits and copper skarns as well as Carlin-style gold and orogenic gold deposits.  Mr. Whitty completed his B.Sc. degree in geology at Carleton University in Ottawa and his M.Sc. degree in geology with the Mineral Deposit Research Unit (“MDRU”) at UBC in Vancouver. After graduating, he worked as a consultant for TetraTech EBA. He subsequently, moved to Arizona where he worked for Freeport-McMoRan for nine years with the mine site exploration group where he provided geological services to most of the companies mines in the southwestern US. Before coming to Nicola, Mr. Whitty worked for Nevada Gold Mines, a Barrick-Newmont joint venture, at the Goldrush Mine, which is located within the Cortez district in northern Nevada.  As Senior Geologist at the newly producing mine, he successfully managed multi-million-dollar drill programs.

Kairan Liu

Senior Geologist

Kairan Liu is a seasoned geologist with a decade of experience in the field. He earned his PhD from the Colorado School of Mines, focusing on the geology and genesis of magmatic-hydrothermal systems. His academic journey also includes a BEng from China University of Geosciences and a BSc from the University of Waterloo. Before joining Nicola Mining Inc., Kairan has collaborated with notable organizations such as Silvercorp Metals Inc., Triumph Gold Corp., and Freeport-McMoRan. His contributions have been pivotal in advancing exploration projects across Canada, the USA, and Bolivia.