Rob received his Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the University of Nevada, Reno and worked as a geologist in mineral exploration before transitioning to Nevada Division of Minerals (NDOM). Rob's experience at NDOM over the last 11 years is multifaceted and ranges from extensive Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) inventory, data management, closure, and remediation work throughout the state to bond pool administration, agency budget, and coordination with the Legislature. He is the Administrator of the Nevada Division of Minerals, chair of the Hardrock AML Committee for the National Association of Abandoned Mine Lands Program, serves on the Nevada State Environmental Commission, serves on the University of Nevada Mackay Advisory Board, and serves on the Nevada State Mapping Advisory Committee. Rob greatly enjoys spending time outdoors hunting, fishing, skiing, camping, and any other activities with his wife and two children.

Charles specializes in mining law and practices all aspects of environmental law. He is based in both Montréal and Toronto. Charles advises mining companies in day-to-day legal matters related to their operations and commercial transactions, including earn-in, joint venture, and royalty agreements, mine acquisitions and divestitures, mine reclamation and closure issues and mineral rights concerns, as well as in respect of indigenous matters. He has extensive expertise in environmental aspects of commercial transactions, project development, regulatory compliance, and liability issues. Charles advises on permitting, environmental impact assessments, investigations and defending prosecutions under environmental legislation. Charles is also experienced in negotiating agreements with indigenous groups. Charles has been recognized as a leading mining and environmental lawyer by numerous publications. Charles is named in the “The 2024 Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada” for his work in the Mining sector and was named "Lawyer of the Year" 2024 by the “Best Lawyers” publication. 

Dave is currently a consulting mineral landman and president of Hard Rock Land Consultants LLC based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hardrock Land Consultants provides land management services to the hard rock mining industry whose properties are located in the western United States.

Up until about a year ago, Dave was Director of Lands for North America at Kinross Gold U.S.A. and held this position for ten years. This position involved overseeing the Regional Land Department based in Denver Colorado where the Department oversees the land positions for Kinross’s operating mines in North America, which include the Fort Knox Mine in Alaska, the Bald Mountain Mine and the Round Mountain Mine in Nevada along with several exploration projects, and closure sites in North America.

Prior to joining Kinross, Dave worked as a Senior Land Manager for Barrick Gold U.S.A., Inc. based in Salt Lake City, Utah for seven years, where he managed the land positions for various Barrick properties in North America and Canada including Donlin Creek in Alaska, the Golden Sunlight Mine in Montana, the Hemlo Mine in Ontario, the Eskay Creek Mine in British Columbia along with various advanced exploration projects in Nevada including Spring Valley and Hilltop.

Before joining the mining industry, Dave managed the Land and Right of Way Department for Warren Buffett’s Kern River Gas Transmission Company, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Kern River Pipeline consists of a network of over 1600 miles of federally certificated natural gas pipelines across the West with over 600 landowners. Dave’s main accomplishment was the successful acquisition of over 800-miles of right of way for the 1.2 billion dollar 2002 expansion project that stretched from Wyoming to California. Prior to joining Kern River, Dave worked for Williams Gas Pipeline’s West as a Senior Land Representative.

Over the last twenty years or so, Dave has served, at various times, as president, vice-president and AAPL Director of the Nevada Landmen’s Association. Dave has also served twice as Co-chair of the AAPL Sponsored Mining and Land Resource Institute held annually in April at Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Dave is a Past President of the International Right of Way Association’s Pipeline Committee.

Dave has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Geology from James Madison University; he currently resides in Salt Lake City Utah with his wife Susan and four kids that live nearby. His favorite hobbies are skiing, riding dirt bikes and practicing martial arts. 

Ramona’s practice focuses on matters related to Alaska’s vast wealth of land and minerals. She represents natural resource companies in transactions, financing, compliance with state and local government requirements, and preparing oil and gas title opinions, mineral title reports, and due diligence reports concerning mineral transactions. Ramona led the Alaska Miners Association’s successful efforts to amend Alaska’s mineral tenure statutes in 2020 and was awarded the Advocate of the Year by the Alaska Miners Association in 2018 for those efforts. She co-chairs the firm’s mining group. Ramona is active in the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation and has been included in The Best Lawyers in America® (currently: Oil & Gas Law), 2018–2023.

Xavier Naeger is the Director of Metals for Dyno Nobel, overseeing the strategic management of explosives accounts for the metals mining industry. He was born and raised in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri and earned his B.S. Mining Engineering from Missouri University of Science & Technology. Through the first 12 years of his career, Xavier has helped plan, operate and build both Open Pit and Underground mines in Nevada, South Carolina and Mongolia. As Senior Advisor of Engineering for the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia, his team helped to bring to fruition production mining of the first Block Cave mine in the country. This accomplishment will make Mongolia the third largest producer of copper in the world. He now resides in Salt Lake City, UT where he enjoys skiing, mountain biking and hiking all over the western US.

Joan Vestrand teaches Personal and Professional Responsibility, Legal Ethics in the Digital Space, and a course called Getting to Excellence which focuses on the connection between ethics, attitude, and success.  Professor Vestrand, who chairs the law school’s Professional Responsibility department, formerly served as the Associate Dean of the law school’s Ann Arbor and Auburn Hills campuses, after serving as an Assistant Dean and the Acting Dean of Students and Professionalism.  Upon her hire in 2002, Professor Vestrand helped to revamp the law school’s legal ethics curriculum and assisted in the development and implementation of numerous professionalism initiatives and programs. In 2006, the law school was awarded the American Bar Association’s E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Award for these programs. 

Prior to joining the law school and for more than a decade, Professor Vestrand served as a state ethics prosecutor investigating and prosecuting ethics violations against Michigan lawyers and judges.   She then became a partner and shareholder at Moore Vestrand and Pozehl, P.C. where she concentrated her practice on lawyer disciplinary defense, legal ethics, the representation of law school graduates in state bar character and fitness proceedings and serving as an expert witness in legal malpractice cases, a service she continues in today.   

Professor Vestrand is a former member of the State Bar of Michigan Representative Assembly, the policy making arm of the state bar. She is also past chair of the State Bar Special Committee on Grievances and the State Bar Law Practice Management section and served on the State Bar’s Grievance Committee and Annual Meeting Committee.  Presently, she is a member of the State Bar’s Professionalism Committee and its Standing Committee on Character & Fitness.  Presently, Professor Vestrand serves the State of Michigan as a hearing panelist in both bar admission and lawyer disciplinary cases. 

Professor Vestrand is a past chair of the Oakland County Bar Association’s Professionalism Committee, its Solo Small Firm Committee, and its Law Related Education Committee. She also served for several years as co-chair of the Federal Bar Association’s Law School Initiatives Committee.  

Over the years, Professor Vestrand has designed and implemented several programs and initiatives in benefit of disadvantaged youth and gives of her time regularly to these endeavors.  In 2012, she launched a student court between her law school and a local high school for restorative disposition of matters that otherwise would have resulted in student discipline.  In 2013, this court was converted to a peacemaking court, with law students overseeing teen peacemakers in their efforts to resolve student conduct issues and help peers make better choices.  This program received the Eastern Leaders Group 2013 Leadership Award and was a featured youth character program in connection with a 2014 Carnegie Project on Social Justice at the University of Missouri - St. Louis Center for Character and Citizenship. In 2015, Dean Vestrand brought the program to Avondale High School in northern Oakland County.

Professor Vestrand is a frequent lecturer on legal ethics and the importance of ethical behavior at the state and national level.  In addition to educating attorneys and business executives on Principled Leadership and Leading for Superior Results, she regularly gives of her time helping youth identify the connection between ethics and success, presenting to both high school and college-aged audiences. Her speaking engagements include several annual appearances as a featured speaker at the United States Coast Guard Academy’s annual Ethics Symposium, the West Point Military Academy’s Leadership Conference, and engagements at The Citadel Military Academy of South Carolina, including at their Annual Leadership Symposium.   

A named Fellow of the National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professionalism, Professor Vestrand was one of three national finalists for the 2006 Teaching Excellence Award sponsored by the ABA Center for Professionalism and the Commission on Chief Justices.  She is also a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, the Michigan Bar Foundation, the Oakland County Bar Foundation, and the George Romney Institute for Political Science at Adrian College. 

 In 2007, Professor Vestrand was awarded the Oakland County Bar Association’s Frances R. Avendenka Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Legal Profession and the Community.  In 2008, she received the State Bar of Michigan’s Champion of Justice Award in recognition of her work in the field of legal ethics and her programs to benefit underprivileged youth.  In 2014 she was named a Leader in the Law by Michigan Lawyers Weekly. 

Lucia is a GIS Specialist/Geologist with the Nevada Division of Minerals. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Geology from California State University, Chico and obtained her Master of Science in Geology focusing on economic geology from the University of Nevada, Reno. She worked as an exploration geologist for six years before taking her current position with the Nevada Division of Minerals over eight years ago.

Adam Hawkins is an expert on external affairs in the mining industry. His decades of experience span every phase of the mining process, from early stage exploration and entitling projects to permitting new facilities, expanding operations, and closures. He has worked on projects on every continent except Antarctica.

Adam began his career as a US Senate staffer and spent seven years in-house with Rio Tinto. A MSHA Part 48 certified surface miner, past board trustee of the Arizona Mining Association, and the 2020 president of the American Exploration and Mining Association, Adam is a go-to on mining policy. 

He holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and has a range of domestic and international professional experience. 

Adam’s expertise is trusted and sought by mining companies in identifying and addressing social, political, legislative, regulatory, and reputational risk factors - vital for firms seeking effective guidance in moving mining projects from concept to closure. 

Adam’s knowledge has proved highly valuable for clients seeking to more effectively position their projects with the public. Adam works with clients on how to effectively position their projects in the public arena, including how to identify key stakeholders, activate the community through conventional contact and social media, develop effective talking points that support communications efforts, as well as forge long-standing partnerships with key non-governmental organizations. This includes conducting analyses of critical permitting milestones and conforming activities to the client's needs. Adam helps his clients interpret this data and craft targeted messaging to influence the best possible outcomes. 

Adam is also an advisory board member of the US Global Leadership Council, an advisory council member of US Veterans Initiative, and serves on the boards of several other non-profits. 

Gage is partner with Dorsey & Whitney practicing in Regulatory Affairs in the Salt Lake City and Missoula, Montana offices. His practice focuses on natural resource, energy, and agricultural industries where he advises clients as to land tenure, project development, permitting, operations, and public policy advocacy. 

Gage enjoys partnering with his clients from the onset of pre-project planning and design, through community outreach and land-use planning, to project development and permitting, and into end-of-life planning and divestiture. He regularly reviews project development plans, surveys, and title insurance commitments, and assists with local land-use planning and title review, due diligence, and curative. Gage assists in project development by helping clients navigate, among other issues, NHPA Section 106 consultations, BLM and USFS land access and approvals, and coordinating land use permitting with state and local agencies. 

In addition, Gage maintains an active water law practice throughout the Intermountain West where advises clients through due diligence, acquisition, permitting, and defense of water assets. His varied water law practice includes permitting saltwater disposal wells, defending water rights through basin adjudications, and representing clients before state agencies in change of use applications. Gage also regularly assists client in acquiring and divesting of water assets through negotiating and drafting water supply agreements, municipal water contracts, water leases, options, and purchase and sale agreements.

Kayla focuses on all aspects of environmental compliance, with considerable experience in matters involving solid and hazardous wastes (RCRA), the remediation of contaminated properties (CERCLA), water quality (CWA), and the analysis of the environmental effects of proposed major Federal actions (NEPA). Kayla frequently advises on matters concerning the regulatory status and management of hazardous materials. She also regularly assists clients with environmental permitting matters for mining and alternative energy projects. Additionally, Kayla provides environmental support related to transactional due diligence and contracting matters. 

John Gomez is the Senior Lands Manager for Ormat Technologies where he oversees all project properties, royalties, and acquisitions across the Americas. Prior to joining Ormat, John led professional land survey teams in northern Nevada.

Dr. Kerry Rohrmeier manages Government Affairs at Ormat Technologies where she advocates for policy and plans to advance geothermal energy, battery storage, and recovered energy generation (industrial heat). Kerry is a lifelong geographer and her social science research focuses on land use planning and policy.

Robin Zuza is the Director of Global Exploration at Ormat Technologies with projects in thirty countries. Robin has been with Ormat for seven years starting as a geologist and now leading a world class team of scientists. Prior to geothermal energy Robin worked in oil and gas exploration in California.

Mr. Day is an experienced geologist and land professional with over 30 years of exploration and mining experience, with a focus on precious metals, copper, and nickel. He founded Mineral Exploration Services Ltd. in 1998 to service the mining industry, specializing in mining claim location, land services, geochemical sampling, and project management. Mr. Day is highly experienced in land acquisitions, project mapping, project management. He has directly overseen the location of over 120,000 mining claims in the western US including Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, South Dakota, Colorado, and New Mexico. Mr. Day also serves as President & CEO, Director of Nevada Canyon Gold Corp. and on the Board of Directors of Smooth Rock Ventures.
Mr. Day received a B.S. in Geology and a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Utah.