Charles Fipke
Chairman of the Board
Mr Fipke received an honours degree in Geology from the University of British Columbia in 1970 and was awarded an honourary Doctorate of Technology from Okanagan University College. He worked as an exploration and research geologist for Kennicott Copper in New Guinea, Samedan Minerals in Australia, Johannesburg Consolidated Investments (“JCI”), in South Africa and Cominco in Canada and Brazil.
In 1977 he founded CF Mineral Research, which is amongst the leading heavy mineral and diamond exploration research laboratories in the world. For the past 45 years he has been involved in heavy mineral exploration projects for diamonds as well as base and precious metals worldwide. He founded Dia-Met Minerals Ltd. in 1984 and Cantex Mine Development Corporation in 1996. As Chairman of both companies, he has led his teams using his patented and proprietary heavy mineral technologies to discover the Ekati Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories as well as three large copper-nickel-platinum deposits and two significant gold deposits in Yemen. Dr. Fipke has been the author and co-author of several publications on diamond exploration worldwide including the first publication on Diamond Exploration published by the Geological Survey of Canada.
In recognition of his achievements he is a member of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame, and has received numerous other awards including the Northern Miner’s Mining Man of the Year and the PDAC’s Prospector of the Year.