Gold mining "is actually a stupid busi-
ness," says neil Woodyer. "it's very capital-
intensive, and you don't control the sales
product. sometimes you wonder why you do
it." still, gold has been very good to Woodyer,
73–so much so that his retirement in monaco
lasted all of a month before he accepted an
invite from legendary Vancouver-based finan-
cier Frank giustra. the pitch: to do in south
america what the pair had done in africa,
where they assembled mines to create
$2.3-billion, mid-tier gold producer Endeavour
mining Corp.
in 2016, the England-born Woodyer
and giustra founded leagold mining,
which snapped up four operating mines in
mexico and brazil. the company is on track
to produce 425,000 ounces of gold this year,
with revenue of us$400 million. Woodyer
says that number will climb to a yearly rate of
us$600 million by 2020, as two more mines
go into production. –J.W.
R U N N E R U P
Neil Woodyer
C E O a N D D I R E C T O R ,
L E a G O L D m I N I N G
C O R p .
R U N N E R U P
David Strang + Noel Dunn
p R E S I D E N T a N D C E O + E x E C u T I v E C H a I R ,
E R O C O p p E R C O R p .
They say friendship and business don't
mix, but don't tell that to David strang and
noel Dunn. the two pals had wanted to
work together for years, but the right oppor-
tunity didn't materialize. that changed
in 2016, when brazilian copper company
mineração Caraíba became available for
acquisition, just as strang was stepping
down as president and
CEO of lumina
Copper Corp. after it was purchased by
fellow Vancouver company First Quantum
minerals. Dunn resigned as managing
director of boston-based liberty metals &
mining holdings to raise capital, and
Ero Copper Corp. was born.
two years into their run with Vancouver-
based Ero, the pair have added another
mine and overseen a production increase
from 16,000 tonnes in 2016 to a projected
28,000 this year, with a forecast of 40,000
tonnes in 2019. the key to their success,
according to strang, is that he and Dunn
are "literally yin and yang." strang brings
the technical experience, while Dunn has
a wealth of knowledge in finance and risk
management. plus, says Dunn, "We sur-
round ourselves with people who are way
smarter than we are." –J.W.
e n T r e P r e n e u r o F T H e Y e A r 2 0 1 8 / M I N I N G + R E S O U R C E S
bCbusinEss.Ca OCtObER 2018 BCBusiness 43
Noel Dunn
(left) and
David Strang
What's one thing that
people would be surprised
to learn about you?
I was a serious track athlete after
I graduated college, and retired after
the 1996 Olympic Games
