Keith Barron, Vice-President, Exploration and a Director
Dr. Barron received his B.Sc. in Geology in 1985 from the University of Toronto. His first
industry job was on geophysical surveys in the Hemlo area of Ontario in 1984. The following
year was spent in British Columbia in the search for precious and base metals. Dr. Barron began
a PhD. programme in geology at the University of Western Ontario in 1986. His dissertation
topic was an Au discovery 110 km northeast of the Red lake gold camp. This would prove to be
the world’s oldest epithermal-type Au deposit. Dr. Barron was partially supported in his research
by Gold Fields Mining. Through the late 1980’s and 1990’s Dr. Barron acted as a senior
geologist on numerous Au and diamond projects, including exploration for epithermal gold
deposits in Queensland, Australia with the Battle Mountain Gold Company, and two years with
Battle Mountain Canada in the prolific Kirkland Lake Gold Camp. He left Canada in late 1993 to
assume a position as Chief Geologist with the Toco Mining Company, in southwestern
Venezuela. In 1996, he was Vice-President, Exploration, with Ursa Major International, and
spent considerable time in the central Asian republic of Kazahkstan, in evaluation of a large
tonnage porphyry copper-Au deposit. Dr. Barron was awarded his PhD. in 1997, and then left
Canada to carry out diamond exploration in Brazil with Diagem International. He returned to
Venezuela in 1999 and, along with Patrick Anderson, developed a conceptual model for
Witwatersrand-type Au deposits in the Guyana Shield. After a year of exploration for kimberlites
in South Africa, Dr. Barron turned his sights on Ecuador and initiated a self-funded exploration
campaign in early 2001. Dr. Barron was one of the co-discoverers of the Condor Project in early
2001 and a co-founder of Subco in 2002.