Position: Director

Mr. Averill is Chairman of Overburden Drilling Management Limited (ODM), a company that he founded in 1974 to develop and apply indicator mineral methods for mineral exploration. He has progressively advanced this novel technology and is now recognized as its pioneer and leading authority. Mr. Averill's specialty is early-stage exploration projects in frontier areas but he has also performed many detailed investigations, including demonstrating that Bre-X's drill core samples had been salted with placer gold grains. He has played a leading role in the discovery of several mineral deposits and new mineral districts in Canada including the very productive Casa Berardi and Rainy River gold districts. He is a former director of Nuinsco Resources Limited and was a director of Rainy River Resources Ltd. from 2005 until the company was acquired by New Gold Inc. in 2013 for $310 million.

Mr. Averill holds a BSc. (Hons.) in geology from the University of Manitoba. He has published several influential papers on indicator minerals and was presented with the PDAC's Distinguished Service Award in 2003.