Morning Star Gold is operated and managed on a daily basis between its executive office and the Morning Star mine site in Woods Point, Victoria.

The day-to-day operations of MCO are run by Mike Botting the company's CEO who was appointed by the Board in July 2011 to steer the company in this rapid growth phase. An operating committee assists Mike as required. This committee comprises directors Noel Laidlaw and Peter Jackson (who between them have ~60 years experience in the Eastern Victorian goldfields in technical roles) and Nick Garling the Chairman of the MCO Board. Mike Botting lends a further 25+ years relevant underground narrow vein mining and production experience to MCO's team. Mike has held key operational roles in other successful mining production companies with relevant businesses to MCO. Site and project management is headed by Mine Manager Alexandera Kemp (a mining engineer, geologist and registered surveyor). Alex is assisted by Mike Botting at site in addition to other engineering consultants and experienced members of the site based geology team and other mining operatives in functional roles, who all ultimately report via Alex to Mike Botting as MCO's Chief Executive Officer.

Chairman - Nick Garling

Nick Garling worked for merchant and investment banks and brokers for around 20 years in areas concerning equity capital raising, asset disposal, structured derivatives and listed equity & financial futures and options markets trading. After a period studying law in Sydney and working in a Sydney legal practice for four years, he moved into the financial markets field. He worked for 10 years in Tokyo & Hong Kong, with UBS Warburg & Lehman Brothers where he was a Managing Director of the Equity Markets Group for UBS and before that a Managing Director of Lehman's Asia-Pacific + Japan Equity business. Mr. Garling is a substantial shareholder in Morning Star Gold and works full-time between their Sydney and eastern Victorian offices. He is Sydney based with his wife and kids. He is a keen rugby supporter and still plays a bit, enjoys playing & watching cricket and occasionally tends cows of a weekend.

Chief Executive Officer  – Mike Botting BE (Mining Engineering), MAusIMM

Mike Botting is a mining engineer with over 25 years’ experience in Australian underground mining operations. He has significant experience relevant to the technical management role required at Morning Star’s narrow vein styled underground projects. Mike has held senior in-house positions and consulted in senior roles on gold projects with considerable parallels to the particular challenges at Morning Star. He has operated in a senior capacity on projects for WMC Resources, Bendigo Mining, Central Norseman, Beaconsfield, BHP Billiton, Newmont and Barrick. Mike is Melbourne based and will be spending much of his time over 2011-12 at MCO’s Woods Point based projects. Mike has been hired at Morning Star Gold to run & manage the overall mining and exploration businesses of MCO and to lead and solidify our technical management team as we focus on increasing our significant gold production and exploration opportunities in Victoria whilst at the same time appraising projects that may fit our growth plans.

Director of Geology - Dr. Peter Jackson BSc (Geology), PhD, MAIG

Peter Jackson is a Geologist who lectured for many years in Economic Geology at Victoria's renowned La Trobe University. He has over 21 years practical experience in the eastern Victorian Goldfields and has conducted 100's of field studies on old mining operations in the Woods Point area including economic geological assessments. He is intimately acquainted with all of the key mines & dyke structures within Morning Star's tenement package. Dr Jackson is based between Melbourne & Woods Point. In a past life, Peter spent some frigid years in Antarctica with the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology and as a result believes the winters in Alpine Victoria are quite mild… He is married to Fran with 2 daughters and when he's not crawling into adits and through dykes around Woods Point, is an avid reader and guided tour leader for groups looking at Victoria's historic and golden past.

Mine Manager - Alexandera Kemp BSc (Geology), Assoc. Dip. (Mining & Mineral Tech), Dip (Mine Engineering)

Alex Kemp is a 18 years experienced geologist, mining engineer and surveyor. She has relevant experience in narrow vein gold ore bodies and especially in around the Woods Point Dyke Swarm. Before joining Morning Star Gold, Alex worked as a geologist for Barrick Gold at Henty, as an exploration geologist at the Stawell Gold Mine in Victoria for Leviathan and as an underground mine surveyor for WMC in Leinster WA.

Other senior technical and mining management personnel changes are taking place over 2011-12. Additional technical advisory and fixed consultancy roles for MCO currently include:

 

Geology Department - A team of geologists and field technicians are based on rotation at Woods Point

Geological Modelling - Gemcom Surpac

Tenements - Elletson Mining Consultants

Projects - Foresight Engineering, MiningOne

OH&S - Mining One

Electrical - Compliance Electrical

Milling - Gekko Systems

Lab & Water - ALS / Ecowise, Ovivo

Haulage - Bob Styles, HOWCAM Technologies, Leeding Edge