STEPHEN STARES
PRESIDENT, CEO & DIRECTOR
Stephen Stares, Director – Stephen Stares is a successful business entrepreneur with more than 32 years of experience in mineral exploration. Stephen’s career spans from 1988 were he spent 7 years with Noranda Exploration on such projects as the Hemlo gold mines, Eagle River gold deposit and the Geco and Mattabi base metal camps. The next ten years of Stephen’s career were spent managing the operations of Stares Contracting Corp., a successful mineral exploration services company in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
In 2004, Stephen and his brother Michael started Benton Resources where he remains as President and CEO. Since that time he has been directly involved in the start-up many publicly traded companies on the TSX Venture Exchange with the most recent being Clean Air Metals where he secured two high quality copper-nickel-platinum-palladium deposits and assembled a team of professionals to take the company public. Throughout his career, Mr. Stares has discovered several major mineral occurrences in Canada that have been the subject of extensive exploration programs.
In March of 2007, Stephen, Michael and Sandy Stares, along with the rest of the Stares, Keats, Crocker and Barrett families, were the proud recipients of the Prospectors and Developers Association (PDAC) Bill Dennis Prospector of the Year Award. This award was given to recognize the families’ contributions to the industry for the past 40 years.
STEPHEN HOUSE, P.Geo
VP EXPLORATION
Stephen received his Bachelor of Science in Geology from Memorial University of Newfoundland at St. John’s in 1994 and is a registered Professional Geoscientist (PEGNL). He has more than 25 years of experience in gold and base metal exploration in Canada and the U.S.A. with both junior and senior exploration companies.
EVAN ASSELSTINE, CPA, CA
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Evan Asselstine received his Honours Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Lakehead University and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario. Evan has been the CFO of Benton Resources Inc. since its inception in 2012. Prior to that, he was the controller and then CFO for Alset Energy Corp. (formerly Benton Capital Corp.) and has served as controller for Metals Creek Resources Corp., a public exploration company since its beginnings in January 2008. Prior to that, he spent more than four years in finance positions in private industry including more than two years as controller for a private land development firm, as well as more than seven years working in public accounting, and obtained his Chartered Accountant designation with Ernst & Young LLP in 2002.
BARRY A. SPARKES, P.Geo
EXPLORATION MANAGER
Barry received his B.Sc. (Hons.) in Geology from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2004 and a diploma in Mineral Technology from College of the North Atlantic (CNA) in 1996. He has more than 25 years experience in a wide range of commodity types including gold, base metals, uranium, PGE’s and industrial minerals such as dimension stone, antimony, fluorite and LCT pegmatite deposits. He has held technical and managerial positions in mineral exploration and mining and has gained extensive experience in mine regulatory matters and mine development permitting.