by James Kwantes
The world's top 10 mining companies have a combined market capitalization of about $1 trillion. Google parent Alphabet (GOOG), meanwhile, is valued at $1.6 trillion; Microsoft weighs in at $2.6 trillion.
So it caught my attention Thursday when an executive who has spent the last 20 years at Google and Microsoft was appointed to the board of a small Canadian copper-zinc developer. The company is Foran Mining (FOM-T), market cap $800 million. The tech executive is Majd Bakar.
Bakar (right) is a McGill-trained engineer who is VP of Engineering at Google, Fitbit/Health. He led the engineering teams behind Google Home and Google Wifi and has worked at Google since 2011. Previously, he spent nine years at Microsoft in various jobs including lead engineer and director of product architecture.
Not your typical mining company director. Then again, Foran is not your typical junior mining company. Foran’s executive chairman is Dan Myerson, who did a 10-year apprenticeship at Glencore, heading up the commodity giant’s Canadian zinc business. I wrote about Foran and Myerson on August 25, 2022 in Forward-looking: Execs who make a statement. The stock is up another 40% since then (and responded positively to Thursday’s appointment).
The appointment is an out-of-the-box move and one more reason to pay attention to Foran. The company's plan to build "the world's first carbon-neutral copper mine" at McIlvenna Bay, Saskatchewan will require plenty of innovation.
Fun fact: In addition to engineering, Bakar studied music at McGill, specializing in piano performance. That music school is now known as the Schulich School of Music after a $20-million gift from Seymour Schulich, the co-founder (with Pierre Lassonde) of mining royalty behemoth Franco-Nevada.
Disclosure: James Kwantes is editor and publisher of Resource Opportunities, an investment newsletter. No Foran position and no business relationship with the company. All dollar amounts Canadian. Writing is supported by subscribers and patrons.
