Our Team
The management team has worked on the project for the past 17 years. Each team member has played significant roles in major discoveries and each believes that Nieves provides another opportunity for success.
Meet the Team
Michael Berry, B. Math, Ph.D.
Managing Member
Dr. Michael Berry is currently Managing Member of BlackBerry Ventures LLC. Dr. Berry was involved with the discovery of Peñasquito (Gold and Silver) and Tli Kwi Cho (diamonds).
He holds a Doctorate in Economics and Quantitative Analysis from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario.
Dr. Berry Was a Professor of Finance at the University of Virginia Darden School and James Madison University for 12 years. He ran a small cap value portfolio at Dreman Value Management and a Mic Cap Value fund at Heartland Advisors.
Dr. Berry currently resides in Houston Texas where he manages the development of the Nieves project in Zacatecas, Mexico.
Jason Otteson
President
Jason Otteson has over two decades of experience in the precious metals and mining space. From trading Gold Bullion and Futures to extracting Gold from the Earth’s Crust, Otteson has demonstrated unique successes at many levels. Mr. Otteson was featured on the second and third seasons of the Discovery Channel show, “Gold Rush.”
With over 29 years of business experience, Mr. Otteson is a seasoned executive with demonstrated success in business development, operational execution, international commerce, fundraising, strategic financing, and marketing through various industries such as precious metals, licensed sports products, distribution, real estate, TV entertainment production, and medical technologies, the culmination of which has led to high-level transactional experience in mergers, acquisitions, and public offerings. To Mr. Otteson, the precious metals industry is more than another business; he sees this as a stable harbor for himself, family, friends, and clients in this current economic storm.
Mr. Otteson is a member of: National Eagle and Angels, American Management Association, American Marketing Association, RNC, NRA, Safari Club International, Ducks Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, CCA, North American Hunting Club, Christian Sportsmen’s Fellowship, SFASU Alumni, and a Life Loyal Sigma Chi. Mr. Otteson also volunteers his time to the area Young Life Committee. Mr. Otteson received his Bachelor’s degree from Stephen F. Austin State University in Marketing and Finance in 1996.
Tom Turner
Chief Geologist
Tom Turner is an exploration geologist with more than 40 years of professional experience that includes all technical-managerial-administrative aspects of the mineral exploration industry.
His work experience is predominantly field-oriented and spans the conception, planning, and management of small prospect-specific evaluations, regional programs, and drill-intensive advanced projects through feasibility.
Tom has first-hand knowledge of copper porphyry and skarn, low and high sulfidation epithermal gold and silver, hot spring gold, orogenic gold, carbonate-hosted silver and base metal, VMS and SEDEX base and precious metal, and red-bed copper deposits. Geographic environments vary from tropical to arctic terrains with a variety of cultural settings and 18 years of Mexico exploration experience.
Tom mapped the Nieves District in 1999 and his geologic maps with identified exploration targets were used to drill the current reserves at Nieves.
His other discoveries include:
- Peñasquito Mine where Tom managed the project for six years from project startup through feasibility with a 120-man exploration team, seven drills, and +550 drill holes.
- Noche Buena intrusive-related gold deposit, Zacatecas, Mexico.
- Cerro Blanco hot spring gold deposit, Asunción Mita, Guatemala.
- Taware River and Binebase acid sulfate gold deposits, Sangihe Island, Indonesia.
William Scott Thompson
Chief Operating Officer
Completed classwork for MBA University of Texas, received BA University of Texas in Finance and Marketing, served as Assistant Political Appointments Secretary and as acting Appointments Secretary to Texas Governor, Preston Smith, and Clerk to the Texas Committee on Higher Education under the Hon. Ron Wilson, its Chairman.
2020 – Present. Founding Director of Canadian Energy Metals Corp-Saskatchewan (CEMC): CEMC discovered and is currently developing massive critical polymetallic resource hosting – base, strategic, and energy transition metals, the Thor Polymetallic Resource.
2020 – Present. SANCTUARY DEX CORP – Singapore. Founding Director of FinTech Company organized to develop a software platform and associated apps for the collateralization of digital tokens with reported inferred, indicated, and measured resources such as base metals, precious metals, and rare earth metals.
2018 – Present. Harris-Forbes, LLC, and Managing Member – Houston: Organized in 2018 as a merchant bank and advisor and mentor to explorers and developers of world-class resource projects.
2012 – Present. Co-Founder and CEO of Richfield Energy Partners, LLC- Houston: Managing partner of multi-million dollar producing and non-producing oil & natural gas royalty fund concentrating in the Eagle Ford and Barnet Shales of Texas.
2010-2012. Founding Director of Canshale Corp-Saskatchewan: The Company discovered and developed the world’s largest economical Kerogen (thermally immature petroleum used to produce petrochemical feedstocks and fuels) resource, the Golden Plains with a reported 11.2 billion barrels of economically producible kerogen. Management sold the Project to Ziff Family in 2020 with the Project’s economic development continuing to this day.
2006-2010. Director Ridgeway Petroleum which later changed its name to Enhanced Oil Recovery – Houston: Scott organized a successful financial bailout of the Company after management had mortgaged the Company’s principal asset, the St. John’s Dome to a hedge fund and defaulted on the note. The Company discovered and developed a giant helium and CO2 gas resource, located in New Mexico and Arizona known as the St. Johns Dome with an estimated resource of 3 trillion cubic feet of gas. EOR’s management sold the St. James Dome to Kinder-Morgan CO2, LP in 2012.
2005-2010. CanWest Petroleum/OilSands Quest, Inc.-BC/Alberta. Scott served as an Independent CanWest Director where he facilitated the “fair” reorganization of the two companies into one American Stock Exchange-listed company, OilSands Quest, Inc.(Amex BQI) This Company is credited with the first oil sands discovery in the province of Saskatchewan and finding, delineating and assessing over 3.5 billion barrels of measured, indicated and inferred bitumen resource, OilSands Quest, Inc.
OilSands Quest, Inc. became an AMEX volume leader with a peak market cap exceeding 2 billion dollars creating a lot of wealth for its early-stage investors in the years leading up to the Great Recession. Mr. Thompson served as a Broad Member and Chairman of its Resource Committee.
Christopher Tibbs, B.A., M.B.A.
Chief Financial Officer
MBA University of Washington, BA in Economic Geography and Systems Analysis University of Washington; United States Marine Corps, Retired rank of Major, Commanded various infantry units through company level and acted as assistant operating officer for an infantry battalion. An international management, business development, and finance leader, and expert with over 30 years of international banking experience in both emerging and developed economies; skilled at client acquisition/corporate advisory in areas such as Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East.
2012 – Present: CascAsia Consulting, LLC-Hong Kong -principal of an international merchant bank and international financial advisory and mentoring.
2013-2016: Burnham Securities Inc., Managing Director- New York
2011 – Present: Premier Capital International, Inc. – Hong Kong and South Korea, advisor to a private investment bank. 2011
1980-2010: Citigroup, Inc., New Your New York-Global financial service company serving over 100 countries where worked for Citibank N.A. Division. During his 30-year career with Citibank, Chris served as Citibank’s: Head of Structured Finance Group, Seoul South Korea, serving domestic and international clients operating in Korea; Senior Credit Officer for China and Corporate Finance head/Corporate Bank Head in China where he managed the development of commercial banking growth efforts in China, recruited, trained and managed the staff for six offices in China; Corporate Head of Finance N. Andean/Caribbean/Central America where he drove efforts toward creating and growing local countries capital markets; Corporate Head, Corporate Finance Head Hong Kong; Regional Senior Officer, Levant, North Africa, and Athens; Financial Intuitions Head, Capital Goods department, Japan and Account Manager/Electronic Banking Head Tokyo.
The Penasquito Story
Peñasquito is the second largest mine in Mexico and the fifth largest silver mine in the world with estimated reserves at 17,800,000 oz of gold and 1,070,000,000 oz of silver. Prior to starting Blackberry Ventures I, LLC, the BlackBerry team started Western Silver, a mineral exploration company focused on discovering and developing silver properties. It was based in Vancouver from 1997 To 2006. Western Silver identified the Peñasquito property as likely having a large resource of silver. Their company bought Peñasquito in 1997 and successfully explored the 39,000-hectare property. By 2003, they felt Peñasquito would become “one of the world’s largest silver resources.”
About Us
In a gold and silver bull market, owning a piece of a world-class silver and gold deposit could make more sense than owning silver and gold bullion. Certainly, the leverage is much greater with Nieves’ large discovered resource — 110,000,000 ounces of silver and 116,000 ounces of gold discovered. It has been assessed and reported pursuant to the NI 43-101 Resource Estimate and a preliminary economic feasibility study. Based on all findings and with only 6% of the approximate 200 kilometers of mineralized veins tested with a drill bit, it currently has an estimated fair value exceeding $100,000,000.