Born in Montreal, Alexander John Davidson graduated from McGill University in 1976 with a M.Sc. degree in Economic Geology. Soon after he led an exploration program for SMDC and drilled the discovery hole at the McArthur River uranium deposit in Saskatchewan. In 1980 he joined Falconbridge Copper in Ontario, where he contributed to the discovery of the high-grade Winston Lake zinc deposit in Ontario and the Samatosum silver deposit in B.C. 

He joined Barrick Gold in 1993 and became part of a top-tier team led by Peter Munk and Robert Smith. His vision and team leadership skills helped Barrick meet the challenge of expanding total resources while continually replacing mined ounces on an annual basis. As executive vice president of exploration and corporate development, he helped expand Barrick’s gold resources through a series of world-class discoveries and strategic mergers and acquisitions. 

His achievements helped elevate the stature of Canadian mining at home and overseas and earned him industry honours including the PDAC’s Prospector of the Year Award (2003), the CIM’s A.O. Dufresne Award (2005), the SME’s Charles F. Rand Gold Medal (2019) and induction into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in 2023. 

Berge Simonian is the director of metallurgy for Hudbay Minerals Inc. He received his BASc in Mining Engineering from UBC in 2005. Previous to Hudbay Minerals, he worked at Newcrest’s Red Chris mine, Centerra Gold’s Mount Milligan Mine, Hatch, SNC Lavalin, and Agrium’s Vanscoy Potash and Kapuskasing Phosphate operations. His pre-Hudbay Minerals work involved operations management, engineering design, process control, and consulting work ranging from industrial minerals, base metals, and precious metals. This work included major expansion projects, data analysis, modelling, and advanced control projects as well as site work involving operator training, commissioning, process analysis, process improvement, and process optimization. He has been working for Copper Mountain Mining Corporation since June 2021 and continues to work for Hudbay Minerals post-acquisition of CMMC since June 2023. 

He is an active member of CIM’s Canadian Mineral Processors (CMP) Society, serving as Event Planner and Chair of the BC/Yukon Chapter from 2011-2017, and as National Vice-Chair and National Chair since 2018. He is currently a National CMP Director.