Bios

Mark Maier, Director and Chairman of Management Committee

Mark is a cornerstone investor in SynCoal Partners and a Chairman of the Management Committee. Mark is also a director for AlphaVest Advisors and the Aurum Group and CEO for junior resource company, Sandspring Resources. Mark began his career in business development at MP Metalor, the former precious metals subsidiary of Swiss Bank Corp. in Stuttgart. From 1996 to 1999, he was Assistant Vice President in the European Chemicals research group at Merrill Lynch in London, and from 1999-2004 he was an analyst and risk manager at III Offshore Advisors in Florida. He holds a B.A. from the University of Western Ontario, an M.B.A. from Schiller International University in Heidelberg, an M.Sc. in Securities, Investment and Banking from the ICMA Centre in Reading, UK, and also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Ray W. Sheldon, President & CEO and Director

B.S. & M.S. Mining Engineering PE (Montana)
Master of Business Administration
Project involvement from 1981 to Present

Mr. Sheldon is the guiding force behind the Company having been involved with the SynCoal project since 1981. Ray was the former Project Manager of the SynCoal Demonstration Project. Western Energy, the coal mining arm of Montana Power, built and operated the demonstration plant to verify operating conditions and to provide engineering data for a commercial facility. The Demonstration Plant, referred to as the Advanced Coal Conversion Project, (ACCP) was designed to produce 300,000 tons of product annually. The facility produced, sold and shipped 1,987,000 tons of SynCoal during the eight year duration of the project.

Mr. Sheldon managed all activities; including initial process test work, qualification for Section 29 tax credits, project financing, engineering, construction, operations, marketing and business development. He was primarily responsible for taking the process from conception to demonstration. He was successful in securing private letter rulings from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allowing the project to qualify for Section 29 Tax Credits and patents covering the original process and enhancements. Mr. Sheldon also supervised the successful application for Department of Energy participation under the Clean Coal Act, which provided 48% of the capital and operating costs of the project. He holds a B.S. & MS. in Mining Engineering and a Master of Business Administration. He is a registered professional engineer (Montana).

Joel D. Schneyer, Chief Strategic Officer and Director

Mr. Schneyer will be responsible for the project management and fundraising efforts of the Company. He has over 25 years’ experience in the natural resource sector, with a focus on project evaluation, project finance and financial engineering. Since 1996, Mr. Schneyer has been with Mercantile Resource Finance, Inc., a firm that provides corporate financial services to the natural resource sector. In this capacity he has provided corporate advisory services to mining and energy companies, he has secured project finance and hedging facilities and overseen acquisitions and privatizations. He has also served as an expert witness on a number of occasions, both to mineral companies and to the government of a sovereign state. Mr. Schneyer has held senior analytical positions at a number of institutions, including Manager of Derivative Finance Americas for the Barclays Metals Division of Barclays Bank and Senior Analyst in the New Business and Strategic Planning Group at Billiton/Royal Dutch Shell. Prior to joining Billiton, Mr. Schneyer was a Petroleum Geologist with both IP Petroleum and Celeron Oil & Gas Company. He holds a B.A. with high honors from Colgate University, an M.A. in Geology from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.S. in Mineral Economics from the Colorado School of Mines. He is an independent director of several publicly traded mining exploration companies.

Harry Bonner, Chief Technology Officer and Director

B. S. Chemical Engineering
Project involvement from 1990 to Present

Mr. Bonner was the lead Process Engineer with Stone & Webster Engineering assigned to the SynCoal ACCP Project and has been involved with the SynCoal project since 1990. SWEC modified the initial mechanical design from one stage of drying to two stages to accommodate available equipment, presenting numerous challenges to process design which were successfully implemented with his leadership. Mr. Bonner became a key member of the ACCP start-up team developing the standard and emergency operating procedures and conducting the operator training.program. He provided guidance improving the process flexibility and safety while coordinating process optimization testing and operating data interpretation to support the plant modifications needed to achieve commercial operation. Mr. Bonner integrated the equipment and process concepts learned from the operation of the ACCP into the new design that reduces capital and operating costs while increasing capacity and availability. He holds a B. S. Chemical Engineering.

Thomas M. Smith, Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Smith will be responsible for the financial, accounting and tax matters of the Company. Mr. Smith has over 30 years’ experience providing a full range of financial, planning and management advice and services to private companies, investment partnerships, individuals and a pension fund in various industries with an emphasis on extraction of natural resources, real estate development/property management, professional service organizations and general contractors. Since 1980, Mr. Smith has served as a Consultant/CPA, Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance for numerous companies in the natural resource sector, including Emsen Energy, Inc., Diversified Mineral Services, Electro Magnetics Applications, Inc., Reynolds Properties, Inc. and related joint ventures, Pride West, Inc. and related joint venture partnerships. Prior to holding these positions, Mr. Smith was Vice-President of the Oxford Development Group and was responsible for new business and real estate ventures in several North American cities. He began his accounting career in 1971, spending eight years with the public accounting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co. where he specialized in auditing mining and general contractor companies in the Denver and Salt Lake City offices. Mr. Smith received a B.Sc. in Accounting and Finance in 1970 and a M.Sc. in Accounting in 1971 from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Mr. Smith currently serves as a Board member of several privately held companies.

Richard A. Munson, General Counsel

Currently a Director – to be replaced by PAMCo Designee

Mr. Munson has primary responsibility for the legal matters of the Company. Mr. Munson has served as General Counsel and Vice President – Legal and Regulatory Affairs for natural resource companies for the last 20 years. He has been involved in numerous domestic and international natural resource acquisitions, joint ventures, sales, environmental permitting and planning, mining and oil and gas operations and reclamation. Mr. Munson has over 25 years’ experience in the practice of law with a focus on natural resources. Mr. Munson has been affiliated with the privately held Energy Fuels group of companies since 1985, where he has focused on domestic and international interests in the natural resource area. Mr. Munson also serves as an officer and director of the various Energy Fuels entities and other international entities. Prior to joining Energy Fuels, Mr. Munson was a resident partner in the Denver, Colorado office of a Montana-based law firm that focused exclusively on oil and gas matters. Mr. Munson has a B.A. from Montana State University, a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law and an L.L.M. (Taxation) from the University of Denver.