Our Team

Mark resides in the Bulkley Valley moving there from Allegiance’s corporate base in Sydney, Australia, in April 2018. Mark founded Telkwa Coal Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary of Allegiance) and secured the farm-in rights to the Telkwa metallurgical coal project in September 2014. Mark is a corporate lawyer with 30 years transactional experience gained as a lawyer with Herbert Smith in London, a partner with Bell Gully in New Zealand and as a director of the investment bank Barclays de Zoette Wedd, also in London. For the last 20 years Mark has been an advisor to and company executive of mining companies and operations including underground coal in Australia and open pit mining in Africa, as well as exploration and development projects in several minerals including coal.

Mr Cook has over 40 years of technical knowledge of underground coal mining and methods. For the first 20 years of his career he worked in various underground roles in coal mines primarily in West Virginia. He is highly regarded in both the US and Australia as an extremely capable underground coal mining engineer. Previous positions include Vice President of Operations at Mid-Vol Mining, Madison WV; General Superintendent at Mistic Energy Inc, Beckley WV; Mine Manager of five underground coal mines owned by Eastern Associated Coal Corporation in Wharton WV; founding shareholder and director of Bounty Industries Ltd providing contract mining at Ivanhoe Colliery, NSW, for Centennial Coal and at German Creek Colliery, Central QLD, for Anglo Coal.  Most recently, Mr Cook recommissioned the Donkin underground coal mine located in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Mr. Reynolds is a chartered accountant with more than 25 years experience across many sectors spent mostly in financial management roles. Most recently, he has been finance director of a resource investment house, managing investments across a range of commodities, including coal. Prior to that he held the position of chief financial officer with a number of listed entities and before that was a senior manager with an international firm of chartered accountants. He is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, a fellow of Financial Services Institute of Australia.

Responsible for community outreach in the Bulkley Valley and the person to call with questions or feedback on the project.

Rob has over 25 years of experience working in the natural resource industries. He started doing field work as a tree-planter and has continued to work in forest and mineral industry related positions his whole career. Rob is also an avid community volunteer who has contributed his time to many local organizations such as the Smithers Ski Club, Smithers Exploration Group, and the Bulkley Valley Community Resource Board. Rob grew up in Smithers. He and his wife have two daughters and continue to call Smithers home. 

Responsible for administrative functions and is the point of contact for our Telkwa office.

Tiana has 5 years of experience in several industrial resource settings including forestry and mining. Previously, Tiana held roles as an assay sampler for Walter Energy’s Willow Creek Mine as well as having lab experience at Eco Tech/ALS Minerals. Tiana is excited to be working in the mining field once again as part of Telkwa Coal and the Tenas project. She has resided in the Bulkley Valley area for six years with her family, and joined the Telkwa Coal team in 2021.

Responsible for planning how the project will be built and operated.

Dan is a mining engineer with over 23 years of experience in the coal industry in British Columbia and Alberta. He started his career with Luscar Coal in the 1990s when it was Canada’s largest coal producer, and with Teck Resources following its acquisition of Luscar. As Technical Services Manager for Hillsborough Resources, Dan was responsible for project development planning. Later, he was Operations Manager for Anglo American Metallurgical Coal, responsible for Peace River Coal’s mine operations and technical services. He joined Telkwa Coal in mid-2015.

Responsible for the detailed mine design and planning for reclamation.

James is a mining engineer with over 11 years of experience in mine operations. He began his career at Gibraltar Copper Mine in 2008 and completed the majority of his EIT programme there. He moved to Australia in 2011, working for Rio Tinto at multiple coal mines in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales with responsibilities in mine planning and design, operations optimization and reclamation. He rose to Operations Specialist / Superintendent at Bengalla Mining Company. James returned to Canada in the fall of 2018 to join the Telkwa Coal team.