Dr. Dennis LaPoint

Dr. LaPoint is a registered professional geologist with over 35 years experience. He has extensive management experience in the mineral industry throughout the US and the Guyana Shield. For the past 8 years he has focused on exploration in the Guyana Shield where he initiated and discovered the Nassau gold district for Alcoa in Suriname, a major new grassroots discovery which is currently in pre-feasibility studies by Newmont. Until recently, he was Exploration Manager for IAMGold (formerly Cambior) for Suriname where he was responsible for the exploration for new deposits at the Rosebel Gold Mine and new opportunities within Suriname.

Dr. LaPoint has generated and managed programs in precious metals, base metals, specialty metals, uranium, diamonds and industrial minerals for a variety of companies and clients. In addition he has been General Manager of a chemical plant to generate HF acid and recover tantalum. He is an adjunct faculty member at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and promotes educational opportunities for Suriname, North American and European students to gain field experience. He is a member of the Board for Licensing for Geologists in North Carolina, past President of the Carolina Geological Society and past Chairman of the Carolina Section SME. He has publications on many topics including North Carolina as America’s first gold rush and an invited paper on the social impact of small scale mining presented in Germany.

He is founder and President of Appalachian Resources LLC, which provides project generation and management services for mineral exploration. He is also co-founder of Triangle Minerals and in the 1980's and 1990's, he was credited with several new gold discoveries in both North and South Carolina.