Randal Burns

About Randal Burns

I have over 20 years’ of experience in exploration through ore control. From drill hole planning, resource estimating to daily ore control. I’ve been managing geology departments and multi-million dollar budgets for nearly 15 years. I lead with a strong safety culture and hands on employee development. In my time at Lithium America’s I’ve overseen over of core drilled. This involved selecting drill targets, environmental disturbance planning and tracking, budgeting, and execution. I was responsible for the planning and executing of the core logging, sampling and quality control on the sample assays. During my tenure these drilling programs allowed the resource to grow from 2.0M tonnes LCE with no reserve, to 66.1M tonnes LCE with an 85 year mine life reserve of 14.3M tonnes LCE. Making Thacker Pass one of the world’s largest lithium deposits. With the sampling and geologic modeling, I oversaw representative sample selection of the deposit for process testing. Extracting lithium from a sedimentary source at scale had not been done before. Worked closely with the process R&D team to ensure the extraction process worked on all potential ore sources. During Thacker Pass’ permitting process I assisted with providing rock type and volumes for waste rock characterization and highwall exposures, and subsequently assisted with selecting and collecting samples for environmental characterization. I am continuing work on Thacker Pass with developing ore control and reconciliation procedures in support of a successful start up.

Experience

1. Chief Geologist

   Lithium Americas Corp.

   Oct 2022 — Present · Reno, NV, US

   As the Thacker Pass project moves from exploration and development towards construction and operations my role is focused on supporting the successful execution of Lithium Americas\' Thacker Pass project, the worlds largest Lithium resource and reserve!I’ve overseen over of core drilled. This involved selecting drill targets, environmental disturbance planning and tracking, budgeting, and execution. I was responsible for the planning and executing of the core logging, sampling and quality control on the sample assays.With the sampling and geologic modeling, I oversaw representative sample selection of the deposit for process testing. Extracting lithium from a sedimentary source at scale had not been done before. Worked closely with the process R&D team to ensure the extraction process worked on all potential ore sources. During Thacker Pass’ permitting process I assisted with providing rock type and volumes for waste rock characterization and highwall exposures, and subsequently assisted with selecting and collecting samples for environmental characterization.

Education

• California State Polytechnic University-Pomona

  Bachelor of Applied Science (B.A.Sc.), Geology

  1999 — 2006

Skills

• Structural Geology
• Microsoft Word
• Mining
• Microsoft Access
• Data Modeling
• Geochemistry
• Microsoft Powerpoint
• Copper
• Modeling
• Microsoft Outlook
• Vulcan
• Geology
• Mineral Exploration
• Mineral Processing
• Metallurgy
• Drilling
• Acquire Database Software
• Base Metals
• Hydrogeology
• Lithium
• Minesight
• Geological Mapping
• Microsoft Office
• Earth Science
• Gold
• 3d Modeling
• Sampling
• Groundwater
• Microsoft Excel
• Minerals
• Logging
• Field Work