Tim Coughlin

Tim was born in the UK but grew up in Australia. He went to school at The Geelong College in Victoria and completed his undergraduate geology degree at James Cook University in Queensland. After completing his degree, he commenced work with MIM Exploration as a geologist at the Ravenswood Gold Mine, then as an exploration geologist around the Ravenswood mine and subsequently exploring for epithermal gold deposits in Eastern Australia’s Bowen and Drummond basins. During this time, MIM supported Tim's Masters degree in Exploration and Mining Geology at James Cook University and Tim worked and completed a dissertation on the Mt Carlton project which is now an operating gold mine (1.6Moz's gold). After completing the first regional 1:25k map of the northern Drummond basin and epithermal gold occurrences in that region, Tim went to MIM's high-grade Tick Hill gold deposit in NW Queensland for a year where he was tasked with mapping the “Tick Hill Inlier”, a region of polydeformed amphibolite facies rocks. 

Following this, Tim went to Papua New Guinea where he worked for Barracuda Petroleum on regional gas exploration, structural mapping and quantitative interpretation of structural geology. Tim returned from petroleum to mineral exploration in 1994 and commenced work with MIM's Project Generation Group in Brisbane where he completed an extensive time-space analysis and tectonic reconstruction of the Tasman fold belt in Eastern Australia. This program was an initial phase of what has now become a more evolved and highly effective targeting methodology Tim and his teams have applied to various regions throughout the world. 

In 1995 MIM supported Tim on a PhD program at the University of Queensland researching the time-space evolution of the Argentine Central Andes and their relationship to copper and gold mineralization in that region. Tim completed his PhD in 2000. He then worked as a structural/geology target generation consultant for various companies including Rio Tinto, North Ltd, Placer Dome, IAM Gold, Noranda and BHP-Billiton throughout South America and elsewhere including Turkey and China. During this time Tim was instrumental in the discovery of AngloGold Ashanti’s +2MOz La Rescatada gold mine in Peru.

In 2002 Tim commenced work as AngloGold Ashanti’s Chief Geologist in South America and worked on various exploration and mine projects throughout South America and particularly in Peru, Brazil and Argentina. In 2004 Tim resigned from AngloGold Ashanti, moved to Spain but consulted back to AngloGold Ashanti on project work in Colombia, Alaska, Peru and Russia. 

During this time Tim became interested in Armenia as an extension of the Eocene-age epithermal gold belt which was evident in neighbouring Turkey and Iran. Tim arranged a joint venture in Armenia which provided that any identified projects in-which the venture had no interest, would pass down to the consulting team. In Armenia, in June 2005, Tim stopped his car at the back of a convoy and at the foot of a large hydrothermally altered mountain known as Amulsar. The convoy returned and confirmed that there was no known record of gold on the hill. In any case, the team resolved to establish a local company and claim the area. The area fell under license in early 2006 and Lydian International was then established to hold the Amulsar license with Tim as CEO. Work commenced and the Company listed in 2008. Amulsar is now a +5MOz gold resource. Tim led Lydian into collaborations with governments and major multilaterals and into prospective post-conflict regions such as Kosovo (Drazhnje lead-zinc-silver) Bosnia and Georgia. 

In 2010, with the Amulsar project advancing to feasibility stage, Tim established Royal Road Minerals and then in 2014 he resigned from Lydian to re-enter the exploration world. The company commenced work in highly prospective SE-Turkey and listed in May 2015. In August 2015, the peace process in SE-Turkey collapsed, Royal Road moved to Colombia and Tim's career did full circle, returning to South America in October of 2015.