Who are we?
Our
strength
MINAVERDE strength rests on our innovative know-how, mastered over 30 years, which was scientifically developed by our team, and on our knowledge of the mining sector acquired on mining sites, working alongside miners.
Our
group
MINAVERDE came into being as a response to field observations showing the impact gold mining on local populations and their environment.
MINAVERDE is supported by a group of entrepreneurs in reforestation who have been actively involved in the Amazon for several years and who wish to share their know-how and experiences in order to develop a responsible gold industry that will at least restore severely damaged ecosystems.
Our
Team
Our group is made up of women and men with recognized skills and competences into complementary fields required to the success of its mission, especially in forestry, pedology, agroforestry, biology, geology, sociology, ethnography, marketing and finance.
The founders
Elodie BRUNSTEIN
MANAGING DIRECTOR SOLICAZ - Cayenne
Elodie has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (School of Business in Paris) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Agro-environment. For the past 13 years, she has been working on preservation matters with regard to natural resources and restoration of anthropic zones. She has led technical expertise missions in South America, West-Africa and the Middle East for the mining, agricultural, energy and forestry activity sectors. For more than 10 years now, she has been working with mining operators and has acquired a solid knowledge of the terrain in this sector. She and her team received several national prizes for innovation and entrepreneurship and for bio-engineering. Elodie manages Solicaz which today is a leader in rehabilitation and reforestation activities in the mining sector of the Guiana Shield.
Frédéric LAGACHERIE
CEO AMASISA - Paris
During the past ten years, he has been dedicated to innovating entrepreneurship as consultant and investor, and then as partner and Chief Operating Officer. Frédéric guided ten or so international companies and collected more than 50 million Euros in order to finance their development. In 2015, he joined Amasisa as President where he initiated the restoration of nearly 250 ha of degraded former agricultural land in Peru and France through the implementation of agroforestry projects. He holds an MSc. from the London School of Economics.
Xavier RICHARD
Chief Operating Officer ATHYS Recovery Services - Paris
Xavier is graduated with a MBA from EDHEC Business School, entrepreneur, was partner at Idea Marketing in Lausanne, leader at the promotion of luxurious brands in sports and culture. Co-founder of the biggest company in agroforestry in the Caribbean, Amazon Caribbean Guyana Ltd. He received a prize from the UNDP for the Millennium Development Goals for his contribution to indigenous communities. Has been Honorary vice-Consul for France in Guyana and Ambassador for the UN Global Compact in the Caribbean. He is business partner with Bcomp Sa, pioneer in flax fibre development to substitute carbon fibre.
He is the director of Operations of Athys Resources Services Paris, which promotes global reforestation programmes.
Augustin FROMAGEOT
Geologist - Consultant - Paris
Augustin holds a Master’s degree in Geology from Ecole Supérieure de Géologie de Nancy. He is a Geologist, specialist in the knowledge of soils and a passionate naturalist. He realised several missions as lead Geologist in many fields: gold mining industry, forestry and agroforestry. He was at the core of human and environmental issues linked to the production of mineral raw material and to the restoration/ reforestation of mining exploitation or agricultural zones. Augustin is the focal point for all environmental and ecosystem aspects of the whole of the projects of the FFF group. Currently involved in sustainable viticulture projects, Augustin continues to provide technical support to Amasisa's projects.
The team
Lydia FRASER
Athys Recovery Services - Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Regional Manager
She has a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from ESERP – Madrid and a Diploma in Public Health from the National School of Public Health, with 15 years experience in health and development, namely with the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross in LAC. In the past years she started more than eight health and socioeconomic projects in urban and rural communities. She built trust and collaboration among communities, the public and private sectors, in order to develop sustainable partnerships. Lydia worked in isolated regions that were affected by mining activities and disasters, and worked at the correction of practices that were simultaneously beneficial to companies and communities.
Ron BATH
Founder WE SAVE MINING Global Foundation - Newport Beach, California, United States
Ron Bath is the founder of We Save Mining, Global foundation in Suriname. The foundation introduced Canadian mercury-free gravity-separation techniques to indigenous Amazonion cultures. As an Indigenous mining culture philanthropist fueled by diverse international corporate and private work experience, he has developed and managed projects that have had a positive impact on the sustainability of economic, environmental and social ecosystems. Bath has a track record spanning 20 years of international career with United parcel Service (UPS), managing cross-cultural relationships in high technology sector, and also product development sourcing. He specializes in introducing new opportunities for Renewable Energy and mineral gravity separation to improve Gold recovery, eliminating the use of mercury and displacing diesel fuels.
Christian PERNAUT
Manager at SIAL mining company – French Guiana
Christian Pernaut, Entrepreneur, gold miner in French Guiana, Pioneer of the environmental cause regarding gold ore exploitations. 35 years ago when he earned his diploma in Agricultural Management Techniques, Christian left his native Périgord, to work at an agricultural exploitation in Paraguay. He discovered gold mining in 1986, and put all of his energy in environmentally responsible techniques for mining (bringing the first shake table to mining in French Guiana) and in social and environmental awareness (the first to revegetalize a mining site) in order to create an exploitation alluvium-mining model recognised in South America.
Paul SÉBASTIEN
Entrepreneur and commodity trading specialist
Based in Geneva, Paul is a professional commodities trader. He was a negotiator at large investment banks and public companies. He then developed a technological start-up for the analysis of precious minerals through an innovative traceability solution. Paul sometimes consultants with the United Nations for matters related to commodities. He has a Master’s Degree in Finance and Administration from EDHEC Business School.
Romain RICHARD
Freelance Film Producer - Sydney, Australia
After graduating from Goldsmith University with a Masters in International Politics he pursued a career in the film industry, with one of his most recent projects focusing on documenting Minaverde's contribution to the mining industry. Romain continues to travel the world to shed light on subjects related to mining, social and environmental eco-systems.
Johanna CAUDAL
Consultant Solicaz - Paris
She was educated at the University of the Antilles and French Guiana. She has a degree in Environmental Management and Natural Resources, Communication and Scientific Mediation. During the past 10 years, Johanna participated in numerous governmental programmes dedicated to the improvement of the life conditions of isolated Amerindian communities. Johanna is passionate about biodiversity and participated in several missions for research institutes.
Nuria RICHARD
International Retail Manager & content manager - Geneva, Switzerland
Nuria started with a Masters in environmental consultancy which lead to several years in the field of sustainable tourism with the UN, followed by a focus on environmental impact assessments for the boat racing industry. Nuria has since changed career paths and turned to retail as a sales and training manager, and now has a solid 10 years of retail and management experience, with a passion for sustainable fashion. Nuria now volunteers as a content manager for Minaverde to promote sustainable fashion and values.
Amasisa
Amasisa creates and manages agroecological, agroforestry and forestry projects in France and South America in territories affected by deforestation and intensive agriculture. Our mission is to restore soil fertility and biodiversity, to limit erosion phenomena and to optimize carbon sequestration, essential steps to the return of an ecosystemic and landscape balance.
These objectives can only be achieved by including our projects in a chain approach, so that each actor in the value chain participates to the sustainability of our future production and therefore consumption models. Amasisa is a company whose DNA is deeply rooted in the values of the SSE and which has as such a state approval ESUS (Solidarity Company of Social Utility.
SOLICAZ
SOLICAZ came into being from the application of scientific research onto the field, and it benefits from over 30 years’ experience in microbiology with respect to soils and functional ecology (start-up Unité Mixte de Recherche en Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane – Mixed Unit of Ecology Research in the Forests of French Guiana) and 10 years on-the-ground expertise restoring anthropic zones.
Solicaz is an ecological engineering company, specialised in the evaluation of the quality of soils and the restoration of the biodiversity. It develops tools, diagnoses and restores the quality of soils and anthropic zones, based on bio-inspired processes.
Solicaz is recognised for its expertise and its innovation in ecological engineering, and has received several awards for its work. It also participated in European and international conferences (In 2010 Solicaz was nominated at the national competition “Biodiversity and Sustainable Enterprise Product for biodiversity” organized by ADEME and the French Ministry of Sustainable Development, Interview for COP21 2015, Summit of the Mining Industry 2017, Laureate of the National Strategy for Biodiversity 2011-2020, European Summit of agro-ecology “Agri Innovation” May 2019, etc.)