Luis, took over the role of President & Chief Executive in October 2007 having joined Mano River in February of the same year as Chief Financial Officer. He gained his extensive international experience with the multinationals Lafarge S.A. and Blue Circle Industries Plc as well as Stevin Rock, formerly of the Dragomar Group. His career has taken him across the world in an operational, technical and corporate capacity. Most recently as a Director of Group Audit, Luis was heading Lafarge's Asia Pacific internal audit department based in Malaysia having previously been posted to Paris, France, with the same company. Luis is a graduate Mining Engineer from Camborne School of Mines and read for his MBA at the Cranfield School of Management. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Stellar Diamonds Ltd.

Karl was appointed as Stellar's Chief Executive Officer with effect from 1 January 2007, having been Chief Operating Officer for diamonds for MRRI for three years. He is a geology graduate of Kingston University and in 2006 completed his MBA at the Graduate School of Business in Cape Town, South Africa and was awarded with the Old Mutual Gold Medal. Mr. Smithson has 19 years of diamond experience gained with a number of companies in senior management positions, including De Beers (10 years), SouthernEra Diamonds (2 years) and MRRI (3 years). Mr. Smithson also ran his own diamond exploration consultancy for three years. Mr. Smithson's working career has been focussed on diamond exploration in Africa and he has been responsible for a number of new diamond discoveries in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The discovery in Botswana is due to enter commercial production in the near future as the Lerala Diamond Mine.

Nigel, has been nominated by Severstal Resources, pursuant to the joint venture agreement, as Chief Executive Officer of Putu Iron Ore Mining Inc., the project entity. Mr Kieser graduated in Mining Geology from the Royal School of Mines where he was subsequently awarded his doctorate. After 5 years working as a metals and mining sector equity analyst for Banque Paribas and then JP Morgan Securities, Mr Kieser joined Rio Tinto where he held business development and exploration management roles for six years. For the preceding two years before this post, Mr Kieser was General Director, Russia for De Beers, based in Moscow. Mr Kieser will formally take up his position in the second quarter of this year.

Bevan, is a Chartered Accountant with 27 years global experience in the pharmaceutical and mining industries. He graduated with a Bachelor of Management Studies degree from Waikato University in New Zealand. Bevan began his career as a Management Accountant with ICI, where he spent two years before emigrating to the United Kingdom. Bevan joined Beecham Pharmaceuticals in the UK as a Regional Accountant, and remained with the company for 11 years, holding a number of senior finance positions. Following the Beecham Pharmaceuticals merger with SmithKline, he was transferred to Belgium where he successfully established the European Head Office. He remained with the merged company for 5 years, first as European Planning Manager and then as European Controller. Bevan returned to the UK in 1995 and was appointed Finance Director for Orion Pharmaceuticals, a mid-size European pharmaceutical company. Bevan then joined African Eagle Resources plc, a mineral exploration company focused on eastern and central Africa, listed on AIM and the Alternative Exchange of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, where he currently holds the position of Finance Director and Company Secretary. Bevan was granted ACA membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand in 1986. He is also a director of BM Financial Solutions Ltd and The FD Group Ltd.

Peter joined African Aura in December 2009. He has held senior management roles in mining, heavy civil engineering and aviation with blue chip organisations including De Beers , Balfour Beatty International and British Midland Airways. He has global experience gained in Africa, Asia and Europe. Peter has an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management and is a graduate Mining Engineer from Camborne School of Mines.

Julius Ronnie Addy joined Mano in May 2000. He obtained a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from the University of Liberia, majoring in Accounting and mentoring in Management. In 2006 he enrolled in graduate school at The Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, University of Liberia, where he earned an L.L.B. Degree. A professional Accountant of several years, and an Associate Member of The Liberian Institute of Certified Public Accountants, he worked for the Liberia Electricity Corporation for nine year as Internal Auditor. He also served the Red Cross for eight years as Finance Officer. He is an Attorney at-Law and a member of the Montserrado Bar Association.

Richard graduated with B.SC from Freetown in 1981 and obtained his PhD. from the University of Southampton in 1993. Following a number of years with the Sierra Leone Geological Survey, he was appointed a lecturer in structural geology at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone.

Richard was principal field investigator in kimberlite indicator mineral sampling programmes in the Central African Republic and Kono which lead to the discovery of several dykes now owned by Stellar diamonds, a subsidiary of Mano River Resources (now African Aura Mining Inc.) in Sierra Leone. He was in the target selection group that found Weaju, Gondoja and New Liberty, African-Aura's premier gold target and, has been involved in the discovery of the Silver Hills prospect and, more recently, the Ndablama find in the Bea MDA, Western Liberia.

2008 has seen Richard involved in planning the drilling, interpretation and classification of the rocks and ore types in the Severstal /African Aura JV Putu iron prospect in south-eastern Liberia.

Mark brings many years of operating experience to the company including over 11 years with Anglogold Ashanti where most recently he was the General Manager in Mineral Resources at the Obuasi mine in Ghana. His experience includes many areas of senior level management and brownfields exploration at Obuasi as well as other operations in South Africa.

He holds a BSc Hons in Geology and GIS from Rhodes University and a GDE in Mining Engineering (Mineral Economics) from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. Mark is a Professional Natural Scientist under the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP).

Alex graduated from the University of Leicester with a Masters degree in Geology in 2005. Before University, he spent two and a half years in the Territorial Army Royal Signals after completing an officer training course at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Prior to joining African Aura Alex worked as an exploration geologist in Sierra Leone with Axmin Inc. He has broad experience in running field exploration programmes and GIS.

Raphaël graduated from the University of Yaoundé I in 2003. Before joining the company in April 2007, he worked as Surveyor for Community development NGOs and as Student Geologist for Cameroon Mining Company (Caminco), a Gold exploration Company established in Eastern Cameroon. Raphaël's geology experience includes mapping, planning and running stream sediment and soil sampling programs; pits, trenches & diamond core logging as well as project management in Gold, Iron and Uranium exploration. He is currently following a Master's degree in Structural geology at the University of Yaoundé I.

Graduate of Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone. Final year thesis on gold exploration; work as a field geologist including supervision of stream sediment sampling aeromagnetic targets, drilling, logging and bulk sampling