Mark Cruise

Mark Cruise is an economic geologist and company builder who now serves as Executive Chairman of BP Silver Corp (TSX-V: BPAG), a Vancouver-based silver explorer drilling the Cosuño project in Bolivia's historically productive silver belt. Commodity investors know his pattern: he co-founded Trevali Mining and built it from an exploration startup into a top-ten global zinc producer, then led New Pacific Metals through the early definition of two Bolivian silver deposits that today each report resources above 200 million ounces (Moz) of silver.

A geology doctorate graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Cruise spent 1996 to 2004 at Anglo American plc as a polymetallic specialist — evaluating deposits that carry several metals, such as zinc, lead and silver together — and later held vice-president roles in exploration and business development at Cardero Resources. He co-founded Trevali Mining in 2007 and was its President and CEO from February 2008 to April 2019. There he assembled and restarted past-producing zinc mines: Santander in Peru, Caribou in New Brunswick, Rosh Pinah in Namibia and Perkoa in Burkina Faso. By 2019 Trevali ranked among the world's ten largest zinc producers, with a market capitalization above C$1.4 billion.

Cruise joined New Pacific Metals as Chief Operating Officer in November 2019 and served as Chief Executive Officer from April 2020 until January 2022. His tenure covered the inaugural Silver Sand resource estimate — 156 Moz of measured and indicated silver, the two highest-confidence resource categories under the NI 43-101 Canadian reporting standard — the acquisition of the Carangas silver-gold project in April 2021, and the first discovery drilling at Carangas. Silver Sand's measured and indicated resource reached 201.77 Moz by November 2022, and Carangas now reports an indicated resource of about 213 Moz silver.

His approach is to work from the rocks up in mining regions where past production proves the geology. At BP Silver, whose team includes geologists with decades of Bolivian operating experience, that means a staged program at Cosuño, in which the company holds a 52 percent interest with a pathway to 100 percent. Phase 1 drilling from November to December 2025 returned bonanza-grade intercepts — silver grades far above typical open-pit thresholds. Phase 2 drilling of roughly 2,000 meters began in July 2026, a 6,000-plus meter Phase 3 is planned, and early fieldwork is under way at the 100 percent-owned Titiri silver-lead-zinc project, which has never been drilled.

BP Silver listed on the TSX Venture Exchange in September 2025 through a qualifying transaction, a reverse-takeover style listing used by junior companies, so the record is short and the projects are exploration stage — mineral resources, by definition, are not reserves. Investors who follow Cruise are effectively watching a repeat of his established playbook: take underexplored ground in a proven metal district, drill it systematically, and build the resource and the company in steps.