The natural resources exploration industry is mourning the recent and sudden passing of two prominent figures, Colin Kinley and David Horgan, whose deaths were announced within a week of each other.

Colin Kinley

Colin Kinley, the Chief Operating Officer and a board member of Eco Atlantic, passed away suddenly. The company announced his death with great sadness, extending condolences to his wife Karen, his children Cooper and Claire, and his extended family and friends. Kinley had a distinguished career spanning more than 45 years in the mining and oil and gas frontier exploration industries. He was a co-founder of Eco Atlantic and served as a valued director and senior executive for several publicly quoted companies, including Marimaca Copper and Gunnison Copper. He also led his own teams as CEO and president at Kinley Exploration and Jet Mining.

Eco Atlantic's CEO, Gil Holzman, highlighted Kinley's broad experience across both the oil & gas and mining sectors, his unique personality, and his entrepreneurial spirit, describing him as a special asset to the natural resources industry and, above all, a dear friend who would be sorely missed. Following his passing, operational and technical responsibilities at Eco Atlantic will be assumed by CEO Gil Holzman and Executive Director Alice Carroll, with country managers reporting directly to the CEO. Kinley was previously featured by Upstream in 2011 when he was COO of Adira Energy.

David Horgan

David Horgan, the co-founder of Petrel Resources, passed away on October 29th at the age of 66. He was also a co-founder and chairman of Ireland-based Clontarf Energy. His death was described as a huge loss to his friends, family, colleagues, shareholders, and the wider Irish resource sector. Horgan was born in Belfast and received his primary education in Dublin before schooling in Canada. He later earned a first-class honours degree in law from Cambridge University and an MBA from Harvard.

His early career was with the Boston Consulting Group before he returned to Ireland in 1991 to pursue an interest in natural resources. After a year with Kenmare Resources, he joined John Teeling and Jim Finn at their stable of resource companies in Clontarf, Dublin. In a joint comment, Teeling and Finn expressed that Horgan's death was a deep personal loss, noting their over three decades together creating, financing, managing, and listing a series of early-stage exploration ventures. They described him as someone who revelled in high-stakes, high-risk resources exploration, was fearless in travelling dangerous territories, and was adept at immersing himself in local cultures, speaking eight languages and often conversing with locals in their own language after a short time in a new country.

Teeling and Finn also reflected on the challenging last decade for explorers, with little investor interest, and highlighted Horgan's simple, crucial message: "no exploration, no mines, no transition to green energy." They found it ironic that his passing occurred just as this message seemed to be gaining traction.

This material is an AI-assisted summary based on publicly available sources and may contain inaccuracies. For the original and full details, please refer to the source link. Based on materials by Iain Esau. All rights to the original text and images remain with their respective rights holders.