James Xiang is a mining executive and entrepreneur who for the past 16 plus years has led a range of mining projects, including GobiMin Inc., Canadian Royalties Inc. (CRI) and North American Lithium (NAL).

James Xiang immigrated from China to Canada in 2001 to add to his business knowledge and experience. After earning his MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University, in 2003 James worked his first job as a financial analyst at Com Dev International in Cambridge, Ontario. He then moved to ATS Automation and CFM Corporation and worked in senior

financial positions. At both ATS and CFM, James helped the organizations deal with operational set up and expansion in China and, in the process, discovered that it would be very interesting to explore this direction, namely, exploring business opportunities between Canada and China.

In 2005, James pursued one of his first entrepreneurial ventures in the mining industry when he took over the leadership of a nickel-copper mining project called GobiMin Inc. As CFO of GobiMin, James brought on a management team as well as investors. In two years, the organization’s market capitalization was ten times greater with positive cash flow. It was acquired for cash in 2008, despite the global recession.

James currently serves as CEO and Director of North American Lithium (NAL), a Canadian industrial minerals mining company located in Abitibi, near Val d'Or, Quebec. He also leads China Mineral Resources, an organization that since 2009 has invested more than $1 billion in global Canadian companies with Chinese (and other) investors.

James took on NAL on the heels of a three-year project to rebuild Canadian Royalties Inc. (CRI), another investment project. CRI is the largest Chinese-owned mining company in Canada and was suffering from poor management, planning and strategy. Under his leadership, CRI restructured management, made good with vendors and got the nickel-copper-PGE mine back to commercial production and producing a positive cash flow.