Joseph M Foster

Joseph Foster joined Van Eck in 1996 as precious metals mining analyst. He currently serves as lead investment team member for Van Eck’s flagship fund, Van Eck International Investors Gold Fund, as well as investment team member of Van Eck Global Hard Assets Fund and Van Eck VIP Global Hard Assets Fund; also consultant to Market Vectors ETF Trust – Gold Miners ETF.

From 1993 to 1996 Joseph was a Senior Geologist at Pinson Mining Company where he managed the geology department, which was responsible for district exploration, reserve/resource delineation and modeling, and geologic input and/or strategy on mining issues. From 1988 to 1993, he was a Mine Exploration Geologist with Pinson Mining Company, planned and supervised up to 30,000 feet of exploration drilling per year and mapped mine areas and other properties regionally.

Prior to 1988 he was an exploration geologist with Lacana Gold Inc., Reno, Nevada. He's been quoted in Wall Street Journal, Barrons, The Wall Street Reporter; appeared on Reuters TV, CNBC, Fox News, and Bloomberg TV. Joseph has published articles in mining journals, including Mining Engineering, Society of Economic Geology, Geological Society of Nevada.

His degrees are MS, Geology, Mackey School of Mines, 1988; MBA, University of Nevada-Reno, 1988; BS (Magna Cum Laude), Geology, Tennessee Technological University, 1982.