1984 B.App.Sc. (Mining Engineering) Western Australian School of Mines,
Kalgoorlie.
1991 Diploma for Graduates (Business studies and Groundwater Hydrology)
University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Member of The Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
Competent person for the preparation of ore reserves for a variety of
underground and open pit mining techniques and ore types.
Metalliferous First Class Mine Managers certificates for; Western Australia,
Victoria, Northern Territory and Papua New Guinea.
Mine Managers certificates awarded under mutual recognition legislation;
Queensland.
| March 2000 - Present | Consulting - Management accounting and budget preparation, contract preparation, tender evaluation, software development for operations reporting and budgeting. Mine design and evaluation. Feasibility studies for open pit and underground operations. | |
| June 1999 - December 1999 | Australian Mineral Processors Ltd. Project Manager | |
| July 1998 - March 1999 | Australian Resources, Selwyn Mine Senior Mining Engineer, Mine Superintendent | |
| July 1996 - January 1998 | Dome Resources, Tolukuma Gold Mine. Mine Manager. | |
| May 1992 - June 1996 | Sambas Gold Mine. Mine Manager & various short term contract positions. | |
| 1991 | University of Otago. Graduate studies. | |
| November 1989 - August 1990 | Barrack Mines Ltd. Horseshoe Copper Gold Mine. Mine Superintendent. | |
| March 1986 - November 1989 | Surpac Mining Systems. Director, Projects Mining Engineer. | |
| June 1984 - March 1986 | North Kalgurli Mines Ltd, Kalgoorlie Operations. Open Pit Mining Engineer, Mine Planning Engineer. | |
| Prior to June 1984 | Approximately 3 years practical experience in underground gold and nickel mines in Western Australia. |
March 2000 - Present Consulting
Feasibility and mine design projects for open pit and underground mines.
Financial and KPI reporting systems development for mining operations and mining
and construction contractors and others.
Short term mine management assignments for mines in Australia and PNG.
Feasibility study for Savage River Magnetite mine. LHOS and block cave
evaluations. Design of multi stage deepening of the open pit
operations. Costing of mine truck and shovel fleet. Scheduling mine
production to end of mine life and development and documentation of long term
scheduling system using MineSched.
Involved in the Definitive Feasibility Study for Moly Mines Spinifex Ridge
Molybdenum mine. Prepared mining schedules and financial models for
the mine operations.
Preparing of budgets, full cost pricing, development of
software systems for financial and KPI reporting, tender preparation and
evaluation for local government.
June 1999 - December 1999 Australian Mineral Processors Ltd. Project Manager
This was a small, 100,000 tpa, open pit gold mining operation situate about 2 hours drive north of Brisbane with approximately 30 employees. The mining was carried out with owner operated equipment and the ore is processed in a CIL plant. As well as the mining operations AMPL also constructed a new tailings dam wall, built a pilot tailings re-treatment plant for producing fine sand and was building a small copper leach and electro-win operation to treat copper smelter flue dust present on site.
Duties: Day to day management and reporting of all activities on site with extensive input into running of the mine and mill operations. Improve employee awareness of safety and environmental responsibilities and procedures. Develop safety documentation and system. Liaison with the various government departments including the Department of Mining and Energy, the Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency. Design and manage construction of the tailings re-treatment and copper leach facilities. Liaise with dam design consultants (Coffey) on construction of tailings dam.
July 1998 - March 1999 Australian Resources, Selwyn Mine Mine Superintendent, Senior Mining Engineer
I was initially employed as a senior mining engineer at the Mt Elliott mine and was appointed Mine Superintendent at Mt Elliott in September 98. Mt Elliott was as 750,000 tpa U/G copper/gold mine utilising contractors to carry out the mining. Stoping was by LHOS with stopes ranging is size from 15,000 tonnes to 250,000 tonnes. Relationships with the mining contractor were good with cooperative input from both sides in all areas, particularly in safety management, planning, and short and medium term scheduling. Selwyn mine was closed down when Australian Resources went into receivership in March 1999.
Duties: Responsible for safe management and supervision of the mining contractors. Manage a department of 2 engineers 2 geologists and a supervisor. Preparation of operating schedules and budgets. Preparation of monthly operating reports. Planning and scheduling for the final retreat mining phase. Supervision of the haulage contractor. LHOS drill and blast design.
July 1996 - January 1998 Dome Resources, Tolukuma Gold Mine Mine Manager
Tolukuma is situated 100km north of Port Moresby. Monthly production at the time was 5,000 to 6,000 oz of Au and approximately 20,000 oz Ag from 10,000 tonnes of ore. Mining was from open pit operations in the first 18 months of operations and then increasingly from underground. Mining was wholly underground by January 1998. The work force of 350 people was made up of skilled PNG nationals and 16 expats on fly in/fly out roster and unskilled villagers living locally. The mine was built on steep terrain with high rainfall. The only access is by helicopter and consequently logistics operations are expensive and difficult and were factored into all planning and decision making. Underground operations were in weak ground, the Avoca method being used for stope production. Development was by airleg with diesel LHD's used for underground haulage. All mining equipment was owner operated and maintained. Ore processing was by conventional CIL with riverine tailing discharge after detoxification using the INCO process. All timber for construction and use underground was felled and milled on the mine lease. Quarterly environmental reports were prepared for the PNG government. Local landowners had to be continually negotiated with to provide access to exploration and mining areas and to settle compensation claims. The construction of a 2.1MW mini hydro electric scheme was completed during my time as manager, this significantly reducing operating costs. A complete scheduling, budgeting and financial forecasting model of the operation was developed. This involved upgrading the milling budget spreadsheets to include flotation and a kilograms driven logistics budget.
Duties: Manage 6 department superintendents and report to the Sydney office on the day to day activities of the mine. Preparation of operating and capital expenditure budgets. Preparation of monthly operating reports. Liaise and report to Department of Mines and Petroleum on mining and landowner matters and report monthly production data. Prepare and submit proposals for extensions of the mining plan and surface facilities to the Department of Mines and Petroleum. Attend monthly board meeting in Sydney to report to the board on the activities at the mine.
May 1992 - November 95 Sambas Gold Mine Mine Manager
Manager of a small gold mine (3 people) in North Eastern Victoria. Narrow vein mining techniques were used to mine the ore. The plant utilises crushing, grinding, flotation and a number of gravity separation techniques to produce a gold, pyrite and arsenopyrite concentrate. The position was a very hands on role encompassing mining, running the processing plant and maintaining the mining and processing plant equipment. This included carrying out mechanical and electrical maintenance and construction of modifications to the plant and mining equipment, ensuring they conformed AS1250 and AS3000 and were safely constructed. An extensive maintenance program was required to make the plant reliable and safe to operate. All timber for use underground had to be cut from local state owned forests. Carried out all administrative functions including purchasing, payroll, PAYE tax preparation and payment, and all workers compensation matters. Built a life of mine financial model to determine the NPV of the operation.
December 1993 - June 1996 Consulting
The Sambas was shut down on a number of occasions. During these periods I carried out a number of short term contracts. Details of these are shown below.
April 1996 - June 1996 Melita Mining, Orient Well Project
Relief mine superintendent for open pit gold mine utilising contract mining. Detailed geological and grade control required to make the operation viable.
July 1994 - December 1994 MPI, Stawell Gold Mines
Review the profitability of airleg mining operations and set up management and planning procedures for airleg mining at Stawell Gold Mines. Review of geological data to ascertain the extent of future airleg mining reserves and possible exploration techniques to increase these reserves. Day to day management of airleg mining. A financial risk assessment model was developed and implemented to ensure all development targets had a low risk of being unprofitable. I continued this work on a one week a month basis until late 1995.
December 1993 - April 1994 Zappopan N.L., Mt Todd Gold Mine
Relief mine superintendent for large open pit gold mine, 20,000,000 tpa using mining contractors and heap leach treatment of ore. Setting up the reporting and payments system for the mining contractors and writing budgeting and medium term scheduling spreadsheets and procedures. All systems documented and other staff members made familiar with their use. A large backlog of unresolved contractors claims settled. Investigating and solving problems in the heap leach drainage blanket. This required the development of a practical solution to overcome the poor permeability of the drainage layer and hydrological modeling of the system to predict the as constructed performance.
1991 Otago University, New Zealand, Diploma for Graduates
The Diploma for Graduates is a one year course that allows students to tailor make (within guidelines) a course of study to suit their needs. I selected units from the MBA program and two units in ground water hydrology. The business studies units covered business law, accounting, finance, management and economics. The groundwater hydrology studies were made up of an honors year unit and a project. The project involved the building, calibrating and documentation of a groundwater flow model of the Papikaio groundwater system using the modeling package MODFLOW.
November 1989 - August 1990 Barrack Mines Ltd, Horseshoe Gold Mine Mine Superintendent
Horseshoe Gold Mine was an open pit copper, gold and silver mine 170 Km north of Meekatharra in Western Australia. Mining was carried out by a contractor, with a monthly movement of up to 250,000 cubic meters. A major pit slope failure closed the mine in July 1990. Responsible for pit safety, mining contract administration, mining budget preparation and supervision of a mining department of 4 mining engineers and 4 survey staff. Required to act as mine manager in the resident managers absence. Horseshoe had a series of major pit slope failures and required daily supervision of the collection and analysis of slope movements and mapping data. The mining contractors were claim oriented and a constant attention to detail was required when dealing with the contract administration duties. Pit dewatering from in-pit dewatering bores and sumps (1000 tonnes/day) was carried out by Horseshoe personnel and designed and supervised by the mining staff.
March 1986 - November 1989 Surpac Mining Systems, Director & Projects Mining Engineer
Surpac Mining Systems are the authors of the mining software package SURPAC. This is an orebody modeling, mine surveying and mine planning system.
May 1988 - November 1989 Director
As Surpac was a small company (approx. 15 persons) directors were required to be directly involved in managing all facets of its operation, both locally and internationally. Business management initiatives included implementation of a computerised cost accounting system for Surpac Mining Systems head office, and implementation of accounting procedures for overseas offices. Designed and implemented Surpac's first monthly reporting system and supervised the integration of the budgeting, cash flow prediction, debtor management and R&D expenditure recording into this system.
March 1986 - April 1988 Projects Mining Engineer.
Orebody modeling and mine design for a wide variety of clients and deposits. This included work on a number of coal projects to demonstrate to potential clients that the software was able to successfully carry out multiple seam modeling, dragline design and truck and shovel pit designs. Five months in the U.S.A. establishing Surpac's first overseas marketing venture. This involved basic market research, initial client contact and follow up, and selection of an agent to represent Surpac Mining Systems in the North American market. Design and coding of a wide variety of software for inclusion in Surpac. Specific areas of responsibility included pit optimisation (dynamic programming approach), geostatistics, and mine scheduling. My pit optimiser module was used to carry out the first optimisation study for the big pit in Kalgoorlie. Instigated and managed the upgrading of the user documentation to the stage where a technical documenter was employed. Created a number of in house systems to improve the client communications and documentation system at Surpac.
June 1984 - March 1986 North Kalgurli Mines Ltd, Kalgoorlie Operations Open Pit Mining Engineer & Mine Planning Engineer
April 1985 - March 1986 Open Pit Mining Engineer
Supervision of mining contractors in several pits, monitoring safety standards in the open pits. Supervision of open pit design and technical work. Reporting of ore and waste production on a daily, weekly and period basis. Co-ordination of grade control activities. Converted the manual daily, weekly and monthly reporting system to Multiplan spreadsheets.
June 1984 - April 1985 Mine Planning Engineer
Shaft and rail haulage U/G mine. Planning access into old mining areas, design and control of LHOS development, design and control of a major rail haulage drive, mine ventilation planning and monitoring of open pits. Wrote a Fortran based pit depth optimisation system to assist in open pit design.