Education
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2016 - 2017
Colorado State University
Graduate Certificate in Project Management
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1983 - 1989
Curtin University
Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.), Western Australian School of Mines
Activities and societies: Student Guild President, Guild Editor
Experience
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2022 - Present
Intrepid Potash
Snr Project Engineer
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2014 - 2022
RBT LLC
Mining & Construction
• Paste-fill & water-treatment for Northern Star Resources at the Pogo Gold Mine in Alaska
• NI 43-101 Technical Report & Bankable Feasibiility Study for Vangold Guanojuato Silver Company with Behr Dolbear in Mexico
• Environmental compliance for Ecology & Environment at Groupe OCP’s Khouribga, Youssoufia & Layounne Phosphate in Morocco
• Xeras cost analysis for Newmont Eleanor Mine with Undergrund Mine Solutions
• Dynamic database & intra/internet development with MineCost & CostMine for Gold Fields Exploration
• Prefeasibility and scoping studies for Midway Gold, ConocoPhillips, InterContinental Potash with Gustavson Assoc
• Analysis of SOMAT boring geotechnical safe span of the $300 million Detroit River Outfall DRO-2 Redesign and Recovery Project for Inspecsol Engineering & Ric-Man Construction. Shotcrete.
• Contract management of Barrick’s $5 million gold exploration drift development at Turquoise Ridge Nevada with Harrison Western Construction.
• Exploration drift rehabilitation feasibility study for the acquisition of the Ferris Haggerty Wyoming copper deposit for Black Range Minerals. Helicopter reconnaissance, geotechnical assessment and ventilation for underground diamond drilling.
• Sub-contact management support for $10 million US Department of the Interior dam and reservoir construction in Colorado, with HWCC and Weeminuche Construction Authority. Primavera.
• Scoping studies for the acquisition of $300 million to $1 billion open cut & underground copper-gold deposits in Kyrgyzstan and Nunavut, Canada for Gold Fields Exploration with Coffey Mining using Mincom MineSight.
• $1 billion Copper Cliff Deep shaft sink Implementation -
2018 - 2018
Mining One Consultants
Contract Principal Engineer
Independent JORC & NI 43-101 feasibility studies, geotechnical & infrastructure design, & operational support for international projects.
• Project management of $100M emerald project in Colombia
• Real-time collaboration & conferencing across several time zones -
2017 - 2018
GOLD FIELDS
Contract Project Engineer
A fast-paced FIFO contract technical services role with a focus on safety and continuous improvement.
• Reprise and improve inter-departmental infrastructure planning process
• Reconcile and continuously improvement ore drive & stope design in Vulcan and Deswik
• Design & schedule underground development, and issue mining instructions
• Introduce approved, repeatable project management systems and processes
• Direct contractors in ventilation raiseboring, shaft sinking, pump station construction
• Administer $200M engineering, construction & earthworks contracts -
2011 - 2015
Energy Fuels Inc
Technical Services Manager
Coordinated strategic mine planning & optimization, contract management and project startup from Concept Studies through Trade-off, Feasibility & Implementation of uranium projects.
• Cashflow models for all ~20 mines & targets in the US, ranking them in terms of Break Even Price, NPV and annual revenues at various Uranium price, schedule & cut-off-grade scenarios. ARCGis, Sherpa, Autocad Civil3D
• Analyses & board recommendations for acquisitions and divestitures
• Mine infrastructure designs complete with 3D fabrication & as-built layouts
• Site management & support, highlighting critical-path schedules, reinforcing HSE culture with site crews. -
2003 - 2007
Thyssen Mining
Mine Manager, including $12 million shaft and $20 million tunnel installations.
• Metal and non-metal mining projects in USA. Authority for negotiating and invoicing clients and payment of subcontractors, consultants and vendors.
• EPC and commercial aspects of a joint venture of international contractors for a $20 million Foundation Coal slope project in Illinois. Financial, technical and commercial assessment and analysis of the project was integral to the board decisions.
• Site setup, including local infrastructure and accommodation of foreign-speaking workforce. Procured, negotiated, and managed engineering, technical assistance and heavy construction contracts.
• Coordinated foreign technical experts, remote procurement, consultants, sub-contactors.
• Implemented regular internal and external status meetings, with the executive and technical management of Thyssen Schachtbau Gruppe Germany, Precision Mine Repair USA and TMCC Canada.
• Watertable management, groundwater evaluations, cofferdam construction, grout injection.
• Web-based inventory management database. Conducted frequent international web conferences.
• $4 million litigation claim analysis, financial risk analysis with TreeAge, exhibit preparation, position formulations, e-discovery coordination with Walstad Law Group.Project Manager of $7 million Turquoise Ridge Project, Nevada, responsible for a workforce of 70 underground miners, tradesmen and staff.
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2001 - 2003
RockTek USA
Project Manager of specialist blasting firm.
Business development, marketing and R&D strategy for Australian public company with revenues of $20 million.
• Created promotional videos, presentation materials, trade show program to increase sales of niche products & services.
• Contributed to site training, including seminars, videos, procedures, materials and examinations. Clients included the National Park Service, Forest Service, Molycorp Inc, Normandy Mining, Phelps Dodge, Stillwater Mining & Getchell Gold.
• Member of the Australian-American Chamber of Commerce.
• Federal Acquisition Regulation compliance for U.S. General Services Administration and Department of Defense. -
1997 - 2001
WMC Resources
Underground Manager of the world’s third largest nickel operation.
Underground workforce of 150 at the Perseverance sublevel-cave and open-stope nickel mine.
• Elimination of Fatalities Task Force. Inter-departmental groups to develop practical safe work procedures and safe work analyses that enabled dangerous tasks to be completed accident-free. The Lost Time Injury rate was reduced to the lowest in the mine’s history.
• Implemented a system of operating cost management that assigns cost accountability to the lowest functional level, with SAP, resulting in economies upwards of 15%.
• P&L responsibility with a $10 million budget. Responsible for setting new production targets.
• Oversaw an increase in production of 12% to a sustained 1.3 million tonnes, breaking all previous records.As Open Pit Manager Harmony Mine.
• Implementation of Intellimine GPS tracking and dispatch
• Introduced a training matrix for site personnel. Personally trained higher technical and systems management functions.As Project Engineer, financial justification, programming, management and control of over 26 concurrent projects.
• Coordinated diverse team of engineers, maintenance, operations, construction, and specialty contractors.
• Design, construction & commissioning of infrastructure improvements, realizing operating cost reductions in the order of $2 million per year.
• Permitted, negotiated & managed major engineering, technical and environmental contracts.As Production Engineer, pioneered production driller feedback loop system to verify ore boundaries and optimize blasting with Datamine, Surpac, Gemcom, Xpac & Xeras. Ore dilution was reduced by 3%.
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1994 - 1997
NMM, Henty, SRK
Project Engineer of Paddington, Blair, Mt Morgans, Henty, Yilgarn Star,…
Construction, mining and government contracts in industrial & precious metals, uranium, coal & mineral sands.
• Greenfield to startup and production of first ore at the environmentally sensitive Henty gold project that was blind-bored shaft in a World Heritage listed rainforest in Tasmania.
• Converted supply arrangements from consignment stockpiles to automatic minimum quantity re-ordering using MPAC at Henty. Routine stocktaking duties were reduced resulting in a time saving of over 20 man-hours per month.
• Implemented a Mineral Balance Sheet, highlighting areas of commercial risk using Gemcom with @Risk to develop optimal mining strategies, with SRK. Assembled comprehensive cost database by interviewing mine staff, plant suppliers, and government agencies.
• As founding Editor of the Western Australian Mining Club in Perth, created a monthly glossy magazine. Club membership increased by 40% to 1,500.
• Introduced open-book recording that enabled comparison of client’s daily work log records with our own at the Yilgarn Star mine. The end-of-month payment disputes that had plagued the project were eliminated, invoice aging was reduced by two weeks and the client relationship was improved.
• Developed a shift hand-over system that caused functional interactions to be communicated between shift personnel, increasing efficiency by up to 600 man-hours per year at Yilgarn Star.
• Arranged a system of capturing incidental services as dayworks, thereby increasing revenues by 8%.
As Intern for the Western Australian Mine Manager’s Certificate, worked at 6 different mines as a foreman, shift boss, blaster, equipment operator and miner. Hands-on experience in:
• room-and pillar, open stope, flatback, cut-and-fill, sub-level-cave, block-cave, open-cut, resue
• gig, ladder and Alimak rising -
1991 - 1994
London Underground - Jubilee Line Extension Project
ASE, Jubilee Line, a £2 billion, ten mile, rail tunnel extension.
Bills of Quantities, tunneling and archeological contracts.
• Reformed the method of reviewing Bills of Quantities to highlight anomalies, overlaps and gaps.
• Member of the DoT ocean racing team & rowing squad, competing in France, Belgium and Henley. -
1989 - 1992
Channel Tunnel - Transmanche Link - TML
Site Engineer, Channel Tunnel, the biggest infrastructure project in Europe.
Under-sea cross-passages, pump motor rooms and sumps in the 23 mile underwater section of the £15 billion project.
• Coordinated re-bar and concrete placement of ring beams and tunnel inverts
• Installation of lattice-girder and NATM shotcrete
• Placement and grouting of precast steel and concrete tunnel segments
• Laser and string-line surveying and setting out.
• Member of the English Channel Tunnel cycle team from London to Paris.