Our People
Director | Technical
Chris Hanson
Chris Hanson has +30 years mining experience in practical operational mining and consulting both in Australia and internationally, and has strong industry experience and credibility in the areas of underground and open cut geotechnical engineering.
Chris has conducted a number of high profile JORC Resource assessments including for the Moatize and Carmichael Coal Mine Projects. Chris is currently the Site Senior Executive for the Springsure Creek Coal Project and has significant experience in structured integrated project management, with a Diploma from the AIM in this area.
Director | Projects
Andrew Huston
Andrew Huston is a Project / Construction / Engineering Outage manager having directly managed over A$1B worth of project / outage work with a majority of these being brown field projects. This capability extends across the mining industry (coal, copper, gold and uranium), power generation (hydro & thermal) as well as LNG study manager experience.
This unique experience has fostered the development of an in-depth understanding of what is required to deliver a successful project, right from the study phase through to commissioning and handover. The project management experience is supported with seven years in maintenance as a workshop supervisor or mechanical engineer within the power and mining industries.
Director | Geology
David Green
David has over 38 years of experience in coal geology from exploration planning to mine site operations and for 3 years he was the Coal Geoscience Manager with the Queensland Geological Survey, leading a team evaluating the current and future coal resources in Queensland. He has a broad knowledge of Queensland coal resources and industry and also has experience in Mongolia, Canada and Indonesia.
David provides knowledgeable exploration management, data management and interpretation, geological evaluation, assessment and reporting on coal projects. He can provide Due Diligence, Technical Audits, IGRs, Project Reviews, and a variety of other studies and reports. David has been jointly awarded 3 ACARP project grants which included an evaluation of acoustic scanners and the development of CoalLog.
David is also the current Chair of the Bowen Basin Geologist’s Group.
Director | Studies
Patrick Humphries
Patrick has over 20 years' experience in underground coal mining operations, feasibility management and mining research. Patrick has led major project feasibility studies for Adani Mining Australia, BHP Mitsubishi Alliance, Vale and Mount Isa Mines (now Glencore) to identify, develop and deliver high capacity underground coal mines in a timely manner.
Patrick has a solid background in underground coal production including roles as Longwall Superintendent, Technical Services Superintendent and Ventilation Officer at a number of Queensland mines. He has extensive expertise in the development, implementation and management of Principal Hazard Management Plans for Ventilation, Gas, Mine fires and Spontaneous combustion. Patrick has been a leader in the development and application of innovative inertisation techniques for the prevention of spontaneous combustion in underground coal mines resulting in increased safety and productivity in Queensland coal mines.
Principal | Underground Mining Engineer
Sean Wilson
Sean has had over 13 years’ experience in the underground coal mining industry with extensive experience in the operation and design of high productivity longwall mining operations and is highly proficient in the operation of various specialised software packages including Deswik, XPAC and VentSIM.
Sean’s operational experience comprises of the management of all areas of coal mine technical services including subsidence, spontaneous combustion, complex geological/geotechnical conditions, gas drainage and operation/management of ventilation circuits. Sean has been involved in the preparation of several engineering studies at various levels for major projects including the Teresa Project Pre-Feasibility Study (Link Energy Pty Ltd) and as Project Leader for the Carmichael underground Feasibility Study.
Principal | Projects
Vimal Pulikottil
Vimal has over 25 years global experience in Project Management and Estimating having directly supported / managed projects and estimates up to
A$ 4.5b value, both greenfield and brown field. Her capability extends across industries including mining (alumina, copper, coal), power generation (clean coal technology) , hydrocarbons (LNG, shale gas) , agrochemical processing and infrastructure development.
This varied experience and team approach has developed a growing strength in successful project delivery and estimating, from concept to commissioning and handover to operations. Vimal has worked in project and satellite offices located across the globe including Australia, South America, Italy and India.
Commercial and Financial Services
Robert Johansen
Robert has a unique combination of qualifications consisting of a Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Engineering (Mining) with first class honours and a University Medal. He is a 15 year qualified Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA) and BAS Agent, a 15 year member of the AusIMM and a 10 year member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He has 6 years’ experience as an ASX listed company director. Robert has worked in both technical and line management roles as well as management and director roles. He has previously owned and operated a transaction management business and has owned and operated his own mining projects.
Robert’s core skills include:
Legal qualification and engineering background to ensure that financial models are evidence based, reflect the reality of contractual arrangements in place and take account of the variability of mining scenarios.
Strong contract negotiation skills informed by real world experience in developing mining projects from concept, through pre-feasibility and feasibility stages while managing the interests of multiple stakeholders.
GIS Services
Chris Schlebusch
Chris Schlebusch has a background in electronic engineering, industrial design and more than 10 years in the spatial industry as both a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) consultant and the GIS lead for a large multi-disciplinary mining, infrastructure and logistics project. He has worked on mining, resources and infrastructure projects in Australia, Africa, Asia, South America and Canada where he supported decision making with GIS and cartographic products in addition to providing hardware, software and process solutions.
He has deployed and managed geoscientific information management solutions, enterprise GIS infrastructure and web GIS tools using platforms such as Micromine's GeoBank, Esri's ArcGIS suite and Latitude Geographics' Geocortex. His cartographic products have underpinned Environmental Impact Statements, Mining Lease Applications and Prospectus publications.
PRINCIPAL GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER
Walter Keilich
Walter is a mining professional with 19 years’ experience in mining / geotechnical engineering and holds Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland (Geotechnical Mining) status.
He has experience in open cut and underground operations including operational site support, geotechnical risk management, site investigations, geotechnical design, numerical modelling and project management.
Walter also holds a PhD in mining / geotechnical engineering from the University of Wollongong in the field of mine subsidence mechanics and longwall mining effects on river valleys.
Walter’s core skills include:
Operational site support including geotechnical design reviews, site inspections and secondments.
Geotechnical model development, including rock mass characterisation and domain modelling.
Development of Principal Hazard Management Plans and TARPs.
Independent technical reviews, due diligence and studies.
Exploration Manager
David Drakeley
David has +15 years of practice in geology, exploration and management roles in public and private mining-related enterprises. He brings a particular talent for exploration project planning and execution that is accurately attuned to solve technical challenges.
As a holder of the SSE qualification, David has an unwavering commitment to safety and believes that the development of a culture where everyone goes home safely is achievable with the right practices, environment, people and leadership.
David’s core skills include:
Desktop and remote sensing studies to identify exploration targets;
Design of exploration programs;
Development of exploration schedules and budgets;
Contractor tender preparation, evaluation and management; and
Exploration site safety management as a qualified Site Senior Executive.
Environmental and Approvals Manager
Hamish Manzi
Hamish is an environment and sustainability professional with over 20 years in a diversity of executive and operational roles across the consulting, resources, and infrastructure sectors and across all states and territories of Australia and in New Zealand and Singapore.
His experience is across the full project lifecycle from feasibility & financing through to commissioning & operations, with project experience across the water, civil, building, mining, rail, port, telecommunications, and energy sectors.
Hamish has developed and implemented approvals and engagement strategies for complex and challenging projects and has experience with Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Commonwealth planning and approvals processes.
Hamish’s core skills include:
Technical leadership, oversight, direction and review across environment, approvals and stakeholder functional areas including coordinating relevant expertise;
Planning and environmental approvals strategy development, execution program and delivery;
Risk, opportunity and compliance expertise gained from extensive project development experience; and
Environmental, Approvals and Social Governance strategy, reporting and implementation.
Principal Geophysicist
Andy Hall
Andy is a Geophysicist specialising in well log data analysis with over 30 years’ experience working in the oil and gas, CSG and mining industries providing cost effective solutions for evaluating sub-surface structures and fluid flow potential. In his career, Andy has led projects throughout Australia and New Zealand and also in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.
His expertise is in drilling programs ranging from steering horizontal wells using real time data, exploration and development wells onshore and offshore to multi-well CSG and mine resource programs for environmental impact and resource assessment. In these programs, Andy plans and manages efficient core and log data acquisition programs, routine and special core analysis programs and integrates the results providing detailed structural and petrophysical interpretations.
Andy is an expert in geological database creation and maintenance having built databases of hundreds of wells in the Geolog software to allow correlation of geological formations and calculation of facies or petrophysical properties. This is used to either determine the environmental impact of drilling on aquifers by looking at offset well, calculate hydrocarbon reserves or plan new well trajectories based upon a detailed database and geological surfaces.
After many years in the oil industry, Andy has developed skills in data manipulation using Excel macros and complex Geolog Loglan coding. The full use of the software enables more consistent, quicker interpretation of larger datasets allowing better solutions in a shorter time scale.