Paste 2021 Conference Speakers and Chairs
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Johan Boshoff Session chair for: Keynote address & Case studies Johan graduated from the University of Pretoria in 1993. He obtained his master’s degree in geotechnical engineering at the University of Pretoria in 1998. Johan has been involved in geotechnical engineering aspects of projects for the past 25 years. Johan is a certified engineer and a fellow with Engineers Australia. His expertise includes detailed design, monitoring and project management of tailings storage facilities, mine residue stockpiles and waste rock dumps. Johan worked for Golder as a principal tailings engineer where he also fulfilled engineer of record roles for major mining companies. He joined Gold Fields in September 2019 where he is currently the group head of tailings in the role of the discipline leader and subject matter expert for all company owned and operated facilities.  |
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Mohammad Boshrouyeh Click to view paper: Investigation of geotechnical, hydromechanical, and chemical behaviour of polymer-treated tailings Mohammad is a final year PhD student at The University of Queensland with a background in chemical engineering and four years’ experience in the industry. Mohammad is working in the environmental geochemistry group focusing on developing innovative tools for understanding and predicting geochemical processes, which underpin sustainable management of mineral processing tailings and final voids. The title of his PhD project is Polymer Amended Tailings Stability for Optimum Rehabilitation Outcome. |
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Dr Aida Carneiro Session chair for: Surface disposal Aida is a tailings and dams engineer working for Rio Tinto Iron Ore. She completed a PhD from The University of Western Australia with a thesis entitled ‘Evaluating alternative tailings management strategies is more than just Net Present Value’. Aida has been involved with tailings management at Rio Tinto for the past three years. She is currently a site-based responsible dams engineer managing the day-to-day operations of tailings storage facilities and providing technical support to site to manage tailings risks. |
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Dr Jarrad Coffey Click to view paper: Achieving the design intent, reducing risk and saving costs of tailings storage facilities Click to view paper: The benefits of integrating long-term tailings and mine plans Session chair for: Keynote address & Underground backfill (1) Jarrad has been involved with tailings management at Rio Tinto for the past nine years, with responsibilities spanning technical support to projects and operations, long-term planning and most recently leadership of risk management and governance of Rio Tinto Iron Ore’s tailings storage facilities. More broadly, his experience extends to civil mining assets and infrastructure with specialisation in heavy duty pavement design. |
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Damian Connelly Click to view paper: Lessons learned from thickening and filtering tailings for dry stacking Damian is a consulting engineer with extensive experience in the gold, copper, lead, zinc, uranium and iron ore industries with particular emphasis on gold. Experience has been gained in plant operation feasibility studies, detailed design, construction and commissioning, and all unit operations. He is an internationally recognised specialist in mineral processing having worked in North America and South America, South East Asia, Africa and Europe. The last 30+ years working as a consultant metallurgist for mining, banking and engineering companies has provided a broad range of experience. Damian is a registered expert witness and has been engaged on many cases. |
Waldo Dressel Session chair for: Instrumentation and Monitoring of Tailings
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Russell Evans Click to view paper: Safety and efficiency benefits from using automated backfill diverter valves on Kirkland Lake Gold Fosterville mine’s paste reticulation systems Russell has spent over 30 years in the mining industry and has supervised surface and underground mine projects on most continents. He specialises in all aspects of mine backfill. He has worked for Lac Minerals, Golder Paste Technology, Barrick Gold, Goldcorp and is now director of Backfill Operations for Kirkland Lake Gold. He has been part of the design, construction, commissioning, and operational support of over 25 paste plants and six cemented rock fill plants globally, including construction and commissioning of the first paste plant in Australia, and the first gold mine paste tailings system. |
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Ignacio Ezama Click to view paper: Operational optimisation of a tailings storage facility based on statistical analysis of historical monitoring records Ignacio is a civil engineer with a solid knowledge of geomechanics and extensive experience developing geotechnical solutions for site-based and desktop applications. He has worked on projects involving a range of tailings management alternatives, including thickened, dry stack, cyclone, and co-disposal tailings across a variety of commodities and climates. In addition to his professional expertise, Ignacio has been involved in academic and scientific activities at the University of Buenos Aires. |
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Professor Andy Fourie Andy is a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering at The University of Western Australia in Perth. He has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and a PhD from the Imperial College, University of London. He has worked at the University of Queensland and the University of the Witwatersrand. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Alberta, the Catholic University of Valparaiso in Chile and the University of Colorado in Boulder. His research is in the field of mitigating the impact of mining and municipal solid waste disposal. Outcomes from his research have been incorporated in changes to environmental legislation in South Africa. He contributed to a series of guidelines for managing mine tailings in Australia, as well as developing a document for the International Atomic Energy Association on barrier systems for retaining uranium mining waste. Andy has been involved in many industry-focussed projects with current projects including An Evaluation of Tailings Storage Facilities Monitoring Technologies managed by AMIRA and funded by eight mining companies; Future Tails aimed at training, research and education to improve tailings management funded by BHP and Rio Tinto; and Evaluating Potential Static Liquefaction of Tailings to Prevent Failures, funded by six mining companies as well as the Australian Research Council. Andy is also currently a member of five international tailings review boards. |
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Bernd Fränkle Click to view paper: Towards prediction of cake detachment in tailings filtration Bernd started his research in the field of tailings filtration during his master’s thesis supervised by Patrick Morsch (MSc) and Professor Hermann Nirschl at the Institute of Mechanical Process Engineering and Mechanics in the process machines division in 2019. He started his PhD in December 2019 on this topic. |
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Dr Pamela Garrido Ruiz Click to view paper: Comprehensive thickening analysis strategy Pamela is a metallurgical civil engineer who graduated from the University of Concepción. She has a PhD in engineering sciences with a mention in metallurgy from the University of Concepción. Her main fields of research are in the area of minerals processing. Pamela develops research projects and consults mainly on thickening, filtration and suspension rheology, and dictating to chairs in the areas of solid–liquid separation, transport phenomena and fluid mechanics.
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Andrea Grosso Click to view paper: Clay-bearing mine tailings analysis and implications in large filter press design Andrea graduated in 2012 with a master's degree in industrial chemistry from the University of Bologna, with a dissertation titled Tailings in the Bayer Process: Analysis of Their Alkalinity and a Study on the use of Filter Presses in the Industrial Process to Reduce Their Environmental Impact. In 2012, he started working as a senior process engineer at the R&D department of Aqseptence Group – Diemme Filtration.
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Tony Hendriks Click to view paper: Pulsation reduction system for positive displacement pumps Tony joined MHWirth in 2007 and has been working there for almost 15 years in various departments. He holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Südwestfalen, Germany. With his in-depth knowledge of positive displacement pumps and the technical and economic challenges of slurry projects, he advances the development of MHWirth’s slurry pumps solutions in various applications such as slurry pipeline and tailings transfer, mine de-watering, hydraulic ore hoisting, autoclave feed, and digester feed worldwide.
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Cameron Hore Session chair for: Thickening and filtration (3) Cameron is a senior geotechnical engineer specialising in developing responsible solutions for tailings, mine waste, and heap leach engineering challenges. Cameron has experience encompassing a wide variety of commodities, climates, and tailings disposal methods including dry stacking. Cameron has investigation, design, and construction experience in the permafrost environments of the Canadian arctic through to the arid deserts of Australia and Africa. He has undertaken studies from greenfield site selection through to construction and closure design. Cameron has been involved in numerous dry stack projects involving design or assessment and wants to pass on some of the common misconceptions and help improve the overall approach to dry stacking implementation.
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Jerold Johnson Click to view paper: Paste thickeners in India’s iron and steel industry Jerold is a metallurgical engineer (bachelor's degree, University of Utah) and a professional engineer with experience through the full development, evaluation, and operation of paste thickeners. His experience includes 40 years’ experience in mineral processing. The last 25+ years have focused on paste thickening. As founding partner of PasteThick Associates (2002) and now with WesTech, he sized, designed, started up and/or optimised over 50 paste installations. |
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Dr Joshua Kelcey Click to view paper: Tailings storage facility surface moisture mapping for prediction of dusting events – and other benefits Joshua is a senior data scientist at NGIS. He has a PhD in remote sensing, and uses a combination of remote sensing and geographic information systems to monitor and assess the natural environment. Joshua has strong experience in environmental consultancy, developing Earth observation techniques that provide ongoing monitoring for landscape rehabilitation. His current work is focused within Google’s Earth Engine cloud infrastructure.
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Hein Krimpenfort Click to view paper: A simple test to determine the settling behaviour of slurries in piston diaphragm pumps Hein is key account manager for Feluwa Pumps, Germany. He is responsible for cross-border projects where piston diaphragm pumps are required. Hein has 30 years' experience with piston diaphragm pumps and has extensive international experience in selling and marketing this type of pump.
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Jacob Kruyswijk Click to view paper: The balance between energy and water preservation in the deposition of dry tailings in wet climates Jacob (Job) has been involved in demanding pumping applications, with a strong interest in thickened and paste tailings. Through his work in the Weir Technical Center he has gained experience in dewatering and slurry characterisation. He works on the development of sustainable pumping and dewatering solutions at the Venlo based Weir Sustainable Mining Center. Job holds a bachelor’s degree in geology and a master’s degree in mining engineering.
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Chris Lane Session chair for: Instrumentation and monitoring of tailings Chris has a bachelor degree in applied science (Canberra University 1975) and an MBA (AGSM 2002). He has a wide variety of geotechnical experience with tailings storage facilities (TSF), covering a period of more than 30 years. He has a wide range of experience, both in Australia and overseas: UK, Asia (Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia), the Middle East (Egypt, Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), West Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Mali and Senegal), East Africa (Ethiopia, Mozambique and Tanzania), Southern Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa), South America (Brazil, Chile, Guyana and Uruguay) and Mexico. His involvement with TSFs covers aspects of design, construction, auditing, and tailings management reviews for a large number of projects covering a range of commodities including: alumina residue, bauxite residue, base metals (copper, lead and zinc), coal, graphite, gold, iron ore, magnetite, manganese, nickel (sulphide and laterite), phosphate residue, rare earth residues, uranium and vanadium. He has a major interest in in-pit tailings storage integrated waste landforms and the developing field of dry stacked tailings.
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CJ Mackay Session chair for: Underground backfill (3) CJ is a backfill engineer at Newmont Tanami Operations where she has worked in both the backfill and geotechnical teams. She has 10 years’ experience in the geotechnical consulting industry in both civil and mining contexts. Her roles have included geotechnical modelling and design, operational secondments at various mines, and civil tunnelling projects. More recently, CJ has joined the backfill team at Tanami where she has gained design and operational experience in cemented paste backfill and has a particular focus on co-disposing stopes with both waste rock and cemented paste backfill. She has a geology degree from Macquarie University, and a master's degree in geotechnical engineering from the University of NSW. |
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Louise McDonald Click to view paper: Tailings storage facility surface moisture mapping for prediction of dusting events – and other benefits Session chair for: Transportation (2) Louise is the lead tailings engineer, responsible for all tailings management at Fortescue. Louise has spent the majority of her career, prior to the last couple of years at Fortescue, as a consultant on tailings storage facility and civil infrastructure projects within Australia and international locations. Louise also led the geotechnical team for CMW Geosciences in Perth and was in the company’s senior management team experiencing the growth of a new consultancy firm up to 140 technical professionals.
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Dr Gordon McPhail Click to view paper: Dam break analysis for BRDA 5 at Worsley Alumina Refinery Session chair for: Thickening and filtration (2) Gordon graduated as a civil engineer at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1974. Gordon has worked as a consulting engineer to the mining industry specialising in the geotechnical and environmental aspects of mine waste management for 42 years and has participated in projects in Africa, Australia, and North and South America.
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Steve Meiring Click to view paper: Cake formation: three tailings filtration technologies using pressure Steve has been involved with solid–liquid separation since 1988, when he graduated as a metallurgist in South Africa. He has extensive consulting experience in thickeners and dewatering technology used in numerous applications and commodities. He has written several papers on centrifuges, thickeners and tailings which have been presented at coal and paste conferences. Steve has consulted on numerous tailings projects offering services in the application of solid–liquid separation, pilot plant operations, studies, commissioning, and due diligence reviews. He has also presented numerous dewatering training courses to worldwide associations, vendors and companies. He has a good understanding of the holistic approach to tailings, covering deposition, transport, and dewatering. Steve is currently working as a subject matter expert in tailings dewatering for Ausenco, based in Brisbane.
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Juan Jose Moreno Pepe has some 30 years' experience in mine waste management specialising in geotechnical design for tailings facilities, heap leach pads, ponds, and waste rock dumps. Pepe is typically involved as team leader conducting conceptual to detailed engineering for mine waste facilities, including design of tailings disposal systems using a wide range of dewatering levels, waste rock dumps, and effluent containment. His experience covers site investigation to closure design, including advanced modelling for dam break analyses and water balance and geotechnical design for tailings facilities, heap leach pads, ponds, and waste rock dumps. Pepe provides expert review for tailings and waste management for due diligence and peer review projects for banks and potential investors. He is the Engineer of Record for two major facilities in Australia.
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Stephen Newman Keynote presentation: BHP long-term tailings strategy
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Dr Jeffrey Oke Click to view paper: In situ backfilll monitoring database Jeffrey has over five years' geotechnical engineering experience in the mining and civil industries. He has specialised expertise in geotechnical characterisation, ground support design for weak and hard rock masses, and mine backfill. He is a numerical modelling expert with particular skill developing calibrated models capable of reproducing three-dimensional ground support/rock mass interactions and overall ground reaction during excavation construction.
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Josh Oliver Session chair for: Transportation (1)
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Evangelos Palatos Click to view paper: Optimisation of backfill operations at Mavres Petres mine Evangelos studied geology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki specialising in engineering geology. He has a master's degree in applied geology with a specialisation in geotechnical engineering. He is an underground mining professional with eight years’ experience in mining operations, working for Hellas Gold S.A. and Eldorado Gold Corporation. His core skills are in the areas of geotechnical engineering, backfill engineering, underground mining and mine geology.
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Dr Xiaopeng Peng Click to view paper: Investigation of inhomogeneous properties of backfill samples to explore a new quantitative criterion for cemented paste backfill identification Xiaopeng is an engineer at BGRIMM Technology Group. He graduated from the University of Science and Technology Beijing majoring in mining engineering. His areas of research interest are tailings backfill, tailings thickening and settlement, and cemented tailings backfill. |
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Taimur Qureshi Click to view paper: Assessing oil sands tailings consolidation using a modified benchtop filter press Taimur joined the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) as a research assistant in 2014 and found his true passion in applied research. A member of the Centre for Oil Sands Sustainability, his contributions include providing technical support, optimising and developing procedures, training, and co-authoring papers for tailings consolidation, polymer validation and clay methylene blue research. Taimur holds a chemical technology diploma and a bachelor's degree in technology management from NAIT.
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Joe Rola Session chair for: Keynote Address & Thickening and Filtration (1) Joe is a consulting civil/geotechnical engineer with over 15 years’ experience, concentrating on mine and power generation waste projects. He has been involved in a wide variety of projects from the concept stage through to detailed design, construction, operations and closure across Australia, as well as in Asia and Canada. Joe predominantly focusses on design/analyses, construction support and field/laboratory investigations.
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Dr David Reid Click to view paper: Some considerations when preparing thickened tailings for shear strength testing in the laboratory from a slurry David is a tailings engineer with 14 years’ experience in the design, laboratory testing, investigation, and analysis of tailings and tailings storage facilities. He is primarily involved in laboratory and in situ characterisation of tailings with respect to strength, consolidation, and liquefaction. David completed a PhD from The University of Western Australia, which involved studying the properties of polymer-treated tailings and the use of centrifuges to perform consolidation testing. In November 2017, David joined UWA’s School of Civil, Environmental, and Mining Engineering for an ARC Linkage project focussed on static liquefaction of tailings.
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Mathew Revell Click to view paper: Steel wire reinforced composite polyethylene pipe: the new technology for paste reticulation Mat Revell is a principal backfill engineer of MineFill Services and director of backfill pipeline solutions. He graduated in 1997 as a minerals processing engineer and originally worked in a range of Australian base metals and gold operations as a metallurgist. Mat subsequently moved into operational engineering roles in the first paste fill systems in Australia and thereafter developed his own backfill and tailings consulting, system design and construction business. Mat has extensive experience in mine backfill consulting, and backfill system construction and operation.
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Dr Danielle Risbey Keynote presentation: Regulation of tailings in Western Australia Danielle completed a bachelor's degree (honours) in biological sciences at Murdoch University in 1991, and a PhD on the impact and control of feral cats in Shark Bay in 2000. She commenced working in the mining industry as an environmental consultant in 2000 and joined the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (now Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, DMIRS) in Kalgoorlie as an environmental officer in 2002. Danielle transferred to the Perth DMIRS office in 2005 and has been in a management role for the northern half of Western Australia since July 2007. Danielle is particularly interested in successful rehabilitation and closure, and has gained 20 years' experience in the environmental assessment and regulation of exploration and mining operations in Western Australia.
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Diego Rodriguez Session chair for: Emerging Issues and Technology Diego is a civil engineer with 15 years' experience in asset and project management of supporting mining infrastructure such as roads, rail and earthworks. He completed a master’s degree in project management from the University of New South Wales and since 2010, has been involved in reliability, asset integrity, and site based engineering roles for BHP WA Iron Ore. He currently provides governance and tailings management support to operations as responsible dam engineer for BHP’s iron ore portfolio of water and tailings facilities. |
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Arash Roshdieh Click to view paper: Mixing requirement for ultra paste tailings Arash is a chartered principal tailings and water engineer who has over 25 years' experience in a wide range of projects from tailings and water management, transportation and disposal, to water resources management, hydrological and hydraulic studies, water and wastewater treatment plant, and environmental assessment together with project and study management. He has been the project and study manager for various small-scale and large-scale projects in Australia and overseas. Arash has been with ATC Williams for the last 17 years and is currently a board member. He has been the author or co-author of more than 16 publications.
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Aminhossein Safarizadeh Click to view paper: The effect of changing grinding cycle on the flow-ability of cemented paste backfill: effect of particle size distribution Amin is a highly qualified and professional mining engineer with experience in the design, planning and implementation of large-scale mining projects in Australia and overseas who has been involved with backfill design since 2015.
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Keith Seddon Click to view paper: The geomechanics of thickened and paste tailings Keith is responsible for all aspects of planning, investigation, design, construction and surveillance of tailings storage systems. Keith has over 40 years' experience in geotechnical and civil engineering. Specialist areas include design of thickened tailings schemes, coal tailings, copper tailings, liquefaction evaluation, and capping of soft tailings surfaces.
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Dr Fiona Sofrà Click to view paper: Online yield stress measurement for real-time process control Fiona is managing director of Rheological Consulting Services, providing testwork services, expertise and advice on the processing of particulate slurries in a range of operational environments. Fiona has conducted testwork for and consulted to many world-leading minerals companies including BHP, Rio Tinto, Barrick Gold, Alcoa and Anglo American, providing real and workable solutions to problems through understanding and control of the slurry environment. Fiona is an honorary fellow at the University of Melbourne and holds a bachelor’s degree and a PhD in chemical engineering.
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Dr Ryan Veenstra Keynote presentation: Using instrumentation in underground backfill systems Click to view paper: A comparison of cemented paste backfill shotcrete barricade design methods Ryan is Newmont’s global backfill specialist, providing technical and operational expertise and leadership for Newmont’s underground mines. Over the last 15 years, he has been involved in backfill as an academic, consultant, and onsite engineer, and presently coaches and mentors Newmont’s backfill engineers in Australia and the Americas. His expertise and experience cover the entire backfill system with a particular speciality in backfill geomechanics. He has a geological engineering degree from the University of Waterloo and holds a PhD in civil engineering from the University of Toronto.
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Dr Stephen Viduka Click to view paper: Thickener feedwell internal trough slurry distribution method Stephen has been involved with research and development of thickeners for the past eight years. He has been involved in both numerical and experimental modelling in the subject matter. His interests include generating large product performance improvements while improving safety and sustainability. |
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Andrew Vietti Click to view paper: Revaluing paste and thickened tailings for large tonnage applications Andrew Vietti is a director of Vietti Slurrytec and has a master's degree from the University of Natal. He has over 30 years of sedimentation and de-watering experience in the mining industry worldwide. Having initially spent 15 years in research at De Beers Consolidated Mines implementing paste thickening technology, he became a director at Paterson & Cooke before co-founding Vietti Slurrytec. Andrew has specialised in clay slurry colloidal behaviour, and paste and filtered de-watering, encompassing most mineral types in both small and very large operations. Andrew regularly presents papers at international conferences.
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Luísa Vilela Click to view paper: Thickened tailings loop test to corroborate the hydraulic Hanks model and Buckingham equation Luísa is chemical engineer at BRASS Brasil and has experience in the execution of laboratory tests with slurries and pipeline projects for slurries and water. She has been working for five years in conceptual, basic and detailed pipeline projects.
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Dr Gino Vizcarra Click to view paper: Numerical modelling of dry stacking tailings heaps Gino Vizcarra is a geotechnical engineer at Vale, Brazil. He obtained a bachelor's degree at Jorge Basadre National University in Peru, and a doctorate at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Prior to joining Vale in 2020, he was a professor in soil mechanics at San Pablo Catholic University and a geotechnical engineer at Cerro Verde Mine owned by Freeport-McMoran Inc. in Arequipa, Peru.
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Professor Aixiang Wu Click to view paper: The development and practice of new quick-setting filling materials prepared by total industrial wastes Aixiang has been engaged in the mining industry since 1979. In the past 15 years, his research has focused on the development of green mining, paste backfill and disposal, and paste rheology. More than 50 paste fields projects have been accomplished worldwide under his leadership. In 2012, he established the first research institute of paste technology in China, called the Research Center of Paste Backfill and Mining, University of Science and Technology Beijing.
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Dr Yue Zhao Click to view paper: Strain localisation behaviour of cemented paste backfill Yue is an engineer from BGRIMM Technology Group. He graduated in May 2020 from the University of Adelaide with a PhD in mining engineering. His areas of research interest are backfill, cemented paste backfill, cementitious materials, and backfill properties.
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