About the Presenters

Facilitator
Winthrop Professor Phil Dight BE, MEngSc, PhD
Professor of Geotechnical Engineering, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, The University of Western Australia
Phil graduated as a civil engineer with a particular interest in geomechanics. He worked at CSIRO for three years on
mine backfill before commencing work investigating the stability of open pit mines. He spent 33 years in consulting
and applied research before joining the ACG. During that time he has worked on assignments that have taken him to
over 30 countries. His interests are in brittle rock behaviour in deep mines; in situ stress determination; slope
behaviour in weak, soft and saprolitic rocks; anisotropic rock deformation response; and ground support. In 1985 he
received the Manuel Rocha Medal from the ISRM for his PhD on Improvements to Pit Slope Stability. He is currently
Winthrop Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Western Australia.

Presenters
Ian de Bruyn BSc (Hons), Pr.Sci.Nat. MAusIMM
Principal Geotechnical Engineer, SRK Consulting (Australasia) Pty Ltd
Ian has over 15 years experience in the fields of engineering geology and geotechnical engineering over a wide range
of projects in both the mining and civil engineering sectors.
Ians mining projects have involved site investigation, rock mass characterisation, stability analysis, slope design, and
risk assessment at all levels from due diligence and conceptual through pre-feasibility, feasibility and working design
for both open pit and underground projects.
He has worked on projects involving large open pits in challenging rock mass and environmental conditions in
Australia, Papua New Guinea, Chile, China and West Africa.

John Albrecht BE, PhD

Principal Geotechnical Engineer, Consolidated Minerals Australia
John is currently employed as a Principal Geotechnical Engineer in the Perth Office of Consolidated Minerals. Prior to
that assignment he was a Senior Geotechnical Engineer with AMC Consultants in the companys Perth office. John has
14 years experience in the mining industry composed of approximately three years in operational roles, eight years
consulting, and three years as a Postgraduate Researcher at The University of Western Australia.
Johns expertise is predominantly in underground rock mechanics, particularly in respect of mine design and
sequencing in high stress or high displacement mining conditions. John has substantial experience in seismic data
analysis and interpretation with his PhD research focused on quantifying the rockburst potential of underground
excavations submitted to seismic loads.
He has well-developed stress analysis skills with substantial experience in the use of numerical modelling for
underground mine stability assessment including life of mine infrastructure, back analysis of failures, and orebody
sequence analysis. John is an expert user of a number of advanced numerical modelling software packages, including
MAP3D, FLAC3D, 3DEC and ABAQUS.

Please note, not all presenters bios are available.

Open Pit Underground Mining Interaction Workshop

About the Presenters

Workshop 1111
7 November 2011

Hendrik Grobler
Geotechnical Engineer, Cannington Mine, BHP Billiton
Hendrik has 20 years experience in hardrock Geotechnical Engineering. He worked in underground and open pit mass
mining in South Africa with De Beers Consolidated Mines.
Between 1991 and 2008 he worked in underground SLOS, cave and later open pit mines in the fields of Geotechnical
and D&B Engineering. He worked in different capacities as site and consulting engineer.
Since 2008 he has been with the Cannington Mine, underground, now with the underground to open pit project as
Lead Geotechnical Engineer.

Lammie Nienaber MEng (Wits)

Senior Geotechnical Engineer, AngloGold Ashanti Australia Ltd
Lammie is a geotechnical engineer with 22 years experience in underground deep mining, of which the last 4 years
have been spent as the senior geotechnical engineer at AngloGold Ashantis Sunrise Dam Gold Mine in Western
Australia.

Jan Vermaak
Principal Hydrogeologist and Associate, Golder Associates
Dr Jan Vermaak is a consulting Principal Hydrogeologist and Associate based in Perth. He has more than 15 years
experience in hydrogeology and mine water management. The focus of Jan's work is mine water balances, open pit
dewatering, water management aspects related to mine waste facilities, mine closure and pit lake studies. Jan is an
experienced groundwater modeller and is familiar with a range of groundwater modelling software, including
MODFLOW, FEFLOW, SEEP/W and GOLDSIM. Jan assisted a number of mining companies with both operational and
closure studies. There are a number of opportunities for operations which have both open pit and underground
operations and Jan will talk about a couple of examples during his presentation.

Michael Walsh
Director and Manager, Mine Dynamics Pty Ltd
Michael Walsh graduated as a mining engineer in 1976. He worked in underground barite and open cut bentonite
mines in Iran before moving to the USA.
He returned to Australia in 1987, and rejoined the mining industry, at Telfer, with Newmont Australia Ltd (now
Newcrest). He spent 15 years with Newmont/Newcrest in many diverse roles, both open pit and underground,
ranging from junior engineer to project manager to operations manager. Following that he worked for Ivanhoe Mines
Mongolia on the Oyu Tolgoi project in the Gobi Desert.
Since then Michael has worked in surface and underground mines at Southern Cross, Marvel Loch, Wodgina
(tantalum), Daveyhurst, Wiluna and Laverton.
Michael is keenly interested in third world development, justice, ethical management, and fairness to mine workers.

Jason Birch BSc(Hons)

Managing Director, ADAM Technology
Jason joined ADAM Technology as a developer in 1996 when the 3DM technology was still in its infancy, then became
Product Development Manager, R&D Manager, and finally Managing Director in 2004. He is still one of the key
developers and sees geotechnical analysis as one of the software's most important applications.

Bios unavailable for:

William Gibson, AMC Consultants
Michael Dunn, Principal Advisor Geotechnical Engineering Business Excellence, Newmont Asia Pacific

Please note, not all presenters bios are available.