Professor David Williams initiated and directs the Geotechnical Engineering Centre at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and also manages the industry-funded Large Open Pit Project. He has over 40 years of teaching, research and consulting experience. He is internationally recognised for his expertise and experience in mine waste management and mine closure, in particular the design, construction, operation, closure and rehabilitation of tailings dams and waste rock dumps, including the design of covers, on which he has delivered a number of invited Keynote Lectures. He was on the Expert Panel investigating the technical causes of the fatal Brumadinho tailings dam failure in Brazil in 2019 and serves on a number of Independent Technical Reviews Boards for Tailings Facilities in Australia and internationally.

David is a civil/geotechnical engineer with a Master of Engineering degree from University of Tasmania and a wide experience in investigation, design and construction of engineering projects including several projects awarded engineering excellence awards. His experience includes over 40 years involvement with mine waste disposal covering tailings from a wide range of mine types and properties and dam construction methods, together with waste rock dump design for potentially acid forming wastes. David is passionate about designing for closure. As convenor of the committee responsible for producing the 2012/2019 ANCOLD Guidelines on Tailings Dams and Australian representative on the ICOLD Sub-committee on Tailings and Mine Dams, David is very much involved in assisting the mining industry in tailings management through the challenges of the future.

Simon is an experienced manager with over twenty years of experience within the resources industry. Simon has held a number of operational and technical roles across Australia with a focus on risk management and continuous improvement to deliver safe productive outcomes. At the Minerals Council of Australia, Simon supports the implementation of the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) ESG framework. TSM provides sustainability tools and indicators to help companies responsibly manage and continually improve environmental, social and governance performance.

Christopher N. Hatton, MS, PE, is a Senior Vice President I, Geotechnical Engineer, and Technical Fellow with the Lakewood, Colorado, USA Office of WSP. Mr. Hatton entered the engineering consulting industry in the early 1980s and has compiled 35 years of continuous diversified heavy civil and environmental professional engineering experience. He has and continues to serve as the Engineer of Record (EoR), project manager, and technical lead for evaluating, designing, and constructing new, active, and closed tailing storage facilities (TSFs) worldwide. Chris has spent much of his 35 years of experience evaluating, implementing, and constructing designs at closed TSFs worldwide. He understands the balance between geotechnical stability, surface water management, and establishing environmentally sustainable inert landforms while considering post-closure operation and maintenance costs. His approach considers alignment with ESG sustainability principles and climate transition. His closure experience includes the reclamation of over 10,000 acres of tailing with an estimated volume of over 2 billion tons. Chris was a codeveloper of a state-of-the-art stewardship program to reduce owners’ risks in the design, operation, and closure of TSFs. This outstanding program, conceived in 1994, has been continuously implemented and improved to address the complex stewardship challenges of TSFs worldwide. The program is designed to train operations personnel in properly constructing TSFs and provides the framework for evaluating, prioritizing, and implementing risk reduction strategies. This stewardship program has been successfully implemented at over 30 base and precious-metal mines worldwide. Mr. Hatton has trained more than 1,200 tailing operators and inspected over 10 billion tons of tailings covering over 50,000 acres. Mr. Hatton is a founding member of the USSD/CDA EoR Committee dedicated to establishing the state of the practice for the EoR. This includes conducting training (numerous recent engagements) and advocating for and defining the role of the EoR consistent with industry standards, such as GISTM, CDA, MAC, ANCOLD, ICMM, ICOLD, GBA, and others. Chris is also an active contributor to multiple Tailings Review Boards for world-class mining companies. Chris co-authored three chapters of SME’s Tailings Management Handbook: A Life-Cycle Approach. First Edition (2022) was a co-author for the Geo-Professional Business Association (GBA) Guidance for EoR and is a continuous contributor to other industry cornerstone documents.

Wade Ludlow is a Senior Principal with Red Earth Engineering and has over 20 years’ experience in all aspects of tailings and water dams, throughout Australia, South East Asia and Canada. Wade has worked on both Consultant and Client teams for tailings and dam projects and so has a good appreciation of the drivers and objectives on both sides of the table. Wade currently fulfills the Engineer of Record role for a number of tailings dams in Australia that are in various states of operation from annual wall raising to execution of the closure design.

Professor David Williams initiated and directs the Geotechnical Engineering Centre at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and also manages the industry-funded Large Open Pit Project. He has over 40 years of teaching, research and consulting experience. He is internationally recognised for his expertise and experience in mine waste management and mine closure, in particular the design, construction, operation, closure and rehabilitation of tailings dams and waste rock dumps, including the design of covers, on which he has delivered a number of invited Keynote Lectures. He was on the Expert Panel investigating the technical causes of the fatal Brumadinho tailings dam failure in Brazil in 2019 and serves on a number of Independent Technical Reviews Boards for Tailings Facilities in Australia and internationally.