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.

Kim is the Senior Director, Global Tailings Management at Newmont’s corporate headquarters in Denver, Colorado. She is responsible for oversight of tailings and dams at Newmont’s global operations, including development of standards and guidelines, overseeing governance programs, conducting risk assessments and reviews, and leading implementation of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM). As founding Chair of the Tailings and Mine Waste Committee of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Inc. (SME), formed in 2020; she actively works to raise awareness about responsible tailings management through programs and training. Kim served as the managing editor for the first edition of SME’s Tailings Management Handbook: A Life-Cycle Approach, published in early 2022. She is an active member of the International Council on Mining and Metals’ Tailings Working Group and on the Advisory Boards for the Tailings and Industrial Waste Engineering Center (TAILENG) and EduMine. Formerly, she served in various leadership roles with the Geoprofessional Business Association, including being the second woman on the Board of Directors and founding the Tailings Engineer of Record Task Force, which resulted in publication of the Proposed Best Practices for the Engineer of Record for Tailings Dams. In 2020, she was named to the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining and received the SME President’s Individual Citation Award. In 2022, she received the Environmental Stewardship Distinguished Service Award from SME’s Environmental Division and was selected to be featured in a temporary exhibit, Pioneering the Field: Women in Mining, at the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville, Colorado. Kim serves as the Chair of the Steering Committee for the recently-announced GeoStable Tailings Consortium. The consortium brings together eight global mining companies to study options to combine tailings and waste rock to create ‘geo-stable’ landforms that are stronger and more stable than conventional tailings deposition methods and are likely to reduce process water consumption. This new initiative builds on the work of a group formed to advance geo-waste and eco-tailings research previously pursued by Goldcorp, which was acquired by Newmont in early 2019.

Steve is an industry-recognised Dewatering Consultant / Process Engineer with more than 30 years’ experience in dewatering, process equipment, secondments and commissioning. As a highly experienced metallurgist, Steve has extensive experience spanning paste thickening, centrifuges, filters, cyclones, scrubbers and characterisation.

Theo is the Principal Tailings Engineer for Rio Tinto Copper. Theo oversees the tailings related Risk for the Rio Tinto Copper Group, by supporting the assets with governance, risk assessment(s), implementation of the GISTM and review and support on general design activities. His experience includes design engineer for brownfield and greenfield sites in all aspects of tailings design. Theo is active in the tailings community and partakes in the Queensland Tailings Group as a committee member, organising committee for the Mine Waste and Tailings conference and the CDA/USSD EOR working group. Prior to joining Rio Tinto in 2021 he was the Stantec global tailings lead. He holds a Master’s degree from Delft University and resides in Brisbane.

Dr Hernan Cifuentes is a Chartered and Registered Professional Civil Engineer with a Post Graduate Diploma in Geological Engineering and a PhD in Geotechnical Engineering. He is a specialist in applying the principles of geotechnical and hydraulic engineering, rheology and mineral processing to tailings and water management throughout the entire mine lifecycle. His tailings experience spans leading multidisciplinary teams, engineering projects and studies in complex mining environments characterised by large operations, water scarcity, seismicity, and strict regulations.

Andy's research focusses on improving practices related to the management of mining residue materials, particularly mine tailings. Ensuring there are no further catastrophic failures of tailings storage facilities, such as have occurred over recent years, is the primary theme of his research. The problems he work on relate to characterisation of tailings strength under static and dynamic loading and associated methods of analysis of stability. Andy's work utilises a range of both laboratory and field testing techniques, as well as numerical modeling. Recent work includes evaluating how to avoid generation of tailings completely by developing novel in situ extraction techniques for hard-rock ore bodies. Andy joined UWA in 2005, moving from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was the Associate Dean for Research, and leader of the Waste Impact Minimisation Programme. He holds a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering (cum laude) and a Masters degree in Engineering, both from Wits, and a PhD in Engineering from Imperial College, London.

Matt has 15 years’ experience in the design, operation and optimisation of minerals, base metal and precious metal processing plants. His experience spans all project stages from testwork management, concept level designs, and due diligence through to detailed design, commissioning, operations and optimisation. Matt runs Ausenco’s Technical Solutions and ESG in Capital Projects groups, which together drive lower footprint process plant designs with a specific focus on improving energy, water, cost and tailings outcomes. Matt’s core interests include novel technologies and flowsheets, bulk and particle sorting, coarse particle flotation, process automation and tailings management technologies.

Kim is the Senior Director, Global Tailings Management at Newmont’s corporate headquarters in Denver, Colorado. She is responsible for oversight of tailings and dams at Newmont’s global operations, including development of standards and guidelines, overseeing governance programs, conducting risk assessments and reviews, and leading implementation of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM). As founding Chair of the Tailings and Mine Waste Committee of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Inc. (SME), formed in 2020; she actively works to raise awareness about responsible tailings management through programs and training. Kim served as the managing editor for the first edition of SME’s Tailings Management Handbook: A Life-Cycle Approach, published in early 2022. She is an active member of the International Council on Mining and Metals’ Tailings Working Group and on the Advisory Boards for the Tailings and Industrial Waste Engineering Center (TAILENG) and EduMine. Formerly, she served in various leadership roles with the Geoprofessional Business Association, including being the second woman on the Board of Directors and founding the Tailings Engineer of Record Task Force, which resulted in publication of the Proposed Best Practices for the Engineer of Record for Tailings Dams. In 2020, she was named to the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining and received the SME President’s Individual Citation Award. In 2022, she received the Environmental Stewardship Distinguished Service Award from SME’s Environmental Division and was selected to be featured in a temporary exhibit, Pioneering the Field: Women in Mining, at the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville, Colorado.

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.