Associate Professor Côte has more than 20 years’ experience in environmental and water resources management for a range of sectors. She has held a number of roles in research and consulting engineering, before setting up the Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry with Prof Chris Moran. She has engaged extensively with mining operations in Australia, Africa, Chile and Canada to address water and sustainability issues, documenting and implementing leading practices. She has extensive industry experience as she worked for the Anglo American Metallurgical Coal Business unit from 2011 to 2018, where she provided technical expertise on environmental and water-related topics, including a range of water quality challenges, particularly in Canada. She designed and implemented the water strategy and supported a range of environmental compliance topics, such as the development of innovative software for tracking legal obligations. She also led novel approaches to improving mine closure planning and the management of final voids. In her role at the Sustainable Minerals Institute, she is seeking to promote environmental excellence through the mining cycle, based on capacity building and targeted research programs on water and environmental management, closure planning and beneficial post-mining land uses that minimise residual risks.

Dr Jason Dunlop is a Principal Technical Advisor (Resource Rehabilitation) in the Office of the Queensland Mine Rehabilitation Commissioner. This role involves developing leading practices for mine rehabilitation and closure. Jason has previously coordinated Environmental Impact Statements for major projects, provided expert scientific advice for licencing and management of water resources across the mining and petroleum and gas sectors, and has led water quality monitoring and contaminant research programs.

Ed has more than 20 years experience covering a range of operational and project based positions. Project based positions include strategic assessment and review, feasibility and pre-feasibility studies, life of mine planning, schedule optimisation, operational review and performance improvement. Ed has worked on some of the biggest green and brown field base-metal projects in Australia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and South America. Operational positions include a range of production, planning, operational review, and internal review positions and assignments within Australia and South America. Ed is a member of the AusIMM and a Senior Associate of The Financial Services Institute of Australia , he has a bachelor in Mining Engineering and a Master of Applied Finance. He is currently completing a PhD with the Sustainable Minerals Institute at UQ.

Bianca is an environmental approvals practitioner with a strong background in environmental law and approval processes for resource projects. She has 10 years’ experience in the industry, with over 7 years of working for the Queensland Department of Environment and Science (DES) at various levels, including as a Delegate for coal mining approvals. Bianca is currently a Manager for Aurecon in their Environment and Planning Team and provides advice to clients on navigating complex environmental approvals, with a specific focus on mine closure. Bianca’s background in both regulatory and consultancy environments has provided her with a well-formed knowledge of environmental approval requirements, regulatory expectations, industry needs and how to communicate complex approval processes to clients. She has a particular interest in the Queensland Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Plan (PRCP) framework. Bianca has assessed multiple PRCP applications as an assessment officer for DES, issued approval decisions on PRCP applications as a Delegate for DES, contributed to the development of PRCPs from a client side, and peer reviewed a number of PRCP applications for clients. She has also worked across a number of Australian jurisdictions and provided mine closure advice for resource projects in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and New South Wales.