Nick is a chemical engineer from Cape Town, South Africa, who graduated with honors from the University of Cape Town. He has an a background in operation, having spent the first half of his career working in a coal processing plant in South Africa. Nick currently works for FLSmidth as the Global Product Line Manager for REFLUX Classifiers, where he utilizes his expertise in REFLUX technolgoies and mineral processing to provide solutions to customers worldwide.

Dr Stefan Hrabar has been at the forefront of drone autonomy R&D for nearly 20 years. Following his PhD in Computer Science / Robotics on this topic, he spent 13 years at CSIRO where he continued his work on vision and LiDAR-based perception and navigation for drones. He led the development and commercialisation of Hovermap in CSIRO, and co-founded Emesent in 2018 to bring this ground-breaking technology to market.

A graduate of UNSW (B.Sc, GradCertMan) and The University of Sydney (MPE - Chemical and Biomolecular), Taylor initially commenced his career with ALS and Australian Business in various analyst and technician roles. After commencing a role with BHP in Queensland in 2013 as a Process Engineer, he spent his time in different roles, mainly in production, processing, and management secondments, finally concluding his time as a Senior Process Engineer. In 2018, he moved back to Sydney, Australia, to join Endress+Hauser. Taylor is currently the Regional Industry Manager for the Mining Industry, looking after the Asia Pacific region and is responsible for creating and deploying strategies, advising product development teams and providing specialist mining processing knowledge within the Group. He has a passion for melding instrumentation with process improvement applications to maximise OEE, reduce cost and impelment yield enhancements.

She is a principal mineralogist from AXT PTY LTD, Perth, and her current role involves training, development and optimisation of the TIMA automated mineralogy technique while liaising with the mining industry customers and research organisations. In 2006 she obtained her MSc degree in mineralogy and geochemistry from the AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland. Within the last 13 years, she has been actively and successfully collaborating with the academic researchers and mineral industry customers from Australia and overseas offering the mineral characterisation expertise. She co-authored several conference and journal papers while working at the University of South Australia (2009-2015). She possesses in depth knowledge of many analytical tools including the SEM-based automated mineralogy systems, optical light microscopy, X-ray diffraction and the LIBS technique. She is a passionate geoscientist and has a great understanding of many different mineral systems including SEDEX Pb-Zn and porphyry Cu-Au deposits, Ni laterites and Ni sulphides, heavy mineral sands, iron ore and the LCT pegmatites, among others. She collaborates with the mineral processing departments by evaluating the mineralogical data to optimise the flowsheet deign and define further opportunities for the extraction of the valuable minerals.

Covered by his recently submitted PhD thesis, Johannes focuses on the alteration of spodumene and its impact on the recovery of lithium. Various LCT-pegmatites in Western Australia were investigated during his studies and their mineralogical as well as geochemical characteristics eventually allowed Johannes to elucidate the process that leads to the breakdown of spodumene and associated loss of lithium during lithium leaching. Besides his PhD studies, Johannes has completed a BSc. in Earth Sciences as well as two MSc. degrees in Economic Geology and Geographical Information Management.

Krystle brings together both scientific and commercial acumen to Veracio’s team in APAC, addressing critical minerals opportunities and pursuing the challenges faced by geology and orebody science teams across the region. Her two-decade journey through disruptive mining technologies makes her not only a fervent advocate for women in mining, but also a true believer in the transformative power of digital connectivity and advanced technologies in reshaping the industry. Krystle received her MBA from Curtin Business School & holds a Bachelor of Science (Cartography) from Curtin University in Western Australia.