James is a Senior Hydrometallurgist with over 10 years’ experience in the minerals industry. James is responsible for the management of desktop, laboratory and pilot plant scale commercial studies, principally in the areas of solvent extraction and ion exchange, with particular focus on uranium, rare earths and lithium purification. James has developed and applied modelling techniques for rare earth solvent extraction circuits as well as uranium ion exchange plants, and has been involved in numerous rare earth solvent extraction mini-plants at ANSTO. His main areas of expertise are in the design and optimisation of complex ion exchange and solvent extraction circuits.

Damian is a Consulting Engineer with extensive experience in the gold, copper, lead, zinc, uranium and iron ore industries with particular emphasis on gold. Experience has been gained in plant operations feasibility studies, detailed design, construction and commissioning, and all unit operations. He is an internationally recognised specialist in Mineral Processing having worked in north and South America, South East Asia, Africa and Europe. He worked in the Rio Tinto pellet plant and saw significant improvements in pellet quality and lower energy costs. He worked with a Chinese group visiting pellet plants, sinter plants and steel works. He visited a sinter plant and steelworks in Finland. He has been involved in a number of pellet plant studies. He has undertaken work for a local group looking at downstream processing of WA iron ores using a number of processing routes. Also many magnetite beneficiation projects have been undertaken. The last 30 years working as a Consultant Metallurgist for mining, banking and engineering companies has provided a broad range of experience. Damian is a Registered Expert Witness and has been engaged on many cases.

Dr Amir Razmjou is a lecturer at ECU’s School of Engineering as well as the founder and leader of the Mineral Recovery Research Center. He is also the board director of the Membrane Society of Australasia (MSA) and an editorial board member of the Journal of Desalination. With an impressive portfolio of prizes, awards, and publications, Amir has established himself as a highly-skilled researcher with extensive expertise in lithium recovery. Recognized for his outstanding contributions, he has received over $1 million in research funding as a lead or single chief investigator, in addition to an impressive $7 million as a Co-CI. His philosophy of applied research has led to numerous collaborations with industry partners, and he has served as a consulting engineer for desalination, wastewater treatment, and lithium extraction projects. With a focus on lithium recovery since 2017, Amir has been leading projects with significant potential for the Australian lithium industry.

Denys Villa Gomez holds a joint appointment at the University of Queensland as Senior Lecturer at the School of Civil Engineering and a Research Fellow at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. She leads projects on the recovery of critical elements from mine-impacted waters and tailings using bioprocesses, for example, the 3-year project with Rio Tinto using synthetic biology to recover critical minerals. She is the leader of the key area “Synbio Mining” within the recently created UQ Biosustainability Hub and chief investigator at the ARC Training Centre in Critical Resources for the Future. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers cited more than 400 times, has served as editor and reviewer for leading journals and advisory roles in industry and scientific committees (e.g. International Mine Water Association).

Mr Franklyn is a qualified engineer with over 20 years’ operational experience in world class mining companies and operations. With a background in process engineering he has held senior roles spanning engineering, production and maintenance with BHP and Newcrest across Nickel, Iron Ore, Gold and Copper with exposure throughout the value chain from mining to refining. Mr Franklyn was previously Corporate Director – Health, Safety and Security for Allkem.