Jared Townsend Principal Innovation – Geoscience BHP Innovation Jared Townsend has led multilingual and interdisciplinary teams over a 20+ year career across the Americas, Australia, and Central Asia as a mining and exploration geophysicist. His track record of identifying new copper, nickel, and gold deposits has yielded significant economic value for the world's leading mining companies. Jared is now leveraging his extensive network in mining and innovation to spearhead exploration and resource characterisation initiatives in a BHP-powered portfolio called Think & Act Differently. This role unites his commitment to leading-edge innovation with his broad geoscience expertise to help shape the future of the mining industry. PLUS Doug Schouten, PhD CTO & Co-Founder, Ideon Technologies Doug is a global leader in muon tomography and one of the few people in the world with the expertise to turn muon research into industrial problems solved. Doug holds a BSc. (Hons) in physics and computer science from UBC, and a PhD in subatomic physics from SFU. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at TRIUMF, leading projects in the discovery and characterization of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. At Ideon, Doug led the development of its second and third generation muon telescope systems, and has successfully carried out surveys and projects across a range of industries and around the world. Doug has extensive expertise in computer simulations, data analysis and statistical inference – including machine learning methods and detector physics.

Glenn Boyce: Pioneering Geologist and Lidar Innovator Glenn Boyce, a dynamic figure in the mining world, boasts a decade of experience as a field assistant. Graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Applied Geology in 2016, he caught the tech bug while exploring Lidar's potential for geology mapping at IGO's Nova nickel underground mine as part of his graduate project. Glenn's fascination with Lidar technology has only grown stronger. He's excited about how Lidar bridges the gap between surveying and mine mapping, making complicated tasks simpler. By embracing laser scanning advancements, Glenn transformed geology mapping accuracy at Nova down to the millimetre. But he doesn't plan to stop there. Glenn envisions a future where these advanced techniques are accessible to all, without the complexity and high costs. He's on a mission to spread his knowledge, presenting at conferences and sharing ideas to simplify mining methods for everyone in the industry. Glenn Boyce is a name to remember, as he propels mining into a more innovative and inclusive era.

Damon Symons is currently a Resource Geologist at the Fosterville Gold Mine in Bendigo, Victoria. He has over 6 years’ experience in mining and exploration across a range of hydrothermal, mesothermal, iron-sulfide and palaeo-placer gold deposits. His career began in Western Australia in 2013, where he worked as a geological field assistant for 13 months on the St. Ives mining lease, before completing a Bachelors degree in Science, majoring in Geology at the University of Melbourne. Damon has held geologist roles in exploration, open-pit and underground mining settings, and more recently lead the geological and business improvement database team at Fosterville, coordinating the transition to new technologies such as Chrysos PhotonAssay™ and code-based data efficiencies. Damon is studying a postgraduate degree in Minerals Economics part-time, and volunteers on the Australian Institute of Geoscientists Victorian Branch, coordinating regular tech-talk events across Victoria.

With extensive experience in the exploration and mining industry, proficiency spans project generation, greenfield to brownfield exploration, resource definition, estimation, and feasibility studies, encompassing open-pit and underground mining. Certified as a data scientist by Harvard University, expertise includes data modeling with Leapfrog Geo-Edge, Micromine, and Datamine, driven by a passion for industrial transformation through digitalization and machine learning using Jupyter Notebook and Orange. Currently serving as Geology Lead (Superintendent) at PT Merdeka Copper Gold Tbk, responsibilities involve designing and supervising resource definition and exploration programs. Over four years, leadership of the resource definition and exploration team successfully constructed the orebody knowledge model for the Tujuh Bukit Project, addressing challenges across exploration, estimation, feasibility studies, mining, and processing. This journey continues, dedicated to advancing geology and industry growth through innovation and expertise.

Todd is new geoscientist at Veracio with 10 years mining experience. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science Chemistry major and Hydrology minor, from Flinders University (2011) and a second Bachelor of Science, majoring in Mineral Geoscience with Honours, from The University of Adelaide (2016). He has a board geological background across multiple commodities and different production mining methods including open cut pits, underground and ISR. His production mentality is focused on connecting innovative technology with mine site needs to optimise operations to work smarter not harder and identify geochemical anomalies that are not visible to the eye.

Greg Turner is currently General Manager Technical Solutions at HiSeis. He graduated with a BSc(Hons) in Earth Science from Monash University in 1987 and received a PhD from Macquarie University in 1994. His previous roles have included being Geoscience Manager for WMC’s Technology Group and a co-founder of the Geoforce geophysical service company.