Isabella is a process engineer with almost 3 years of experience in the lithium and specialty chemicals industry. She has developed process simulation models, design criteria, financial assessments and undertaken detailed technical reviews for a range of metals and mining clients. Through her experience of developing process flowsheets for lithium chemicals she understands the importance of deriving valuable by-products from conventionally low value sodium sulfate. Prior to joining Hatch she graduated with honours from the University of Queensland and gained site experience at a gold processing facility.

Bernadette Currie, is the Sedgman Business & Project Development Manager - Metals, responsible for all precious and base metal project development activities. Bernadette has over 25 years of experience in engineering and mineral processing as well as specific expertise in hydrometallurgy flowsheet development and plant design. Having lived and worked on resources projects and studies (copper, gold, and cobalt) in North and South America, Africa, and Australia, Bernadette has extensive global and commodity experience, such as the recently commissioned Mina Justa Project in Peru, for which she was the oxide plant lead engineer. With experience working for major mining companies including Xstrata / Glencore, BHP and Rio Tinto as well as mid-small tier companies, Bernadette has a good understanding of the owner’s side financial evaluation, capital project execution and growth strategy requirements.   As a process industry leader and passionate champion of a circular economy, her technical depth in metal recovery is in base, critical and battery metals using leaching and solvent extraction, including from secondary (mine or e-waste) sources.  Bernadette was a committee volunteer with the Southern Qld branch of AusIMM, serving two years as exec secretary.

With more than 18 years of consulting and engineering experience, Joel is a senior energy and climate risk management professional who has advised executives in large organisations across Australia’s energy, resources and infrastructure sectors. As Resources Sector Lead, Joel responsible for developing new business opportunities, maintaining existing client relationships and managing consulting projects. Joel works with emissions intensive clients, particularly in the mining and energy sectors, across Energetics’ service offerings from emissions reporting to strategic considerations, including decarbonisation pathways and the identification of emissions abatement opportunities.

Sue has over 35 years’ experience as an academic at the University of Cape Town, with a profile balanced between teaching, postgraduate supervision, research and management and leadership at the research centre / institute, departmental, faculty and university level. She has built her research profile in bioprocess engineering research, being recognised both nationally and internationally. She is regularly invited to speak internationally and takes part in collaborative international research projects, with a track record in leading complex collaborative research projects. In recent years, Sue has expanded her research profile into inter- and transdisciplinary research, focused on wicked problems in the context of sustainable development of mineral resources and post-mining regions as well as water sensitive systems. Her focus on resource efficiency drives her research in the circular economy and waste biorefinery fields. Her focus on the bioeconomy and bioprocess systems drives research in health biotechnology, including process development for vaccines and probiotics. She leads the Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research and was founding director of UCT’s interdisciplinary research institute Future Water, building strong teams of complementary researchers.

Dr Lynette Molyneaux is a researcher in climate, energy and industry policy at the University of Queensland. She is currently a Research Fellow with the Centre for Policy Futures, advancing collaboration between academia, government and industry for the development of an advanced materials and battery sector in Australia. Previously Lynette was an Advance Queensland Fellow investigating Queensland’s resilience to a global energy transition, and the researcher and co-author on the Global Change Institute’s Delivering a Competitive Australian Power System suite of reports. Prior to her academic pursuits, Lynette spent more than 20 years in the IT industry managing an Internet and Business Intelligence start-up in New Zealand, as a brand manager at IBM UK and a financial planner at IBM SA.