Tina Phiri is a lecturer in the School of Mines and Mineral Sciences at the Copperbelt University, Zambia. She completed her PhD in metallurgical engineering at Murdoch University, Australia in 2024, Master of Science in European Minerals Engineering at University of Exeter, United Kingdom in 2011, and Bachelor’s Degree in Metallurgical Engineering at Copperbelt University, Zambia in 2008. Tina has over fifteen (15) years of teaching, research, and practical industrial experience. During this journey, Tina has published sixteen (16) research papers in peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings. She received ten awards including the Postgraduate Research Excellence Award 2024 by JCEC in conjunction with IChemE and Engineers Australia. Her research interests include extractive metallurgy of base and precious metals, circular economy, sustainability, and mining waste recycling.

Li has more than 20 years instrumentation, process, production and project management experience in the field of hydrometallurgy both in Australia and China. He has been in CSIRO Minerals (Waterford, WA) for his joint PhD study from Oct. 2007 to Oct. 2009 and for his visiting scholar study from Dec. 2016 to Dec. 2017 and now working at CSIRO Mineral Resources as research scientist from Mar. 2022. Li's research mainly focuses on hydrometallurgical separation science and engineering, as well as efficient and clean extraction of complex non-ferrous metal resources. He has long been engaged in fundamental study, technology development and industrial application on clean extraction and complete separation of rare metals such as W/Mo/V as well as critical energy metals such as Li/Ni/Co/Mn from their minerals and secondary resources. He has led and participated a couple of projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, as well as more than 30 industrial projects. He has published over 60 papers and participated in the editing and publication of 2 monographs. He has also applied for over 20 patents.

Godfrey is a process and research engineer dedicated to developing sustainable and innovative mineral-processing techniques and turning waste into valuable resources. He is experienced in designing and adapting new extraction process routes for metals from various matrixes such as tailings, high- and low-grade ores and industrial waste materials. Adept at delivering high-impact solutions in operational improvement, developing process flowsheets, and process safety. Passionate about guiding organisations towards sustainable growth, profitability and market leadership. He has been involved in impact-driven industrial research, particularly in subsurface engineered barrier materials that have significant implications for the oil and gas industry, mining industry, CO2 storage, and waste disposal sectors.

Dr. John Outram is an accomplished researcher with over 7 years of cross-disciplinary industry experience in separation and purification for water treatment and hydrometallurgical processes. Specializing in ion exchange processes, Dr. John Outram has extensively worked with commercial ion exchange resins and developed novel research media to develop innovative solutions for complex separation challenges. His expertise spans the design, optimization, and implementation of ion exchange systems for applications in acid mine drainage, groundwater, and leachate.

Tommaso is an Early Career Research Fellow at CSIRO Mineral Resources (Perth). Tommaso is a geochemist with a background in micro-to-nano structural analysis of processes occurring within minerals during fluid-rock-deformation interactions. He completed his PhD at Curtin University developing innovative workflows for the geochemical characterization of metamorphic minerals. At CSIRO, Tommaso’s project aims to assess existing technologies for the characterization of high-purity materials and to identify novel pathways of analysis. Working alongside the CSIRO Mineral Processing team, Tommaso’s work aims to expand our knowledge of the fundamentals of high-purity materials through the application of state-of-the-art analytical techniques with the overarching goal of developing innovative workflows of material characterization.