Session 5 | Comminution (Part 2)
| Tuesday, October 20, 2026 |
| 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM |
| Great Hall Q1 & Q2 |
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Sponsored By:
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Speaker
Mr Ben Wraith
Capital Sales - Oceania
Gekko Systems
Day 2 Welcome & Opening Remarks
8:30 AM - 8:35 AMBiography
Mr Brian Putland
Managing Director, Principal Metallurgist
Orway Mineral Consultants
Keynote Presentation | Cyclones don't grind
8:35 AM - 9:05 AMBiography
Brian has over 30 years experience in the minerals processing sector, specialising in comminution. He has a Bachelor of Science from Murdoch University and is a Fellow of the AUSIMM.
He is the Managing Director of Orway Mineral Consultants based in Australia and led the Company's expansion into North America, establishing an office in Toronto, Canada. Prior to his work as a consultant, Brian worked in the gold mining industry in Western Australia.
In his current position, he provides specialist consulting services in flowsheet design, process engineering, gold technologies and plant optimisation, in addition to his management duties.
Brian is also a founding director of OrwayIQ, delivering MillROC to clients around the globe and is a non-executive director of Lycopodium Minerals APAC.
Mr Grant Small
Manager Metallurgy - Development
Magotteaux
Keynote Q&A with Session Chair
9:05 AM - 9:25 AMBiography
Mr Jarrod Pyke
Director, Solution Group - Grinding
Metso
Mill lining for performance: A case study of the Hidden Valley SAG Mill
9:25 AM - 9:40 AMBiography
Metallurgist with broad experience in mineral processing operations and technology roles across a range of unit operations, sites, and commodities. Eleven years with Metso, now leading the Global Optimised Mill Lining Product Management team. Delivering optimisation strategies and, technical support to Metso’s global mill lining business with a whole of plant process focused approach to mill lining design, component selection and digital technologies.
Mr Jack Brady
Metallurgist
Newmont Mining Corporation - Australia
Engineering reliability in Cadia’s 40ft SAG Mill
9:40 AM - 9:55 AMBiography
Jack Brady is a Metallurgist at Newmont's Cadia operation, responsible for the Concentrator 1 grinding circuit from the Coarse Ore Stockpile through to cyclone overflow. His work focuses on mill liner design and reliability, grinding circuit optimisation, and equipment performance. Jack leads initiatives to improve front-end stability, debottleneck the grinding circuit, and increase throughput and operational efficiency.
Mr Scot Davies
Processing Director
Newmont Mining Corporation - Australia
Evaluating grinding circuit efficiency metrics at the Newmont Tanami Operation
9:55 AM - 10:10 AMBiography
Through his more than 25 years of Processing experience, Scot's career has spanned design, construction, commissioning, technical and operational leadership of multiple large-scale processing plants across Australia, Africa and South America. Scot is currently working within Newmont's Enterprise Processing Technical Service team supporting projects and operations within the Africa, Asia Pacific Business Unit.
Mr Grant Small
Manager Metallurgy - Development
Magotteaux
Q&A with Session Chair (Session 5)
10:10 AM - 10:25 AMBiography
James Carpenter
Senior Consultant
SRK
Weaving the threads together
10:25 AM - 10:30 AMBiography
James Carpenter is a geoscientist with over 23 years of international mining experience across precious metals, base metals and bulk commodities in Australia, Asia, Africa and the southwest Pacific. While his core expertise lies in Mineral Resource estimation and geostatistics, much of his work sits at the interface between the orebody and the plant, translating geological understanding into improved processing outcomes.
He has authored two publications of direct relevance to metallurgists and plant operators. The first, from the Ban Houayxai Gold Mine in Laos, combined Mineral Resource geology with metallurgical recovery for gold, linking the orebody to recovery performance. The second, from the Phu Kham Copper-Gold Operation, linked a blend of hard, heavy skarn rocks with softer material to significantly increase SAG mill throughput — a practical demonstration of how geometallurgical blending can lift plant performance.