Andrew Engelbrecht is the Senior Manager Mine and Exploration Geology at Gold Fields, bringing more than 25 years of experience across open pit and underground mine geology, exploration, and technical leadership. His current role has oversight of mine geology and exploration for Gold Fields projects in Australia, South Africa, Ghana, Chile, Peru and Canada. His career spans multiple roles at Gold Fields, Northern Star Resources, Saracen Mineral Holdings, Evolution Mining and Barrick Gold, where he has led operational and corporate teams. Andrew studied Geology at the Curtin University WASM and Perth campus’s and has built a reputation for integrating geological insight with operational strategy across global gold operations.

I am a mine geologist with experience in grade control, mining, and mineral processing. With almost 8 years of experience in gold mine industry, I have honed my expertise in grade control drilling, ore and waste control, mine operation, and mining reconciliation. Throughout my career, I have contributed to several projects such as reducing misclassification by modelling after blast profile, waste material re-classification using kinetic test program, gold and silver recovery study by mineralogy and machine learning analysis. These projects contribute to my knowledge expansion in providing accountable data for another team. I have a great track record of collaborating with mining and metallurgy team to drive a more effective and efficient production workflow.

Jeremy Mole is a Senior Mine Geologist at Aurelia Metals, where he leads grade control activities and geological modelling at the Federation Pb-Zn deposit in western New South Wales. Since its discovery in 2019, Jeremy has played a key role in the site's transition from feasibility through to production, contributing to the refinement of the geological model during early-stage mine development. His work has focused on characterising the structurally controlled, narrow-vein sulphide mineralisation and implementing adaptive drilling, mapping, sampling and modelling strategies that underpin efficient and effective stope design and mine planning. Jeremy holds a First-Class Honours degree in Geology from The Australian National University, with a background in structural geology and high-grade gold systems.

Emeritus Professor Joan Esterle is the former Chair of the Vale-UQ Coal Geoscience Program. Her research interests are varied but focussed on how geological history impacts on coal measures behaviour during mining, processing and utilisation. She also develops 3D models for the distribution of sedimentary strata that can be used to predict geohazards in coal mines or reservoir behaviour in conventional and non conventional gas resources, and for geosequestration. In addition to working with Vale and other industry partners, she conducts multi-client studies through the Australian Coal Research Program (ACARP), The Australian National Low Emissions Coal Research (ANLECRD), and the UQ Centre for Coal Seam Gas (CCSG). She received her PhD from The University of Kentucky, USA, in 1990. She worked for 17 years with CSIRO, followed by GeoGAS-Runge Group before joining the UQ full time in 2010.

Daniel Howe had no concept of geology until he attended an inspiring and mind-blowing first lecture at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia in 1998 – Planet Earth. From that point his desire to understand the earths systems and processes has continued. An opportunity to take a 12-month work placement with Western Mining Corporation in Kambalda in 2000, as part of his Bachelor of Applied Science (Geoscience) was the spark that ignited a passion for mining geology. Following completion of his Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree at The University of Western Australia he returned to Kambalda to pursue his interest in combining geology with value creation at the St Ives Gold Mine. Throughout the last 20 years Daniel has been fortunate to experience and apply his learnings across the eastern goldfields of Western Australia, centred on gold and nickel, open pit and underground, and across both small and large mining operations. In his leadership roles within several companies, he continues to seek excellence in mining geology, through developing talent and skills, continued focus on understanding mineralisation controls and systems, ensuring decisions are made with value outcomes in mind, and optimising systems and processes for efficiency and accuracy.