Ashish Saxena, Principal Mining Engineer, BEng(Mining), MAusIMM, Ashish has more than 20 years of experience in underground mining operations and mine planning. He also has engineering design skills, including underground infrastructure design and estimation, power consumption estimation, and ventilation assessment. He is a competent user of a wide array of mining software tools such as Datamine Studio UG, Studio 5D Planner, MSO, NPV, EPS, Ventsim, Deswik CAD / drill-and-blast software, and AutoCAD/Civil 3D. In addition to IT and mining software skills, Ashish has developed expertise in risk analysis and assessment, alternative resolution strategies, process redesign and organization, change management, program and project lifecycle management.

Angus MacRae holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mining Engineering and a Bachelor of Computing from Queen's University. He is currently pursuing Master's studies at the McGill COSMO Stochastic Mine Planning Laboratory. He takes a specific interest in developing stochastic schedule optimizers with exact and heuristic methods. His research has focused on implementing a global optimization framework to capitalize on interactions between the design and scheduling of stoping operations with respect to both production and development.

Rodolfo Poeiras is a Mining Engineer and Specialist in Mineral Resources Engineering from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), where he is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Mineral Technology. He is a member of the Latin America Technical Services team at AngloGold Ashanti, working in Long-Term Mine Planning and supporting operations in Brazil and Argentina. His work includes mine design and scheduling, fleet sizing, mining method evaluation, and technical support for the annual Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves reporting process. Prior to his current position, he worked in Medium-Term Mine Planning at the Cuiabá mine, with responsibilities focused on mine design development, operational assessment, and routine planning support. He also has previous experience in mining consulting through GE21 Mineral Consulting, where he contributed to mine optimization and scheduling studies, economic feasibility assessments, fleet sizing, and technical reporting in accordance with the Canadian National Instrument 43-101 and the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (JORC Code) standards. His professional interests are centered on strategic mine planning, mine design optimization, and the technical-economic evaluation of mining projects.

Blake Talbot is a Principal Planning Engineer in the Group Long Term Planning team at Evolution Mining. A mining engineer with more than 14 years of industry experience, Blake began his career in 2011 in hands-on operational roles before transitioning into technical mine engineering. For the past decade, he has specialised in underground metalliferous mining across a range of modern mining methods. Over the last six years, Blake has focused on strategic mine planning, leading Life-of-Mine optimisation, cut-off strategy, capital sequencing, and integrated technical-financial evaluations. He has international experience across multiple jurisdictions and is particularly interested in the intersection of engineering, economics, and optimisation in long-term planning.