Laurie is a minerals process engineer with 25 years of experience in operations and consulting, mostly in base metals. He was previously Manager Metallurgy at Zinifex Century Mine and Director Process Strategy at Amec Foster Wheeler. He provides engineering and sustainability consulting services to companies and government organisations.

Sonja Volhejn is currently the Managing Director of Hosch International. Hosch international is a German-based conveyor belt equipment producer and service provider, striving to maximize conveyor efficiency through innovative products, quality service, and tailored solutions. Sonja always followed a strong hands-on, technical approach. Before obtaining a degree in mechanical engineering, she completed a machinist apprenticeship learning from the bottom up.

Hiral has over 10 years' experience as a Civil Engineer and has participated in mining and civil geotechnical projects. Her geotechnical design experience on national and international projects draws upon a broad range of skills and strategies to design for a range of climatic and environmental conditions. She has been involved in project management, design, construction supervision and dam safety surveillance of tailings storage facilities of varying sizes and ages. Hiral is currently involved in the design and operating of several tailings storage facilities at a lithium mining operation.

Götz Bickert finished his education in Germany with a Engineering Doctorate in Chemical Engineering / Solid Liquid Separation from Karlsruhe University before working for 2 years at CSIRO’s Dewatering Group as R&D project manager. Thereafter he spent almost a decade as filtration product manager with Jord International and concurrently spent 12 years as Lecturer / Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales. Since 2008 he is principal consultant at GBL Process, a specialist filtration – separation technology provider with extensive lithium exposure.

Professor Dlugogorski is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation at Charles Darwin University and former Dean of Engineering and Information Technology at Murdoch University. He is Fellow of Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, Combustion Institute and Society of Fire Protection Engineers. His research interests lie in extractive metallurgy of lithium and large-scale storage of CO2. His also has extensive research involvement in the area of process safety and environment protection, especially in mitigation of fires and formation of toxic products in combustion processes.

Mr Thamsanqa Ncube is a PhD Candidate at Murdoch University working on a Project aimed at developing novel processes for the extraction of lithium. He has two Masters degree, in Chemical Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy from the Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi and Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and worked as a Research Assistant at The Petroleum Institute in The United Arab Emirates and as a Process Engineer in a gold mine in Zimbabwe.

Currently I am doing a PhD at Murdoch University in Perth with research interests in the extraction of lithium, its mineralogy and geology. My background includes both an MSc. in Economic Geology from TU Freiberg in Germany as well as another MSc. in Geographical Information Management from Cranfield University in England.