John Ashton graduated from the Royal School of Mines, London, in 1975 with a BSc in Mining Geology. He undertook PhD research at the University of Aberystwyth until 1978 into ore geology and wallrock geochemistry of Pb/Zn and Au veins in Wales. After working for Mogul of Ireland Ltd, Silvermines, as mine and senior mine geologist, he joined Tara Mines Ltd, Navan, in 1980. After working in several positions including Chief Mine Geologist, with involvement in computer systems, resource estimation, delineation and exploration drilling, he became Chief Exploration Geologist for Boliden Tara Mines in 2005. Since then he has been involved in extending the resources within and surrounding the Navan deposit and in exploration throughout the Irish Midlands carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb province. Experience and interests include 3D geological modelling, resource estimation, the genesis of carbonate-hosted Zn/Pb deposits and exploration for base metal deposits. He retired in March 2019 and is currently providing consultancy services to Boliden Tara Mines.

Geologist with a Diploma in Geo-Mining-Metallurgy and Magister in Economic Geology. My professional experience includes more than 18 years of technical background in different mining companies in exploration, drilling, sampling, mine geology, modeling and resource estimation of Porphyry Copper, IOCG, and Low Sulphidation Silver/Gold deposits. My background also includes more than 6 years of experience as Competent Person for Resources at Escondida, and participation in peer reviews and due diligence processes. Recently working in the Geoscience Centre of Excellence, within the assurance team completing internal audits and reviews for Resources in different deposits through BHP.

Danielle is currently Principal Mine Geologist with Technical Services in RioTinto Iron Ore. Her career spans over 25 years from mine geology, production management, geometallurgy, research and support functions. Danielle and the team has oversight of the 16 mining operations for delivery of the mine geology operating model delivering 330 Mtpa of iron ore. The team work with the site geologists on process and technical reviews, improvement studies, system delivery as well as training and mentoring to improve planning outcomes and processing performance and operational readiness for new sites. Danielle’s industry experience includes gold, coal and iron ore. As a chartered professional Danielle is committed to working within the business structure to deliver incremental and step change improvement to enhance safety and productivity to make sure that orebody knowledge is considered; maintained and improved; including the use of digital process and information modelling technologies.

Jesse Clark is a Senior Geologist at BHP’s Olympic Dam mine. After graduating from the University of Adelaide equipped with a BSc with first class Honours specialising in Economic Geology, Jesse commenced working as a Mine Geologist with BHP at their Olympic Dam operations in January 2015, initially in the global graduate program. Recently, Jesse completed his MSc (Economic Geology) at the University of Tasmania CODES with High Distinction. A passionate AusIMM member, serving as the Chair of the Roxby Downs Branch since 2017. Jesse is also associated with the Society of Economic Geologists serving as the Australasian representative, Global Chair (2018) and co–founding member of the Early Career Professionals Committee, and an SEG mentor.

Dr Simon Dominy is a geometallurgist/mining geologist whose career has included technical and leadership roles in underground mine operations, academia and consulting. His professional practice and research have addressed the challenges associated with the evaluation of high-nugget effect and coarse gold-bearing mineralised systems. He has extensive experience in orebody characterisation, sampling optimisation, QA/QC, resource development, bulk sampling and trial mining programmes, metallurgical sampling and pilot studies and mine grade control systems. Simon has authored more than 80 peer reviewed conference and journal papers on topics ranging from REE, gold and tin economic geology, ore characterisation, sampling/Theory of Sampling, resource/reserve development, gravity-based mineral processing and narrow vein mining. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Western Australian School of Mines, Curtin University and a Visiting Associate Professor at the Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter, UK. Simon is currently working on gold development projects and mine operations across Australia, Europe and South America, and provides technical advice to a number of finance houses.