Chartered Professional Mechanical Engineer, Leon van den Berg has over 15 years operational and consulting experience in the mining industry, Leon specializes in ventilation for underground mines and has extensive experience working on various commodities including gold, platinum, coal, diamond and copper projects in Africa, Australia, South America and South East Asia. Leon’s expertise include ventilation design, ventilation network simulation and modelling, heat load analysis, refrigeration system design and fan station design. A member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and Engineers Australia, Leon has worked on significant projects as a Consultant Engineer with BHP, Newcrest and MMG across Australia. In 2013 Leon joined BBE Consulting as the Principal Engineer and Managing Director for the Australasia business unit as part of the global strategic direction of the BBE Group, to unlock the opportunities for BBE in the Australian and Asian markets.

Javier Fernandez is the Managing Director at Zitron Australia, the Australian branch for Talleres Zitron S.A., the Spanish worldwide leader in underground ventilation. With a Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering background, Javier possesses over 15 years of professional experience in the field of underground infrastructures. Javier’s exceptional technical knowledge combined with a solid leadership and management skills have proven to be successful in several highly complex underground ventilation projects delivered by ZITRON worldwide.

Li Zou is a master of the School of Safety Science and Engineering at Xi’an University of Science and Technology, China. His areas of current interest are coal fire disaster prevention and chemical safety.