Peter J Hayes

Bachelor of Engineering (Mining Hons) - Master of Engineering (Mining) - Master of Business Administration - First Class Mine Manager's Certificate of Competency (NSW and Qld) - Chartered Mining Engineer - Fellow of Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (Chartered Professional Manager) - Fellow of the British Institute of Mining Engineers.

Peter has over 34 years experience in the coal and metalliferous mining industry in Australia and has worked at all levels of management from face Deputy to Chief Operating Officer. Peter has previously been Operations Manager of QCT Resources Ltd, General Manager Operations of Centennial Coal, General Manager of Coal Operations Australia Ltd, General Manager of Southland Coal and Chief Operating officer of Gympie Gold Ltd. He has been appointed by the Minister for Mineral resources as a director of the Coal Mines Subsidence Board and was a former director of the Coal Mining Qualifications Board and the Joint Coal Board Health and Safety Trust. Peter has been consulting to the coal and metalliferous mining industry on technical, strategic, corporate, commercial and management matters since 2002. and has undertaken assignments in Australia, South Africa and China during this time. Peter has also published over 15 papers on subjects such as longwall mining, coal mine fires, gas drainage, mining law reform, contract mining and open cut mining. Peter is also a Competent Person under the JORC Code.

Geoff N. Pitkin

Bachelor of Engineering (Mining Hons 1)—Master of Business Administration—Member of  Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy –Chartered Professional Mining Engineer, Member of the Mining Industry Consultants Association

Geoff has 34 years experience in the New South Wales and Queensland coal industries with a background in open cut and underground operations, new mine development and the preparation of feasibility studies.  Geoff has worked as a consultant for the last 15 years.  He has developed particular skills in the areas of dragline operations, the application of mining technologies, mineral economics and finance, software development, strategic planning and project management.  Geoff has managed and performed major feasibility and Prefeasibility studies, strategic studies at both the corporate and business unit level, technical and due diligence reviews, financial studies and valuations, equipment comparisons and justifications, rehabilitation studies and short and long term planning. Geoff is also a Competent Person under the JORC Code.                                  

Chan Kwan-Hung, Edwin.

B.Soc.Sci ( Hong Kong), Former Member Institutes of Transport, Shipbrokers. Former Member HKIST, Former Researcher Shanghai Tongji Finance Center.

Edwin Chan has over 20 years experience in corporate and project finance in the Industrial, Logistics and Resource sectors. He has been working in China on a full-time basis since 1991 and has specialised in mining and resources since 2002. He was General Manager of several industrial joint-ventures in China and later Chief Corporate Banking Manager for ANZ Banking Group (Hong Kong and China). In the area of Resources Investment, Edwin is a former Director of HLM Consulting Limited and former executive Director of Hua Yi Copper Holdings. From 2004 – 2007 he acted as strategic partner to what is now Runge Ltd’s mining consultancy to establish a China mining consulting business. He has been an advisor to many companies on resources investments in China including Capital Steel Holdings Limited, Jiuquan Steel Group -Mongolia Office, Xstrata PLC, Xuji Group and the Singapore Investment Corporation. Edwin is based in Hong Kong and speaks fluent English, Cantonese and Mandarin. 

John L Edwards

Bachelor of Science  (Geology) - Master of Applied Science (Mining Geomechanics)- Member of Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM).

John has over 35 years experience in the coal and metalliferous mining industry. He was previously Chief Geologist with BHP Billiton’s operations in the Lake Macquarie area and has been consulting to the mining industry on geological matters since 2000. In that time he has undertaken the development, review and audit of geological risk management plans, developed and administered  R&D management systems, coordinated geoscience data for mine design projects and undertaken extensive due diligence assessments in many countries. John is Past Chairman of the Coalfield Geology Council of NSW and an inaugural member of ACARP Underground Research Sub-Committee. John is also a Competent Person under the JORC Code.

Peter G. Newling

BE (Chem. Eng) (Hons II), Certificate in Advanced Coal Preparation

Peter has over 40 years experience covering all aspects of Coal Preparation and Iron-making in Australia and South Africa. Peter’s early experience was in iron making in Newcastle and South Africa where he was Production Engineer Vanderbijlpark Steelworks. He was then lead Supervisor at Hunter Valley Coal Preparation Plant and Manager of Wollondilly CHPP for Clutha Ltd. He managed the construction and operation of the Stratford Coal Preparation Plant and introduced the first Daniels Bath in Australia, the first Jameson Cell in NSW, and the first Teeter Bed Separator in Australia. Following this, he was Manager of the Coal Operations Australia Ltd’s Catherine Hill Bay CHPP. He is Chemical Engineering Course Advisory Committee Member at the University of  Newcastle, Past-president of  Australian Coal Preparation Society, Committee Member of Australian Standards Association, and Research Coordinator  of ACARP Coal Preparation Committee. Peter has been consulting to the mining industry on coal preparation projects since 2002 and has undertaken significant assignments in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, China and Vietnam.   He has presented papers at local and international conferences on the design and operation of modern coal preparation plants.

Deng Zhenqi

Bachelor of Geology - Bachelor of Mining  Geology, Professor Grade Senior Engineer. National Council of China recognised Expert.

Zhengqi has over 40 years senior experience in coal mining geology from 1965 and is regarded as a geological expert particularly on the geology of Shanxi and Hunan Provinces. He was ultimately a Director and Professor Grade Senior Engineer for the  China National Coal Geology Bureau. He has directed or reviewed the geology and the development planning of over 30 major Chinese coal mines including significant operations such as the Ping Zhuo Open-cut coal mine, the Jining coal mine in Shandong Province and the  Fok Lin River coal mine in Inner Mongolia. He was also a prominent member of the committee that prepared the Exploration and Mining Standards that are recognised throughout China. Deng is also a former member of the China National Coal Resources Committee and former Deputy Director of the China Geology Association – Geological Exploration. Deng has published many papers on his areas of expertise. He has received National recognition of his expertise by the awarding of Special Awards from the China National Council. 

Michael A Pitkin

Bachelor of Engineering (2007)  

Michael is a graduate Engineer with specialisations in software design, database design, simulation and graphics.    He has developed a truck simulation, a short term scheduling system for Warkworth Mine plus Dragline simulation adn productivity tooles. He has also developed a database system to collect and manage personnel and equipment details for contracting companies.  He has also developed the GPPH simulation, scheduling and costing systems and is a proficient MINEX user.   Michael is proficient in the use of the following programming languages Visual Basic, Java, C, C#, SQL, VHDL and  Visual Basic for Applications. He has designed databases in Access, Oracle, MS-SQL and My-SQL.

Ronald J Findley

First Class Mine Managers Certificate of Competency, Cert. Coal Mining, Cert. Structural Engineering.

Ron has over 46 years in heavy industry of which over 30 have spent in the coal industry and 14 in shipbuilding. Ron worked at all levels of mining from face worker to Mine Manager. He has held senior mining positions in Powercoal, Xstrata, Coal Operations Australia and Centennial Coal including Mine Manager at Preston Colliery, Ivanhoe Colliery and Chain Valley Mine. Ron also held a position as NSW Government Mines Inspector during the 1990s. Ron has been consulting to the mining industry on safety, risk management and technical matters since 2002.

Robert Byrnes

Bachelor of Science (Geography/Botany), University of NSW. Graduate Diploma in Environmental Studies, Macquarie University, Chartered Biologist Member, Institute of Biology (UK); Member, Australian Institute of Biology.

Robert has over 24 four years experience in the environmental assessment of mining developments, extractive industries, industrial proposals and public infrastructure projects. He has specialist skills in terrestrial ecosystem management, land rehabilitation, land use planning, design and implementation of Environmental Management Systems, community liaison and compliance auditing.  Robert has many years of experience in project management of large multidisciplinary environmental studies for sensitive and controversial projects.

David W. Jones

Mechanical Engineer, Engineer-in-Charge Certificate.

David has over 38 years experience in the mining industry and his previous roles have included positions as Group Engineer for Coal and Allied and Chief Engineer for Coal Operations Australia. He progressed from a "hands-on" mechanical fitter role to positions where he controlled the engineering management of a group of mines where he built world-class mine mechanical and electrical engineering teams. He has considerable knowledge and experience of all engineering aspects of mining equipment and systems, particularly in relation to longwall and bord-and-pillar systems. He has taken significant leaderships roles in the development of equipment and maintenance standards and was active in the formulation of new coal mining Regulations. He currently acts as ACARP Project Review Committee member and monitor. David has been consulting to the mining industry on engineering management and equipment matters since 2002 and has co-authored several papers on engineering aspects of his work.

Rod Hall

Bachelor of Science (Hons) Geology. MAusIMM.

Rod has some 35 years industry experience and has been consulting to the coal industry for the last 5 years. He has held various positions as manager as well as being a director on a number of industry boards. These include The Cooperative Research Centre for Coal in Sustainable Development, The Cooperative Research Centre for Black Coal Utilisation and Chairman Mount Thorley Coal Loading Limited.

Rod has previously been Technical Marketing Manager, Product Manager and Safety Manager for Rio Tinto Coal (NSW) Pty Ltd, Manager Technical Services and Manager Projects for Novacoal Australia Pty Ltd and Manager Howick Coal Preparation Plant.

As a consultant Rod has consulted on coal technical issues covering geology, exploration, sampling, analysis, mining processing and marketing. He has prepared guidelines for operations for a two stage coal preparation plant and prepared marketing information to effect a stronger position for clients.

Lynne Banwell

B.Sc (Geology). MAusIMM

Lynne is a geologist with more than 25 years experience, who has extensive experience in both the coal and metalliferous mining industries.

Lynne has been consulting to the industry since 1986 initially as Senior Geologist with Maptek Pty Limited for over ten years, and then as a Senior Consulting Geologist. Her special area of expertise is in using computer applications for resource analysis and modelling, particularly the Vulcan software package. She has held lead roles in many diverse projects including the preparation of geological models for both coal and metals deposits, JORC resources and reserves estimation, Mining Feasibility studies, Mine Planning, Geological Data analysis and Database design. Lynne is a Competent Person under the JORC Code.

Dr Ian Blayden

BSc(Hons), PhD, MBA, MMICA, MAusIMM(CP), MGSA, MPESA, RoyalSocNSW

Ian’s experience in the Mineral Industry spans over 48 years on projects throughout Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Korea, China and West Africa. He has been a consultant since 1984 working on a wide range of projects in coal, gold, base metals, diamonds , oil, gas and industrial minerals. This work has been primarily directed toward prospect evaluation and has included the preparation of many reports as an Independent Geologist for listing purposes or for company restructuring. He has also undertaken the management of exploration programmes involving mapping, geophysics, soil geochemistry and drilling as well as the identification and promotion of exploration projects. Principal skills are in prospect evaluation for gold, base metals and coal, exploration management, geological and numerical computer modelling, resource and reserve audits together with the compilation and preparation of reports. Ian is a competent person under the JORC Code.