Dr Paul Vogel

"EPA strategies to address current mining issues in Western Australia, in particular as they pertain to water"

Dr. Paul Vogel is the Chairman of the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). He has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Western Australia and was previously Chair and CEO of the South Australian EPA.

 Dr David RJ Jones

"Water in mining challenges for the Australian and international mining industry" 

Dr. David Jones BSc (Hons), PhD, MRACI Cchem is Director of eriss, responsible for research and monitoring of uranium mining in the pristine world heritage Kakadu National Park in the Top End of Australia.

Dr. Jones has 30 years experience in environmental assessment and management of water quality issues across the energy and base metal sectors. His research and consulting activities have focussed on identifying the geochemical and biological processes controlling the release and subsequent transport and fate of inorganic contaminants from the mining, minerals processing and related industries. A particular strength is a systems approach that integrates the physical, chemical and biological components of environmental problems.

 Dr. Phil Gorey

"Key issues/challenges to the industry including  water supply, AMD and mine dewatering, and DMP’s expectation"

Dr. Phil Gorey is the Executive Director of the Environment Division at the Western Australian Department of Minerals and Petroleum (DMP).

Phil joined the Department in 2009, after being Principal in a private sector environmental consultancy firm servicing the mining and petroleum industry. Phil has more than 15 years experience in sectors including environmental impact assessment and regulation, regulatory and policy reform, forestry assessments and groundwater management and regulation. He has also worked in technical and policy roles relating to environment management in State Governments in Victoria and South Australia. In his current role, Phil leads a team of around 70 staff and is the statutory official for the approval of Mining Proposals, Mine Closure Plans and Native Vegetation Clearing Permits. Collectively, the Environment Division assesses almost 3,000 applications each year, and undertaken more than 200 compliance inspections across the mining and petroleum industry.

 Adrian Brown

"Bankable mine inflow and impact determination"

Adrian Brown is the current President of the International Mine Water Association and President of Adrian Brown Consultants.

Adrian founded Adrian Brown Consultants in 1983. He is a groundwater engineer and specialist consultant in hydrology and earth mechanics, with over thirty years of experience in projects that have included groundwater hydrology, fate and transport of contaminants, surface water hydrology, dewatering design, nuclear waste containment, groundwater modeling, mine inflow, subsidence, environmental and hydrologic permitting, dam stability, slope stabilization, baseline monitoring, contaminant migration, aquifer restoration, site remediation, and computer program development.

 Andrew Moser

"Coal Seam Gas Water Management: exceeding Australia’s Most Stringent Water Conditions"

Queensland holds in excess of 80% of identified coal seam gas reserves in Australia, mainly within the Great Artesian Basin. The industry has been subjected to an unprecedented level of State and Federal conditioning due to the scale and perceived potential impacts of operations. This presentation addresses how the Australia Pacific LNG project has responded to meet and exceed its obligations.

 Andrew is Groundwater Manager for Origin Energy.

Sanjeev Pandey

"Assessment and management of cumulative groundwater impacts from CSG extraction".

Sanjeev Pandey has nearly 19 years of public and private sectors experience in groundwater resource assessment and management in Australia and southern Africa. He is currently the Director of Projects at the Queensland Water Commission’s Coal Seam Gas water unit. He lead the development of first cumulative groundwater impact assessment and reporting for the Surat and Southern Bowen basins.

 Dr Marnie Leybourne

"Water Management and the Mining Industry in Western Australia"

Dr Marnie Leybourne, A/Executive Director, Policy & Planning, Department of Water.

 Dr Hamid Mohsenzadeh and Gary Humphreys

"Pilbara Mine Dewatering"

Dr Hamid Mohsenzadeh is the Regional Manager of the Pilbara Region in DOW. The Pilbara is the main iron ore producing region of Western Australia. In this talk Dr Hohsenzadeh will tag team with Gary Humpreys, a senior hydrologist in DOW for the North West Region.

 Bev Thurlow

"Collie Basin (optimising water resource use)"

Bev Thurlow is the A/South West Regional Manager, DoW.

 Martin Schultze

"Maximising use of waters produced by mining"

Martin Schultze is a chemist and has researched and made management recommendations for water quality predictions and limnology of pit lakes since 1984. Martin has mainly worked with pit lakes in former lignite mines in Germany but has also has experience with other ore types. Martin is co-editor of the Springer book “Acidic Mining Lakes” (2^nd edition).

 Dr. Sue Vink

"Mine water management in variable climate regimes"

Recent extreme rainfall events in Queensland have tested both strategic and operational water management practices, infrastructure and regulation of mine water discharge. Coal export losses following the 2010-11 floods have been estimated to be in the order of $2 billion and 45 of the 57 coal mines in the Bowen Basin were affected by accumulation of water on sites. This paper reviews the impacts and response of the coal industry and environmental regulators to the recent floods in the Bowen Basin and comments of the dual-challenges of sustainable mine water management in climates characterised by extended periods of drought and severe floods events.

 Xuan Nguyen

"Water and mining issues for mine closure in Western Australia"

Xuan is currently a Senior Environmental Advisor of the WA Department of Mines and Petroleum. Prior to July 2010, she was the Operational Manager and then the General Manager of the Department’s Minerals Environment Branch.

Xuan has been working in environmental regulatory area with the WA Government for 20 years. Her experience includes environmental impact assessment, pollution control, and environmental auditing of industrial and resources based activities, including chemical and petroleum processing, contaminated sites and mining and mineral processing. Xuan was leading the development of the WA guidelines for mine closure, published in June 2012.

Xuan’s current work includes coordinating an independent review of uranium mining regulation and projects, developing policy framework for managing abandoned mines in WA, and developing a risk based approach for assessing mining proposals.

“Mine Dewatering and Depressurisation:  Industry Experiences and Challenges.”

Jon is Senior Principal Hydrogeologist and Director of Mining Services for RPS Aquaterra - Perth.

Jon is a hydrogeologist with over 25 years’ consulting experience in water resources management for the mining industry throughout Australia and internationally.  Prior to establishing Aquaterra in 1998, he was a mine geologist in South Australia and a hydrogeologist with the Geological Survey of Western Australia, before commencing his consulting career in 1983 with Australian Groundwater Consultants. Jon’s consulting career has largely been associated with mine water management including water supply, dewatering, integrated mine water management, environmental approvals and mine closure planning.  Helping mining companies to develop and implement practical solutions for mine dewatering and depressurization issues has been one of the main challenges during Jon’s career.

 Assoc. Prof. Mark A Lund

"Mine water research in the Collie Pit Lake District: Challenges and solutions ahead for the industry"

Associate Professor Mark Lund BSc (Hons) PhD. is a principal of the Mine Water and Environment Research Centre (MiWER) at Edith Cowan University.

After completing his Ph.D. in lake rehabilitation at Murdoch University in Western Australia, Mark was appointed as an Associate Lecturer at Edith Cowan University.  Currently, Mark is Head of the School of Natural Sciences . Mark has worked on the ecology and rehabilitation of pit lakes since the mid 1990’s, particularly coal, iron and silica sand pit lakes in Western Australia and Queensland.  He has a particular interest in pit lake ecological processes and in wetland restoration.

Prof. Christian Wolkersdorfer

"The future of Mining Influenced Water"

Prof Wolkersdorfer is the Secretary General of the IMWA.

 Dr. Rosalind Green

"Geochemical assessment of mineral waste through the mine life cycle"

Rio Tinto Iron Ore.  Superintendent Mineral Waste Management - Resource Planning & Development/Technical Projects.

Although chemical reactive waste represents a small percentage of the waste generated by many mining operations, it creates many of the waste related environmental, health, reputation and financial risks for mining companies. Geochemical assessments throughout the mine life cycle are essential and four case studies spanning from Exploration through to Closure are presented in this paper. These case studies demonstrate the need for upfront baseline characterisation, the potential to avoid geochemically reactive material through appropriate risk assessment, the need to validate dump designs and the importance of quality control during construction of covers over reactive waste dumps.

 Dr. Jeff Taylor

"Treatment and Disposal of mine waters - challenges and opportunities"

Dr. Jeff Taylor is one of the founding Directors of Earth Systems.

Jeff has more than 25 years experience as an environmental and earth scientist and has managed and directed a broad variety of multi-disciplinary environmental projects, both in Australia and overseas.  He has specialist knowledge in the fields of mine site water quality management, water treatment, environmental geochemistry, acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD) management, mine site remediation and closure planning.