Nicole Galloway Warland

Chair – SAEMC Organising Committee, Australian Institute of Geoscientists

Welcome

Nicole is a geologist with over 30 years’ experience in the mining and exploration industry in Australia, Eastern Europe and the America’s. Her experience spans from exploration through project evaluation to open cut and underground mining; with a commodity focus in gold, copper-gold, base metals and uranium.

Nicole is also a Councillor of the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC).

Cliffy Wilson

Kuma Kaaru

Welcome to Country

Dr Bronwyn Camac

Director, Geological Survey of South Australia (GSSA) –
Department for Energy and Mining

SA Exploration & Mining Review 

Bronwyn has over 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry as both a geologist and in management. She has worked across the sector starting out with Comalco Exploration (now part of Rio Tinto), Wiltshire Geological Services, Origin Energy, Beach Energy, Santos Ltd, and later as a consultant for InGauge Energy. Her experience includes precompetitive digital log data creation and management, operations geology, conventional and unconventional oil and gas exploration and development, and government and stakeholder engagement. Bronwyn is the current Federal President of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA).

Bronwyn gained her PhD in Engineering Science in 2010, which focussed on using numerical modelling methods to predict the occurrence of naturally fractured shale rock to apply to seal risk; and maintains interest in this area having supervised various post-graduate projects and application of the techniques in unconventional gas resources.

She has now turned her attention to the minerals industry and has taken a position with the Geological Survey of SA as Director. This exciting opportunity allows her to work with a great team of experienced and highly skilled geoscientists and data engineers to deliver high quality precompetitive data sets and industry advice across the mineral exploration sector in South Australia, with a specific focus on delivering the Critical Minerals Project and Strategy for South Australia.

Ben Williams

Senior Project Geologist, Alligator Energy

Session 1: Big Lake Uranium – A potential new frontier for sedimentary-hosted uranium mineralisation, Lake Eyre Basin, Northern South Australia  

Ben is a geoscientist with over 20 years’ experience in a range of exploration environments, including in-mine, near-mine, and Greenfields. He has worked across Australia, Asia, and the Southwest Pacific with a focus on sedimentology, basin evolution, 3D modelling, lithostratigraphic/chronostratigraphic correlation, geophysical interpretation applied to regional geology and the structural architecture of onshore energy systems. Ben is currently a Senior Exploration Geologist with Alligator Energy working on the Big Lake Uranium Project.

Peter Reid

CEO – Petratherm

Session 1: The Muckanippie Suite – unravelling its enormous Titanium-Vanadium Potential

Peter Reid is the founder and CEO of Petratherm Limited which was spun out from Minotaur Resources in 2004. With over 30 years experience in mineral and geothermal exploration he was part of the Prominent Hill discovery team. 

Anna Mayo

Exploration Manager – Sinosteel SA

Session 1: Modern Exploration for Copper Cobalt in the Historic Dome Rock Mine Area, Olary Province, South Australia 

Anna is currently leading Sinosteel’s South Australian exploration team in their efforts to generate new exploration targets and locate major orebodies within the company’s five tenements in the under-explored Curnamona region of South Australia. In the last 4 years the team has increased the list of potential commodities from magnetite iron ore and uranium to also include copper, cobalt, gold, base metals, REEs, PGEs, and molybdenum.

In 2021 Sinosteel was granted funding for Anna’s ADI project design to apply innovative biogeochemistry techniques across three prospects including land within a conservation park and private reserve. The project investigated the effectiveness of the geochemistry technique to lower impact, increase efficiency, and decrease costs of exploration in arid lands. Results of the study, combined with recently trialled electromagnetic geophysical techniques led to precise target generation and successful diamond drill targeting in 2023 and 2024.

Alan Oertel

Exploration Geologist – Barton Gold

Session 1: TBA

Alan is a geologist and geophysicist with 8 years experience in mineral exploration in Australia.
Alan joined Barton Gold in 2022, working on both exploration targeting and resource definition at the Tarcoola and Tunkillia projects.

Previously, Alan worked as the Projects Manager for Fender Geophysics and as a Research Fellow with the CSIRO, working on a wide range of precious and base metals exploration projects across Australia.
He has coordinated multiple-rig exploration drilling programs, soil sampling surveys, and geophysical surveys using electrical, magnetic, and gravity methods.

Alan is a graduate of Adelaide University (BSc Geology & Geophysics Honours) and a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG)

Dr Karol Czarnota

Principle Science Advisor, Geoscience Australia

Session 2: The landmark Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity initiative – accelerating discovery and development

Karol is the Principal Science Advisor for minerals, energy and groundwater at Geoscience Australia focused on shaping strategic science direction. He has over 20 years of experience in undertaking and leading precompetitive geoscience programs focused on understanding Australia’s geology and its resource potential.

Robert Blythman

Exploration Manager, Hamlin Gully

Session 2: The re-awakening of the Nackara Arc as a South Australian mining Centre

Robert has over 16 years’ experience as an exploration geologist, focused on South Australia, Victoria and the Northern Territory. He has both mining and exploration experience in orogenic style gold projects and his experience covers a range of commodities including gold, copper, uranium and rare earths.

Dr Chris Giles

Technical Director, Havilah Resources

Session 2: South Australia’s Copperbelt

Chris is an internationally experienced exploration geologist having been directly involved in exploration programs resulting in the discovery of several operating gold mines in various parts of the world, including Indonesia, Tanzania, and the Tanami and the Eastern Goldfields regions of Australia. Chris was a founding member of Havilah Resources Limited and has played a key role in the strategic accumulation of the Group’s mineral tenement holding in the Curnamona Province region of northeastern South Australia. As the
Technical Director for Havilah Resources Limited, Chris has been responsible for ground selection and overseeing exploration programs contributing to the delineation of 8 new mineral resources within this tenement area, resulting in Havilah’s present JORC Mineral Resource inventory. Chris is an Executive Director and
continues to provide technical guidance within the business. Chris is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and is a resident of Adelaide.

Anthony Reid

Head of Geology, Fleet Space Technologies

Session 2: A geologist’s guide to subsurface imaging with ambient noise tomography

Anthony is a geoscientist with over 20 years experience across a range of geological methods, including structural geology, geochronology, geochemistry and geophysics applied to regional geology and mineral exploration.

Rupert Verco

CEO, Cobra Resources

Session 3: Economic potential for insitu recovery of palaeochannel ionic rare earths: The re-awakening of the Nackara Arc as a South Australian mining centre

Rupert is a mining specialist with over 17 years’ experience in Australia and internationally. His key areas of focus include resource definition, reserve optimisation, mine planning, and mine operations. He has managed operations through all phases of the mining cycle on projects that cover a range of commodities including gold, copper, uranium, tin, and iron ore. Rupert is a fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and holds a First Class Honours in Geology.

James Taylor

Structural Geologist, BHP

Session 3: The Oak Dam IOCG Deposit, Olympic Province, South Australia: Unravelling the structural evolution of the Oak Dam Deposit through integration of local and district-scale interpretations

James currently leads the structural geology program at BHPs Oak Dam exploration project. He has delivered significant progress in the understanding of primary structural controls on mineralisation as well as the post-mineral dismemberment of the Oak Dam orebody, culminating in the delivery of the first multi-scale comprehensive 3D-structural model of Oak Dam.

Prior to this he supported BHP’s Olympic Dam operation in mine and resource geology and a variety of roles across multiple BHP West Australian Iron Ore assets, specialising in fully-integrated geological modelling. He is passionate about converting high-quality geological observations, geochemistry and geophysics into accurate and useful 3D-models to support brownfields exploration and resource extraction.

Jonathon Trewartha

CEO, Lincoln Minerals

Session 3: Aiming to be the first new graphite mine in Australia

Jonathon is a mining engineer and developer with experience in exploration, operations, technical, and regulatory approvals, study and project management and corporate via senior positions in Australia and overseas. He holds a WA First Class Mine Manager’s Certificate of Competency.

Chris Anderson

Exploration Consultant, White Tiger

Session 3: Three IO’s to go … Do you want CG with those?

Chris Anderson graduated from Adelaide University in 1975 and has a long career in mineral exploration geophysics. He has particularly focused on magnetic and gravity signatures for IOCG style  deposits, primarily in South Australia but also the Cloncurry district. His career highlights have included working with teams at Placer Pacific leading to discovery of the Osborne mine (Qld) and the Kalkaroo deposit in SA. Chris’ geophysical advice to RMG Services (Rudy Gomez) also contributed to the discovery of Carrapateena.

Michael Schwarz

Managing Director, iTech Minerals Ltd

Session 3: iTech’s Eyre Peninsula Graphite Project: The importance of good geology and metallurgy in producing battery anode material

iTech acquired the graphite assets of Archer Materials in 2021 and listed on the ASX later that year. While Archer had done an excellent job of developing high quality graphite assets there were still a few hurdles to producing a product suitable for the battery anode material markets. A basic graphite  concentrate had been achieved but a highly purified spherical graphite (PSG) had not yet been developed from the current resources. iTech set about proving up the metallurgical processes to produce high quality PSG and add additional graphite resources with excellent geological and metallurgical properties to the project.

Caitlin Rowett

Technical Services Manager, Hillgrove Resources

Session 4: Kanmantoo: A Productive Year

Caitlin is the Technical Services Manager and Chief Geologist at Hillgrove Resources, where she has worked for the last 5 years on the development and now the operation of the Kanmantoo Underground Mine. Caitlin has worked around South Australia in both Copper and Gold structurally controlled deposits. 

Ben Forster

Geology Superintendent, Prominent Hill – CuSA -BHP

Session 4: Prominent Hill Growth Story

Ben is a Geologist with 17 years’ experience in a range of operational environments, and brownfields exploration. He spent 10 years working in and around Kalgoorlie WA in gold mining and 7 years in South Australian IOGC at Carrapateena and Prominent Hill. His strong focus in operational geology has covered everything from setting up mapping, sampling and grade control processes through to resource estimation and competent person JORC reporting. His main passion is team mentoring and development, as well as reconciliation. 

When not submerged in mentoring and reconciliation, Ben likes to spend his time off with his wife and 3 daughters or cycling in the Adelaide hills.

Kathy Ehrig

Principal Geometallurgist, BHP

Session 4: Olympic Dam Geology – new thoughts about the deposit

Dr Kathy Ehrig is recognised internationally as a leader in geometallurgy, establishing Olympic Dam’s geometallurgy program 2006. She completed her Bachelor of Science in geology at California State University, Fresno in 1984 and earned a PhD in geology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1991.

Paul Heithersay

Chief Executive, Department for Energy and Mining

Session 4: Reflecting upon my career in SA

Dr Heithersay joined the South Australian public service in 2002, initially as executive director of the Geological Survey of South Australia within the Department of Primary Industries and Resources SA (PIRSA). His appointment to the Survey followed a 20-year career working as a geologist at mineral exploration companies including Geopeko and North Ltd.

In the next two decades in the South Australia Public Service, Paul held senior roles with the Departments responsible for mineral resource development in South Australia, before being promoted to deputy chief executive at the Department for the Premier and Cabinet in 2017 to oversee the interactions between energy and mining.