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Vector's team approach to providing engineering services effectively integrates our multi-disciplinary expertise. The Vector team designated for a particular project consists of a selected group of professionals based upon each individual’s experience and their technical expertise with respect to the particular project and the specific project requirements. The relevant qualifications and mining experience of some of Vector’s key personnel are highlighted
below. A list of Associate staff members is also provided.
North America
California
|
Corporate Headquarters
Mark E. Smith, P.E., G.E.
President, Director of South American Operations |
| Mr. Smith is the president, chief executive officer and director of Vector's South American operations. He is a civil and geotechnical engineer with over 25 years of experience in mining, energy, waste management and other infrastructure works. Mr. Smith’s project experience ranges from California to Chile and Thailand to Kazakhstan, including some of the largest heap leach, tailings disposal, energy supply and waste disposal facilities in the world. His major clients include Barrick, Phelps Dodge, CVRD, BHP Billiton, Placer Dome, Centromin Peru, Codelco Chile, Chevron-Texaco, Shell Oil, Anglo, Waste Management, and Allied Waste Industries. He has dozens of published papers and contributions to books, sites on design review boards and for five years was on California’s geotechnical engineer licensing and review committee. |
Scott D. Purdy, R.G., C.E.G.
Vice President Marketing/Principal |
| Mr. Purdy is the principal of solid waste services at Vector Engineering, Inc. headquartered in Grass Valley, California. He is a registered geologist and certified engineering geologist, holds a bachelor’s degree in geological engineering, and has 21 years of experience in landfill engineering. His experience includes the design and management of over 1 million square feet (~93,000 square meters) of composite liners, the siting, permitting, and expansion of solid waste landfills, hydrogeologic studies, and landfill master planning and remediation. Mr. Purdy has conducted landfill and geosynthetic design seminars in the US, Mexico, Chile, and Asia. |
Vince Suryasasmita, P.E.
Executive Vice President |
| Mr. Suryasasmita's experience includes landfill and mining construction quality assurance and construction management projects worldwide. He has professional experience in project management relating to environmental, civil and geotechnical engineering, design, quality assurance monitoring, and construction management. Mr. Suryasasmita's technical expertise covers most phases of hazardous and solid waste landfill design and construction issues. He has managed the design and CQA of over 150 million square feet of liner systems and has 6 million cubic yards of final cover and earthen material experience. Mr. Suryasasmita is the Principal-in-charge of the Grass Valley office for engineering, laboratory, technical services, and administration. |
Richard Thiel, P.E.
Vice President, Engineering Services |
| Mr. Thiel has a Master's degree in geomechanics and is a geotechnical and solid waste engineer specializing in geosynthetic design applications for solid and liquid waste containment. He has participated extensively in the feasibility evaluation, permitting, design, and construction of landfills and surface impoundments. Mr. Thiel has experience performing design peer reviews, economic evaluations, failure analyses, design of liner systems with soils and geosynthetics, leachate management systems, geotechnical site reconnaissance and resource investigation programs, construction quality assurance, and assistance in developing state solid waste regulations. Before his specialization in solid waste design, Mr. Thiel participated in the design of several large rock-fill dams being built in Algeria. Mr. Thiel has also assisted in the development of state solid waste regulations and has authored over two dozen professional papers on topics related to containment system design. He is lead author on the industry's most comprehensive GCL design manual, and currently serves as co-instructor for the ASCE short course on landfill design. |
Scott Eckman, P.E.
Director of Engineering |
| Mr. Eckman is a Registered Civil Engineer with over 20 years of practical experience in the civil and environmental field; predominantly related to landfill, waste management, and remediation-related applications. He has successfully provided a wide range of client services on over 50 landfill sites and is a talented, client service-oriented project manager with experience leading large multidisciplinary teams. His technical expertise includes siting, planning, permitting, design, expansion, construction, operation, closure and remediation of landfills. Mr. Eckman has considerable construction support experience as well as significant experience working within the landfill guidelines and requirements set forth by State and Federal Regulations. |
Kenneth R. Criley, C.E.T.
Technical Director of Laboratory Services |
| Kenneth has nearly 30 years of experience in soils and materials testing. He has managed several large laboratory test programs, including several for Superfund projects and other types of hazardous waste sites with net revenues of over $300K each. Kenneth specializes in permeability testing, soil strength, and consolidation testing and some unique tests such as unsaturated flow and air permeability. |
Lumin Ma, Ph.D.
Laboratory Manager, Rock Mechanics Specialist |
| Mr. Ma has a Ph.D. degree in Geo-engineering. Prior to joining Vector Engineering, Inc., Dr. Ma had worked as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow in the University of Nevada, Reno. He had participated in a sealing project for Nuclear High Level Waste Disposal in WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) and long-term drift stability projects for Nuclear High Level Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain. Dr. Ma has thirteen years experience in laboratory study and field investigations on rock engineering in China. He had worked as a senior engineer and project manager in China Coal Research Institute in Beijing. Dr. Ma has excellent skills in numerical analysis (Finite Element Method, Finite Difference Method and Discrete Element Method). |
Krishna Sinha, Ph.D.
Corporate Technical Director |
| Dr. Sinha has 30 years of experience in geomechanics and geotechnical engineering, working on mining and energy projects world-wide. His project experience ranges from research-level rock mechanics for oil shale and geothermal resources to production-related work for surface and underground metallic and non-metallic mines. He also has considerable experience in hard rock drilling optimization, customized laboratory testing programs, development of computer-controlled testing equipment and instrumentation. Dr. Sinha holds masters and doctorate degrees in geological and civil engineering. |
Todd V. Ramey, P.E.
Manager of Engineering Services |
| Mr. Ramey is a registered civil engineer. His experience includes geotechnical engineering; design and analysis of waste containment systems considering static and pseudostatic conditions for slope stability of earthen embankments; and composite liner systems. He has also managed CQA programs. Mr. Ramey is currently responsible for the management of civil and geotechnical engineering services at Vector's Grass Valley, California office. His functions include personnel hiring, project staffing, asset allocation, coordination of work and other departments and offices, finance review, and project management. He also is responsible for the design and permitting of landfill and mining containment facilities such as waste disposal cells, collection systems, solution storage ponds, and heap leach process facilities. |
Thomas V. Woodward, R.G., P.E.
Senior Engineer |
| Mr. Woodward holds a Master's degree in Civil/Environmental engineering and has project management experience in environmental, civil and geotechnical engineering, design, and construction management. He is responsible for all permitting, design and construction aspects of waste containment facilities. Throughout his 23 year career, Mr. Woodward has managed design and technical specification development, construction quality assurance inspection, hydrologic evaluations for landfill and construction projects as well as the financial aspects of waste containment projects. He also manages special projects in the areas of solid waste engineering, and technical services. Mr. Woodward is experienced in developing landfill and transfer station EIA's and AB 939 CEQA compliance documentation. |
Monte Christie, P.E.
Manager of Geotechnical Services |
| Mr. Christie holds a Master's degree in geotechnical engineering and is a registered professional and geotechnical engineer. He has experience with all facets of containment system design for mines and landfills, including final cover and base liner containment systems, geosynthetic applications, unsaturated and saturated flow modeling, grading, field investigations, settlement and slope stability analyses, seismic response and deformation analyses, leachate collection systems, surface water and erosion control, and construction support. In addition to design, Mr. Christie is experienced with the construction quality assurance (CQA) and management of large construction projects. |
Jorge Gutierrez, R.E.A., R.E.P.
Senior Project Manager |
| Mr. Gutierrez has more than 32 years of professional experience in the fields of landfill and landfill gas management, environmental assessment, hazardous waste management, construction engineering and management, and domestic and industrial wastewater treatment. Mr. Gutierrez has served as project director, project manager or principal investigator on more than 500 environmental engineering projects. During the last 17 years, Mr. Gutierrez has managed over 200 solid waste management projects, including design and construction of new landfill cells, landfill gas management systems, landfill gas monitoring systems and feasibility studies for communities in need of solid waste disposal/recycling facilities. Projects developed and managed have ranged from less than $50,000.00 to over $4,000,000.00. |
Richard Erickson
Senior Engineer |
| Mr. Erickson has more than 20 years of managerial, engineering, and technical experience within the waste and mining industries. He is skilled in the areas of management and support of worldwide sales and distributor networks, engineering project management, plastic extrusion manufacturing processes, product research & development programs, and staff supervision and personnel development. Mr. Erickson has a M.S. in Civil Engineering and has consulted on projects, conducted extensive technical seminars and spoken at conferences in more than 25 countries. He has published 17 papers in seven countries and is an active member within ASCE, ASTM, and GSI. |
Jake Russell, P.E.
Project Engineer |
| Mr. Russell is a registered civil engineer in California and Montana with nine years of design experience. He is responsible for civil design and permitting of solid waste and mining projects throughout the United States and abroad. He manages and coordinates completion of design work by staff engineers. He also prepares design reports, civil design drawings in AutoCad, permit documents, geotechnical investigations, seismic hazard studies, stability analyses, and surface hydrology studies. He has experience in construction quality assurance for the installation of liner systems at solid waste landfills. |
Larry Nemetz, P.E.
Senior Engineer |
| Mr. Nemetz is a professional engineer with over 20 years of engineering design and project management experience both in the private and public sectors. He has managed, designed, written specifications and provided analysis for a large variety of heavy industrial, commercial and public works projects, including significant work in metals mining (BHP Billiton, Atlanta Gold and others), hydropower (with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC), and major infrastructure projects (Naval Facilities Engineering Command, NAVFAC). |
Chris Haynes, P.E.
Manager of Technical Services |
| Mr. Haynes has 30 years of professional experience as a project manager. His project experience includes environmental and civil engineering, construction, solid waste, and hazardous waste landfill operations. He has worked with local, state and federal agencies in Washington, Oregon and California to secure permits and meet environmental compliance. As a member of Weyerhaeuser's corporate wide environmental audit team he received Weyerhaeuser Presidents Award for permitting work in Washington. In addition, he implemented federal and state water quality law and policy and coordinated spill responses while a member of the Water Quality Control Board in California. |
Francis M. Sabugal, P.E.
Senior Engineer |
| Mr. Sabugal is a registered civil engineer. Mr. Sabugal is currently responsible for the management of projects in the Philippines. His functions include personnel hiring, project staffing, asset allocation, marketing and project management. He also is responsible for the design, permitting, and construction of landfill such as waste disposal cell containment and liner sysytems, leachate collection and treatmen systems and storage facilities. He is also responsible for managing Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) programs for such facilities. Mr. Sabugal is also highly experienced in planning, construction, operations and financial aspects of SLF's in his previous employment. |
Kenneth R. Criley, C.E.T.
Technical Director of Laboratory Services |
| Kenneth has nearly 30 years of experience in soils and materials testing. He has managed several large laboratory test programs, including several for Superfund projects and other types of hazardous waste sites with net revenues of over $300K each. Kenneth specializes in permeability testing, soil strength, and consolidation testing and some unique tests such as unsaturated flow and air permeability. |
Lumin Ma, Ph.D.
Laboratory Manager, Rock Mechanics Specialist |
| Mr. Ma has a Ph.D. degree in Geo-engineering. Prior to joining Vector Engineering, Inc., Dr. Ma had worked as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow in the University of Nevada, Reno. He had participated in a sealing project for Nuclear High Level Waste Disposal in WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) and long-term drift stability projects for Nuclear High Level Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain. Dr. Ma has thirteen years experience in laboratory study and field investigations on rock engineering in China. He had worked as a senior engineer and project manager in China Coal Research Institute in Beijing. Dr. Ma has excellent skills in numerical analysis (Finite Element Method, Finite Difference Method and Discrete Element Method). |
|
| Colorado |
John Tinucci, P.E., Ph.D.
General Manager, Vector Engineering - Colorado
|
| Dr. Tinucci has over 23 years of experience in the mining consulting field including consulting in rock mechanics, mine engineering, tunneling, software development, and litigation assistance. His duties will involve managing and growing the Colorado office as well as senior project management and business development. Dr Tinucci is a Registered Professional Engineer in California as well as a Certified Project Management Professional. |
Bryan Fritzler, P.E.
Assistant General Manager, Vector Engineering - Colorado
|
| Mr. Fritzler has professional experience in project management, environmental, civil and geotechnical engineering, design, and construction management. He oversees the construction quality assurance services at Vector Engineering and is responsible for coordination with owners, contractors, design engineers, and regulatory agents. He has managed and provided CQA for over 40 million square feet of geosynthetic liner installation, 8 million cubic yards of final cover and earthen material placement and 3 million cubic yards of clay liner. He also prepares CQA reports and other documentation as required. Mr. Fritzler has also served as a resident engineer and was responsible for quality assurance, quality control and construction management functions during construction of sanitary and hazardous landfills. |
Matthew L. Fuller, R.G.
Principal, Vector Colorado LLC
Engineering Geologist |
| Fuller bio |
David Hallman, P.E.,
P.G.
Principal, Vector Colorado LLC
Geotechnical Engineer |
| Mr. Hallman is registered as a Professional Engineer in the States of Colorado, Texas, Wyoming, Idaho, Missouri, and Alaska with over 20 years of experience specializing in geotechnics on a variety of mining and civil engineering projects throughout the U.S. and internationally. Mr. Hallman’s technical experience includes foundation and retaining wall design, liner and seepage cutoff system design and evaluation; static and dynamic stability of embankments and natural slopes; landslide evaluation; rock slope stability; seismic risk assessments; liquefaction evaluations; dynamic deformation analyses; pipeline and open channel design; tailings and water dam design and construction; and design of heap leach and landfill facilities. |
Troy Meyer, P.E.
Principal, Vector Colorado LLC
Geotechnical Engineer |
| Mr. Meyer has over 15 years of experience in project planning, design, and construction oversight for a wide variety of mining, civil, geotechnical, environmental, landfill, and airport projects including design of heap leach facilities, tailings impoundments, and associated facilities for various mining projects; containment system design for solid and hazardous waste sites; geotechnical field investigations; landfill design; and construction CQA and CQC program implementation and management experience on large private and federal government projects. Specific engineering skills include assessment of cover and lining systems, hydrology and flood routing, channel and pipe hydraulics, erosion and sediment transport control, analyzing settlement and consolidation, static and dynamic stability of embankments and soil slopes, water balance modeling, surface-water management, leachate management, and construction sequencing. |
Allan
Breitenbach, P.E.
Senior Geotechnical Engineer, Vector Engineering - Colorado
|
| Mr. Breitenbach has over 30 years of experience involving site investigations, site selection, design, construction, and reclamation of engineered structures in the fields of geotechnical engineering and engineering geology. Project responsibilities generally include the supervision of field investigations, laboratory testing, engineering analyses, cost estimating, design drawings and technical specification preparation, report preparation, permitting, and construction observation and management. Project experience includes involvement with earth/rock and tailings dams; copper and gold heap leach mining facilities; power plants; and large structures involving building foundations, bridges, pipelines, and storage tanks. |
Matthew P. Bachman, P.E.
Vector Colorado LLC
Civil Engineer |
| Mr. Bachman’s experience is rooted in hydrology, hydraulics, water quality, and water resources design and construction projects. He has expertise in hydrologic and hydraulic modeling using computer programs UDSWM, CUHP, Pond Pack, HEC-1, HEC-HMS, and HEC-RAS. Matt also has extensive experience in rainfall and flow frequency analyses, water balance models, pollutant mass balance models, pressure pipe flow systems, pump design, tailings consolidation models, and two dimensional finite element seepage models. His design and construction experience includes work on flood control reservoirs, tailings impoundments, dam spillways, fish-passage spillways, diversion channels, pumped decant pipelines, geomembrane liner design, open channel bank stabilizations, multi-use trails, and stormwater management structures. Matt is extremely proficient with the civil drafting/design software AutoCad Land Development Desktop. He has widespread experience in preparation of construction plans and specifications, cost estimating, preparation of bid documents, construction surveying and staking, soil compaction testing, and construction management. |
Jorge Castillo, M.S.
Geotechnical Engineer, Vector Engineering - Colorado |
| Jorge Luis Castillo is a Civil Engineer with a MSc. in geotechnical engineering (Brazil) and postgraduate course in erosion control engineering (Japan). He has 14 years of experience in civil engineering, including 12 years providing geotechnical services related to mining. His experience in tailings projects in South America and Central America include tailings dams design, foundations design, landfill design, seismic hazards studies and preparation of construction drawings and specifications. He uses geotechnical software based on the rigorous finite element method for embankment seismic stability analysis, seepage design, coupled groundwater flow and mechanical analysis for soils consolidation. He has also experience in seismic hazard studies to determinate the maximum seismic acceleration. In engineering research, he developed software for analysis and design of flexible pavement. |
Richard Pearce, P.E.
Vector Colorado LLC
Senior Water Resources Engineer |
| Mr. Pearce specializes in water resources engineering, and his primary areas of expertise are hydrology, hydraulics, geomorphology, sediment transport, GIS, and mapping. He has over ten years of design experience relating to preliminary and final design for a variety of hydraulic structures, including estimating project costs, writing specifications, and preparing bid documents. He is also familiar with various federal, state, and local permitting procedures, as well as coordinating wetlands delineation and mitigation procedures. He has extensive field experience in the installation, collection and monitoring of stream and climatology data stations, as well as survey for hydrologic and hydraulic studies. His experience also includes analyses related to project economics, DCF, alternatives selection, statistics and political and economic risk assessment. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and worked in 20 states and throughout Latin America. |
Edward McDonald, P.E.
Geological Engineer, Vector Engineering - Colorado |
| Mr. McDonald has over 10 years of engineering experience, specializing in geological and geotechnical studies. His technical expertise includes: assessment of seismic hazards and risk in the Americas and Africa; geologic hazards assessment and geological site characterization; finite element and finite difference geotechnical modeling for slope stability, consolidation, and seepage. Mr. McDonald has worked on a variety of design projects in the western United States, South and Central America, and the Caribbean as both a project level engineer and a project manager. |
Charles J. Khoury, P.E.
Geotechnical Engineer, Vector Engineering - Colorado |
| Mr. Khoury has 21 years of geotechnical and civil engineering experience that include mining projects in the United State and around the world. Projects include heap leach pads, tailing impoundments, waste dumps, foundation systems and retaining structures. The projects ranged in location from the Western United States to Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, Africa and the Far East. Mr. Khoury has also worked on numerous transportation, industrial, commercial and residential projects in different types of geology and soil conditions in several parts of the United States. He has also designed, managed, and participated in many subsurface exploration programs which tested and sampled various soil and rock types. |
J. Larry Breckenridge, P.E.
Vector Colorado LLC
Hydrogeologist / Senior Engineer |
| Mr. Breckenridge has ... |
Todd M. Lewis, P.E.
Vector Colorado LLC
Senior Water Resources Engineer |
| Mr. Lewis specializes in water resources engineering. His primary areas of expertise are hydrology, hydraulics, sediment transport, and numerical modeling. He has design experience relating to the preliminary and final design of hydraulic structures for landfills, dams, and various other specific applications in the United States. His areas of specialization include surface water control systems design, surface water impoundment planning, spillway sizing, culvert design, pressure systems design, pump selection, and incremental damage assessments (of flooding caused by dam failures). Mr. Lewis also has experience in stochastic water balance modeling for various mines in the United States, Southeast Asia, and South America; numerical modeling of erosion and sedimentation in natural river systems; and the design of scour protection for a variety of applications. |
Amy L. Hudson, REM
Vector Colorado LLC
Project Hydrogeologist |
| Mrs. Hudson is a Registered Environmental Manager (REM) with seven years of experience as a hydrogeology consultant for a variety of industries. Her experience has included managing environmental investigation and remediation projects, overseeing installation and completion of monitoring wells, groundwater sampling, aquifer testing, health and safety monitoring, floodplain analysis, data validation, and wetland delineation and mitigation. Ms. Hudson has experience with groundwater modeling of aquifer systems for mining projects and environmental remediation projects (MODFLOW, AquiferTest, WinFlow, and Groundwater Vistas) and surface water modeling for flood hazard analysis and floodplain delineation (Quick-2, HEC-RAS, adICPR, HEC-FFA, HY8). |
Peter D. Montaño
Vector Colorado LLC
Staff Engineer |
| Peter Montaño is a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. He has worked as a staff engineer with Vector Colorado since June of 2004. As a developing engineer he has successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam. Peter’s experience includes transportation construction CQA and administration, soil and concrete testing, and geotechnical drilling as well as AutoCAD and Land Development Desktop (LDD) abilities. |
Alyssa M. Kohlman
Vector Colorado LLC
Staff Engineer |
| Ms. Kohlman has six years of experience as a geological engineer in Colorado and Texas. Ms. Kohlman’s technical expertise includes conducting geotechnical and geologic hazard investigations, global stability analyses of slopes and retaining walls, and construction observation on a variety of projects. |
Adrien Butler
Vector Colorado LLC
E.I.T. |
| Adrien Butler is a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. She has worked as a staff engineer with Vector Colorado since January of 2005. As a developing engineer, Adrien has successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) in April of 2004. Adrien’s experience includes knowledge of SLOPE/W, gINT, and RockWare geotechnical programs. She also has a basic knowledge of AutoCAD Land Development Desktop and AquiferTest software programs. |
|
| Canada |
Carlos Vargas, M.S.
Senior Biologist
|
| Mr. Vargas is a registered biologist since 1994, with an Master.s in biology from the University of Missouri, St. Louis. He has more than 14 years of experience performing terrestrial and marine biological assessments in support of social and environmental baseline studies, environmental and social impact assessments, environmental assessments for exploration, closure plans (revegetation, biological maintenance and biological monitoring), adequacy programs and environmental management programs. His work is principally in mining, hydrocarbons, energy and heavy industry and his experience includes environmental evaluations, public audiences and hearings in about 200 projects in Peru. Mr. Vargas speaks Spanish, English and French. |
David Hallman
Title, Location, Here
Mining Engineer |
| Mr. Hallman ... |
Troy Meyer
Title, Location, Here
Engineering Geologist |
| Mr. Meyer ... |
|
| Mexico |
Ken Davila
Director of Operations, Mexico
|
| Mr. Davila has served as the construction manager, resident engineer or lead CQA monitor responsible for the construction quality assurance testing and observation of soil and synthetic materials placement at landfills, mines, and other sites. Ken has specialized in construction management and quality assurance of all aspects of construction including heap leach pads, tailings disposal facilities, water reservoirs, landfills, concrete and pavement installation, bridges and roadways. He has performed field studies including geotechnical site investigations and geological and geophysical surveys. He was also in charge of site remediation and all aspects of underground storage task closures and hazardous waste investigations. Mr. Davila is the liaison for Vector's Mexican operations and is based in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico. |
David Hallman
Title, Location, Here
Mining Engineer |
| Mr. Hallman ... |
Troy Meyer
Title, Location, Here
Engineering Geologist |
| Mr. Meyer ... |
|
South America
Argentina
|
Mark E. Smith, P.E., G.E.
President, Director of South American Operations, Vector Argentina S.A. |
| Mr. Smith is the president, chief executive officer and director of Vector's South American operations. He is a civil and geotechnical engineer with over 25 years of experience in mining, energy, waste management and other infrastructure works. Mr. Smith’s project experience ranges from California to Chile and Thailand to Kazakhstan, including some of the largest heap leach, tailings disposal, energy supply and waste disposal facilities in the world. His major clients include Barrick, Phelps Dodge, CVRD, BHP Billiton, Placer Dome, Centromin Peru, Codelco Chile, Chevron-Texaco, Shell Oil, Anglo, Waste Management, and Allied Waste Industries. He has dozens of published papers and contributions to books, sites on design review boards and for five years was on California’s geotechnical engineer licensing and review committee. |
Silverio Prota
General Manager, Vector Argentina S.A. |
| Silverio is a senior environmental engineer with 12 years of experience. He has managed over 120 environmental consulting, energy, mining, and solid waste projects in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and the Unites States. His experience includes management of large, multi-disciplinary teams for environmental site assessments, in-situ remediation, human health risk assessments, environmental impact assessments, permitting and site redevelopment. He is fluent in English and Spanish. |
Bernardo Parizek, M.S.
Biologist & Environmental Specialist, Vector Argentina S.A. |
| Bernardo has a decade of experience performing and directing environmental studies for mining, waste management, energy, gas pipelines, and other heavy industrial projects. His experience includes preparation of environmental impact studies in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Peru; environmental baseline studies in Argentina and Peru, and permit facilitation in Argentina. In addition to his consulting experience, Bernardo has published several professional papers and taught university classes in the area of environmental sciences. He is fluent in Spanish and English. |
Leonardo Minghinelli
Environmental Geologist and Hydrologist, Vector Argentina S.A. |
| Leonardo is responsible for project management; environmental site assessment coordination; EIS preparation; underground water well construction supervision and inspection; environmental management plan and contingency plan preparation and implementation on large construction projects; ISO 14000 system implementation; elaboration of specifications for hydrogeologic, hydro-geochemical and sanitation engineering. His experience includes preparation of more than 200 technical and economic proposals; environmental course administration; ground water sampling; chemical analyses; aquifer measurement and interpretation, hydrocarbon spill mapping and remediation engineering. Fluent in Spanish and English. |
|
| Brazil
|
Sérgio Brito, M.S.
General Manager, BVP Engenharia Ltda. |
| Sérgio is a rock mechanics specialist with 40 years of experience working in mining and hydroelectric projects. His specialty areas are pit slopes, underground mining, tailings dams, hydroelectric dams and highway slopes. Sérgio speaks Portuguese and English fluently. |
Paulo Cella, M.S.
Chief Engeneering Geologist, Vector Brazil & Sérgio Brito Consultoria |
| Paulo is a senior engineering geologist with experience in mining, waste management, and slope stability. His more than ten years of experience include iron, gold and copper mining as well as hydroelectric and general civil engineering applications. Paulo is fluent in Portuguese and English. |
|
| Chile
|
Mark E. Smith, P.E., G.E.
President, Director of South American Operations, Vector Chile Limitada. |
| Mr. Smith is the president, chief executive officer and director of Vector's South American operations. He is a civil and geotechnical engineer with over 25 years of experience in mining, energy, waste management and other infrastructure works. Mr. Smith’s project experience ranges from California to Chile and Thailand to Kazakhstan, including some of the largest heap leach, tailings disposal, energy supply and waste disposal facilities in the world. His major clients include Barrick, Phelps Dodge, CVRD, BHP Billiton, Placer Dome, Centromin Peru, Codelco Chile, Chevron-Texaco, Shell Oil, Anglo, Waste Management, and Allied Waste Industries. He has dozens of published papers and contributions to books, sites on design review boards and for five years was on California’s geotechnical engineer licensing and review committee. |
Kyle Crompton, N.I.C.E.T.
General Manager, Vector Chile Limitada. |
| Kyle is an engineering geologist with 20 years experience in mining and solid waste management, and he spent the last 10 years living and working in South America. His experience includes most of the gold heap leach and copper SX/EW plants in Chile, as well as projects in Argentina and Peru. While his focus is heap leach technology, Kyle also works extensively in the solid and hazardous waste fields. He is fluent in english and Spanish. |
Krishna Sinha, Ph.D.
Senior Geotechnical Engineer / Advisor |
| Dr. Sinha has 30 years of experience in geomechanics and geotechnical engineering, working on mining and energy projects world-wide. His project experience ranges from research-level rock mechanics for oil shale and geothermal resources to production-related work for surface and underground metallic and non-metallic mines. He also has considerable experience in hard rock drilling optimization, customized laboratory testing programs, development of computer-controlled testing equipment and instrumentation. Dr. Sinha holds masters and doctorate degrees in geological and civil engineering.
|
Joel Peters, N.I.C.E.T.
Regional Manager of Technical Services, Vector Chile Limitada |
| Joel is responsible for managing all South American based CQA and resident engineering services, including directing technical functions, supervising training, reviewing project results, providing logistics and liaison service with clients, and performing detailed investigations and forensic studies. His duties also include inspection of fabrication facilities and geomembrane production plants. In addition to liner systems, his experience includes most construction materials. Joel is fluent in English and Spanish. |
Cristian Claveria M.
Senior Engineer, Vector Chile Limitada |
| Cristian performs engineering works for different mining projects, specially related to evaluation, design, construction and operation of high and low grade ore stockpiles. Participates in geometric design and seismic analysis for liner systems (HDPE, LLDPE and PVC geomembrane); collection systems; process ponds; earthmovement and surface preparation; haulage planning; construction activity quality control inspection and coordination (CQA Inspector); technical specification preparation; proposals and cost estimate preparation. Cristian is fluent in Spanish and English.
|
Carlos Arellano Cabello
Mechanical & Civil Engineer, Vector Chile Limitada |
| Carlos has 20 years of professional experience in construction management, pre-operational testing, commissioning, plant start-up, project evaluation, cost estimating, feasibility studies, conceptual design, materials and equipment application development, operation and maintenance in mining operations. He holds bachelor degrees in engineering sciences and civil/mechanical engineering. His key clients include BHP Billiton, Anglo American, Collahuasi, and los Pelambres, Carlos lives in Santiago, Chile and speaks English and Spanish.
|
|
| Colombia |
Aileen Gelvez
General Manager, Vector Colombia S.R.L.
|
| Ms. Gelvez is a geologist with a Master's degree in management and a bachelor's degree in corporate social responsibility. She has more than 17 years of experience in environmental consulting, geology, community relations and corporate social responsibility for the oil and mining industries, the last 9 of which have been in the Bolivian oil & gas industry. She is bilingual. |
David Hallman
Title, Location, Here
Mining Engineer |
| Marc is ... |
Troy Meyer
Title, Location, Here
Engineering Geologist |
| Mr. Meyer ... |
|
| Peru
|
Mark E. Smith, P.E., G.E.
President, Director of South American Operations, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Smith is the president, chief executive officer and director of Vector's South American operations. He is a civil and geotechnical engineer with over 25 years of experience in mining, energy, waste management and other infrastructure works. Mr. Smith’s project experience ranges from California to Chile and Thailand to Kazakhstan, including some of the largest heap leach, tailings disposal, energy supply and waste disposal facilities in the world. His major clients include Barrick, Phelps Dodge, CVRD, BHP Billiton, Placer Dome, Centromin Peru, Codelco Chile, Chevron-Texaco, Shell Oil, Anglo, Waste Management, and Allied Waste Industries. He has dozens of published papers and contributions to books, sites on design review boards and for five years was on California’s geotechnical engineer licensing and review committee. |
Scott Elfen, P.E.
General Manager, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Elfen has been working in Latin America since 1988 and has been living in Peru since 1999. He supervises all of Vector's South American operations and has significant hands-on experience in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru. He is a registered civil engineer who has spent most of his career in the mining and solid municipal waste management fields. His experience includes design and construction of heap leach pad, tailings impoundments, industrial, and petroleum waste managements projects worldwide. In addition, he has experience in design, quality assurance and remediation of lining systems including 15 million square meters of lined facilities. He has worked on most of the world's largest conventional, valley fill and on/off leach pads. |
Thomas Furst, Ph.D.
Environmental Services Manager, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Furst has 25 years experience in environmental management, much of which has been working in Peru and South America. He holds masters and doctorial degrees in soil science and agronomy, and his experience includes: management and design of remediation projects, preparation of environmental impact assessments, field audits and baseline studies. In the remediation area he has significant experience in oilfield and hydrocarbon applications, and heavy industry including mines and airports. He was the site manager for environment, health and safety during the Lima airport expansion; directed several audits and environmental studies for the Peru oil and gas fields. Currently, manages and coordinates all environmental projects for Vector Peru including EIAs, ESIAs, and Environmental Audits. |
Todd Schrauf, P.E.
Hydrology and Hydrogeology Services Manager, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Schrauf has been working in Latin America since 1997 and has spent seven years living in Peru. He has 30 years of professional experience worldwide including mining and environmental projects in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela, as well as Australia, Europe and North America. His expertise includes mine dewatering and water management, water resource and supply evaluation, aquifer testing and analysis, environmental investigation and remediation, and numerical modeling of groundwater and gas flow and solute transport. |
Denys Parra, M.S.
Engineering Manager, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Parra is a civil and geotechnical engineer with a master degree and 15 years of experience. He is responsible for the supervision and direction of the Peru-based engineering services, including planning and directing geotechnical investigations, analysis and design of leach pads and tailings dams, landfills, waste dumps, and other geotechnical structures. His clients include Yauliyacu, Antamina, Pierina, Comarsa, San Simón, Aruntani, Pampa de Cobre, Pan American and Cerro Verde in Peru, La Escondida, Mantos Blancos and Mantoverde in Chile, and CVRD in Brazil. Denys is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and English. |
Sean Currie, P.Eng.
Technical Services Manager, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Currie is a civil engineer who has been working in Latin America since 1997. He is responsible for the supervision and direction of Vector's Peruvian and Central American field services. He has experience performing engineering fieldwork in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the US in both dry and wet climates. Mr. Currie has been a resident CQA engineer for several mine construction projects where his responsibilities included geotechnical investigations, engineering design, and construction quality assurance field services. His experience includes over 3 million square meters of geosynthetics installation including HDPE, LLDPE, GCL, geocomposites, geonet and geotextile for both the mining and waste management industries. |
Anthony Sanford
Senior Geologist, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Sanford is a geologist with 23 years of experience of which the last 8 years have been in Peru. He has an MBA in Mineral Resources Management and his experience includes participation and coordination of the following projects in Latin America: closure documents on Pierina, Tintaya and Unidad de Producción Carolina,; environmental baseline studies for Constancia, Magistral, Quechua and the access components of Rio Blanco; Environmental Impact Assessments on San José (Argentina) and Corihuarmi; exploration environmental study for Marcobre. He has also been involved in the Acid Rock Drainage (ARD) studies on a number of projects including San José, Corihuarmi, Magistral, El Galeno, Corani, Pucamarca and the Rosaura tailings facility. He has written an academic paper on mine closure issues in Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina and has experience in environmental, health and safety management systems. He speaks English and is competent in Spanish. |
Ann Pacey, M.S.
Senior Environmental Consultant, M.S., Vector Peru S.A.C.
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| Ms. Pacey is a chemical engineer with 27 years of experience, with 19 years living and working in South America. Her specialty is directing environmental studies for energy, mining and other heavy industrial projects. This includes environmental audits, baseline studies, environmental impact studies, public audiences and the overall permitting process. In the last 5 years she has dedicated an increasing amount of time to social and community issues, particularly disclosure of technical and environmental information to community members. |
Manlio Santillan
Civil Engineer, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Santillan is Civil Engineer with 10 years of experience in engineering of mining projects and hydraulic works. Its experience includes the analysis and design of leaching batteries, rock waste disposal, processes ponds, tailing dams, roads, diversion works and other mining facilities. Manlio also has performed quality assurance during leach pad construction mainly in Yanacocha. |
Carlos Huamán, M.S.
Geomechanical Manager, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Huamán is a civil and geotechnical engineer with 13 year of experience and a masters degree in geotechnical engineering. He is responsible for the development of engineering projects, including geotechnical exploration and investigation planning; seismic risk analysis; soil and rock slope stability; analysis and design of tailings dams and heap leach projects; mine waste dumps; and other geotechnical facilities. |
Alex Sánchez, P.E.
Environmental Engineer, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Sánchez is an industrial and environmental engineer with19 years of experience, specifically in the mining sector. His experience includes the coordination and management of diverse environmental projects, environmental impact assessments, mitigation and remediation, and environmental planning and closures. He is an environmental adviser to communities for Environmental Evaluations of Exploration (Categories A, B, C), Studies of Environmental Impact, Environmental Closing Plans, Diagnoses, and Remediation Plans. To date, he has presented, displayed and defended around 60 EIAs to authorities, as well as the communities involved in Public Hearings and Informative Meetings. |
Manlio Santillan
Civil Engineer, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Santillan is Civil Engineer with 10 years of experience in engineering of mining projects and hydraulic works. Its experience includes the analysis and design of leaching batteries, rock waste disposal, processes ponds, tailing dams, roads, diversion works and other mining facilities. Manlio also has performed quality assurance during leach pad construction mainly in Yanacocha. |
Carlos Iparraguirre
Hydraulic & Civil Engineer, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Iparraguirre has been working in Peru since 1986. He is involved in Vector's South American operations since 2000 and has experience in projects in Brazil, Mexico and Peru. Carlos is a registered civil engineer who has spent most of his career in the hydrology and drainage fields. His experience includes mining hydrology, mining drainage works, tailings drainage facilities and erosion control. In addition, he has experience in environmental hydrology, river hydraulics, road drainage, dam design and water resources management. Besides he is assistant professor on hydrology and water resources management fields in the Civil Enginering Faculty, Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria, the leader polytechnic public university in Peru. |
Carola Sepúlveda Benítez
Chemical & Environmental Engineer, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Carola is a chemical engineer with a Diploma in environmental engineering and diversified international experience. She has significant experience in the mining, chemical and paper industries and specializes in clean technologies, management and treatment of liquid and solid residues and effluents, flocculation and sedimentation of fine particles.. She has studied, lived and worked in Chile, Peru, Berlin, Austria, Spain and Australia. |
Mario Roca
Senior Geotechnical Engineer, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Roca has ten years of experience in geotechnical engineering, construction and engineering design. His works include construction supervision, QA/QC, quality control and assurance of geosynthetic soils and concrete, supervision of leach pads construction, tailings dumps, process ponds, channels, waste dumps, accesses, buildings, etc. Mr. Roca has participated in geotechnical investigation and design of mine facilities such as leach pads, solution collection systems and accesses roads, as well as drawings, proposals and final reports elaboration. In addition, he has worked in planning, programming and construction buildings for several projects in Lima. |
Hugo Aduvire, Ph.D.
Mining Engineering, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Aduvire is a mining engineer with Masters in General and Applied Hydrology and the Prevention of Labor Risks (security, industrial hygiene, ergonomics and psychology), a Ph.D. in Mining Engineering (development of mineral resources and public works, geotechnics and environment) and a Diploma in Environmental Contamination. He has specialized in mine closure and abandonment; engineering and environmental technology; and the application and management of the science and technology. He has 16 years of experience. Spanish is his first language and English is second (intermediate). |
Fernando Larroza, Ph.D.
Senior Hydrogeologist, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Larroza has 18 years of experience in underground water studies within countries like Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru. He has experience in handling hydrogeology related projects, design and construction of large tubular wells, and piezometers for water supply; as well as in studies of vulnerability, risk and protection of waterborne contamination. |
Javier Alarcón Cervera
Senior Social Consultant, Vector Perú S.A.C. |
| Mr. Alarcón has a degree in Political Science, and has experience in society and rural economy, social movements and political systems. He has worked with various organizations on the subjects of economic development, social management of resources, social poverty and policies, strategic and operational planning, and conflict resolution. |
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Australasia
Australia
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Michael Strachan
Regional Manager, Australasia |
| Mr. Strachan is a metallurgist with over 37 years experience in design, construction and operations of large scale metals extraction facilities including copper and nickel hydro- and pyro-met facilities. His early career was spent acquiring practical experience in a major copper mining and smelting operation in Zambia. For the last 28 years he has carried increasing levels of responsibility for process and project implementation particularly in the area of smelter, smelter gas treatment facilities and sulphuric acid plants and more recently in nickel hydrometallurgy technology development on projects in South America, Central America, North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Australasia. Michael manages Vector's Australasian region as well as the nickel group. He is bilingual. |
Dr. Mark Steemson, P.E.
Senior Project Engineer |
| Dr. Steemson has over 20 years experience in process development and engineering. He has process development, consulting and engineering experience in the nickel, copper, zinc and magnesium industries, and has been responsible for the development of the processing route for three nickel laterite projects and several patented bioleach based processes. Dr. Steemson has worked as both client representative and design engineer on a number of feasibility studies, including four nickel laterite projects, a zinc refinery and two magnesium project. |
Lourdes Valle
Metallurgical Engineer |
| Ms. Valle is an accomplished multilingual metallurgical engineer with significant experience in nickel laterite engineering and technology, H2S plant and HPAL (High Pressure Acid Leach) Nickel plant commissioning, and operation and research and development. She has contributed to a successful and cohesive process unit and engineering group and is skilled in process modeling using METSIM and IDEAS process simulation and control software. Ms Valle is highly skilled in control room operation (DCS), field operation, instrumentation (especially nuclear gauges), and mechanical run-in of plant equipment. She is fluent in English, Filipino (Tagalog) and conversational in Nihonggo and Spanish. |
Kim Ngoviky
Senior Process Engineer |
| Mr. Ngoviky has worked in the metals industry for 8 years in Canada, the U.S., Australia, and Chile. He is experienced in hydrometallurgy (Ni, Co, Cu, U, Au), pyrometallurgy (Ni), titanium and steel, and combustion systems. His expertise is enhanced by conceptual and feasibility studies, basic and detail engineering, plant engineering, exposure to business development and international experience. Mr. Ngoviky is currently working on various nickel projects, with a focus on Ni hydrometallurgy, cost estimation and design. |
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| Philippines
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Francis M. Sabugal, P.E.
General Manager, Vector Philippines
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| Mr. Sabugal is a registered civil engineer. Mr. Sabugal is currently responsible for the management of projects in the Philippines. His functions include personnel hiring, project staffing, asset allocation, marketing and project management. He also is responsible for the design, permitting, and construction of landfill such as waste disposal cell containment and liner sysytems, leachate collection and treatmen systems and storage facilities. He is also responsible for managing Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) programs for such facilities. Mr. Sabugal is also highly experienced in planning, construction, operations and financial aspects of SLF's in his previous employment. |
David Hallman
Title, Location, Here
Mining Engineer |
| Mr. Hallman .... |
Troy Meyer
Title, Location, Here
Engineering Geologist |
| Mr. Meyer .... |
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