Orway Mineral Consultants' success comes down to its team of highly skilled and experienced metallurgists and process engineers who are experts in their fields of mineral processing.
Brian Putland
Principal Metallurgist & Managing Director
President, Orway Canada
Brian has over 30 years experience in the minerals processing sector. He is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy with vast knowledge of global mineral processing operations.
In his current position as Managing Director of Orway Mineral Consultants, Brian provides specialist consulting services in flowsheet design, process engineering, gold technologies and plant optimisation in addition to his management duties. He has strong leadership skills developed through experience in managing multidiscipline teams within Orway and onsite plant operations. He is recognised as one of the world's leading comminution circuit design and optimisation experts and was instrumental in developing Orway's design and optimisation tools and methodology. He has audited and optimised more than 150 comminution circuits during his career and has been involved in successfully implementing around 100 comminution circuit designs. All this practical experience and extensive knowledge are made available to Orway clients.
Brian led the Company's expansion into North America and is President of Orway Mineral Consultants Canada and a Director of Lycopodium Minerals APAC. Recognised for his specialist knowledge, Brian is regularly called upon to contribute papers and presentations to global industry conferences. Brian is also a founding Director of the joint venture between Orway Mineral Consultants and Process IQ to establish Orway IQ — a world-leading provider of Remote Optimisation Consulting and Coaching (MillROC) services to clients throughout the world.
Leigh Siddall
Principal Process Engineer and Director
Leigh has over three decades of experience in the mining sector as a consultant engineer on global projects. He is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and Director of Orway Mineral Consultants.
As a key member of the Orway management team, Leigh is responsible for delivering process engineering studies and commissioning projects. His key skills and experience in design and operation include comminution, gravity circuits; CIL/CIP circuits; gold room design; flotation and tailings disposal.
Leigh has extensive plant commissioning experience, working on over 25 process plants ranging in size from 280 000 t/a to 25 Mt/a in various roles from commissioning engineer to commissioning manager. Leigh brings this wealth of practical knowledge to his process design projects, engineering consulting, due diligence and project optimisations.
Fred Kock
Principal Metallurgist & Director
Fred has enjoyed a distinguished and long-standing career in the mining industry (+30 years) stretching back to 1987 in South Africa. Fred has extensive experience in production, commissioning, flowsheet development and studies, having worked as a Plant Metallurgist, Plant Superintendent and Manager as well as a Senior, Group, Lead and Project Metallurgist. Fred's primary technical expertise focuses on comminution (crushing, scrubbing, milling, HPGR) and gold processing (gold sulphide flotation, bio-hydrometallurgy, leach and carbon circuits). In recent years Fred has dedicated his professional experience to comminution circuit design, optimisation and testwork management and process flowsheet development for gold (conventional and bacterial oxidation) and copper (bacterial oxidation). This includes testwork definition and management through to feasibility level process engineering design.
Fred is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and a Member of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. He is a key member of the Orway management team and has been a Director since 2011. In 2018, he was appointed Managing Director of the joint venture between Orway Mineral Consultants and Process IQ to establish Orway IQ, a world-leading provider of Remote Optimisation Consulting and Coaching (MillROC) services to clients throughout the world.
Rebecca Sciberras
Principal Metallurgist
After a 25-year mining industry career, Rebecca now specialises in technical support in computer modelling, design and optimisation of comminution circuits. She is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
As part of the Orway team, Rebecca has worked for mining operations worldwide with key skills and experience managing new comminution circuit designs and upgrades, including scoping, pre-feasibility, bankable feasibility and definitive feasibility studies.
Rebecca's technical expertise centres on comminution circuit optimisations, involving qualitative and quantitative assessment of circuit performance and developing strategies that address identified issues. With an eye for detail and strong computer modelling, data analytics and communication skills, Rebecca has serviced clients' needs in a consulting context and as a comminution circuit optimisation coach via the MillROC platform by Orway IQ.
Rebecca also provides key client support in developing and delivering technical training for comminution circuit operation, targeting various audiences from operators to management.
Grenvil Dunn
Principal Engineer
A mining industry veteran, Grenvil has over 50 years of industry experience, including 26 years in hydrometallurgy operations, before starting and operating his own consultancy. His extensive experience covers work in nickel, cobalt, uranium, gold, lithium and PGM.
He joined the team at Orway in 2008 as a sub-consultant to bolster the Orway team in the area of hydrometallurgy through his Company Hydromet after a range of management and consulting roles across the globe. Grenvil represents Orway as Principal Hydrometallurgist on projects requiring his rare expertise.
Grenvil's key skills and experience include plant design, flowsheet development, pilot plant testwork campaigns and provision of the full suite of services related to basic engineering process packages. His project experience includes studies, reviews and designs relating to nickel, cobalt, copper, gold, uranium, lithium, scandium, selenium, and tellurium.
Complementing his vast skills and experience is work in batch and pilot plant management and commissioning. Grenvil's work is widely published, and he has multiple professional affiliations, including Pr Eng (RSA), C Engineer (UK) and is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. He has also provided time to assist the International Atomic Energy Agency on projects in developing countries. He gives back to the industry as a guest lecturer to undergraduate Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering students.
Bao Nhu
Principal Metallurgist
Bao has over twenty years of experience in operations and engineering consulting in the minerals industry. At Orway, he has provided clients with metallurgical support and services in process design and optimisation, especially for comminution and beneficiation. Over his career, Bao has worked in plant operations, including commissioning, optimisation and production for sites in Australia, Asia, North & South America and Africa.
Bao's skills and experience include process design for comminution and beneficiation plants and expertise in computer modelling, data analysis and flowsheet development, as well as flotation optimisation and modelling for both sulphide flotation, especially with controlled potential sulphidisation (CPS) for oxide minerals.
Bao is a key member of the Orway team. He has excellent computer modelling skills and has managed the development of Orway's modelling software. He has also taken on a significant role in developing the capabilities of Orway's office in Canada.
Andrea Festa
Principal Metallurgist
Andrea, who manages Orway's North American consulting arm in Canada, has over 35 years of experience in the minerals industry and is a Director of Orway Mineral Consultants Canada.
In the past 15 years, his primary focus has been designing and optimising comminution circuits, including modelling, equipment sizing and circuit selection. Before joining Orway, Andrea worked in zinc plant operations, onsite management roles and commissioning of mineral processing plants in North, Central and South America. Andrea also has a background in process control with site skills in the implementation and tuning of regulatory control as well as advanced control systems.
Andrea's key skills and experience include the operation and commissioning of hydrometallurgical and mineral processing facilities, process design, testwork design and supervision and the modelling of comminution circuits.