Team

John Wyche

Managing Director

Since starting his career as a mining engineer in 1982 John has worked on open cut and underground metals, coal and industrial mineral projects throughout Australia, the South Pacific, South East Asia, China, Mongolia, North America, Mexico, South America and Africa. After eight years working in some of Australia’s foremost coal and copper gold projects, John founded AMDAD in late 1989 with the aim of applying sound mining engineering practice to a range of new and developing projects. More than 20 years later and with more than 100 projects completed personally the company has grown but John’s motivation to deliver innovative, yet practical, mine designs remains the same. He has expanded his expertise by completing a degree in Commerce and by taking every opportunity to learn more about the geology and mineral processing aspects of each project. He believes that strategic mine planning which considers the mine as one part of the overall project, including the specific goals of each project owner, is essential to maximising project value. Today John is fortunate to be supported by a team of like mined professionals who share a pride in their work and whose complementary skills ensure an ever improving mine planning capability.

Chris Desoe

Director

Chris has 28 years of experience in hardrock mining including evaluation, design, research, development and operation in underground and open cut mines. Strengths are particularly in mine design, evaluation, optimisation and development, including planning and managing evaluation and development programs. Studies, planning and development experience includes over 100 mining projects throughout Australia, South East Asia, South America and the Middle East. Prior to joining AMDAD in 1995, Chris gained 12years of valuable experience in large and small Australian operations, mining copper, lead, zinc and gold. This experience covered underground and open cut mining in technical and management roles.

Drew Herbert

Drew’s experience is drawn from large scale, low cost open cut and underground hard rock environments. Involvement in both planning and operations has provided Drew with a solid foundation for consulting services. Since joining AMDAD in 2001 Drew’s work has involved design, scheduling and optimisation for large and medium scale hard rock open cut and underground mines.

Peter Allen

Peter has 27 years experience in the minerals industry including 11 years as an exploration and mining geologist in a wide range of hard rock operations throughout Australia and Papua New Guinea. As a geologist Peter has worked at all phases of resources definition and as a mine geologist he has worked in medium to large size open cut and underground operations. With AMDAD Peter has been responsible for open cut mine planning studies that have involved optimisation, detailed design and scheduling for small to large scale metalliferous and industrial minerals projects.

Doug Parbery

Doug has 21 years of experience in the mining industry including seven years of site experience covering both mining operations and planning in demanding underground hard rock environments. This mix gives Doug a better appreciation of the need to ensure that mine plans are workable in practice as well as being efficient on paper. During his 14 years with AMDAD Doug’s work has involved detailed design and scheduling of underground and open cut hard rock, together with mine planning of open cut coal mines. His tasks have included reserves modelling, design of excavation sequences, optimisation of mining methods and haulage profiles and detailed scheduling of large equipment fleets through the various stages of mining.

Carl Knight

Starting from a successful career in Mechanical Drafting, Carl learned mining on the job as a mine design draftsman at Mount Isa. His skill and interest in the work quickly saw him assigned more responsibility and he expanded into mine design and scheduling eventually achieving the title of Lead Mine Engineer. Over four years at AMDAD Carl has continued to develop his mining skills and has played key roles in mine operations planning and project evaluation for several major Australian underground mines.

Steven Weckert

After completing a research Masters degree on anchorage failure mechanisms of rockbolts in 2002 Steven gained underground operational experience as a miner and engineer at BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam Mine. He advanced rapidly in the geotechnical department to become the Senior Geotechnical Engineer. His career at AMDAD covers a much broader mining engineering role but his geotechnical knowledge and experience gained at one of the world’s leading underground mines brings an added dimension to the services offered by AMDAD.

Ralph Smith

Ralph has a high level of expertise with Surpac mine planning software having worked for Surpac Software International for over six years. During this time Ralph worked as a Support Consultant to Sales and Marketing Manager. In these roles his experience has covered a broad range of exploration and mining projects from metalliferous to coal, and open cut to underground. Prior to this, Ralph gained important experience in underground hardrock mining over nine years at Que River and Hellyer Mines in Tasmania, progressing from Survey Technician to Mine Surveyor then Mining Technician. With this mix, Ralph’s experience has covered both the development of sophisticated computer-based resource models and mine designs as well as the translation of those models and designs into practical excavations. Since joining AMDAD in 2000 Ralph’s work has involved optimisation, design and scheduling for metalliferous, coal, sand and industrial minerals projects.

Tim Cartledge

After graduating, Tim gained initial experience over five years as a geotechnical engineer with Coffey Geosciences. During this time, in addition to civil projects, Tim gained valuable experience in tunnel and quarry projects and exposure to hard rock open cut mining projects. In 2010-2011 Tim broadened his mining experience as geotechnical engineer for the Black Star and Handlebar Hill Open Cut operations at Mount Isa. At AMDAD Tim is broadening his general mine planning skills, while his geotechnical skills add depth to the services offered by AMDAD.

Darrienne Thobaven

Darrienne is a mining engineer with 20 years of experience. She gained initial open cut experience over five years at large gold and nickel mines in Western Australia before a short period with Surpac Software. After this, Darrienne strengthened her operations experience at a senior level over seven years in medium and large scale open cuts in WA, NT, PNG and Guinea, including short, medium and long term planning and supervisory roles. This experience then underpinned seven years in Perth in consulting and software management roles, including five years supporting and managing Gemcom’s Surpac and Whittle products. Darrienne's substantial operations experience and mine planning software skills add depth to AMDAD's capabilities and enhance its ability to provide practical mining solutions using computer-assisted methods.