Team

John Wyche

Managing Director

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 and 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-minded 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 12 years 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.

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.

During his 17 years 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 15 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.

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.

Taylor Elms

Taylor gained initial experience as a mining engineer working for mining contractor Downer at the Commodore and Meandu open cut mines. There Taylor established skills and knowledge of open cut mining practices and planning including operation of haul trucks, preparation of reports, contractual reporting and costings, preparation of short and medium term mine designs and schedules, project engineering, and optimisation of truck and shovel fleet. Following this, Taylor gained consulting experience at Mungari and Tomingley open cut mines in areas of business improvement and cost reduction. Taylor then joined the tendering team at Downer completing mine planning for estimating and winning new contracts, and then providing senior mining engineering services at Commodore Mine. Prior to joining AMDAD Taylor was Specialist Mining Engineer with contractor Golding, further consolidating his open cut operations experience.

At AMDAD Taylor is further developing his mine planning skills through internal training, while completing consulting tasks on hard rock projects utilising his established core skills.