Sandra has worked in different countries and climates and has experience ranging from hydroelectric developments, highways, roads and public transportation systems to mining projects. Sandra has been responsible for planning and supervising many geotechnical site investigation programs, geotechnical/risk assessments, and design of soil cuts, dams, shallow and deep foundations for buildings and bridges, and geotechnical instrumentation.
Over the last 19 years, Sandra has specialised in geotechnical engineering for the mining industry in South America, Australia and Africa, where her focus has been coarse material characterisation, design of waste dumps and heap leach dumps, geotechnical studies for plant sites, and risk assessment and design for closure. Sandra has recently undertaken research on the impact of material scaling on shear strength, conducting physical testing in large-scale facilities in Australia and Chile, and implementing discrete element methods to understand the micromechanics of coarse granular media.
