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Thought Leadership Panel - Feasibility Studies: Value Add or Necessary Evil?

A feasibility study should be a trusted document – informative, reliable and a solid indicator of future performance. But not all feasibility studies are created equal.

Why do some feasibility studies fail to deliver on their promises? Are feasibility studies becoming promotional documents we no longer trust?  If so, how did this situation evolve and what is needed to develop a feasibility study we can rely on?

Moderator

Mark Noppe

Mark Noppe
Managing Director & Corporate Consultant, SRK

Mark has over 30 years’ experience in geosciences and the mining industry working in operations and project assessments. As a consultant Mark provides technical advice, mine and project reviews, due diligence and audits, process improvement studies, as well as training and mentoring in all aspects of orebody knowledge, from exploration reporting, resource definition and reporting, mine geology, grade control and mine reconciliation through to inputs into reserving and feasibility studies. He assists clients in understanding, developing and reporting on their mineral assets. Mark’s technical experience covers a wide range of commodities, geological, geographic and mining settings.

Mark is a Fellow of the AusIMM and a Chartered Professional (Geology). He is currently the Managing Director of SRK Consulting (Australasia) and a director on SRK’s Asia and Global boards.

Speakers

Mike Spreadborough

Michael Spreadborough
CEO, MetalsX

Mike is a mining engineer and senior executive with over 20 years’ experience in mining lead, zinc, uranium, copper, gold and iron ore. He is the CEO of Metals X and was most recently Managing Director & CEO of Nusantara Resources and Non-Executive Director of CleanTeQ Holdings.

He has held roles across the scope of the industry from business and project development, to operations and exploration.  In recent times, Mike was the General Manager – Mining for WMC; and then later the Vice President – Mining for BHP Billiton at the world-class Olympic Dam Mine in South Australia. Mike was previously the General Manager – Coastal Operations for Rio Tinto; responsible for port operations and Pannawonica mine site. He then assumed the position of Chief Operating Officer for Inova Resources Ltd (formerly Ivanhoe Australia) and Sandfire Resources.

Dr Catherine Farrow

Dr Catharine Farrow
Independent Director, Franco-Nevada Corporation

Catharine is a Professional Geoscientist (APGO) and an accredited Corporate Director (ICD.D). She currently serves as an Independent Director of Franco-Nevada Corporation, Eldorado Gold Corporation, and Centamin PLC, is Chair of the Board of Exiro Minerals Corp., and is the inaugural Member of the Advisory Board of Behr Technologies Inc., an Industrial IoT technology company. She is President of FarExGeoMine Ltd, a Member of the Metrolinx Capital Oversight Subcommittee, and a Program Director of the Osgoode Mining Law Program at York University.

From 2012 to 2017, Catharine was Founding CEO, Director and Co-Founder of TMAC Resources Inc., the first producing gold miner with operations in Canada’s High Arctic. Before TMAC, she was COO of KGHM International (formerly Quadra FNX Mining Ltd.). Prior to this, she held multiple senior executive roles in a wide range of disciplines including operations, technical services, corporate development and exploration.

Anna Nahajski-Staples

Anna Nahajski-Staples
Executive Director, Paloma Investments

Commencing her career as an investment banker in the US, Anna has over 25 years’ experience in global financial markets which includes 15 years specialising in natural resources and ASX equities. She has held executive and non-executive board roles over the past eight years while managing boutique corporate advisory firm Paloma Investments, which she established in 2010. Anna’s most recent senior executive role was as executive director of New Zealand-focused gold exploration company Condamine Resources Limited.

Anna is a Fellow of FINSIA, a graduate member of the Governance Institute of Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors and studied accounting at Harvard University before receiving a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Washington.

Jo‑Anne Dudley​
Chief Operating Officer, Turquoise Hill Resources 

In June 2019, Jo-Anne Dudley was appointed Chief Operating Officer of Turquoise Hill Resources (TRQ: TSX, NYSE, NASDAQ), an international mining company focussed on the development of the Oyu Tolgoi Mine in Mongolia.  Jo-Anne has 25 years of experience in the mining industry. For the past nine years she has been a key member of the Oyu Tolgoi technical team that manages the development of the world-scale Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine in Mongolia in consultation with Turquoise Hill. Before that she led Oyu Tolgoi’s Strategic Mine and Resources Planning team.   Prior to commencing her work on Oyu Tolgoi, Ms. Dudley spent five years working with Rio Tinto’s technical group on mines in South Africa and the USA. Before that she worked in underground mines across Australia as an Underground contractor and spent ten years in Operations and Studies roles at the Northparkes copper and gold mine in central New South Wales, Australia. Ms. Dudley graduated from the University of New South Wales as a mining engineer in 1994. A Chartered Professional engineer, Ms. Dudley was awarded Fellow membership in 2016 from the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, was selected as the 2018 Exceptional Woman in Queensland Resources, and was also honoured to be named as one of the WIM 2018 Global 100 Inspirational Women in Mining.

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