Two senior staff members of ANSTO, Andrew Garvie and Claire Linklater, have joined our Sydney office. Their specific expertise centres on ARD assessment, waste rock and stockpile management planning. Both have experience in the measurement and modelling of relevant processes and will expand SRK’s ability to predict the behaviour of waste rock dumps and heap leach piles.
Andrew has been responsible for numerous innovative developments. These include a proof of concept instrument for rapidly measuring the intrinsic oxidation rate of small waste rock samples, such as drill core, and the development of a technique to measure the in situ diffusion coefficient of waste rock and cover materials at mine sites. He has extensive experience in determining physical parameters of sulfidic piles, e.g. oxygen and heat distribution. This information is determined via field measurements and used to estimate the overall rates of sulfide oxidation.
Claire has applied the numerical code, SULFIDOX, to help with interpretation of field data and to predict the future behaviour of sulphide-bearing piles. SULFIDOX was developed at ANSTO to model sulfide oxidation, heat, gas and water transport and incorporates an equilibrium chemistry module for calculating effluent quality. SRK will be acquiring the rights to SULFIDOX. Claire also has considerable experience in assessing the geochemical behaviour of aqueous contaminants, mineral-water interactions and dissolution of waste forms.
