Show Notes
Jeremy is a Senior Associate / Senior Tailing Engineer at Thurber Engineering Ltd. in Calgary. He obtained his Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa, specializing in geotechnical engineering, hydraulic engineering and project management. Fifteen years of his career were spent working for the Fraser Alexander Group, an international specialist tailings contractor based in South Africa, in the fields of tailings design and operation, and solid and hazardous waste management. The next ten years were spent in environmental engineering consulting, environmental assessment, public accountability and sustainable development. Since 2008 Jeremy has worked in Calgary, Canada for Thurber Engineering. His focus has been on tailings and geotechnical engineering, serving as project director, multidisciplinary team leader, reviewer or primary report author of a number of tailings engineering projects in the Alberta Oil Sands, across Canada and elsewhere internationally. Jeremy has authored over 60 papers in tailings engineering and related fields. He was appointed an Associate of Thurber Engineering in 2013, and promoted to Senior Associate in 2015. Jeremy currently serves as Co-Chair of the Dam Integrity Advisory Committee (DIAC), convened by the Alberta Chamber of Resources.
More from Behind the Scenes with Bryan
Tracie is the Hydrology Manager at Barrick Gold Corporation. She has a unique professional track record and has recently helped spearhead the development of a new publicly available, Excel-based water balance tool for tailings facilities, known as TSFISM (Tailings-Storage Facility Iterative Simulation Model). You can find a paper on this and a link to the spreadsheet at https://halfordhydrology.com/tsfism/
Michel is a long-time friend and client and is the Vice President of Environment and Critical Infrastructure at Agnico Eagle. Michel and I discuss his amazing career. We didn't even talk about the amazing fact that in 2025, he was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) – one of the highest professional honours in the Canadian engineering community.
Henk is the CEO of Wealth Minerals Ltd. Wealth Minerals has structured its Kuska Lithium Project partnership with the Quechua Indigenous Community of Ollagüe to include a 5% free-carried interest and direct board participation for the community. The company has also emphasized Direct Lithium Extraction technologies and minimal environmental footprint as part of its development strategy.We discuss his perspective on how mining companies may need to rethink development models entirely if they want projects to move forward successfully in Chile and elsewhere. With more than three decades in mining and over $1 billion raised in mining finance transactions, Henk has been directly involved in the evolution of the critical minerals sector long before lithium became a mainstream geopolitical story.
Jean is a Senior Geotechnical Engineer with BGC Consulting in Golden, Colorado. She has consulting experience working on geotechnical, mining, civil, solid waste, and construction projects. Experience includes engineering analyses, design, and project management for multi-disciplinary tailings and mine waste management projects. Strengths in the areas of managing / developing teams. Licensed professional engineer in US (Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and South Dakota) and Canada (Alberta).
In this episode, I once again chat with Theo Gerritson from BGC in Brisbane. This time, we discuss The Global Management Institute (GTMI). As it says on their website, The Global Tailings Management Institute has been established to enhance the safety of mine tailings facilities, by promoting widespread adoption and implementation of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM).