Show Notes
Andy is a dam safety specialist providing services to the mining and hydropower industries around the world. He is based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. For the mining sector, Andy has led dam designs and dam safety reviews for a number of mining clients. In addition, he provides services related to tailings planning, water management, and mine closure. He has over 35 years of experience and is supported by a team of professionals in North America. He is an experienced project manager, lead designer, and engineer of record. He also facilitates and leads decision analyses and risk assessments for a variety of clients and projects.
Andy and I discuss one of his pet projects: Tailings 2030.
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).