About

My background is in mining, petroleum refining, and chemical processing projects that have ranged in value from US$5,000 to US$500,000,000.   My undergraduate degree is in engineering (BS Metallurgical Engineering (Mineral Processing)).  Graduate work includes a Masters in Business Administration (Management) and a Maters of Engineering (Industrial Engineering/Operations Research).  I am a Registered Professional Engineer (Mining) in Arizona and a Licensed Engineering Contractor in California.

Project Management

My background includes projects in Canada, United States, Mexico, Ecuador, Columbia, Venezuela, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, and Greece.  I have managed in both union and non-union environments.  I have also successfully worked with hourly maintenance and operations personnel and with corporate executives.

 This experience covers the following projects:

Mining & Minerals

• 30,000 t/d crushing and gold heap leach operation in northern Chile
• 30,000 t/d gold ore crushing, grinding and leach operation in Nevada
• 50,000 t/d gold ore crushing, grinding and leach operation in Washington
• 500 t/d underground gold mine and mill in Washington
• 38,000 t/d copper concentrator in Arizona
• Secondary copper grinding circuit in Arizona
• Two 500 t/h coal cleaning plants in British Columbia
• Two process control systems for mining operations in China and one in India
• Plus operational audits and feasibility studies for clients around the world
• Two 1,000 t/h coal cleaning plant in West Virginia & Illinois

Material Handling

• 2,000 t/hr aggregate handling & loadout  system for Vulcan Materials
• 16 million-t/y coal transshipment terminal for Dominion Terminal Associates
• 1,000 mt/hr coal handling and drying project in Greece
• Alternative handling concepts for expansion of coal mine in Venezuela
• 500 t/hr coal facilities for thermal drying of coal and lignite in Wyoming
• Material handling consulting for P. T. Aneka Tambang Bintan Island project
• 2,000 mt/hr coal handling system for Minera Carbonifero Rio Escondido's Carbon II

Environmental

• Recycling project to eliminate hazardous waste disposal of sludge.
• Feasibility of scrubbing NH3 from stack gases.
• Engineering and construction of a solids filter installation to eliminate waste ponds.
• Feasibility study to recover salts from waste ponds to maximize pond life.
• Engineering and construction of a VOC scrubbing system
• Engineering and construction of two ground water remediation projects to prevent migration of hydrocarbons into SF Bay.
• Specifications for municipal solid waste recovery facility and transfer station
• Permit package for medical waste incinerator in Kansas City, KS.
• Specifications and details for an oil field soil waste mixing and stabilization system

Petro-Chemical

• 25,000 BBL/day increase for the No. 50 Crude at Tosco Avon Refinery in California
• Engineering and management for fluidized catalytic cracking and fluidized coking unit turn arounds
• Engineering management for environmental remediation and control projects at the Tosco Rodeo Refinery

Computers & Software

I have worked with computers my whole career.  I started my freshman year in college, and except for the first four years with Monterey Coal Company, have been using computers for engineering and management ever since.

My first introduction was as a computer operator dealing with punch cards and paper output.  It started during a discussion in the college dorm at Michigan Tech.  A group of us were discussing getting student jobs for spending money.  Several of the typical topics were brought up (washing dishes in the cafeteria, clerking in the Student Union, and such).  One of the older students (a senior still living in the dorm) asked if any of us had experience with computers as the computer lab was looking for student help.  As this was in the fall of 1967 the general answer (including mine) was "huh, what's a computer?"

As it sounded more interesting then dish washing, which I had done working at a fast food place during high school, I decided to follow up and checked with the computer lab the next day.  I started working in the lab in January of 1968 feeding cards into an IBM 1620 computer that supported the engineering and science programs.  The next fall we updated to an IBM 360-44, still with punch cards and paper output.  The school installed the first CRT terminals in the fall of 1971 in the quarter that I graduated.

 I worked as an operator all except my last quarter at college.  In addition I took some programming classes my sophomore year and for the last two years worked part time for my department doing programming for mineral dressing problems.

 Since graduation I have worked with both mainframe and personal computers, and programming.

 I am highly computer literate with experience with both Mac and Windows, in standalone and both LANs and WANs. This includes experience with AutoCAD, MS Office, MS Project, and other software.   I have programming experience in Visual Basic, C, Pascal, and FORTRAN

 I have also written a general interest book on computer use for business Computerizing Your Business, 1997, Prentice Hall, ISBN: 0-13-603374-1.

Other Interests

Besides this site I do some consulting on the side through Smart Dog Mining.  For more information see here.

I also do some wine making as a hobby under Smart Dog Winery.  For more information see here.

 

· Registered Professional Engineer Arizona (Mining)

·  Licensed General Engineering Contractor California

·  ME – Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO

·  MBA - California State University, Hayward, California

·  BS Engineering - Michigan Technologi­cal University, Houghton, Michigan