Dr. Adeli is a committed and innovative mining engineer - geostatistician with over 13 years of industry, research and academic experience in Australia, Chile and Iran. He has worked in Copper, Gold and Iron ore resources in the areas of evaluation, domaining, modelling uncertainty, machine learning modelling, geostatistical simulation, geometallurgical modelling and using geographic information system (GIS) for mineral prospectivity mapping. His studies, knowledge and industry experience in conducting multi-disciplinary projects has equipped him to make significant contributions in the area of quantifying the variability of ore streams, updating resource knowledge with sensor information and reducing variability to increase certainty on mill feed.
His current role as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide, has involved him in several projects in a $14.6 million research consortium “Unlocking Complex Resources through Lean Processing”. The consortium is led by the University of Adelaide’s Institute for Mineral and Energy Resources to develop technologies to boost copper production in South Australia and develop a globally competitive mining technology services sector in the state. The Consortium is funded by the South Australia Government, BHP, OZ Minerals and 20 Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) companies. He is collaborating with OZ Minerals experts to combine machine learning algorithms and geostatistics for geological and geometallurgical modelling at Prominent Hill mine. Also, he is collaborating with Bureau Veritas, Boart Longyear, Scantech, Consilium Technology and OZ Minerals to find correlations between elemental, mineralogical, hyperspectral and other sensed data for mineral identification at Prominent Hill mine.
Previously, Dr. Adeli worked in the fields of geostatistical simulation and geometallurgical modelling, machine learning and multivariate spatial modelling for domaining, grade and rock type simulation of iron and copper deposits by turning-bands algorithm and plurigaussian simulation, geostatistical modelling and validation of geological loggings and geological interpretations, using GIS for mineral prospectivity mapping and proposing new potential areas for further studies. He has extensive academic experience at several prestigious institutions, including; The University of Adelaide, Universidad de Chile, University of Tehran, CSIRO-Chile International Center of Excellence in Mining and Mineral Processing and Advanced Mining Technology Center. In addition, he has over six years of industry experience from working with the National Iranian Coer Industries Company (NICICO).
Dr. Adeli has a Ph.D. in Mining Engineering – Geostatistics from Universidad de Chile in Chile, Master of Science in Mining Engineering from University of Tehran in Iran and Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering from Shahrood University of Technology in Iran.
He has published several journal papers and presented conference papers in the areas of geological domaining and validating geological loggings and geological interpretations, multivariate geostatistical modelling and mineral prospectivity mapping by GIS. In addition, Dr. Adeli has experience in supervising and co-supervising Ph.D. and postgraduate students as well as lecturing geostatistics program courses for postgraduate mining engineering students.
Dr Addo Junior is a Resource Geologist & Geostatistician with experience spanning over 10 years in the gold and coal mining industry, specialising in open pits and underground mines in Ghana and Australia. In 2005, he was awarded an Honours Degree in Geological Engineering from the KNUST- School of Mines (now University of Mines and Technology), Ghana. He joined Gold Fields Ghana Graduate Training Program in the same year after completing his honours degree. He worked as a Mining and Exploration Geologist during his graduate traineeship. Dr Addo Junior worked fulltime as a Mining Geologist responsible for the Hydrothermal and Paleo-placer gold Pits of the mine, a role he occupied for 2 years. He moved into a Senior Exploration Geologist role responsible for near mine exploration and building of structural & geological domains, a role he excelled in, which resulted in his promotion to a Resource Geologist role.
Whilst working full time as a Resource Geologist, he earned a Master of Geology from the University of Ghana, Department of Geology. His thesis in Geostatistics and Resource Estimation of an old mine out pit was very useful in the feasibility studies for cutback for the mine. After almost 7 years working for Gold Fields Ghana, he was transferred to Gold Fields Australia to take up a role of a Project Geologist- Resources. After one year he joined Barrick Australia. He was re-called by Gold Fields to lead the Resource Modeling Team in Ghana, a position he held for a year before accepting an offer to pursue his Doctoral Studies in Spatial Modeling & Geostatistics.
Dr Addo Junior attained a PhD in Multivariate Spatial Modeling & Geostatistics at the University of Adelaide in July - 2019. His thesis, entitled “Multivariate Spatial Modeling of Geological and Geometallurgical Variables” sought to develop new methods to model complex geological and geometallurgical variables whilst honouring the spatial relationships of the variables. All manuscripts relating to his thesis have been published in top Geostatistics and Mining Journals.
Dr Addo Junior worked for BHP Corporate Office in Perth - Australia as a consultant in Geostatistics just after completing his PhD studies. He was involved in all research and development work in the area of Geostatistics and Resource Modeling for the organisation.
To add to his passion for Geostatistics and Resource Modeling, Dr Addo Junior loves spending quality time with his family as well as playing soccer and tennis.
Dr Sepúlveda attained his PhD in Geometallurgy from The University of Adelaide where he was awarded with the Dean's Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence. His thesis, titled “Quantification of Uncertainty of Geometallurgical Variables for Mine Planning Optimisation”, focused on developing new methods to quantify geometallurgical uncertainties and to enrich the block model with geometallurgical variables. The main objective of his research interest was to develop new methods which can contribute to improved optimisation of mining operations. Highlights of his research include the building of non-linear regression models by projection pursuit to predict grindability indices and recovery as well as the derivation of new multi-objective optimisation formulations for block caving mining with the focus on maximising the project revenue and minimising several risk measures. He also developed a novel clustering method for geometallurgical domaining and adapted the concept of geometallurgical dilution for the optimisation of the production schedule in an open-pit case study.
Prior to his PhD, Dr Sepúlveda obtained his bachelor’s degree in computer science at The University of Chile. He has a vast experience in software development and programming, with a career spanning over 15 years.
He served as the IT project manager and chief of IT in different sectors such as insurance, sales, banking, telecommunications and online job recruitment platforms.
In the last decade, his interest in scientific modelling, specifically resource modelling, combining geostatistics and machine learning approaches piqued, motivated him to pursue a PhD in that area. His solid knowledge in maths, statistics and high-performance computing gave him a complete range of skills for building and deploying models from small to complex systems.
In the past few years, Dr. Sepúlveda has been serving as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow to projects related to Grade Heterogeneity with CRC Ore initiative and Rapid Resource Modelling with BHP Australia.
Besides his working experience, he is very passionate about teaching and imparting knowledge. He participates in several workshops as both a tutor and lecturer in several universities in Chile as well as a tutor and visiting lecturer in Australia.
