About
Fifth International Slope Stability in Mining Conference
7-9 September 2027 | Brisbane, Australia
Conference Chairs
Julian Venter
Lead Geotechnical Engineer
Barrick Mining Corporation
Julian graduated from the University of Pretoria (UP) in 2000 with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering. He subsequently obtained a Master of Geotechnical Engineering from UP in 2004, a Graduate Diploma of Rock Mechanics from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2007, followed by an MBA and a Master of Mineral Economics from Curtin University in 2017. He started his working career with SRK Consulting in Johannesburg in 2002 where he gained a well-rounded geotechnical exposure to a variety of problems including open pit and underground mining and construction. For geotechnical risk work carried out at SRK, he was corecipient of the SAIMM Gold medal in 2007 and corecipient of the ARMA Award for Applied Rock Mechanics Research in 2009. In 2008, Julian and his family moved to Tom Price in Australia where he joined Rio Tinto’s Tom Price iron ore mine as senior geotechnical engineer. In 2016, Julian started with AngloGold Ashanti as geotechnical manager for the continental Africa region. Throughout his career Julian has served on open pit design teams in roles including contributor, technical lead, project manager, project director and third party reviewer for more than 200 open pits and cut backs. Based on this experience he has become a champion of rigorous data-based design processes based on a proper understanding of risk.
Professor Johan Wesseloo
Director
Australian Centre for Geomechanics, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Since obtaining a BEng (Civil) and MEng (Geotechnical) from The University of Pretoria, Johan has been involved in geotechnical engineering in open pit and underground environments throughout 14 countries. He commenced his career in 1998 as a geotechnical engineer at SRK Consulting in Johannesburg where his experience included open pit and underground projects in varying geotechnical conditions. In 2005 he was awarded a PhD (Geotechnical) from The University of Pretoria. Johan joined the ACG in 2007 as a Research Fellow. During his time at the ACG, Johan has been involved in research, the supervision of postgraduate students and geotechnical training. He also performs geotechnical and mining-induced seismicity reviews providing him with the valuable opportunity to visit numerous operations worldwide. Johan was instrumental in the development of the mXrap software and many of the software routines and apps available in that platform. Johan is a Fellow of The Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. He was awarded the SAIMM Gold medal in 2006 and 2016, and the SAIMM Silver Medal in 2014. In May 2019, Johan was appointed director.
Conference Organiser
Josephine Ruddle
Event Manager
Australian Centre for Geomechanics
Email: josephine.ruddle@uwa.edu.au