Our team of experts
Technical expertise and a professional approach come together at FIELD Engineers. Meet our leaders.
General Manager
David Hartigan
David Hartigan
BEng (Mech), BBus (Mgt), RPEQ, FIEAust, EngExec, GAICD.
Experience:
More than 20 years in construction, maintenance and consulting.
Key areas of expertise:
Career highlights:
- Leading a multi-disciplinary consulting engineering business
- Managing shutdown and construction projects throughout the Bowen Basin on draglines and wash plants
- Expert opinions were provided on various sites including ship loader boom collapse, tower crane rope failure, and ship loader telescopic chute failure at the coal export terminal.
Manager – Mining and Projects
Jon Halliday
Jon Halliday
BEng (Mech), WTIA, Global Minerals Industry Risk Management.
Experience:
Over 25 years in the mining industry.
Key areas of expertise:
- Construction and maintenance shutdowns
- Draglines
- Shovels
- Washplants.
Career highlights:
- Engineering support, project management and planning of dragline and shovel shutdowns for BMA
- A critical review of BMA shutdown schedules to reduce schedule duration by 15- 20%
- Developing innovative survey and alignment techniques for heavy industrial use – up to a 3-week reduction in shutdown timeframes.
Manager – Commercial
Matt Doidge
Matt Doidge
BEng (Mech) (Hons).
Experience:
Over 20 years in the mining industry.
Key areas of expertise:
- Project management
- Shutdown maintenance
- Mechanical design and drafting.
Career highlights:
- Peak Downs mine – Mine Industrial Area (MIA) upgrades
- Developing commercial systems in a multi-disciplined engineering business
- Leading the quality assurance focus area of the firm.
Manager – Engineering
Desmond Searle
Desmond Searle
BEng (Mech) – Hons 1A, RPEQ, MIEAust, CPEng, NER.
Experience:
More than 20 years as a mechanical engineer in the consulting, mining and materials handling sectors.
Key areas of expertise:
- Bulk materials handling system design
- Pump and pipeline design
- Feasibility studies
- Technical due diligence
Career highlights:
- Bulk materials handling upgrade projects for BHP, BMA, FMG, Glencore, MMG, QAL, Rio Tinto, and South32 transporting bauxite, base metals, gold, iron ore and overburden
- Technical due diligence projects for mine and port projects in Colombia, and grain terminals in South America
- Concept identification, selection, feasibility, execution and commissioning of small to large minerals projects
- Working on a variety of underground, open cut, conveying, crushing, minerals processing, road and rail loading and unloading, port stockpiling, and ship and barge unloading and loading projects.
Senior Civil/Structural Engineer
Matt Posthumus
Matt Posthumus
B Eng (Civil), MIEAust, CPEng, NER, RPEQ.
Experience:
More than 40 years in civil and structural engineering design and construction.
Key areas of expertise:
- Infrastructure services – roads, mass earthworks, drainage systems, water supply services, and sewerage services
- Reinforced concrete, masonry and structural steel.
Career highlights:
- South Walker Creek Mine – engineering design and modelling of an 8 km light vehicle road and assisting the client during the construction phase.
- Coppabella Mine – engineering design of a stabilising system for the ROM structure and reinforced earth retaining wall and assisting the client during the construction phase. Developing a replacement methodology for a severely damaged trestle leg along the product conveyor, the associated engineering designs and assisting the client during the construction phase.
- Hay Point Coal Terminal HPX3 expansion – engineering designs of various structural reinforced concrete elements on offshore structures and assisting the client during the construction phase.
Principal Mechanical Engineer
Richard Billett
Richard Billett
BEng (Mech), BBus (Econ), RPEQ, CPEng.
Experience.
A mechanical engineer with more than 15 years’ experience with a specialisation in failure analysis of machinery, project engineering for a variety of mining projects, and product development.
Key areas of expertise:
- Failure analysis
- Professional expert witness
- Product design, analysis and development
- Finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
- Project management
- Intellectual property review and development.
Career highlights:
- Engineers Australia National Excellence Award for marine, power-generating, tidal turbine analysis
- Ok Tedi Mining Limited (copper/gold) – SAG shell failure analysis, QA for new SAG shell, assessment and design of lifting systems
- KAZ Minerals (copper), Kazakhstan – a system of work and equipment designed for lifting and removal of vibrating screens from process plant
- MMG Laos (copper) – acid tank shutdown repair project engineering
- Cement mill bearing failure analysis
- Airbag analysis on defective passenger vehicles
- Design of diathermy surgeon’s tool, pathogen-resistant mask and Parkinson’s freeze of gait medical device.
Principal Engineer – Special Projects
Slawek Drabot
Slawek Drabot
BEng (Mech) (Hons), MSc (Comp), GDip (Mment).
Experience:
Slawek has 25 years of product development, manufacturing and construction experience. He specialises in structural design, analysis and testing with a specific focus on structural dynamic analysis.
Key areas of expertise:
- Development and certification of products, tools and processes for the mining industry
- Forensic investigation of structures, lifting devices and registered plant failures
- Design Certification for Design Registration of cranes and pressure vessels.
Career highlights:
- Establishing statutory and standard compliance for crane operations at ports, mine sites and naval vessels. Establishing statutory and standards compliance for manufacturing facilities
- Design and development of tools and machinery to facilitate shutdown operations for mining mobile and fixed plant
- Development, manufacturing and testing of patented products.
Senior Mechanical Engineer
Ben Prior
Ben Prior
BEng (Mech) (Co-op) (Hons 2A), RPEQ, CPEng.
Experience:
Engineer with over 19 years of experience in the mining industry including industrial pumping and plant upgrades, project management and front-end loading.
Key areas of expertise:
- Project management, project and business case development, and project engineering
- Pumping system design, including fluid reticulation systems and mine dewatering
- Mechanical design for plant and equipment upgrades
- Feasibility studies, including concept design, preliminary engineering, capital cost estimating and options evaluation.
Career highlights:
- Manufacturing plant improvement projects – front-end loading for major equipment upgrades
- Fire system operational improvements including fire risk assessments – various sites
- Process plant upgrades – reagent system and piping circuit modification design.
Principal Crane & Rigging Engineer
Jonn Grimmond
Jonn Grimmond
BEng (Civil) (Hons), RPEQ, MIEAust, CraneSAFE (endorsed assessor), CICA, HRW licence, Cert II Surface Extraction Options.
Experience:
An engineer with over 19 years of experience in construction management, engineering and operation roles. Jonn has strong analytical and planning abilities and has managed various projects throughout Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Key areas of expertise:
- Major inspection engineering oversight
- Structural and mechanical analysis and design
- Incident investigation involving heavy machinery.
Career highlights:
- Queensland Rail Museum – historic overhead crane fleet assessment and compliance audit
- Australian Defence Force – Naval lifting and safety plant compliance audit
- Orica – standard operating procedure development for all site lifting documentation.
Senior Engineer
Andrew Pedruzzi
Andrew Pedruzzi
BEng (Mech), D.PM, RPEQ.
Experience:
Over 13 years of experience in complex engineering projects predominantly with mechanical and structural design elements.
Key areas of expertise:
- Mechanical and structural design and systems – draglines and shovels
- Mechanical metrology
- Plant inspections and data collection.
Career highlights:
- Dragline UDD reversal, and swing planetary upgrade projects
- Shutdown Cost Initiative – upper rail replacement
- Gregory Mine and Meandu Mine dragline shutdowns
- Orica La Mont boiler upgrade
- Mechanically aligned every new or overhauled tub in QLD and NSW since 2019
- QAL Mill upgrades – changeout support.