John has over thirty five year’s postgraduate experience in Coal Exploration Geology and can be regarded as a specialist in this field. The first decade of his career was spent in coal exploration throughout the Surat Basin. It was during this time that John spent a substantial period of time in the field learning the fundamentals of drilling activities, coal quality sampling, data acquisition, geophysical interpretation, coal seam correlation and field logistic. As John’s career developed he moved into Project Geologist / Supervising roles initially in the Surat Basin then Bowen Basin in Queensland. John founded J C Irvine Pty Ltd (1995), providing Geological Services to the Coal and Gas Industry. Since then he has been either self- employed or part owner of various geological companies including Resolve Geo Pty Ltd. Resolve (formerly IrvineSaul) had the contract to supply all the rig geologists to BMA for several years. John spent extensive hitches in the field where he became an expert with coal core logging, geotechnical logging, coal quality sampling, gas sampling, and geophysical interpretation. After selling his share of Resolve Geo, John contracted his Geological services via J C Irvine Pty Ltd to BMA and later BMC, primarily as a Senior Project Geologist for Humboldt EPC, Blackwater Underground and Wards Well Projects. In conjunction to these projects he has been able to train and mentor Geologists utilizing his vast experience gained over the years. Since September 2012, John has been engaged as a consultant with Minserve, working under Ken O’Reilly. This work has involved the Exploration Management of exploration programs on the Lake Vermont Mine and adjacent tenements.