Reporting to the CEO Stephen Grocott I am the Chief Technology Officer for the company, providing leadership and technical expertise for the development of the TECH project in Townsville, Australia, which will produce high purity Nickel and Cobalt materials for the Electric Vehicle industry using the Direct Nickel Process. This innovative nitric acid process produces no waste, has a negative carbon intensity, and all feed materials report to multiple co-products including high purity hematite, High Purity Alumina (HPA), high purity magnesia, ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, gypsum, zinc sulfate and engineered fill. My responsibilities include leadership of the technical development of the project, including technical design with Hatch (PDC, PFD, PID, process simulation, etc), capital / operating cost estimates, risk mitigation, ESG credentials (LCA, CO2e intensity, IRMA, etc), economic modelling, $30M global research and development program (Core, Murdoch, RMIT, CSIRO, SGS, ALS, Simulus, etc) and vendor / technology research development agreements.

Reporting to the Chief Technical Development Officer I was the Principal in charge of the Technical Development and Modelling of the Clean TeQ Sunrise project, and of future Clean TeQ ion-exchange extraction and purification technology development and innovation. The Clean TeQ Sunrise project will supply specialty Nickel and Cobalt materials needed to help expand the lithium-ion battery industry, as well as providing scandium for production of the next generation of lightweight aluminum alloys for key transportation markets.I was the key technical developer and owner for the dynamic and steady-states process simulation systems, including sulfuric acid plant / energy / water, project benchmarking, cradle-to-gate Greenhouse Gases Life Cycle Assessment and Lithium Battery chemistry / precursor cost impact analysis. I also developed and optimised the feed mineralogy / ore basis and impact on plant operation, and developed and owned the detailed Operating Cost / Sustaining Capital estimation and the Project Financial Model.

Etiam Engineering specializes in the process research, design, validation and operational optimization of Space-based In-Situ-Resource-Utilization (ISRU) projects (e.g. asteroids, Mars, Moon, etc), under the main specialties of Life Support / Propellants and Metals / Plastics. Sam Spencer, as the founder of Etiam Engineering, has worked with both private and government enterprises, including in proposals, development and reporting for studies funded by NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) and NASA SBIR (with Deep Space Industries), as a Technical Panel member of The Hague International Space Resources Governance Working Group, as a member of the AIAA Space Resources Committee, on Mars exploration and many others.In addition Sam Spencer is the Co-Author of two books focusing on a scientific analysis of off-Earth colonization, titled “Developing Space” and “Settling Space”. See https://www.cgpublishing.com/Books/9781989044148.html.

I was the Director of The Safety Educator™, a non-profit dedicated to providing and promoting peer-reviewed, evidence-based summary resources related to safety, health and education for families in countries in the ASEAN-Australia regions. Our aim was to reduce the accidental injury and death rate of children in these regions with the help of our team of local and international specialists. My responsibilities include managing Google grants of $US 10,000 per month in advertising, and developing policies, accounting, reporting, legal, marketing, ACNC accreditation, etc.

From May 2016 I was the Energy & Utilities Optimization Lead for the Program Management Consultancy (PMC) owner side of the $US27 billion Refinery / Petrochemicals RAPID project for Petronas and the Petronas / Saudi Aramco JV in Malaysia, providing overall project execution leadership. In this role I was the leader for multi-discipline optimization (technical, financial, HSE, risk, etc) of site utilities (power / water / gas / steam / condensate / nitrogen / oxygen / etc) for all stakeholders, ensuring optimal future plant operation. This including identifying and developing innovative technical solutions to rectify the impact of multiple late changes in design, and the development of the RAPID Energy Management System.From November 2014 to April 2016 I was the Deputy Lead Process Engineer and Area Lead for Balances / Philosophies / Surge & Interconnecting for the $US5 billion Utility and Interconnecting Offsite Units EPCC package, which is part of the $US27 billion Petronas / Saudi Aramco RAPID project. In this role I led a team of 5 to 10 process engineers developing utility balances (with over 100 operating cases), plant wide philosophies, surge analysis and associated detailed design (PFD, PID, PDS, etc).From October 2009 to October 2011 I was the Lead Technical Advisor, and from November 2011 to October 2014 the Lead Process Engineer, in charge of the engineering team developing the process deliverables for a Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) of the $5 billion Weda Bay Nickel Refinery in Indonesia – the first patented process of its kind in the world. My responsibilities included leading 5 to 15 process engineers working with the client in identifying and confirming 20+ pilot plant campaigns, the core chemical, thermodynamic and kinetic relationships for the entire process, developing the plant design basis / criteria, simulation and development of all plant systems, and identifying and rectifying areas of technical risk via innovative solutions.

I was the scoping / feasibility study development expert, with accompanying responsibility for multi-discipline scope definition, in the development of piloting and test-work requirements, results interpretation, process simulation, design basis / criteria, environmental / risk analysis, transportation logistics, cost estimation, final reports and recommendations / reviews with stakeholders. Clients included BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Vale, Xstrata / Glencore, Berong Nickel, Altona Mining, Citadel Resources, Syerston, etc. Projects were located in 10+ countries around the world, and focused on the recovery from ore to metal of Nickel, Cobalt, Uranium, Copper and Gold. This involved innovative analysis and optimization of up to 10+ possible processing options for each ore body, taking into account location, mineralogy, process recovery, mine planning, reagents, utilities, infrastructure, capital and operating cost economics, etc. This included specification of all plant equipment, including crushers, SAG/Ball mills, scrubbers, high pressure autoclaves, leaching, flotation, thickeners, pumps, piping, filters, precipitation reactors, solvent extraction, ion exchange, membrane processes, calcination, roasting, smelters, furnaces, reagent production / storage (hydrogen sulphide, limestone, quicklime, natural gas, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, ammonia, etc), utilities production (gas turbine generators, power, steam, water, cooling towers, boilers, etc) and infrastructure (ports, material loading, trucking, containerization, accommodation, airports, etc).I also developed Knowledge Management systems for SNC-Lavalin global use, including standards for simulation development and cross-sharing of project data between countries / operating groups

Process Engineer at Kwinana Nickel Refinery, then Process Engineer / Deputy Superintendent at Phosphate Hill, in charge of the development and installation of plant improvement and optimization projects using six sigma methodologies, including autoclave compartment agitation testing, plant surveying / simulation / debottlenecking, installation / commissioning of a new waste gas flare, installation / commissioning of ammonium sulphate moisture detection, operational planning optimization, water management, reagent and acid reliability improvements and many others. The Kwinana Nickel Refinery is a complex hydrometallurgical processing plant in Western Australia, which involved high pressure leaching, sulphide precipitation, hydrogen reduction, hydrogen, nitrogen and ammonia gas production, natural gas processing, fertilizer production, etc. Phosphate Hill is a complex fertilizer production plant in Queensland, which involved mining, ore beneficiation, phosphoric acid production, gypsum filtration, hydrogen, nitrogen and ammonia gas production, natural gas processing and ammonium phosphate granulation as fertilizer.