Felipe Palominos

BEng (Civ) (Hons), Dip UG CoalMineMngt, Class 3 Cert Mine Deputy NSW.

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Felipe is a Civil and Mining Engineer that brings 18 years of technical, operational and leadership experience in both underground and open cut mines across the coal and limestone industries in Australia and Latin America as well as in engineering consultancies.

He has a passion for problem solving and brings a positive, solution-oriented approach to work. His main strength is in mine planning and optimisation where he has a broad range of experience including identifying and implementing productivity enhancements and optimising designs to deliver true business value. Felipe has been extensively involved in underground exploration drilling and has had exposure to gas drainage at several gassy operations, both from surface and underground drilling programs. His career in the resources industry has included roles as a senior mining engineer, mine deputy, drilling coordinator, project manager, acting technical services manager and mining consultant.

Expertise

  • Mine Optimisation
  • Mine Design & Planning
  • Civil Engineering
  • Feasibility Studies
  • Project & Contract Management

Track Record

  • As the Mine Planning & Projects Engineer and Drilling Coordinator at Dendrobium Mine, Felipe overhauled the UG drilling contract and management process which reduced drilling costs by 36% (from 196 $/m to 71 $/m). His optimisation of the mine layout resulted in an increase of 10Mt of resource recovery.
  • At Dendrobium, he was part of the team that designed and delivered the first ever Longwall pre driven recovery road which reduced the bolt up time from 28 days to 4 days. This approach is now the new standard approach at the mine.
  • Felipe and his team delivered an increase in NPV of $815M for a project in Queensland’s Bowen Basin. The technical aspects of the asset included high gas levels, low permeability and high stress due to depth of cover.
  • He has been involved in several due diligence, concept and feasibility studies as a technical expert in mine design and innovation including the conceptual design of a reject emplacement strategy for UG coal mines which negates the need for surface reject emplacement areas.
  • Earlier in his career, Felipe worked at the Coppabella mine where he was the Mining Engineer in several areas including Truck & Shovel, Dragline and Mine Planning. He was also responsible for the long-term planning for the mine (3 months to final void), equipment selection and costing, bulk earthworks design, schedule and roadway design.
  • He is proficient in a range of engineering software including Vulcan, AutoCAD, Talpac, 3-D Dig, SurPAC, XERAS, Deswik and XPAC.