James Wither

BIndDes, Cert IV Surface Operations

Home / About Palaris / Our Team / James Wither

With over 14 years of experience in the resources sector, James has worked in a vast range of roles including operational, technical and leadership.

He has developed a comprehensive knowledge of mining methods, mineral extraction, and processing. James has a thorough understanding of the Hunter Valley Coal Chain from producing to receivals and shipping. He is highly experienced with design work, including but not limited to modifications to plant, equipment, and new builds and has received an Australian Design Award for his efforts. James is proficient in a range of software packages including ArcGIS, Solidworks, and Inventor Autodesk.

Expertise

  • Asset Performance & Optimisation
  • Business Improvement
  • Project Delivery
  • Project Valuation
  • Safety & Risk Management

Track Record

  • As an Analysis and Improvement Specialist, James was part of a team which reviewed work processes and equipment capabilities to improve processes and cost savings. A highlight of this time, was realising over $83m in CAPEX and OPEX savings in a very tough 2018 financial year
  • James was a Continuous Improvement Lead when he worked with high level stakeholders, senior leadership team and heads of departments to roll out standardised embedded CI tools and processes that helped to create, track, and implement improvement projects.
  • During his time as Continuous Improvement Lead, James also facilitated and valued a reconciliation project through the whole project lifecycle. The result being a $63m improvement in copper dilution.
  • James has experience designing and engineering   products for manufacture in Heavy Industry, Defence, and the R&D product development space. He won an Australian Design Award in 2006 and has deep technical and practical knowledge in design, manufacturing, and project management.
  • James has over 10 years of experience in safely and efficiently operating heavy equipment in the open cut environment. This practical knowledge and experience have helped him see value in projects and develop an understanding of what looks good in operations. This includes provision of high end training packages for a major Australian coal producer.