John Pala
BEng (Mining), Mine Manager’s Cert of Comp.

John’s deep operational experience underpinned with his strong commercial acumen, has delivered results for our clients world-wide and established him as a trusted advisor in the resource industry for many years.
With close to 40 years in the resource industry, John goes way beyond the traditional role of a mining consultant. He combines 20 years of technical, operational and senior management experience on mines sites which provides him with a deep understanding of how to successfully run mining operations, with 20 years of running a highly successful mining consultancy business where he has overseen over 3000 consulting projects completed across 40 countries. John delivers value through his unrelenting focus on understanding the material project risks, capitalising on opportunities, unearthing project optionality and maximisation returns. His insight brings an astute perspective and a discerning clarity to any project he is involved in. His advice has consistently ensured our clients make an insightful and informed decision about the viability of their project.
Expertise
- Strategic Reviews
- Due Diligence
- Feasibility Studies
- Independent Expert Advice
- Asset Optimisation & Performance
Track Record
- John has led over 50 strategic, operational, and business improvement reviews where the total of annual operational savings is over $1 billion. This is only overshadowed by the cost of optimisation projects, which is tenfold in terms of profit/margin impacts, that he has helped achieved for his clients.
- Having acted for both buyers and sellers of assets, John has led due diligence teams in the evaluation of a broad range of assets, in many commodities across 40 international geographies. With involvement in over 200 due diligence projects in the past 20 years, John has a very robust and deep understanding of project ‘value drivers’. He has worked with both national and international mining companies as well as international financial institutions and JV participants.
- He is the “industry go-to” person for independent reviews, asset valuations, and technical economic evaluations to support the acquisition, optimisation, rationalisation, merger, and disposal of mining assets.
- John has led over 30 feasibility studies and provided technical directorship over an additional 30 studies bringing together all the elements required for a successful project delivery including processing, rail, and port. An extension of the studies process is project optimisation and John has led teams in over 500 mine design and optimisation projects internationally.
- His 20+ years of experience in undertaking all levels of feasibility studies from greenfield projects and brownfield expansions for both open pit and underground mines offers a unique guarantee to our clients – to help them “mine smarter.” John has an unparalleled mix of operational experience and internal industry insight backed by our up to date benchmarking performance data.