Kent Shackel

BEng (Mech), MAusIMM

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Kent is a mechanical engineer and project manager with 25 years’ experience in precious metals, base metals and uranium within the mineral resource industry.

He has held senior operational and project development roles with mining companies spanning Australia, Papua New Guinea and Ghana. As a seasoned leader of projects through the lifecycle, Kent demonstrates safety leadership and a robust understanding of infrastructure, mining, minerals processing, tailings management, maintenance, construction, operational readiness and project controls.

Expertise

  • Project Management
  • Feasibility Studies
  • Construction Management
  • Infrastructure
  • Due Diligence

Track Record

  • Kent was the Project Manager for Golden Star Resources in Ghana for 9 years on both the Wassa gold mine and Bogoso/Prestea gold mine, advancing the  feasibility studies, project approvals and construction to transition the operations from open pit to underground. He had Parralel involvement in financing with the lender’s technical team (Royal Gold Inc.) and regulatory agencies on the projects. In addition to mine development were sustaining capital projects for the mine, process plant, water treatment and tailings
  • He was a Contributing engineer to the study phase on backfill options and advancing with cemented rockfill backfill (CRF) for the Sayak 4 gold project in KazakhstanBen was the Chief Operating Officer for Eyre Iron, majority owned by a Chinese Steel Major, directly managing a large multi-national team and a $75 million study budget over a period of three years for the development of several iron ore projects.
  • Manager Engineering and Projects at Ranger Uranium Mine in Australia for Rio Tinto, Kent had both operational and project accountabilities that included project development and execution: 28 MW power station, HV reticulation, acid plant and unloading, deisel storage, water treatment and tailings, maintenance planning, major outages, reliability, annual budgeting and 5-year capital planningHe has been a study manager across bulk commodity, base metals and fertiliser developments with strong understanding of mining, minerals processing (directly managed test work programs for comminution, gravity, magnetic separation, flotation, pyromet, and hydromet), logistics and infrastructure.
  • Maintenance Manager for Harmony Gold in Papua New Guinea, Kent lead pre-construction activities, operational departments and contributions to the Feasibility Study for the Hidden Valley mine plus support for the Wafi-Golpu project development.
  • He was the Site Engineer for Goldfield Limited at the Henty Gold Mine for the process plant and underground mine, Project Engineer at Mount Isa Mines with main projects including packages for the Copper Smelter upgrade and deep copper underground crushing station.