Committee

Godlieb (Lieb) Combrinck

PRESIDENT

Principal Ventilation Engineer – Rio Tinto Copper Group
Rio Tinto
Brisbane, Qld

Lieb has 36 years’ experience in the underground mining industry in South Africa, Australia, Asia, and the USA.

He is a mine ventilation engineering expert with extensive experience in mine safety, underground mine design, refrigeration & cooling, risk management, fire prevention and control, mine rescue, emergency management, occupational hygiene, and environmental management.

Through his career he has performed diverse roles and gained a vast amount of experience with different mining methods and commodities such as gold, platinum, copper, and diamonds. He has a considerable amount of experience with large scale underground mining operations such as Block Caving.
He specialises in the design and construction of new mining projects as is evidenced with his involvement in the study, design, planning and execution of numerous green and brownfield projects around the globe.

In addition he has also coordinated, trained, and led the Business Resilience processes such as Emergency Response Plans, Incident Command Teams, Business Recovery/Asset Recovery and Business Continuity plans.

Michael Shearer

COMMITTEE MEMBER
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT

Ventilation and Compliance Engineer
CPB Contractors
WestConnex New M5 and Sydney Metro, NSW

Michael has been a member of the MVSA since 2014 and has been serving as an active committee member of the board. Michael currently works for CPB Contractors based in Sydney as a Ventilation and hygiene Compliance Engineer. Michael previously worked for Glencore for 10 years at the Mount Isa Mines operations where he was employed as the Ventilation Advisor. Michael currently holds a UNSW Graduate Diploma in underground mine ventilation and a Master’s Degree in Mine Engineering from UNSW. Michael previously ran a promotion and consultancy business for 10 years organising sporting events and consulting in the telecommunications environment prior to joining the team at MIM. Michael is passionate about the health and safety of all those working within the underground environment and hopes to work with government bodies and mining companies to help further improve legislative expectations to benefit the mining and tunnelling industries.

Howard Hindley

TREASURER

Managing Director
Mine & Tunnel Ventilation (MTV)
Perth, WA

Experienced managing director including business management, business finance, planning, safety, estimating & planning, business law, strategic planning & customer relationship development.
Over 30 years of mechanical & production engineering, design, manufacturing, installation, maintenance, service & prototype development.
Including 20 years’ experience in ventilation fan design, engineering, manufacturing & supply with turn-key installations within the mining and tunnelling industries within Australia.
Design, supply & installation of compact dust collection systems for the tunnel construction industry with most of the major tunnel project within Australia for the last 15 years.

Marle Hooman

ADMIN

CPEng; RPEQ
M.Eng (Mining) 

Principal Engineer
BBE Consulting (Australasia)
Brisbane, Qld

In her 15 years at BBE, Marle has gained experience with VUMA3D-network simulations, VUMA-coal simulations, Ventsim simulations, pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, control budget estimates and detailed engineering design including procurement and construction management assistance (EPCM) for various surface and underground cooling and refrigeration systems in national and international mines.

Marle is currently the Principal Engineer and Engineering Manager of BBE Consulting Australasia, Brisbane office and one of the Managing Director of BBE Consulting Australasia. She has also led engineering teams as professional engineer in positions including lead engineer and project manager for the last eleven years. This work included design requirements for surface and underground main fan stations and refrigeration/air cooling
systems.

Florian Michelin

WEBSITE ADMIN

Manager – Howden Ventsim Australia
Howden Ventsim
Brisbane, Qld

Florian Michelin is a mechanical engineer, specialising in computational fluid dynamics. HE started as a software developer at Chasm Consulting (now owned by Howden), developing new features and improving simulation algorithms in Ventsim™. He then developed Pumpsim (pipe flow simulation siftware) and has become product manager for Pumpsim, trainer and consultant using Ventsim and Pumpsim. Now, he is manager for Howden Ventsim Australia, responsible for development, sales, training, and consulting activities for Ventsim and Pumpsim products.

Jakes Raubenheimer

COMMITTEE MEMBER

Senior Ventilation Engineer
BBE Consulting (Australasia)
Perth, WA

Jakes Raubenheimer has over 32 years’ experience in metalliferous mine ventilation and refrigeration, primarily in an operational role. His operational experience includes working for Western Areas, Anglo Platinum Rustenburg, Union Sections as well as Mount Isa Mines in Australia. Jakes held the position of Senior Ventilation Engineer at the Mt. Isa operations for 5 years where his responsibilities included Enterprise, X41 Copper, George Fisher and the Isa Lead mine. His portfolio included responsibility for the ammonia refrigeration plants, chilled water system as well as surface and underground bulk air coolers. Jakes is familiar with massive ore body mining methods including SLOS, block caving as well as narrow reef stoping methods in gold, copper, lead, zinc and platinum. Jakes is also a fellow member of Mine Ventilation Society of South Africa [MVSSA] and a member of the AusIMM. Jakes obtained his Certificate in Mine Environment Control (Ventilation) from the Chamber of Mines in South Africa and completed a number of modules as part of the British Examination Board – Occupation Hygiene.

Michael Johnson

COMMITTEE MEMBER

Production Coordinator/Ventilation Officer
Pajingo Gold Mine
Charters Towers, Qld

Currently studying for my Graduate Diploma for Mining Engineering with the Southern Cross University.
I am also in the process of gaining qualification as a Ventilation Officer for Metalliferous Mines with SIMTARS.

• 15 years in Underground Mining, a combination of U/G Coal & U/G Metalliferous
• Shotfirer at Pajingo mine
• Underground Supervisor, Deputy (ERZ Controller) of coal mines in Qld – Diploma of U/G Mining
• Mines Rescue member – QMRS
• Member of AusIMM

I feel privileged to be a part of the Mines Ventilation Society of Australia. I hope that I can contribute in a positive way.

Jaco Kok

COMMITTEE MEMBER

Mine Ventilation Fan Engineer
Mine & Tunnel Ventilation
Perth, WA

Jaco has been working in the metalliferous mine ventilation discipline for over 24 years in various roles. He has extensive experience over a wide spectrum within the ventilation discipline which includes site operational ventilation management, ventilation consulting services and ventilation system engineering.

In 2005 he completed his Chamber of Mines of South Africa Certificate in Mine Environmental Control/Occupational Hygiene and in 2010 he completed his Graduate Diploma in Mine Ventilation at the University of New South Wales. He has also completed his Diploma in Work Health and Safety; completed his Exemplar Global training as Lead Auditor for Safety Management Systems (AS45001); and his Certificate IV in Training and Education (TAE40116).

Jaco is now working at MTV where he leads the Work Health and Safety system management; and continues to apply his experience to provide input into various ventilation solutions for different applications.

Jeff Norris

COMMITTEE MEMBER

Senior Mine Ventilation Engineer
Agnico Eagle
Fosterville Gold Mine
Bendigo, Vic

Jeff’s primary expertise is in all aspects of underground metalliferous mine ventilation. Areas of particular interest include ventilation modelling, mine heat load calculations and mine cooling, life of mine design and ventilation safety audits. He has worked in various disciplines within the mining framework comprising capital development and underground production mine design, production blast vibration monitoring, production planning and development scheduling. He has developed management framework and operating procedures regarding atmospheric contaminants and heat management.

In 2017 Jeff took on the role as the registered Ventilation Officer and currently holds the position of Senior Mine Ventilation Engineer overseeing the ventilation technician.

To date Jeff has delivered key milestone projects in the ventilation department including commissioning of 1.1MW underground axial fan, implementation of underground refrigeration systems, installation of booster fan systems and most recently installation of the Ventilation on Demand system at Fosterville.