Gorazd Žibret
Dr. Gorazd Žibret is a geologist, senior researcher, employed at Geological Survey of Slovenia, Department of Mineral Resources and Geochemistry, with more than 20 years of working experiences in the field of mineral resource assessment and reserves calculation (aggregates, industrial minerals, metals). His research topics covers environmental geochemistry, tectonics, geomorphology, primary and secondary raw materials and data mining in geology, while research findings are published in 36 original scientific papers, and 5 chapters in scientific monographs.
Jussi Aaltonen
Jussi Aaltonen is a research manager at Mechatronics Research Group of Tampere University. He has 20+ years of experience both in industry and academia on complex multidomain machine systems, such as aircrafts and autonomous robots. He leads the Mechatronics Research Group in Robominers project and has been responsible of developing full scale prototype.
Asko Ristolainen
Asko Ristolainen is a senior researcher at Tallinn University of Technology at the Centre for Biorobotics, with 10+ research experience in field-scale underwater sensing design and measurement. He leads the Centre for Biorobotics’ robotics group in the ROBOMINERS project and has been in charge development of bioinspired sensing on small scale test platforms.
Stephen Henley
Steve Henley is a computer geologist. After 10 years post-doctoral work with geological surveys in Australia and the UK, he co-founded DATAMINE in 1981, growing it to a market-leading global provider of deposit modelling and mine planning software. Since 1993 he has worked as an independent consultant, with a year at CSIRO in Australia, and several years as an independent adviser to one of Russia’s largest gold-mining companies. At different times, chairman of PERC and president of the International Raw Materials Observatory. Currently a trustee of the Ecton Mine Educational Trust.
José Eugenio Ortiz
Ph. D. Mining Engineer. Professor at the Madrid School of Mines and Energy with more than 20 years of experience. Director of the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering. Author of more than 200 scientific publications and involved in more than 70 research projects. Responsible of the clustering activities of DigiEcoQuarry H2020 Project and participating in the technical development of the project.
Philipp Hartlieb
Dr. Philipp Hartlieb (male) is a senior scientist at the Chair of Mining Engineering at Montanuniversitaet Leoben. His main research areas are dealing with sustainable and environmental mining technologies, reducing the energy consumption and environmental impact of mining operations, mainly in mechanical excavation and drilling& blasting. Amongst his activities are also projects in mine digitization, raw materials policy, education, and extra-terrestrial mining (in-situ resource utilization). A special focus of his research is set on alternative fragmentation methods (i.e. microwaves) in order to decreasing the specific energy consumption of mining operations.
Kostas Botsialas
Kostas Botsialas is an Engineering Geologist and Hydrogeologist with over ten years of experience in the mining industry, partly as an employee in a mining company and partly as a consultant. He holds a Master’s Degree in Engineering Geology and a PhD in Engineering Geology/Hydrogeology. He is the founder and Manager Director of Aurora Geo Consulting, which provides services to the mining industry regarding maximizing production under safe conditions. The main activity field of AuroraGeo is the mitigation of geohazards related to the operation of the mines both in the short and long term. One of the critical activities of AuroraGeo is to develop innovative solutions for the mining industry. In this context, AuroraGeo partners in two EU Horizon projects: MasterMine and TerraVision.
Guillermo Vaquero
Guillermo Vaquero is a mining engineer currently employed in the Research and Development (R&D) department at Systra Subterra. He has actively contributed to various projects in the mining sector, both open-pit and underground, as well as other endeavours involving underground structures such as road and railway tunnels. His primary focus lies in numerical geotechnical and hydrogeological modelling. Guillermo serves as the Technical Manager for the Digit project.
Richard Z. Papp
Richard Z. Papp has a background in environmental sciences (BSc), in geological engineering (MSc) in geology (PhD). He has with several years of experience in project management, sensor development and various Research and Development actions. He is the managing director of UNEXMIN Georobotics Ltd (UGR) which provides services for mining and exploration companies. The main activity field of UNEXMIN Georobotics Ltd is a specialized underwater survey in flooded mines, utilizing state-of-the-art georobotic technology. With the help of its unique techology the UGR can reack serious risk mitigation during flooded mine reopening and fasten up the whole dewatering and reopening processes with complex 3D models and measurement packages. The UGR is partner in different EU-funded projects, like Mine.io and TIMREX.
