Ms. Marriott is a former BHP metallurgist with over 20 years of expertise in various commodities such as nickel, uranium, iron ore, and rare earths. She has planned and handled all areas of process flowsheet development.
In her capacity as Process Development Manager, Ms. Marriott will be in charge of planning and carrying out metallurgical test work and mineralogical studies, as well as creating an economical flowsheet for metallurgical processing that will be used for titanium extraction, product development, and mineral beneficiation for the Pitfield Project.
A small team of metallurgists and process design engineers will be under the technical supervision and guidance of Ms. Marriott in order to progress from the existing process development studies to the building and effective operation of a demonstration process-product facility.
Mr. Andrew Faragher, our exploration manager, and Ms. Marriott are part of a formidable technical leadership team under the direction of Managing Director Shaun Bunn, who was previously one of Rio Tinto’s Chief Geologists.
The company’s Technical Advisory Committee, which consists of Mr. Ed Baltis, Exploration Consultant; Dr. Trevor Nicholson, a newly recruited titanium expert; and Mr. Eugene Dardengo, Non-Executive Chairman of Empire, provides strong assistance to the technical team.
The recruitment of Ms. Marriott, who has a lot of expertise and will be a terrific complement to our growing project development team, was announced with great pleasure by Managing Director Shaun Bunn. Accelerating the economic assessment and development of the Pitfield Titanium Project requires us to invest in the right individuals and create our own technological competence. He is also very happy that Mr. Eugene Dardengo and Dr. Trevor Nicholson, two well-known technical experts in the titanium business, will be consulting for the team.
The company has reached a big milestone with Ms. Marriott’s hiring as Process Development Manager, which greatly enhances the processing and project development capabilities of our project team. This appointment guarantees that we have the necessary experience to create and carry out our project development plans, as does the hiring of the two senior technical consultants for the titanium sector. With the recent announcement that resource drilling at Pitfield will begin to identify high-grade, shallow zones of titanium mineralization and to supply critical samples for mineralogical and metallurgical characterisation, the timing could not be better.
With more than 20 years of experience, Ms. Marriott is a metallurgist with expertise in a variety of commodities, such as nickel, uranium, iron ore, and rare earths. Her early years were spent with BHP, where she rose to the position of Senior Process Engineer stationed at BHP’s Perth Technology Center. She graduated with honors from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Engineering (Minerals Process) degree. Since then, she has organized and overseen the entire process of creating a beneficiation process flowsheet, including the creation of design requirements, translation to engineering design, orebody evaluations, preliminary concept testing, variability testing, and pilot plant operation.
Ms. Marriott most recently worked for Hastings Technology Metals Pty Ltd. in Hastings as the General Manager-Process Development, where she oversaw the Yangibana Project. She was given credit for carrying out a metallurgical program that evaluated the ore’s potential for beneficiation and improved it from 1% TREO to >25% TREO in the flotation concentration. In close collaboration with the EPCM contractor, she oversaw a group of process engineers during the project’s detailed design phase, delivering designs for hydrometallurgical and beneficiation plants.
Ms. Marriott worked for Greenland Minerals & Energy Pty Ltd on the Kvanefjeld Rare Earth and Uranium Project before joining Hastings. There, she oversaw the management, design, and implementation of a geo-metallurgical testwork program to identify a beneficiation processing technology that would help the project develop an economically viable process flowsheet. She put a lot of effort into finding and interacting with subject-matter experts, investigating current procedures and related fields, and creating testwork programs to apply research findings to the particular mineralogy of Kvanefjeld. The result of this was the creation and management of three pilot plant programs for flotation and comminution.
Apart from her expertise in utilizing cutting-edge technology and creating distinctive metallurgical processing pathways, Ms. Marriott has also contributed to a sizable iron ore project in Washington’s Mid-West region, which is in close proximity to the Pitfield Project. In her role as Process Manager at Crosslands Resources, she oversaw the bench and pilot scale metallurgical testing, which included flotation, magnetic separation, gravity separation, and product handling. She also had to oversee a group of engineering consultants.
Dr. Nicholson is a seasoned senior technical manager who has worked in the WA Mineral Sands sector since 1987. He has a strong foundation in metallurgical processes. Project management and process engineering services, which are supported by highly developed engineering and analytical abilities and have a successful project outcome track record, are key strengths.
Mathematical Modelling of the Ilmenite Reduction Process in Rotary Kilns was the title of Dr. Nicholson’s 1996 PhD thesis in Mineral Process Engineering from the University of Queensland. Over a 36-year career, the author has developed significant knowledge in both the titanium oxide and mineral sands industries. These areas include managing hydro- and pyro-metallurgical operations, organizing and overseeing research initiatives, and modeling, analyzing, and optimizing flowsheets.
Tronox Ltd, Iluka Resources Ltd, Lomon Billions Co Ltd, TiZir Titanium and Iron AS, Bluejay Mining Plc, Alcoa of Australia Ltd, Northern Minerals Ltd, Hastings Technology Metals Ltd, Vale Exploration Pty Ltd, Doral Mineral Industries Ltd, Consolidated Tin Ltd, Metals X Ltd, Lynas Corporation Ltd, Technology Metals Australia Ltd, Atlantic Vanadium Pty Ltd, MSP Engineering Pty Ltd, Wave International, Hazer Group Limited, Image Resources NL, TZ Minerals International Pty Ltd, Lycopodium Engineering Pty Ltd, and Australian National University are among Dr. Nicholson’s clients.
Mr. Dardengo is a seasoned technical/operations manager with extensive expertise in the mineral sands and titanium oxide industries. For more than 36 years, he was in charge of offering professional and technical support to both new and ongoing projects as well as operations in the sector.
After concentrating on magnetic and gravity separation technologies in his early career, Mr. Dardengo joined Tiwest, a producer of titanium oxide pigment, in 1997. Over the course of the next 12 years, he held a variety of positions, including those responsible for plant operations, technical support, logistical services, mineral testwork and laboratory services, and safety, health, and environmental advice.
AML, CSA Global, Australasian Minerals and Trading Pty Ltd, VV Mineral (India), Image Resources NL, Bluejay Mining Plc, Crossland Strategic, MSP Engineering, Minerals Commodities Ltd, Audalia Resources Ltd, Australian Garnet Pty Ltd, and Primero are some of the companies that Mr. Dardengo serves as a client.
