ABOUT

Bradfield Mining Geotechnics provides specialist geotechnical engineering services for the surface mining industry.

Our Values

Autonomy

We are enthusiastic and assertive in our approach to resolving the challenges presented by our clients. We are energetic self-starters with a CAN-DO attitude.

Excellence

We have high standards. We respect technical expertise and experience. We work with exceptional people to achieve exceptional outcomes. We execute on the details and take immense pride in the quality of service we deliver.

Breaking New Ground

We are problem solvers by nature and thinking outside the box is part of our DNA. We believe in the power of technology and research to enable progress, and we are always striving to be better. We ask why, we challenge the status quo, and we like to break new ground.

Small Team, Big Impact

As a boutique consultancy, we are a tight-knit, dynamic group who can offer more agility, flexibility, transparency, and personality than large-scale companies.

Moral Compass

We act with honesty, integrity and thoughtfulness in our dealings. We stand for what is right and hold ourselves to a high level of ethical standards. Nothing is more important than the trusted relationships we have with our clients.

Leonie Bradfield BE (Hons) MEngSc PhD

Dr Leonie Bradfield is a qualified mining, civil and geotechnical engineer with experience spanning a diverse range of commodities and ground conditions throughout Australia, Asia, South America, North America and India. She specialises in open pit design and geomechanics, slope stability, mine waste dump design, mine haul road design, risk assessment, and governance; and has fieldwork, laboratory testing and computer modelling expertise. She has led technical baseline studies for geotechnically complex projects in coal, copper, gold, silver, iron ore, nickel, and crude bitumen (oil sands), and has managed global geotechnical engineering and geology teams for a leading multinational with projects in Australia, Africa, India, Central Asia, South-East Asia, North America and South America.

Leonie has an active interest in research and technology and believes these are critical to sustaining the future competitiveness of a mining industry now faced with the challenges extracting resources that are deeper and more geologically complex than ever before. A dedicated committee member for industry research organisations, she helps guide study topics to further the interests of the Australian mining industry. In the past she has also co-supervised university student thesis projects from UQ, UoN and UNSW.

Leonie’s appreciation for research stems from her PhD studies conducted under the mentorship of Dr John Simmons and Prof Stephen Fityus. For ACARP Project C20019, she designed and commissioned the world’s largest direct shear machine (in terms of both specimen size and stress capacity) to provide reliable design information for very-high spoil dumps. The LDSM resides at the University of Newcastle and is now used at large by the Australian mining industry for evaluating the shearing behaviour of mine wastes.

Leonie maintains active authorship of technical papers in the areas of spoil dump stability and design, shear strength assessment and practical considerations for handling of mine wastes. Leonie is a Chartered Professional Engineer (MAusIMM CP) and Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland (RPEQ).

People We Work With

Our trusted relationships with like-minded professionals enables us to provide a diverse range of skills and collective experience, as well as share and collaborate on global best practices.

Paul Maconochie BSc MEngSc

Paul Maconochie, owner of GeoTek Solutions, is an expert geotechnical engineer and engineering geologist with extensive experience across the civil and mining sectors. Paul has degrees in geology (BSc) and civil-geotechnical engineering (MEngSc) from UNSW. He specialises in open cut mining geomechanics and geotechnical design, slope stability, and risk assessment, for a wide range of clients including mine owners, mine contractors, research organisations and other consultants and professionals. Paul has led technical studies for many geotechnically complex projects and has expertise in auger mining, site investigation, geotechnical logging, laboratory testing and analysis, geological structure mapping using the latest technologies, and geotechnical risk management. His experience spans hard rock and soft rock mines throughout Australia, Brazil, Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands.

John Simmons BE (Hons) MSc PhD

Dr John Simmons, owner of Sherwood Geotechnical and Research Services, and Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle, is a specialist geotechnical and civil engineer with wide experience in applied geology, materials testing, analysis, and design. He has dealt with soft clays and coastal sediments, stiff fissured clays, sands and tailings, mine waste dumps, residual soils, and rocks, and has fieldwork, laboratory testing, and computer modelling expertise. His investigation and design experience includes spread footing, raft and pile foundations; slope stability of cuts and fills; tailings and water storage dams; pavements; mining and materials handling facilities; and construction material studies. He has worked in Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Vietnam, Algeria, and India.

Stephen Fityus BE (Hons) BSc PhD

Professor Stephen Fityus from the University of Newcastle is a highly regarded geologist and engineer with a broad career spanning engineering geology and geotechnical engineering as both an academic and consultant. His research expertise is mostly centred around field study and laboratory testing of geomaterials including unsaturated soils, expansive clay soils, silica sands, soft clays and weak sedimentary rocks. Over the past 10 years his research interests have moved to issues related to slope stability and the behaviour of waste materials in open pit mines. He has published more than 150 technical papers on a wide variety of topics and is an active member and national immediate past chair of the Australian Geomechanics Society.

Ian Clark BSc MSc PhD

Dr Ian Clark, owner of GEONET Consulting Group, provides specialist services in geotechnical modelling for construction projects, open-cut and underground mining. Simulation of geotechnical stability conditions in various and complex geological environments have included assessments of deformation and failure mechanisms, evaluation of stabilisation strategies, surface subsidence, groundwater flow studies, backfill design, validation of instrumentation and monitoring programs. Resolving such problems is made in timeous and efficient manner using state-of-the-art 2D and 3D stress/deformation software. His clients have included mining and construction companies, consulting engineering firms, insurance companies and research institutions in Australia, United States of America, France, Brazil, South Africa, Mongolia, Laos, India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. He has published in journals and conference proceedings.