OUR TEAM

PIETER STROBOS – Business Director

Pieter is the Business Director for Process IQ. He completed his bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering and two post-graduate degrees in metallurgy and technology management at the University of Pretoria. Since immigrating to Australia in early 2000, Pieter has introduced several new technologies in the mining industry, the latest of which is applying the Industrial Internet of things in innovative ways.

Pieter has been instrumental in a new joint venture between Process IQ and Orway Minerals Consultants (OMC) – Orway IQ which provides remote optimisation consulting for mineral processing plants through MillROC.

He is an active member of the AusIMM for the past 17 years and is a committee member for the AusIMM Metallurgical Society (MetSoc)  

DANIEL VAN DER SPUY – Technical Director

Daniel obtained his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (Control Systems) at Stanford University in 1999, having previously completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics Engineering at the University of Pretoria.

Daniel’s career in the minerals and metallurgical industry started off at Mintek South Africa, where he was employed for over 10 years and filled the position of Principal Process Control Engineer. Daniel emigrated to Australia in 2006. After doing some contract work, he co-founded Process IQ in 2011, where he is the Technical Director overseeing all operations relating to the company including technical aspects while providing a world-class service at all times. 

Daniel is on the committee for the World Gold Conference. 

ADRIAN PAINE – Product Manager: Gold Processing

Adrian brings over 25 years of experience in process modelling to Process IQ. Adrian started his career in the mid-eighties with Anglo American Corporation, spending time on gold, uranium, coal and sulphuric acid plants. He spent over 14 years in materials and manufacturing research with the CSIR relating to process development and finite element modelling, with a further 3 years in Europe in plant simulation.

In his current position, Adrian focusses on all areas of metallurgy and consulting tasks.

KOBUS OOSTHUIZEN – Senior Engineer – Advanced Process Control

Kobus joined Process IQ in February 2019 as Senior Engineer – Advanced Process Control.  

Kobus has extensive process control expertise in the development, implementation and support of control solutions, particularly on furnace, flotation and leaching processes.  He gained his M.Eng Electronic Engineering from the University of Pretoria in 2000.

Having worked at Mintek based in South Africa for 18 years, Kobus has a strong track record of analytical problem solving for many global companies.

He oversaw the development and integration of the FloCam visual flotation monitoring system and helped drive excellence in control solution implementations.

JAMES KO- Senior Solutions Architect

James has worked in multiple industry sectors and accumulated more than 18 years of experience in software technologies and solutions, including specialised applications in the minerals processing industry.

James focuses on establishing and evolving the Process IQ Industrial Internet-Of-Things (IIot) platform, integrating the solutions platform ubiquitously into the mining value chain and applying Artificial intelligence (AI) to optimise minerals processing plants.

FRANCO MOCKE- Integration Manager

Franco Mocke joined Process IQ in June 2002 as Integration Mangaer.  Franco has a Masters in Chemical Engineering and brings extensive experience in the mining & metallurgical industry; from process engineering to business improvement.

Franco’s strengths are his mining and metallurgical knowledge combined with software & systems expertise which is required to gain maximum benefit from the latest technologies.

ALEX ZHENG- Chemical Process Engineer

STUART NUTTALL – Process Technology Consultant

LIH DING – Process Technology Consultant

Lih completed his Chemical Engineering degree in Wales UK with over XX years’ experience predominantly in the mineral processing industry. During his career, Lih has accumulated a broad skillset in areas such as process control design, optimization and bottleneck studies, project financial viability evaluation to raise capital, conducted bench top studies, run pilot plants to generate data for modelling as well as Six Sigma business improvement.

His strength has been the ability to identify processes declining performances and having the skills and tenacity to improve those vulnerabilities. As a strategic thinker, Lih is passionate about driving new businesses to achieve financial prosperity.

KAMIL AMAN – Chemical Engineer and Software Developer

Kamil joined Process IQ in December 2018 as a Chemical Engineer and Software Developer. Prior to this, Kamil has worked as a Software Developer during his studies at a local software solutions company. In 2017, he attained his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and his Master’s degree in Oil and Gas in 2019 at University of Western Australia.

CHET TAN- Software Engineer

Chet completed his Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering (BEng) with Honors at Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia. Shortly after, Chet was offered a PhD by the WASM (Western Australian School of Mines) through Curtin University’s Department of Spatial Sciences, in which he collaborated with the CRCSI (Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information) and member companies to perform research on innovative methods to utilize Semantic Web (Web 3.0) technologies on spatial data and services.

His research on the automatic orchestration of geospatial processes and datasets has been published in a Springer journal as part of the International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management.  

PAULA CAIRNS – Marketing Project Manager

 Paula brings a wealth of marketing knowledge to the company as our appointed Marketing Project Manager.  She has over 20 years of experience in marketing within the mining, metallurgy and process industry having previously worked for Rockwell Automation UK for over 14 years while gaining her Professional Certificate from The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) London.

Paula has also been instrumental in the strategic marketing and branding of Orway IQ, a recently launched joint venture between Process IQ and Orway Mineral Consultants.  Paula emigrated to Australia in 2013 with her family.

CATHERIN BOUWER – Accounts

Catherin obtained her National Diploma in Cost and Management Accounting in 2006 after successfully completing an Accounting internship at a CPA firm for 3 years between 2000 and 2003.

HANNAH STROBOS- Admin Assistant

Hannah has joined the team earlier in 2019 to support our administration department. Her main duties are overseeing all client spares orders, office facilities as well as supporting accounts and marketing.

AFRICA

BRIAN WHITEHEAD- General Manager – Africa

Brian brings extensive experience in the design, operation, optimisation and commissioning of equipment and circuits related to dense media separation, comminution and flotation.

Brian is currently completing his Masters in Engineering Management, which is focussed on IoT and Industry 4.0 applications within the mineral processing sector.  Brian is the former Technical Manager of Northam Platinum’s Booysendal Operations in South Africa.

GERHARD STROBOS – Technical Manager

As an Africa and International representative of Process IQ, Gerhard provides invaluable support to the mining industry in this region.  In 2002, Gerhard gained his Masters Degree in Environmental Engineering Technology and holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) from the University of Pretoria, South Africa which he completed in 1997. Gerhard worked for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research for 6 years on the commissioning of water treatment plants for industrial process water.

Over the past 10 years, Gerhard is actively involved in supporting Petra Institute which do capacity building for churches and NGO’s that work in Africa countries, refugee camps etc.  Gerhard lives in Tanzania with his wife and newly born twins.

NORTH AMERICA

JULIAN KNIGHT -Managing Director Process IQ Canada

Julian joined as Managing Director for ProcessIQ Canada in July 2020.

He has extensive consulting experience in mining projects across various commodities and minerals, the major ones being gold, copper, PGMs, coal, ferrous metals and non-ferrous metals such as tin, zinc and nickel.

Julian started his career as a process control engineer designing and implementing advanced process control solutions for mainly PGM and base metal clients in Southern Africa and South America. Since then he moved into a role as Senior Process Engineer for a consulting firm in Johannesburg where he eventually headed up the metallurgy and process engineering department. He has expertise in designing and managing metallurgical test work programs, technical feasibility studies and Due Diligences, competent person reporting, capital and operating cost modelling, metallurgical accounting and process plant optimisation.

SOUTH AMERICA

GUY BARROILHET LIRA – General Manager – South America

Guy joined Process IQ’s team in November 2019, after graduating as a University of Queensland MBA. Guy is a Mining Engineer graduating from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile.  He brings extensive experience from the South American mining industry

As a Project Engineer and then as a Business Development Engineer at Antofagasta Minerals, he was involved in several M&A operations, including the acquisition of a 50% stake of the Zaldivar Copper mine in Chile.  After Antofagasta, Guy moved to Aguamarina, a Chilean Biotech company focused on solving environmental challenges of the mining industry.  He worked with companies such as BHP, Antofagasta and CODELCO and gained valuable experience as a Business Development Manager in that role.