Chris Alford

Director, Alford Mining Optimization Services

Chris Alford trained as a mining engineer at the University of Melbourne, and has broad experience working in industry, research and development, and academia.  Chris co-authored the first paper on the application of Whittle open pit optimization software with Jeff Whittle in 1985, and carried out project work with the initial products THREE-D and FOUR-D. Alford Mining Systems (AMS) is a specialist supplier of research capability, software and services to the mining industry, and was established by Chris in 1999, and acquired in 2016 by Constellation Software Inc through the mining software supplier Datamine.  Prior to establishing AMS Chris had been employed with BHP, Newmont and Datamine. Chris was Professor and Director of the WH Bryan Mining Research Centre at the Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland, in 2004-5.  AMS has made significant contributions to the development and application of optimization techniques for mine design. At AMS he was Project Manager and lead researcher for two large international research projects coordinated by AMIRA International and funded by seven major international mining companies (BHPB, Newmont, Xstrata, Vale, Barrick, MMG, and Boliden) and four mining software suppliers (Datamine, Maptek, MineRP and Deswik) to develop tools for stope design and strategic  life of mine optimization for underground mine design.  This research led to the MSO (Mineable Shape Optimizer) and StopeMAX products.

Presentation Title: 

Research and Commercialization of Tools for Cutoff and Strategy Optimization in Underground Mines