Committee Member

David Brett

Principal Engineer, Water and Mine Waste Management,
GHD Pty Ltd

David is a civil/geotechnical engineer with 50 years experience in investigation, design and construction of a wide range of engineering projects, with a particular focus on water and tailings dams, mine waste dumps and mine infrastructure.

Key projects in David’s career have been his work on water management at the Worsley Alumina Refinery in WA and the remediation project for the Loogana jarosite dump at Nyrstar’s Hobart Smelter in Tasmania, both of which achieved Engineering Excellence Awards from Engineers Australia.

David specialises in mine tailings dam engineering including operation and closure, with particular experience with remediation and prevention of acid drainage through work at mines including Mt Lyell and Savage River in Tasmania, Mt Morgan and Mt Gordon in Qld, Brukunga in SA and new mine developments with AMD potential in Philippines.

David is active in mentoring of new starters in the tailings industry and training of tailings dam operator at mine sites having developed Certificate III units under the Australian Vocational Education and Training Scheme.

As convenor of the committee responsible for producing the 2012 and 2019 ANCOLD Guidelines on Tailings Dams and Australia's representative on the ICOLD Mine Dams sub-committee, David is very much involved in assisting the mining industry in tailings management through the challenges of the future.