• PhD in Mining Engineering (Strategic Mine Planning Optimization using Operational Research and AI-based Hybrid Metaheuristics) WASM Curtin University, Australia -2018
• MS leading to PhD in Engineering Management (NUST and IIU Pakistan-2014), Majors in Project Management, Operations Management, and Information Systems (Pak, 2011)
• Master's Information Technology (University of Glasgow, UK, 2001)
• Certificate in Data Science and Machine Learning (AI in Decision Making) (MIT USA-2024)
• BSc (Hons) Mining Engineering (UET Lahore, Pakistan -2000)
• BSc Mathematics and Physics (GC and Punjab University, Pakistan, 1996)

• Central Queensland University (CQU) 2024 to Present
• Curtin University Australia (2019-2020)
• University of Western Australia (Sessional Academic)
• Kaplan Business School (Sessional Academic)
• Bahria University Islamabad, Pakistan (2011-2014)

• 0.5M Grant allocated for the AEA Ignite project is for collaboration with UNSW
• 10K grant for reviewing the cut-off grade policy for QMAG
• The ACARP 2026 funding project application is in progress
• 50K Grant from RCOE for research in mining pavement (2024) with a colleague in Civil Engineering at CQU
• 2M grant from the Chilean Government in a collaborative project on Mining electrification with CSIRO and Mining3 (2021-2022)
• 10K grant from QMAG for independent review of cut-off grade policy.
• 50 K Grant for working on Value Chain Optimisation from Mining3 (2021)
• 50K grant for CRCTiME mine closure research project (2021)
• CIPRS Scholarship Award for PhD at Curtin (2014)
• Working with the Mining industry to introduce a joint venture mining program that will generate good funds for CQU for accreditation.

• Discipline Lead – Senior Lecturer (ALC6) (Resource System Engineering) Central Queensland University (Jan 2024-Present)
• Lecturer, Curtin University (July 2019- Dec 2020)
• Assistant Professor – (Co-ordinator for Pakistan Engineering Council), Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan (Sep 2011-July 2014)
• Sessional Academic (KBS, UWA, Murdoch University, Curtin, UQ) (2015-2023)

• Discipline Lead – Senior Lecturer (ALC6) (Resource System Engineering) Central Queensland University (Jan 2024-Present)
• Principal Mining Consultant/Engineer, Life of Asset Planning, Opportunity Assessment and MTP optimisation, Contracting SRK Consulting for BHP, Mineral Resources, Caterpillar (August 2023 to Jan 2024)
• Principal Engineering Advisor/Consultant (Jan 2022 to Aug 2024)
• Senior Mining Engineer, Integrated Mine Planning & Closure Planning, Okane Consultants, QLD, WA and North America (Aug 2022-Mar 2023)
• Senior Research Scientist (Digital Mining Transformation), CSIRO, Brisbane (Dec 2020- Aug 2022)
• Lecturer, Curtin University (July 2019- Dec 2020)
• PhD Scholar-Curtin and Sessional Academic (Aug 2014- May 2018)
• IT supervisor MLG Oz PTY Ltd, Kalgoorlie (June 2018- July 2019)
• Assistant Professor – (Co-ordinator for Pakistan Engineering Council), Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan (Sep 2009-July 2014)
• Senior Mine Planning Engineer, Chinese Sandak Gold, Cooper Mine Project (April 2006- Aug 2009)
• Senior Mining Engineer promoted from Mining Engineer, Makarwal Coal Mines, Pakistan (2003-2004-2006)

• Member Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AuSIMM)
• Member of Society of Mining Professors (SOMP)
• Member of Engineers Australia (EA) in progress
• Member British Computer Society (BCS)
• Member Hydrogen and Renewable Energy (CHRE)
• Member Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC)

Leading Resource System Engineering Discipline for undergraduate and postgraduate programs as well as associated degrees in different campuses of Central Queensland University (CQU). Representing my discipline at different forums for academic and research collaboration, including industrial liaison. Actively participating in the college of engineering and technology activities and a member of multiple learning and teaching committees, and research groups. Actively collaborating with industry, regulators for generating research funds, arranging student placements and encouraging cadetships/work-integrated learning for the Resources discipline. Actively participating in workshops with Regional high schools to appreciate enrolment in the discipline. Coordinating units like Mine Planning and Design, Safety management in Mining Resource Industry, and Mining Technology, Business Analytics in Mining using AI, Asset Management and Maintenance, Operational Research, Supply Chain and Operations Management, and Project Management. Introduced and developed the Grad certificate and micro credentials for the Resources discipline. Also collaborating with the industry to start new joint venture programs for accreditation and research.
Supervising HDR students, coordinating curriculum and resources for teaching and learning. Designing new strategies for Generative AI for assessment evaluation and academic integrity. I am part of different learning activities to upskill myself in different engineering, industrial software applications, and models. Published several papers in Journals and conference proceedings. Applying and Generating Research grants for industrial and collaborative research projects. building networking and relations with potential industries and funding bodies for disseminating more funds for the team projects.

Advancing sustainable, low-carbon, and digitally enabled mining systems that support the global energy transition and critical minerals supply chains. Their work integrates technical mining engineering, systems modelling, and policy-relevant analysis, with strong engagement across industry and government.

Key areas of interest include:

• Critical minerals development
  Exploration, extraction, and processing of critical and strategic minerals (e.g. lithium, rare earths, nickel, cobalt, manganese) to support battery technologies, renewable energy, and advanced manufacturing.
• Decarbonisation of mining operations
  Reduction of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions through mine electrification, alternative fuels (including hydrogen), energy efficiency, and integration of renewable energy and storage systems.
• Mine systems modelling and optimisation
  Techno-economic modelling of mining value chains, haulage systems, processing flowsheets, and infrastructure to improve productivity, cost efficiency, and environmental performance.
• Sustainable mine design and planning
  Life-of-mine planning, cut-off grade optimisation, and strategic mine design incorporating ESG considerations, climate risk, and long-term resource stewardship.
• Mining infrastructure and logistics
  Design and optimisation of haulage, materials handling, and supply chain systems, particularly for remote and infrastructure-constrained mining regions.
• Digitalisation and data-driven mining
  Application of data analytics, simulation, and decision-support tools to improve operational performance, safety, and sustainability outcomes.
• Policy, regulation, and industry transition
  Interface between mining engineering, public policy, and regulation, including critical minerals strategies, decarbonisation pathways, and sovereign supply-chain resilience.
• Industry collaboration and applied research
  Strong focus on industry-partnered research, translation of research outcomes into practice, and supervision of higher degree research candidates in applied mining engineering topics.

• BHP Project Chuma Tanzania
  Developed Hill of Value using Brian Hall's technique of Strategic optimisation and estimated the sweet spot of optimum value estimation for the underground mine development at the Tanzania Nickel project owned by BHP. Studies and developed multiple strategies for value descriptors, activity costs and cut-off grade optimisation.
• BHP WAIO WA
  The project comprises opportunity assessment (OA) and develops Life of Asset (LOA) plans for three years, updated every year. The project was led by me along with a team of 8 people. Along with the team, the work was completed before time, with an optimum NPVS targeting high grades. The confirmatory analysis was also performed to find the deviations from the previous plans using VULCAN, DESWIK and ALASTRI. The work was reviewed by independent experts and was well acknowledged.
• Hydra Consortium, San Tiago, Chile
  As part of the Hydra consortium, worked on haulage profile and Rim pull curves using discrete simulation and performing haulage cost trade-off using battery-electric and hydrogen-fuel-cell trucks. All the truck options are considered in the evaluation process, including autonomous trucks. Detailed Load and haul study using multiple pieces of equipment.
• CRCTiME Western Australia, Australia
  Studied and published a report/paper on the issues relating to mine closure planning processes and developed a framework to bring closure planning processes in line with the strategic mine planning. The risk analysis and stakeholder engagement till the relinquishment were also studied in this project.
• Mining3, Brisbane, Australia
  Study of the bottlenecks in the overall mining operation from mine-to-market and develop a framework for cost estimation and optimised NPV through better material characterisation, alternate processes of feed in the mill, reduced oxidation for stockpiles and alternate energy options for material movement across the mining value chain.
• Curtin University, Western Australia, Australia
  PhD research project at Curtin University, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) based mathematical model is developed for optimising cut-off grades and production schedules without using economic block values, and to avoid computational complexity, hybrid metaheuristics were also used for obtaining a local optimum solution.
• Attended Supercomputers training at the Pawsey Centre, Perth, Australia.
• Mining software applications, Vulcan, Minesite, Whittle, Spry and Surpac, TELPAC and HAUL SIM, FlEXSIM, Discrete even simulation, Cost modelling and value modelling
• Attended a 3-day training workshop on Deswik in Perth, Australia and advanced training in CQU Australia.
• Attended workshops at national and international levels for Integrating Technology in Education and Information Technology, including SAP, E-Commerce, E-Government, IT Management, Strategic Management, Software Project Management, Knowledge Management, Technology Management
• Hosted 10 workshops on different IT Application Software for international Universities

• Mining Software Applications: DESWIK, VULCAN, SPRY, SURPAC, WHITTLE, TELPAC, HAULSIM
• Software Project Management: MS Project, Primavera, PMBOK, Prince2
• Languages: PHP, ASP.NET, C, C++, Visual Basic, Java, AJAX, Python
• Scripting: ASP, PHP, JavaScript, VB Script, XML, HTML, CSS
• Databases: Oracle (9i, 10g, 11i), MySQL, MS SQL Server 2000/2005 (DTS, SSIS, Reports, Stored Procedures, Views, UDF, Jobs, Indexes, Query Optimization)
• Operating Systems: Windows, MacOS, IOS, Android, Unix, Linux
• Cloud Servers: AWS (ADFS), MS Azure AD (synchronisation with premises AD), Google Cloud,
  Software Application: MS Office 365, Power BI, Microsoft Dynamics, Adobe Dreamweaver. Macromedia FreeHand, Adobe Photoshop. Sage, SAP, MYOB, BAS, DevOps, Python, Discrete event simulation, cost modelling applications
• Statistical Skills: Expert in SPSS software, data analysis skills
• Data Science and Big Data Analytics: Interpret, analyse, and modelling results in a business context and provide commercially focused recommendations to support business decisions
• Machine Learning using AI algorithms, Data mining and data-engineering experience
• Statistical and machine learning modelling, Big Data Analytics with exposure to Big Data platforms (Apache Hadoop and Spark).
• Advanced working knowledge of analytical programming: SQL, SAS, Python and R.
• Experience in working in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to collect, organise, analyse and disseminate significant amounts of information
• Operations Research-Demonstrated experience in Linear programming (LP), queuing theory and mixed integer linear programming (MILP) and working experience on solver like CPLEX using CPLEX concert technology

Project 2.2 CRCTiME

Editor to Resource Journal (Mining)

• Principal Mining Consultant/Engineer, Life of Asset Planning, Opportunity Assessment and MTP optimisation, Contracting SRK Consulting for BHP, Mineral Resources, Caterpillar (August 2023 to Jan 2024)
• Principal Engineering Advisor/Consultant (Jan 2022 to Aug 2023)
• Senior Mining Engineer, Integrated Mine Planning & Closure Planning, Okane Consultants, QLD, WA and North America (Aug 2022-Mar 2023)
• Senior Research Scientist (Digital Mining Transformation), CSIRO, Brisbane (Dec 2020- Aug 2022)
• Business Analyst, Caterpillar- Energy consumption optimization for Mining haul trucks using battery electrification.