Our Team

Board of Directors

Robert Pett
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman
BA(Hons), MA(Econ), FAICD, Minerals Economist

Robert Pett is a minerals economist with over 30 years’ experience working in exploration and mining. During this time, he has worked internationally in the resources sector at senior levels both in Australia and Africa. He has been involved with listed companies at all levels, from grass-roots exploration through to mine development, production and financing of more than ten mining projects globally including East and West Africa and the construction of the Golden Pride Gold Mine in Tanzania.

He was founding Chairman of Resolute Mining Limited (gold mines and exploration Africa and Australia), Sapphire Mines Limited (gemstone mining and exploration), Reliance Mining Limited (nickel mining Kambalda), Senex Energy Limited (petroleum production and exploration) and director of several other mining and exploration companies operating in Africa, Asia and Australia in gold, base metals, petroleum and uranium.

Robert has also had an active involvement in education and community activities including over 10 years’ service to Murdoch University Western Australia as Senator and Chairman of their Resources (Finance) Committee.

Andrew Spinks
Managing Director
B.App.Sc, MAusIMM

Andrew Spinks has over 25 years’ professional experience in Australia, Asia and Africa on a range of commodities including speciality and industrial minerals.

Andrew has worked in a range of diverse roles across exploration through to successful project developments, and has held a number of board positions on both ASX and TSX.V listed companies.

Andrew was co-founder of TanzGraphite Pty Ltd and has been Managing Director of EcoGraf since its acquisition.

John Conidi
Independent Non-Executive Director
BBus, FCPA

John Conidi is a Certified Practicing Accountant. He has over 20 years’ experience developing, acquiring and managing businesses in the technology and healthcare sectors. In his roles as Managing Director of Capitol Health Limited, Mr Conidi’s role drove its sustained expansion, increasing its market capitalisation.

John has extensive interests in the graphite sector. He is an experienced investor specialising in technology and resources and is the Chairman of 333D Limited that with EcoGraf, jointly owns 3D Graphtech Industries Pty Ltd.

Keith Jones
Independent Non-Executive Director
FCA, FICD, B.Bus (Curtin)

Keith Jones is a Chartered Accountant with 40 years experience in the financial markets and resource industry in Australia.

He has worked across all levels in the corporate arena and acted as expert and advisor for numerous resource companies in roles encompassing project analysis, valuation, transaction advisory and governance.

Keith is the former Chairman of Deloitte Australia, current Chairman of ASX listed Coda Minerals Limited and former Board member of Gindalbie Metals Limited and Orabanda Mining Limited.


Management

Howard Rae
Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary
B.Com (UWA) Finance & Marketing, CA

Howard Rae is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience in acquiring, developing, financing and operating a range of businesses in Australia, Canada, Asia, Africa and Europe.

His career includes Chief Financial Officer roles with a number of successful ASX listed companies active internationally in the precious and base metals, steel-making materials and industrial minerals sectors, together with Directorships of several unlisted and not-for-profit organisations.

During this time, he’s been responsible for new business development, joint ventures, structuring and negotiating corporate, project and infrastructure funding transactions, sales and marketing, risk management and implementing business improvement programs.

Natalie Teo
Joint Company Secretary

Natalie is an experienced company secretary and has provided corporate advisory, company secretarial and financial reporting services to ASX-listed, unlisted public and private companies. She has played key roles in a variety of transactions, including capital raisings, acquisitions, IPOs, and takeovers. She graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Marketing and Management and a Masters in Accounting from Curtin University in Western Australia. Natalie is a Chartered Secretary and an Associate of the Governance Institute of Australia.

Christer Mhingo
Director of TanzGraphite Limited
BSc (Hons) Geol., Project Management

Christer Mhingo is a highly skilled, dynamic and motivated geologist, experienced in working with exploration and mining companies across a range of commodities in Africa and overseas.

She holds a Bachelor of Science (Geology) Degree from the University of Dar es Salaam, which included a focus on project management and development.

She has led a number of successful projects in Tanzania and has been involved with a number of ASX and LSE listed companies from grass-roots exploration to operations, holding multiple roles covering project acquisition advice, Government liaison, community and stakeholder engagement, tenement management, business permitting and compliance, business development, exploration and project development.

Christer is the Executive Director and co-founder of Azurite Management and Consultancy Limited, a business that advises mining and exploration companies from Australia, Asia, Europe, America and Africa operating in Tanzania and East Africa. As a member of the University of Dar es Salaam alumni, she has also been actively involved with mentoring programs at the University’s School of Mines and Geosciences.

John Hearne
Manager - Technical
BEng(Mining), MBA, FAusIMM(CP), GAICD

John Hearne is a mining engineer by profession with over 35 years of experience spanning production roles to executive directorships with leading mining and consulting companies including Snowden, Wood (Amec Foster Wheeler), Coffey Mining, BHP Billiton, North Ltd, Henry and Walker, and Mount Isa Mines.

John's experience includes technical, supervisory and management roles at all stages of the mining lifecycle.

John has experience managing all facets of mining projects, from early stage studies through to full scale operations, for both underground & open cut operations.

Michael Chan
Executive Manager – Product Development
B.Sc (Hons) in Minerals Engineering, C Eng (London)

Michael Chan has a degree in Minerals Engineering (University of Birmingham, England) and is a Chartered Engineer (London) with 35 years' experience in senior operations, project development and commercial roles for multi-national and ASX- listed companies across Africa, Asia and the United States.

Mr Chan has 8 years of graphite/spherical graphite/battery anode material project experience, 15 years extensive rare earth project experience as well as 13 years of titanium dioxide commercial development project experience.

During his time, he’s been responsible for the major test work programs, process flow sheet development, pilot processing and graphite product development, core technical marketing, process flow sheet design, establishing pilot scale facilities, developing full scale commercial plants and driving much of the detailed downstream test work in collaboration with end-users.

Maria Du Plooy
Financial Controller
BCom, PGDA (UCT), CA

Maria du Plooy is a Chartered Accountant with over 15 years experience predominantly in the resource sector. She started her professional career at PricewaterhouseCoopers and briefly worked in the banking sector. She has since gained invaluable mining experience across different commodities and countries such as Namibia and Brazil. Prior to joining EcoGraf, Maria was part of the Finance Team which supported the growth of Mincor Resources from explorer to a two-mine site nickel producer.

David Drabble
Chief Geologist
BSc (Honours), MAusIMM, FGS

David Drabble is a geologist with over 15 years' experience in exploration and mining, with success taking projects from grassroots exploration, to discovery, resource definition and development. David has worked on a variety of projects in Australia, Africa and Asia, including the past nine years in Tanzania. His experience spans a wide range of commodities, including nickel, gold and industrial minerals.

Nanette Hattingh
ESG Manager

Nanette Hattingh is an environmental professional with over twenty-four years' experience working as a consultant primarily servicing the mining and resources industries. Over the last eight years since founding Dhamana Consulting, Nanette has focused on the management of environmental assessments and approvals for mining projects being developed by Australian junior exploration companies in Africa including the Epanko Graphite Project, Nyanzaga Gold Project and Ngualla Rare Earths Project in Tanzania. Prior to this Nanette worked in various consulting role in Australia and South Africa across a diverse range of project including PNG LNG and Simberi Gold Project in Papua New Guinea, Gautrain rail link in South Africa and Ntaka Hill Nickel Project in Tanzania.

Nanette has strong project management skills and a proven track record in environmental approval processes, environmental impact assessments, due diligence assessments and environmental audits, and conducting stakeholder consultation. Nanette is also a successful people leader with demonstrated experience in managing and coaching teams to deliver practical and readily achievable environmental outcomes on complex projects.
Nanette is the Managing Director of Dhamana Consulting Pty Ltd.

Stewart Watkins
Project Director

Stewart Watkins has over 30 years' experience in the mining industry having completed feasibility studies, designed, constructed, commissioned and operated mining and processing projects across Australia, Africa and other international locations. Along with this, Stewart has also held executive project development roles with Continental Nickel, developing the Ntaka Hill Nickel Project in Tanzania, and IMX Resources, developing the Mt Woods magnetite project in South Australia. More recently, as General Manager Projects with Arafura Rare Earths Limited, Stewart was leading the delivery of the globally significant Nolans Rare Earth Project in the Northern Territory of Australia with responsibility for all aspects of the Project development, permitting and delivery.
Stewart is a Director of Dhamana Consulting Pty Ltd and a Fellow of the AusIMM.

Grant Harding
Consulting Metallurgist at Independent Metallurgical Operations Pty Ltd

Grant is a metallurgist with over 35 years' experience in the mining and resources industry and brings demonstrated success in operations and technical fields.

Grant has worked on a variety of commodities ranging from gold, silver, base metals, porphyry copper gold, nickel laterites, lithium, iron ore, magnetite, and mineral sands.

Having held general manager positions on international projects during his career he can draw from profound experience in challenging environments.

Grant has accumulated significant experience in operations management, project development and the engineering technical services industry so he brings unique skills to any project.

Since joining IMO in 2019, Grant has been largely involved in managing feasibility studies and in a variety of metallurgical consulting and due diligence assignments.

Peter Adamini
Lead Metallurgist at Independent Metallurgical Operations Pty Ltd

Peter is a metallurgist with 20 years' experience in flowsheet design, operations, and development of metallurgical processes across a range of commodities. Peter has worked on several commodities ranging from specialist battery metals such as lithium, graphite, nickel and rare earths through to copper and gold. Peter has worked in both hydrometallurgy and mineral processing applications on a range of commercial and pilot scale processing plants. Whilst at IMO, Peter has primarily worked on flotation applications, successfully developing a number of flotation flowsheets which have assisted ASX listed companies' complete capital raisings from testwork results. Previous roles have included optimising existing operations, commissioning process plant upgrades, managing large scale pilot programs (80 people) and designing and managing metallurgical bench scale programs.

Jean Ough (오성진)
Korean Business Representative

Jean is a highly accomplished executive who currently serves as EcoGraf's Korea representative. With a wealth of experience in international market development and marketing, Jean is responsible for championing EcoGraf's products, solutions, and investment opportunities to Korean stakeholders.

Before joining EcoGraf, Jean held the position of commissioner of the Western Australian Government office in South Korea for 12 years. During his tenure, he was directly involved in multi-billion dollar investment and trade deals, and he played a key role in elevating the relationship between Western Australia and Korea to an essential level. Prior to his role as commissioner, Jean represented several reputable US IT companies as a Korea country manager, where he gained extensive experience in managing international and Korean commercial operations with a focus on market development, sales, and marketing.

In addition to his impressive professional background, Jean is also a co-founder of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Korea, where he served as a board director and treasurer from its formation in 2009 until his retirement from the chamber in 2020.

Jean is an Australian citizen who received his Bachelor of Business degree from Curtin University in Western Australia and his Master of Business degree from Yonsei University in Korea. He also underwent intensive language training in Taipei, which enabled him to speak Korean, English, and Chinese (Mandarin) fluently.

Anna Vanderbruggen
Processing Engineer and Anode Recycling Specialist

Anna Vanderbruggen is a processing engineer from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie in France and accomplished the EMerald Erasmus Mundus Masters program, focusing on characterization, processing and modelling in georesources engineering. After working with primary resources, she switched in 2018 to secondary materials with lithium-ion battery recycling. Currently, Anna Vanderbruggen is working for Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology as a researcher. Her work focuses on the joint recovery of lithium metal oxides and graphite from the spent black mass by using froth flotation and to reuse the recovered graphite in new batteries. In addition, she works for ERZLABOR Advanced Solutions GmbH as a process engineer, where she does consulting for recycling companies.

Emmanuel Ntoma
Manager: Environment and Communities
MSc. IEM(UOB), ADEMP(IRDP)

Emmanuel Ntoma is a skilled and knowledgeable Environmental and Social Professional, with over 15 years of working experience in manufacturing, mining and construction industries, of which 8 years were in senior positions in international organisations.

He is passionate and conscious to protect the environment with in-depth understanding of applicable environmental regulations/guidelines related to significant mining and processing operations. He has the ability to lead and entrench environmental protection culture within an organisation.

He is highly accomplished social development and engagement personnel with extensive experience leading community engagement and empowerment programmes. He is equipped with a record of success in working with communities to prepare for project development, including through Resettlement Action Plans (RAP), managing risks for all stakeholders, and developing and implementing innovative programmes that support local communities in Tanzania.

He is a Registered Environmental Expert (NEMC/EIA/0431 and NEMC/EA/0205) and has served as a National Air Quality Technical Committee member

Larissa Kelly
Media and Communications Consultant

Larissa Kelly has over 12 years' experience in media, communications and marketing. She has worked with brands from a multitude of industry sectors including finance, not-for-profit, retail and resources. She has also been commissioned for a variety of local, State and Federal government projects.

Larissa holds skills and experience in implementing internal and external communications across multi-disciplinary mediums for both traditional and digital marketing to various stakeholders. Her background covers a range of executions from branding, websites, video and graphic design, to social media, digital marketing and events.