The Team

Dr. Ingar F. Walder, Director R&D, Geochemist (ifwalder@kjeoy.no)

Dr. Walder is one of the founders of Kjeøy Research and Education Center. He has worked on mining environmental issues for over 20 years, of which more than 10 years in USA. He has experience from many different ore deposits (porphyry copper, lead zinc skarn, gold veins, poly-metallic vein deposits, iron ores, etc.) performing site characterisation, waste characterisation, pit lake geochemistry, worked with environmental impact assessments in USA, Sweden, Greenland, and Norway. He has served as an expert witness in both USA and Sweden. He has also given numerous short courses on environmental issues around i Europe, USA and South America.

Dr. Walder has also been a key author for four CEN Guidelines for mine waste characterisation (published december 2013), Norwegian Sub-sea tailings deposition evaluation guideline, and characterisation for Prioritisation guideline (Bolivia). Dr. Walder holds a PhD in Geochemistry from New Mexico Tech, USA in 1993, MSc and BSc in geology from Univ. Oslo, Norway and a Business Administration Degree from Norwegian School of Economics in 1989. He serves as an Adjunct Professor at New Mexico Tech. Dr. Walder has authored numerous papers on the subject of Mining Environmental issues.

Bruce M. Thomson, Ph.D., P.E(bthomson@unm.edu)

Professor, Civil Engineering and Director, Water Resources Program at University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131

Bruce Thomson is a Regent's Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of New Mexico and is Director of the UNM Water Resources Program. He has a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Davis, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Science and Engineering from Rice University, Houston, TX. Dr. Thomson teaches in the areas of water chemistry and treatment, ground water hydrology and remediation, and water resources management. 

Recent research has included projects on impacts of disposal of coal combustion by-products on ground water, water resources of New Mexico, the impact of energy and mineral development on water resources, and water reuse and treatment. Dr. Thomson has served on many federal, state and local committees involved with management and protection of water resources. He was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority (AMAFCA) and was selected as "Engineer of the Year - Public Sector" by the New Mexico Chapter of the National Society of Professional Engineers. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of New Mexico.

PhD,

Associate professor at Univ. Miskolc, Hungary, Environmental Mineralogy, Ore Deposits

Peter Lichtner, PhD,

Dieter Rammlmeir, PhD,

Mineralogy and Ore Deposits, Senior researcher at BGR, Hannover, Germany

Bernhard Dold, Ph.D., (sumirco.eirl@gmail.com) Geochemist

Dr. Dold is the President and Director of SUMIRCO.EIRL (Sustainable Mining Research & Consult. EIRL) and Professor Titular of the University of Chile, and Professor at the International University of Andalucia (UNIA), Huelva, Spain. He received his Diploma degree in geology (Dipl.Geol.) from the University of Bremen, Germany (1995). He did his Ph.D. at the University of Geneva, Switzerland (1999) and a Post-Doc at the University of Waterloo, Canada (2000). In 2005 he received his Habilitation (Privat-Docent) on "Acid Mine Drainage: Formation, Control, and Prevention", at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He is specialized in biogeochemical and hydrogeological processes controlling element cycles in ground- and surface waters, soils, industrial waste environments, bioleaching operations, and ore formation. The mineralogy and geochemistry with applications in characterization, control, prevention, and remediation of environmental pollution, with special focus on acid rock drainage in mine waste and ore deposit environments and its application for a more sustainable mining operation is the main focus of his research.

Rodrigo Embile, Jr., Msc,

Embile has been working for KREC since summer 2013. He is currently pursuing a PhD sponsored by KREC and Norwegian Science Foundation on topics related to sub+sea tailings deposition. The overall objective for the project is to investigate the environmental consequences (element leaching and reaction rates) of shoreline and submarine mine tailings deposits from a geochemical - hydrogeochemical perspective.