World-renowned practitioners.
World-leading training.
Put your professional development in the hands of the experts.
Metcelerate is unique. No other organization is designed from the ground up to address our industry’s skills gaps. No other organization can apply the same degree of proven expertise in developing metallurgical talent for your organization. You’re in safe hands with Metcelerate.
You need a pool of upskilled metallurgists. We can help develop them.
A stellar combination of experience and expertise.
Metcelerate consists of a world-renowned team of global professionals with unique backgrounds in process design and optimization, plant operations, and professional development in minerals processing and extractive metallurgy.
Our goal is simple: to create the next generation of experienced, competent and confident metallurgists for our clients.
Developed by the mining industry for the mining industry.
Established in 2019, Metcelerate is a business-to-business program developed in partnership with leading mining organizations. It was created with twin goals in mind - to help bridge the gap in technical skills and provide a reliable supply of outstanding metallurgists for our clients. The result is a unique, technical training program that allows operations to maximize value and engineers to fulfil their potential.
Meet the Metcelerate team
Our Global Management Team
Diana Drinkwater is a metallurgical engineer with more than 30 years’ experience. She is an expert in building and delivering on-the-job training programs for the mining industry, either face-to-face, online or in blended form. She is also passionate about helping young professionals to achieve their full potential through effective, relevant skills development.
Diana Drinkwater
Director
Dr. Jan Cilliers is Professor of Mineral Processing in the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College London. He specialises in developing complex physical models and measurement techniques for the improvement of mineral separations. He serves on the International Mineral Processing Council and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Jan Cilliers
Director
Dr. Robert Seitz has extensive experience in designing, developing and optimising mineral processing plants, with a particular focus on problem solving and continuous improvement. Over a 40-year career, he has worked in mineral processing, extractive metallurgy, process development and process engineering, across a wide range of commodities, including gold, base metals, iron ore, coal and industrial minerals.
Bob Seitz
Value Chain
Dr. Katja Freitag’s mining career spans more than 25 years across sites in the USA and South Africa. She is passionate about leading teams that develop products that deliver value to clients. Katja has also consulted for a tier 1 management consulting firm and worked for a Vancouver-based company that provides data, analysis and training solutions for the mining industry. She holds a PhD in Geology from the Colorado School of Mines.
Katja Freitag
General Manager
Our Operation Team
Jenny Wiese has extensive experience in the flotation research process, focusing particularly on gangue management, froth phase behavior, and the impact of comminution environments and particle properties on flotation. She has an MSc in Chemical Engineering and widespread experience managing under- and postgraduate students and administrating research budgets.
Jenny Wiese
Program Manager
Rebecca Reaburn is a highly skilled and experienced administrator with an undergraduate degree in Business Management. Her skill set spans both operational and administrative areas, making her particularly well-suited to supporting small businesses and start-ups. Rebecca is a member of the Golden Key Society as well as receiving the Australian Institute of Management’s award for the Highest Grade Point Average (GPA).
Rebecca Reaburn
Operations Manager
Renée Barrette is an extractive metallurgical engineer with over 30 years of technical and operating experience in mining, metallurgy, mineral processing, water treatment and tailings. Her areas of technical expertise are mineral processing, commissioning, start up, and ramp up, specializing in Operational Readiness and Change Management. Renée is bilingual and provides extra technical learning support to the French learners.
Renée Barrette
French Learner Support
Claudia Maturana is a Commercial Engineer with an MBA in International Business. She has broad experience in management roles, primarily in international companies, across business development, project coordination and research management. Claudia has also helped establish local Chilean branches for foreign companies, as well as public-private partnerships between the Chilean Government and Australia for the mining industry.
Claudia Maturana
Operations Manager: LATAM
Nina Bianco has more than 20 years’ experience in designing and developing online, blended and face-to-face education programs for the mining, education, and health sectors. She is skilled in best practice professional development design approaches and has worked across the whole education development lifecycle. Nina has a Masters Degree in Professional Education and Training.
Nina Bianco
Education Development Manager
Who and where we are?
Metcelerate Limited -
an independent, global company
Our World-Class Leaders
Dr. Robert Seitz has extensive experience in designing, developing and optimising mineral processing plants, with a particular focus on problem solving and continuous improvement. Over a 40-year career, he has worked in mineral processing, extractive metallurgy, process development and process engineering, across a wide range of commodities, including gold, base metals, iron ore, coal and industrial minerals.
Bob Seitz
Value Chain
Dr. Jan Cilliers is Professor of Mineral Processing in the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College London. He specialises in developing complex physical models and measurement techniques for the improvement of mineral separations. He serves on the International Mineral Processing Council and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Jan Cilliers
Value Chain
Dr Catherine Evans is a Mineral Processing Engineer and Geometallurgist with more than 30 years’ experience. She has extensive knowledge of Geometallurgy, mineralogy, comminution and separation processes, gained across multiple geometallurgical projects and mineral processing operations. She has worked across assorted ore types and commodities, including lead, zinc, copper, nickel, gold, silver, platinum materials and iron ore.
Catherine Evans
Process Mineralogy
Dr Elaine Wightman is an experienced Mineral Processing Engineer with a PhD in the same field. She has a particular area of interest in the use of automated tools for mineral characterisation, a subject that has been central to many of her research and teaching activities. In addition, Elaine is Co-Editor of Process Mineralogy, and a respected developer and deliverer of course content at multiple universities.
Elaine Wightman
Process Mineralogy
Professor Tim Napier-Munn is a Mineral Engineer with 50 years’ experience in applied research and development. He holds degrees from Imperial College London and the University of Witwatersrand, and has published in excess of 150 papers. Tim is also the author of Statistical Methods for Mineral Engineers – How to Design Experiments and Analyse Data
Tim Napier Munn
Experimental Design
Aidan Giblett is an experienced processing and metallurgy professional with a proven performance history in the mining and metals industry. He has acquired more than 25 years’ experience in gold and base metals processing, serving in both operational and corporate roles.
Aidan Giblett
Comminution
Professor Jim Finch is widely recognised as a world-leader in flotation. His research ranges from size reduction to magnetic separation, and most prominently the chemistry and physics of flotation. His outstanding contributions to mineral processing were recognised at a conference in his honour at the 48th Conference of the Metallurgy and Materials Society, Sudbury.
Jim Finch
Flotation
Brigitte Lacouture is an experienced mineral processing engineer with a Master’s degree in process control. She has over 30 years of operating experience in some of the largest complex metal sulfide mills in the world. Her passions include introducing the latest technology into production environments and mentoring young engineers.
Brigitte Lacouture
Physical Separation
Dr Kathryn Sole is a process metallurgist, project leader and subject matter expert with 30 years’ global experience in the chemistry and process engineering of hydrometallurgy processes. Kathryn also provides independent consulting services and accredited training services to the mining industry, particularly technical expertise in the areas of solvent extraction, ion exchange and electrowinning of base and precious metals.
Kathryn Sole
Hydrometallurgy
Pablo Brito-Parada is a Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Minerals Engineering. He has a degree in Chemical Engineering and a PhD in Computational Physics and Mineral Processing. Over the course of a 20-year career, Pablo has participated in multiple applied research projects in processing plants around the world.
Pablo Brito Parada
Value Chain
Pia Lois-Morales is an experienced Geologist who holds both a Master’s and PhD in Geometallurgy. She has a lengthy working history in Geometallurgy roles in both Australia and Chile in multidisciplinary teams. In addition, Pia has participated in consulting and operational optimization projects. She currently works in the Department of Mining Engineering at the University of Chile.
Pia Lois Morales
Process Mineralogy
Professor Juan Yianatos is a Chemical Engineer and a Master of Science. He holds a PhD in Mineral Processing and has dedicated much of his 50-year career to teaching and research. He is a full Professor at the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Maria, as well as holding positions in CASIM and the IMPC. He has been published in journals on numerous occasions, as well as serving as an advisor to Chilean mining companies.
Juan Yianatos
Flotation
Paulina Vallejos is a Chemical Civil Engineer who holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering. She serves as Professor and Researcher at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Maria, and received the prestigious Young Author Award from the IMPC in 2020 for her outstanding work in flotation. Additionally, Paulina provides technical advice on flotation to Chilean and foreign mining companies.
Paulina Vallejos
Flotation
Jaime Sepulveda is a Civil Engineer who holds a Magister and PhD in Metallurgy. For more than 40 years, he has been dedicated to the design and optimization of processes using mathematical modelling and simulation tools. He has been recognised both nationally and internationally for his work. He has also made a significant contribution to the academic field through the development of the Moly-Cop Tools© software.
Jaime Sepulveda
Comminution
Claudia Castillo is a Chemical Engineer, holding a Master’s degree in Engineering Sciences. She has more than 10 years’ experience in multidisciplinary projects, focusing on the use of new and existing technologies within the mineral processing industry, and their transfer to large-scale applications. She currently serves as a researcher in the area of Water Optimization in Concentrator Plants.
Claudia Castillo
Solid-Liquid
Lilian Velázquez is an Associate Professor with longstanding experience in academia. Her specific areas of focus are in mineral metallurgy, process optimization and research and development. She holds a PhD in Mineral Science focused on Hydrometallurgy from Murdoch University, Australia.
Lilian Velazquez
Hydrometallurgy
Ready to take the next step?
Contact us today to see how Metcelerate is redefining workplace-based skills development for the mining industry.