OUR KEY TEAM MEMBERS
Jurrien de Vos - Chairman of the Board
BEng(Mech Hons), FIEAust, CPEng, RPEQ, IMEA
Jurrien de Vos is the Owner, Managing Director and Principal Engineer of Deacon Engineers and has previously held senior management roles in engineering consultancy and manufacturing companies in Western Australia. Over the past 10 years, Deacon has grown from its initial beginnings to a strength of 25 engineers across Australia, providing engineering and project services to a wide range of clients, including the major iron ore, metals, and minerals producers.
MinRizon’s current detailed engineering capability is heavily reliant on the strength of its close and exclusive working relationship with Deacon.
Jim Cribbes - Managing Director
BSc(Hons), FAusIMM
Jim Cribbes is a highly experienced engineer, project manager and company director.
Jim has over 45 years of experience in the iron processing industry, much of it spent with the Pittsburgh, USA office of Aker Solutions, (previously known as Kvaerner, Dravo and Davy McKee), in the development of major iron and steel projects around the world.
He has been involved with operating and developing iron pelletising plants in a number of countries including Quebec Cartier Mining in Canada, Hibbing Taconite and Minorca Mines in the US, Jindal Vijayanagar Steel in India and Robe River Mining here in Australia.
Jim was also Kvaerner’s Project Director for the HYL direct reduction project of Grasim Industries’ Vikram Ispat in India and was part of GHD’s management team in Western Australia from 2013 to 2020 following their purchase ProMet Engineers, where he was previously the Chairman and Managing Director. Under Jim’s leadership, ProMet Engineers established itself as the lead process engineering consulting company for iron ore within Australia and grew from its foundations in 2000 to a A$35Mpa turnover. ProMet was instrumental in the design and development of several magnetite projects in Australia, including Project Magnet in Whyalla, South Australia and the Karara Iron Ore Project in WA’s Mid-West region.
Jim holds a degree of B.Sc. (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
Dave Andrews – Director, Project Engineering Manager
B.Sc. FIEAust, AFAIM, MAIPM, MAusIMM, AMIMechE
Dave Andrews is a highly motivated and experienced, company director and project and engineering management consultant with over 40 years’ experience in the project management, design, manufacture and construction of process plant and equipment in Australia, the UK, Germany, USA, Canada, South Africa, India, South Korea and Japan.
For the past 7 years, Dave has provided service as an engineering consultant, business development consultant and project manager to smaller Perth-based engineering houses, and as a company director.
Prior to this, Dave spent 13 years as a Director, Senior Project Manager and Engineering Manager for ProMet Engineers Pty Ltd, a Perth based engineering consultancy servicing Australian and International clients in the metals and minerals industries.
ProMet specialised in developing greenfield and brownfield projects from early concepts through feasibility studies into detailed design, project and construction management. The most notable of ProMet's major projects were Project Magnet (OneSteel, Whyalla) and the Karara Iron Ore Project (Ansteel, WA), which established ProMet's leadership in magnetite processing.
Prior to moving to Australia from the UK, Dave worked for 20 years as a program manager, project manager and design engineer in the automotive, iron and steel, mining and construction equipment industries in the North-East of England.
Brian Povey – Director, Consultant Metallurgist
B.Sc.(Eng), MBA, FAusIMM, CP(Met), MIOM3
Brian Povey is well known in the iron ore industry internationally for his process design experience and capabilities in the beneficiation of iron ores, particularly magnetite ores.
Brian has extensive experience in both the operation and design of iron ore processing plants. He spent 15 years in senior management roles in a major magnetite concentrator and pelletising operation in Tasmania, including roles as chief metallurgist and Resident Mine Manager. He then moved to Queensland as the Operating Manager of a 6Mtpa coal mine and then a 7Mtpa iron ore contract mining operation in the Pilbara.
Following this he moved to BHP Engineering to consul on the design of the Boodarie DR grade hematite concentrator and then Davy John Brown/Kvaerner for a variety of magnetite projects. He was a founding director of ProMet Engineers, which specialised in iron ore processing and smelting. His experience led to process management roles commissioning a pellet plant in India and designing the Whyalla and Karara magnetite concentrators, both of which are operating successfully. He was involved with the modified design of the Windimurra Vanadium plant, of which the front end was essentially a magnetite concentrator.
Steve Howard - Director, Principal Consultant - Capital & Infrastructure
Steve Howard is the Director of KCG, trading as Faultzone, which provides business consulting services, as well as project management services, cost estimating and financial analysis, to a number of potential iron ore producers.
Steve has over 35 years of experience in the mining, Oil and gas processing and transmission and mine support infrastructure. He spent the past 14 years as study Manager or independent consultant on Magnetite projects in Western Australia, South Australia, Russia, Brazil (Itabirite), Ukraine, New Zealand and Fiji. He has a high level of experience in Power and Gas infrastructure both from a study development stage and due diligence of completed third party studies. Specialises in overall concept development for start-up entities, including primary infrastructure, Power generation, power reticulation Ports, Road, Rail, and slurry pipelines, including presentations to major investors and banking organisation.