Dennis B Gibson

Dennis Gibson graduated with a BSc Civil Engineering (1978) and MSc Engineering (1981) both from the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa. He followed this up with an MBA at the Henley Management College, United Kingdom (1998). He is a registered Professional Engineer in South Africa, and a Fellow of the South African Institution of Civil Engineers.

His early experience in civil engineering dates back to the late 1970s whereafter he extended his skills to project management, research, design, construction, consulting. He has been in the mining industry since 1985. Dennis’s broad expertise includes project management, water resources development and management, environmental protection, tailings management and risk reviews.

Dennis has worked for Rio Tinto since 1989 where he has been in operational and consulting roles in Southern Africa, USA, Canada, Chile, Brazil and Australia. He was transferred to Rio Tinto Australia in 2000 and spent five years consulting on water management to the Rio Tinto globally. During this period he led the team which developed the leading practice Rio Tinto "Excellence in Water Management Diagnostic" toolkit which has been rolled out across the Rio Tinto Group.

He joined Energy Resources of Australia in the Northern Territory as General Manager Technical Projects in 2005 where he had carriage of managing key life extension opportunities in the uranium business.

In the position of General Manager Water Resources for Rio Tinto Iron Ore in Perth, Western Australia he was accountable for strategic water management.

Dennis was appointed as the chairman of the Australian Federal Government Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism’s team which developed the leading practice sustainable development handbook on mine water management published in May 2008.

He left Rio Tinto after 20 years in January 2009 to focus on value added services to private and government sectors based on over 30 years specialist experience in resource sector, mining, infrastructure, water management, environmental, finance, technology, sustainable development and project management.