james watton

James is a Principal Engineering Geologist at PSM, with over 16 years’ experience in mining, tunnelling, civil and hydrogeological projects.

James’ main area of expertise is providing design and operational geotechnical advice for open-pit mines.  His experience spans multiple commodities and projects in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Asia, Africa and Brazil.

James has worked on numerous projects ranging from shallow, short mining life operations to very deep and complex projects.  James has experience in Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) modelling of fractured rock masses to assess open-pit and tunnel stability, and to support underground geotechnical design. He also has a keen interest in the shear strength of geotechnical defects, pit slope monitoring, the geotechnical management of deforming or unstable slopes and pore pressures acting on pit slopes.  

James has held multiple long-term operational and design secondment roles, which allows him to understand day-to-day mining operations and provide practical solutions to geotechnical issues, including 18 months as the Geotechnical and Hydrogeological Superintendent at Ok Tedi Mine in Papua New Guinea. James has also delivered training and mentoring to site-based geological and geotechnical staff in multiple countries.

James completed his undergraduate studies in 2009 at Macquarie University, where he was the recipient of multiple awards and graduated with first class honours for his thesis titled ‘Petrogenesis and geochemical characterisation of the Breaksea Orthogenesis, Fiordland, New Zealand’. James completed a Master of Engineering Science at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology in 2016, where he graduated with Excellence and submitted a research thesis titled ‘Variability of joint characteristics in the Hawkesbury Sandstone’.

James is an RPEQ (Geotechnical) and an MAusIMM Chartered Professional (Geotechnical). He has continued his professional development throughout his career by authoring and presenting several academic papers. James also presents lectures for the UNSW School of Mining Engineering, Mine Slope Stability postgraduate course.

James specialises in geological and geotechnical studies for open-pit and underground mines, and large civil projects.  Fields of special competence include:

• Operational geotechnical reviews and support
• Open-pit slope design
• Geotechnical management of deforming or unstable pit slopes and pit slope monitoring
• Geotechnical site investigations
• Geotechnical / engineering geological model development
• Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) modelling
• Defect shear strengths
• Training of on-site staff