james watton

James is a Principal Engineering Geologist at PSM, with over 13 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.  James’ 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 including Ok Tedi and Frieda River in Papua New Guinea.  James also has experience in Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) modelling of fractured rock masses to assess open pit and tunnel stability, and underground geotechnical design.

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.  Site secondments include Geotechnical and Hydrogeological Superintendent at Ok Tedi Mine, and Senior Geotechnical Engineer at Mt Rawdon Gold Mine.

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

• Geotechnical site investigations
• Geotechnical / engineering geological modelling
• Operational geotechnical reviews and support
• Open pit slope design
• Slope failure management
• Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) modelling
• Training of on-site staff