HELPING TO PROTECT PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Technical
Committee
The technical committee oversees all technical issues primarily related to the audit and certification process, including accreditation and training programmes.
It is made up of board members and other technical experts and is supported by the Institute’s Chief Technical Officer. The committee’s responsibilities include:
- Overseeing the development of conformance audit protocols
- Providing guidance on the interpretation of any aspect of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management
- Periodically advising the Board on whether the Standard remains fit for purpose
- Acting in an advisory capacity to the Board on any other technical issues.
Public Consultation Now Open
Technical Committee Members
Jeronimo
Covacevich
GTMI Technical Committee Chair and Board Member
Tailings Subject Matter Expert, ICMM
Jeronimo Covacevich has 18 years’ experience in Civil and Geotechnical Engineering. He holds a degree of Civil Engineering from the Santa María Technical University, and a Master Engineering in Mining studies from the University of British Columbia. He has extensive experience in Tailings Storage Facility design, construction and operations, as well as governance and technical assurance.
A Professional Engineer since 2008, Jeronimo spent 13 years in engineering consultancy, working on water and tailings projects in Mongolia, Canada, The United States, Mexico, The Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Suriname, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. He joined BHP in 2019 as Practice Lead Tailings for Minerals Americas and, since 2024, has served as Head of Tailings Excellence and BHP’s Tailings Group Risk Representative. Jeronimo represents BHP on ICMM’s Tailings Working Group and the Tailings Committee of the Chilean Mining Council. Jeronimo is also a member of the International Council on Large Dams (ICOLD) in Chile and the Canadian Dam Association (CDA).
Dr. Janis Shandro is the owner and Managing Director of Arrowsmith Gold Inc., a community health and safety consultancy in Canada. Her co-specialty in mining engineering and population health, from The University of British Columbia, has allowed Dr. Shandro to work on complex, large-scale, extractive and development projects globally. She focuses on evaluating and mitigating risks and impacts to people and communities.
With over 25 years of experience across mining, petro-chemical and large infrastructure projects, she is a trusted advisor to Canadian Indigenous communities, governments, international organisations, multilateral development banks, and private sector clients globally.
Dr. Shandro was the technical lead for a Health Impact Assessment (commissioned by an Indigenous Health Authority) on the Mount Polley tailings dam failure in Canada. As an Associate with Priscu and Associates Consulting Engineers Inc., she has undertaken independent GISTM conformance verifications for over 30 tailings facilities in the Americas. She also serves as an Independent Director and Chair of the Health, Safety, Environment and Social Performance committee with Artemis Gold Inc.
Vicente Mello is a technical and environmental expert and executive with over 30 years of experience leading complex projects in Brazil, Latin America, and Africa. He has worked across the mining, infrastructure, and consulting sectors, holding senior roles including CEO, Director of Strategy, Director of Operations, and Senior Consultant. His expertise lies in environmental risk management, strategic planning, and the implementation of high-complexity projects.
Vicente led Brazil’s Independent Mining Audit Program—reporting to state and federal authorities on the response to the Fundão and Brumadinho tailings facility disasters—making it the largest formal mining audit programme globally. He led the Independent Technical and Environmental team to audit the Rio Doce Agreement between Vale, BHP, Samarco, and Brazilian authorities, the world’s largest environmental and social restoration agreement signed after the failure of a tailings dam. He has advised federal judges on topics ranging from ecological risk and water safety to housing, food contamination, and biodiversity recovery.
He has also led the team which supported Brazil’s National Mining Agency in inspecting 229 high-risk dams and contributed to policy development for upstream tailings dam closure. Vicente serves on multiple expert panels, including for the UN Environment Programme.
David Cooling has spent the bulk of his career with Alcoa Corporation, taking on a wide range of roles associated with tailings management. Prior to retiring from Alcoa in 2021, David was the Global Impoundments Governance and Technical Manager with responsibilities that covered Alcoa’s impoundments across all operations. Before that, he was heavily involved in Alcoa’s preliminary investigations into residue filtration, particularly the initial test work and development of financial and business case assessments. This work culminated in the first installations of full-scale filtration within Alcoa at both the Kwinana and Pinjarra refineries, in Western Australia.
Since retiring from Alcoa, David has been a part-time consultant, and assisted the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with the development of the Global Tailings Management Institute. David has a Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering, and completed a Masters Degree and PhD, both of which related to aspects of tailings management.
Theo Gerritsen is a Principal Tailings Engineer with over 25 years of experience in the design and management of tailings facilities. Theo’s expertise spans the full lifecycle of tailings facilities, from greenfield site selection and initial design to operational management, water balance strategies, and closure planning. He’s worked across commodities such as gold, coal, ash, copper, uranium, and alumina.
Most recently Theo worked for Rio Tinto in the Copper Product Group where he was responsible for implementation of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management. Theo is active in the Queensland Tailings Group, ICOLD and the EOR USSD working group.
Naomi Hodgkinson-Lee is based in the UK and is a Chartered Geotechnical Engineer specialising in tailings. With over 20 years’ experience in geotechnical mining consultancy for junior and mid-tier mining companies, she is currently the Senior Risk Engineer for Tailings at Zurich Resilience Solutions (ZRS). She reviews and inspects tailings and mining projects across Zurich’s global portfolio, assessing risk for property damage, business interruption, casualty and environmental liability.
Using her technical experience of design, construction and auditing of tailings on five different continents and across most commodities, Naomi has established ZRS’ Tailings Risk Grading Standard, to improve and standardise risk evaluation of tailings operations. In her role as ZRS Senior Risk Engineer for one of the leading insurers in the mining sector, she has had an unparalleled overview of technical documentation of global mining projects.
Kristin is a mining sector sustainability and environmental performance leader. She has a strong foundation in water management and stewardship, tailings environmental management, and hazardous materials management for cyanide and mercury. Kristin’s academic background includes a BEng in Chemical and Biological Engineering and a Masters of Engineering and Public Policy. Her work experience includes consulting engineering roles at Hatch and SRK.
Kristin’s current role is Principal of Water & Waste with Newmont Corporation, where she has supported conformance processes for the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management and the Cyanide Code. Kristin is based in Toronto, Canada.