Managing Director & Principal Engineer

In addition to being the MD of Backfill Inc., Rob is a director of Paterson & Cooke North America and leads the Global Backfill Group.

He has worked on backfill applications since 1997 and specializes in paste backfill and contracted remediation backfilling. He has extensive international experience with plant and reticulation design, construction, commissioning, and underground backfill placement at mines in Saudi Arabia, Spain, Tanzania, Turkey, Ecuador, and Canada.

Rob lectures in Paterson & Cooke’s technical courses and frequently participates in backfill system audits and peer reviews as a subject matter expert. He has authored many technical papers and manuals covering the design, construction, and safe operation of paste backfill systems.

Subject Matter Expert

Larry has over 45 years of experience in the operation, design, manufacture, and calibration of continuous batching/mixing equipment (Reimer Mixers) specifically modified for paste production. He also provides training to operators and owners.

As an owner of specialized mixers, Larry has provided project management, supervision, training, and site-specific custom solutions for paste production and delivery projects. He has a broad range of experience in providing mixing solutions for standard and custom recipes with specialized binders and aggregates, including resin-bonded concrete, latex-modified concrete, foamed lean mixes, and silt-based paste backfill.

Larry’s background is in the concrete industry and he has been instrumental in many mobile paste and remediation backfill projects over the years, including the Three Sisters Development Project, the Giant Mine Underground Stabilization Project, and the Madawaska Tailings Remediation Project.

Senior Project Engineer

Casey is a Senior Project Engineer specializing in site operations and support through hands-on and remote management, engineering and troubleshooting.

He frequently leads our larger, more complex backfilling contracts and builds a team out of internal resources and external local subcontractors.

He has managed and conducted various engineering stages of tailings dewatering, backfill plant and distribution, and slurry transport system designs. He has also led and assisted with numerous system start-ups, reviews, audits and optimization studies as well as tailings and paste test work campaigns. His primary interests are hydraulic design and system operability.

Casey completed his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at Montana Tech and started his career as a manufacturing engineer and then maintenance supervisor at a bentonite mine and milling operation in Wyoming.

Tamara manages the P&C Canada laboratory in Sudbury Ontario. She completed her studies as a Chemical Engineering Lab & Process Control at Cambrian College and joined Paterson & Cooke in 2017.

She specializes in backfill and tailings mineralogy/chemical analysis and cement chemistry. Tamara manages field programmes and site projects that cover tailings sampling and harvesting. Her work supports Backfill Inc. through a variety of engineering tasks such as QA/QC programme design, tailings harvesting oversight and safe backfill placement strategies.

Laboratory Technologist

Brandon completed his Advanced Diploma in Chemical Engineering Technology (Lab and Process Control) at Cambrian College in Sudbury. He gained valuable practical experience working on site and in the backfill laboratory during his co-op placements.

Brandon joined us as a Laboratory Technologist in 2021 and has completed various types of test work, with the majority being rheological and UCS strength testing for paste and hydraulic fill. He recently completed a two-month-long assignment on a paste field trial, where he successfully operated all paste equipment, performed QAQC, and monitored the pipeline pressures and pour volumes.

Senior Geomechanics Specialist

Dr Ben Thompson is a Senior Geomechanics Specialist at P&C. He has led numerous barricade design and backfill strength consulting projects and has collaborated with academic partners in these areas to advance the State of Best Practice. He is a keen advocate of the use of instrumentation to optimize safe and efficient backfilling.

Ben led backfill instrumentation fieldwork campaigns during an international paste research project in 2007-2010 and subsequently modified these approaches for the challenging production environment. His underground experience and pragmatism have been applied to adapt research-oriented fieldwork to the needs of the operations environment.

Ben also adds value to projects as his Rock Physics PhD and Rock Mechanics background ensures a perspective grounded in the fundamental need for backfill to fulfil the geotechnical demands of the mining environment.

Nicholas is the Controller for Paterson & Cooke Canada. He began working in public accounting during his time in university and completed his Bachelor of Commerce degree in 2018. He later received his CPA designation in 2020. He is responsible for overseeing and meeting the office’s accounting cycle, payroll, payables, receivables, billing and various reporting requirements. He also is responsible for banking and renewal of insurance policies.

Nicholas provides monthly financial statements and key metric reports to Directors to assist in financial planning and decision-making. He also provides insight on other areas of finances, such as cash flow tracking and forecasting.

Alexandra is an Accounting/Administrative assistant who provides critical project support on all our backfill jobs. She completed her Advanced Accounting Diploma at Cambrian College and has both project and accounting related work experience gained through years of working in the local mining industry.