Paul Berndt is a metallurgist by profession with 37 years’ experience in the mining industry covering technical, operational, project development and corporate management roles in four states of Australia as well as in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, China, Peru, Venezuela and Spain. His experience has included the process design, project implementation and operational management of industrial minerals, coal, base metals, gold, diamonds and tungsten projects. He was most recently employed as managing director/general manager of a tungsten mining business in Spain for four years and turned that operation around from a struggling performer with severe technical deficiencies into a successful profit-making enterprise.