Terra Metals Ltd (ASX:TM1) has strengthened its technical leadership with the appointments of Dr Solomon Buckman as consulting chief geologist and Dr Evan Kirby as consulting chief metallurgist to support ongoing work at the company’s Dante Project in Western Australia.
Associate Professor Buckman is an economic and structural geologist with more than 30 years’ experience across exploration, academia and consulting. He has taught and led research in economic geology at the University of South Australia and the University of Wollongong for the past 24 years, following an early career in exploration.
Buckman completed a PhD at the University of Hong Kong on the tectonics and mineralisation of the West Junggar ophiolite terrane in northwest China. His research focuses on magmatic–tectonic evolution and ore-forming processes in complex geological settings. He has authored over 100 papers and conference contributions, with more than 2,500 citations, and supervised 34 industry-supported honours projects and eight PhD candidates.
His experience includes geological mapping of magmatic and volcanic mineral systems; Archaean shear-zone and BIF-hosted gold systems in Western Australia; porphyry–skarn copper–gold systems in NSW and Chile; ophiolite and island-arc gold and base-metal systems across Eastern Australia, northwest China and the Himalayas; and tectonometallogenic evolution of frontier terranes spanning Australia, China, the Himalaya and the Middle East. Earlier roles included operational and consulting work at Laverton (WA), Browns Creek–Cadia (NSW) and Mt Isa–Cannington (Qld).
“The Dante system shows the hallmarks of a large, dynamic, and multi-phase magmatic system with exceptional geological potential still to be realised. I’m excited to help define its architecture and unlock the processes that have concentrated such a diverse suite of metals,” Buckman said.
As consulting chief geologist, Buckman will lead mineral system modelling and geochemical interpretation, structural geology and 3D targeting to support resource growth, and district-scale strategy across the more than 20-kilometre Dante mineralised corridor.
Kirby to steer metallurgy and flowsheets
Dr Evan Kirby brings more than four decades of international metallurgical experience across design, commissioning, optimisation and operations covering gold, copper, PGMs, vanadium, lithium, graphite and base metals.
His career includes technical leadership at Bechtel (Mining & Metals Technology Manager) and Minproc Engineers (Manager Metallurgy), and operational and process development roles with Anglo Platinum, Rand Mines and Impala Platinum. Kirby has directed review, testwork and process design for multiple PGM concentrators (including projects with Rand Mines, Anglo Platinum, Aquarius Platinum, Stillwater Platinum, Sylvania Resources, Platinum Australia and Jubilee Metals Group) and contributed to studies across gold, refractory gold, copper–gold, lead–zinc, vanadium, graphite and lithium.
He has also worked on implementing technologies such as advanced mineralogy, crushing and milling, flash flotation, gravity recovery, magnetic separation, bead milling and fine particle flotation, bacterial oxidation, dry milling and whole-ore roasting, and smelting developments.
Kirby’s remit covers metallurgical testwork program design, flowsheet selection and optimisation, concentrate and product strategy, and feasibility-level engineering. As consulting chief metallurgist, he will oversee advancement of processing pathways for Dante’s Ti-V-Fe and Cu-Ni-Co-PGE sulphide mineralisation.
“The calibre of talent joining Terra is a strong endorsement of both the Dante Project and the growth trajectory of the business," CEO and managing director Tom Line said. "Sol and Evan bring decades of high-level experience directly relevant to unlocking the scale, value and commercial development pathways at Dante. Their appointments significantly strengthen Terra’s technical leadership as we advance from discovery success toward resource expansion and development.”
About Dante
The Dante Project in Western Australia’s West Musgrave region hosts a large, multi-metal system within the Jameson Layered Intrusion — part of the Giles Complex, a mafic–ultramafic suite comparable in scale and style to South Africa’s Bushveld Complex.
- Dante Reefs (discovered 2024): Three stratiform titanium–vanadium–copper–PGE reefs traced along ~20 km of strike, with mineralisation from surface to depths exceeding 250 m.
- Drilling to date: >17,000 m has outlined extensive, shallowly dipping mineralised layers analogous to the Bushveld’s magnetite horizons.
- Scale potential: Recent tenement additions lift total strike potential to >80 km, with hundreds of kilometres of prospective stratigraphy within the project area.
- Regional setting: The Giles Complex lies at the junction of the North, West and South Australian cratons, providing strong regional prospectivity.
- Growth pipeline: Multiple additional reef targets remain untested, including both outcropping and interpreted sub-cropping systems across the broader Dante footprint.