Tony Thornton (B.Eng., C.Eng., MIMM., ACSM.), General Director, SRK Consulting (Kazakhstan) Ltd., Kazakhstan Branch. As a Principal Consultant Mining Engineer, Mr Thornton has nearly 30 years experience in mining and has worked on mines in Zambia, Guinea, Angola, Ghana, UK, USA, Tanzania, Russia and Kazakhstan. He has a depth of experience of managing both open-cast and underground operations, specialising for the last fifteen years in a leading capacity, taking operations from greenfield site to full production. He has worked with SRK since 2007 as an associate Principal Mining Engineer, and has been a lead consultant on several Technical Audits and Feasibility studies in Kazakhstan and Russia. He is now resident in Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan, heading the SRK practice office there.