ATC Williams services the mining and resource sectors. We are globally recognised tailings consultants, specialising in life-of-mine tailings management. We also provide complementary services in the areas of geotechnical engineering, slurry transport, water and waste management.
We have a proud tradition of engineering innovation and technical excellence. Our focus is to align our expertise and service capabilities with our client's needs, strategies and goals, to deliver long term benefits for their project.
Our point of difference is our experience and expertise in our specialised markets, coupled with a strong emphasis on quality. We focus on cost-effective and pragmatic solutions, and prioritise project delivery aligned to our client's needs and expectations.
Our Awards
2021 – Kleinton Waste Management Facility - WA
- Two Awards from the Queensland Branch of the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEAQ) Top spots in the Environment and Sustainability category and the $10 Million - $20 Million project category
2013 – Pelago West Commercial / Residential Development - Karratha, WA
- UDIA (Urban Development Institute Australia) award for ATC Williams’ contribution to this 7 storey development. ATC Williams undertook the geotechnical and acid sulfate soil investigation, together with foundation design parameters.
2012 – Fairlanes Residential Development, St George Tce, Perth, WA
- UDIA (Urban Development Institute Australia) award for ATC Williams’ contribution with the geotechnical investigation and foundation design parameters.
2006 – Benambra Mine Rehabilitation Project
- 3rd Annual Australian Mining Prospect Award for ‘Excellence in Environmental Management for 2006’
- Department of Primary Industries, Minerals & Petroleum Division - Certificate of Appreciation
- The Victorian CASE Earth Award for ‘Environmental Excellence’
- The National CASE Earth Award for ‘Environmental Excellence’
- The Australian Mining Magazine’s Australian Mining Prospect Award for ‘Excellence in Environmental Management’
Previous Awards:
2005 – No. 1 The Esplanade, Perth – High Density Development
- Urban Development Institute of Australia (WA Division) – Award for Excellence
- ACEA – Award of Excellence – Small Firms Award
- ACEA Engineering Award 1990 – Highly Commended
1997 – Peak Gold Mine
1990 – The Kelian Gold Project, Indonesia
History
We began operations in Melbourne in 1981, as MPA Williams and Associates, and subsequently expanded to Perth in 1993. We set up a specialist testing laboratory in Melbourne which became NATA accredited in 1992.
Our business group, Australian Tailings Consultants was formed in 2000 to emphasize our focus on mine tailings disposal and water management strategies. This work became increasingly international, with major projects in places including South America, and Central Asia.
In October 2011 our operations were further expanded with the successful merger with Allan Watson Associates, which had built a strong business in Queensland also based on tailings, as well as waste and landfill for Local and State Governments. This provided us with a Brisbane office and stronger presence in the Queensland marketplace.
In 2015 we headed overseas to South America. Our growing work in Chile
over recent years made a new office in Santiago, Chile a logical step.
We further expanded our operations in this region with the addition of a
second new office in Lima, Peru to provide increased support to our
clients.
Today ATC Williams continues to expand our operations across Australia and in locations around the world.
People
Our people are engineering specialists with expertise in tailings management, geotechnical engineering, slurry transport, water and waste management. Our experience spans over 500 projects in Australia, the Americas, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
With a culture that encourages openness and respect amongst colleagues, we have developed enduring relationships and created long-term stability in the team. We are passionate about what we do and foster work environments that are both challenging and personally rewarding. The technically challenging projects that we become involved with also provide exciting opportunities for our staff, which maintains engagement and enthusiasm.
We recognise the contribution our people make to our ongoing success and the many benefits that are achieved for our clients. We are therefore committed to supporting our people with professional development and mentoring, to enable skills development and fulfilment of career aspirations. Today’s working environment is one of constant change. The labour market is extremely competitive in all disciplines. Maintaining a consistent standard of quality and a thriving organisation requires sound operational management and a team that works well together. ATC Williams has had many years of growth and success, and has taken the time to build a solid team. We look forward to continued success for all our people in the future.
PAUL WILLIAMS
Company Founder
Paul established our company in 1981, to provide an independent geotechnical consulting engineering service to the construction and mining industries.
Paul has over 40 years’ experience, and in that time has become a recognised leader, researcher and innovator in the field of mine tailings management. His particular interests include tailings beach slope theory, tailings consolidation behaviour, the development and application of central thickened discharge (CTD) schemes, and cover design for tailings dam closures.
Meet our people
Meet the key people who define who we are as a company. Many have
committed much of their careers to ATC Williams, and have been so
influential in our development - not only in a business sense, but in
setting the standards for our company's culture and commitment to
excellence:
Key leaders
Darren Watt
Chief Executive Officer
Senior Principal Engineer (Melbourne)
darrenw@atcwilliams.com.au
Darren is a Chemical Engineer with post-graduate Environmental Science qualifications. He comes to us with extensive leadership experience in professional consulting organisations. His impressive career spans over 30 years, including 8-years as Regional CEO Australasia at Golder Associates.
Darren’s focus is to balance the ongoing expansion of the business with delivery of the highest quality service to our clients – a value that has been a trademark of ATC Williams for 40 years
Allan Watson
Chairman
Senior Principal Engineer (Brisbane)
allanw@atcwilliams.com.au
Allan is actively involved in the project side of our business, he has over 30 years of experience in a wide range of civil and geotechnical engineering projects servicing the quarry, mining, land development, and local government sectors. He possesses particular experience in the areas of hydrology and geomechanics related to water and waste management systems, as well as earth and rockfill dam and embankment engineering.
Mark Dillon
Chief Operating Officer
Senior Principal Engineer (Melbourne)
markd@atcwilliams.com.au
Behrooz Ghahreman-Nejad
Chief Technical Officer
Senior Principal Engineer (Melbourne)
behroozg@atcwilliams.com.au
Dr Ghahreman-Nejad is our Chief Technical Officer, having more than 27 years’ experience. He has extensive experience on a broad range of projects in the civil, geotechnical and mining engineering fields with significant emphasis on the geotechnical and water management aspects of tailings and water retaining dams. He has been responsible for project management, feasibility study, geotechnical investigation, design and documentation, and construction support.
Behrooz is also an Honorary Senior Fellow at the Department of Infrastructure Engineering, the University of Melbourne.
Craig Noske
Victorian Operations Manager
Senior Principal Engineer
craign@atcwilliams.com.au
Ralph Holding
Queensland Operations Manager
Senior Principal Engineer
ralphh@atcwilliams.com.au
Ralph has over 20 years of experience in a wide range of civil and geotechnical engineering projects servicing mining, industrial and local government clients.
Ralph has extensive experience in mine tailings and water management applications including dam siting, geotechnical/foundation assessment, embankment design, construction management, and earthworks quality control. Ralph also has expertise in mine waste facilities and mine post-closure design.
Keith Seddon
Senior Principal Engineer (Melbourne)
keiths@atcwilliams.com.au
Keith is has over 40 years’ experience in all aspects of mine tailings disposal, including conventional, thickened and paste tailings schemes. This includes studies, design, construction and operations, monitoring and surveillance, and closure and rehabilitation. He has experience of many tailings types and a wide range of geographic and climatic conditions. He has undertaken due diligence and third party technical audits.
Keith also has significant experience in dams, groundwater investigations, slope stability assessment and geotechnical investigation.
Principals
Phillip Soden
Senior Principal Engineer (Melbourne)
phillips@atcwilliams.com.au
Phillip has over 20 years’ experience in the consulting environment, providing services to a broad range of mining enterprises across Australia, the Middle East and more recently in South America. Phillip’s principal area of expertise is in the project management, planning, design and construction of tailings and water management systems for both thickened and un-thickened tailings schemes.
Specialty areas include analysis, design, documentation, construction management, operation, surveillance and closure design of earth and rock-fill embankments for tailings and water storage facilities.
Mal Jones
Senior Principal Engineer (Brisbane)
malj@atcwilliams.com.au
Mal has over 25 years’ experience as a Civil Engineer in the strategy formulation, investigation, design, construction and management of a wide range of environmental, geotechnical and civil projects.
Mal has also been involved in the inspection, submission and management of reconstruction projects post the flood events in Queensland in early 2011 for Logan City Council, Ipswich City Council, and Scenic Rim and (TRC) Toowoomba Regional Councils.
Arash Roshdieh
Principal Engineer (Melbourne)
arashr@atcwilliams.com.au
Arash has over 20 years of experience in project and study management including; resources management, scheduling, planning, budgets estimation, reporting, cost estimation, engineering economics and trade-off studies, together with technical aspects of a wide range of projects from tailings management, transportation and disposal to water resources management, hydrological and hydraulic studies, water and waste water plant processes, and environmental assessment at various stages of the study from options study to feasibility, Basic engineering and detailed design.
Behnam Pirouz
Principal Engineer (Melbourne)
bpirouz@atcwilliams.com.au
Dr. Pirouz is a hydraulic-civil engineer with a PhD in non-Newtonian slurry flow. He started his engineering career 20 years ago and has extensive experience in project engineering including the management of multidisciplinary projects, design of tailings storage facilities and water management system for mines, process and hydraulic analysis, modelling and design of non-Newtonian slurry transport systems (both open channel and pressurised pipe flow), specialised laboratory testing for slurry transport system design, fluid measurement techniques and instrumentation and pilot plant testing.
Rowan cossins
Principal Engineer (Brisbane)
rowanc@atcwilliams.com.au
Rowan has over 15 years of civil, environmental and engineering experience.
Rowan has been involved in every project stage from planning approvals to detailed design and construction phase services, giving him an appreciation of the issues and constraints which may affect key decisions on any project. Rowan’s overall experience encompasses projects specific to Waste Management, Infrastructure & Mining and Geo-environmental.
Rowan’s professional experience has also imparted a keen appreciation of the ‘major project cycle’, and how overall project viability is affected by the natural and built environment, the construction methodology, the design/impact mitigation and the capital cost and approvals process.
Lis Boczek
Principal Engineer (Brisbane)
lisb@atcwilliams.com.au
Lis has over 20 years experience in a wide range of civil and geotechnical engineering projects servicing mining, industrial and local government clients. She possesses particular experience in the area of mine tailings and mine water storage and management applications. Involvement has included dam siting, geotechnical/foundation assessment, embankment design, construction management and earthworks quality control, capping assessments. She also has expertise in landfill engineering included landfill siting assessment, design of containment cells, rehabilitation and capping designs.
SCOTT McDONALD
Senior Principal Engineer (Brisbane)
scottm@atcwilliams.com.au
Scott McDonald has over 30years experience and holds qualifications in business and engineering. Scott’s skills extend over all engineering materials and a broad range of activities including business analysis, strategic planning, concept development, design management, design, site supervision and contract administration. His disciplines of focus are in waste management, structural, and civil engineering.
NICOLA LOGAN
Principal Engineer (Melbourne)
nicolal@atcwilliams.com.au
Nicola has 15 years’ experience in hydrology and water resource management, with a particular interest in tropical hydrology and has undertaken projects in Australia, Africa, South America, Laos, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. Her specialities include mine water management, catchment modelling, environmental flow assessment, and yield assessments. Experienced in providing operational and long-term strategic advice to open cut and underground mine sites in a range of geographies.
Quality Management Policy
ATC Williams are ISO 9001 accredited, please use the link below to download our quality management policy.