One of Australia’s leading metallurgists and an authority on graphite project development, Mr Hearse is an engineer with more than 40 years’ experience in diverse and challenging projects around the world. His extensive career has taken him from operational and technical roles at Broken Hill, Bougainville Copper, Queensland Nickel (QNI) and Gove Alumina to senior executive and managerial positions in engineering and operating companies. Mr Hearse is currently Chairman of the Australian publicly listed graphite explorer BlackEarth Minerals NL which is developing the Maniry graphite project in Madagascar. His private company, BatteryLimits, is a key international process engineering company currently undertaking graphite study and project development work for ASX and AIM listed companies in Tanzania, Madegascar and Australia. Mr Hearse specialises in the challenging space, where engineering technology meets resource economics, for a range of commodities including gold, base metals, rare earths and graphite.