John Lawson is a Specialist Hydrometallurgist working with the ANSTO Minerals business unit.
John has 35 years’ experience in the metallurgical processing industry encompassing research and development, plant operations and projects. His experience includes various roles involving uranium, rare earth elements, zinc, lead, copper, titanium pigments, and waste water treatment. John also has experience in the extraction and control of minor metals such as germanium, mercury, selenium, thallium and cadmium.
John began his career in the zinc/lead industry, working mainly with leaching and purification processes. Moving to research and development, he became involved in developing new process flowsheets to improve recovery and meet new environmental standards.
Prior to his association with ANSTO Minerals, John held the position of Principal Scientist at BHP Billiton Technology. In this role he worked extensively on uranium leaching processes, leading laboratory and pilot programs aimed at improving metal extraction.
John has been particularly successful in the area of silica control in leaching processes. He has gained a reputation for troubleshooting and solving difficult metallurgical problems and has demonstrated his ability to deliver not just conceptual solutions, but to see projects through all stages of research, development, piloting, design, construction and implementation.
John's current work focuses on uranium, rare earth and lithium processing.