Our Team

Dr. Christoph Wels

Dr. Christoph Wels is President and Senior Hydrogeologist with Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. (RGC). He has over 25 years of consulting experience in the assessment of mining impacts on groundwater resources and design of remedial activities. He has led numerous field investigations and modeling studies (using groundwater flow and solute transport models) to assess current and future impacts from mine waste facilities to groundwater, to design seepage interception systems, to support mine closure design and to assess mine dewatering requirements. He has also completed several water balance studies for large tailings impoundments.

Christoph Wels has been a third-party reviewer of pre-feasibility investigations, permitting documents and hydrogeological studies for mining projects on behalf of government agencies, mining companies and other consulting firms for projects in Canada, USA, Australia, Germany and Chile. He is also a member of several independent tailings review boards for some of the largest tailings dams in the world.

Christoph Wels has written over 30 technical papers on seepage and groundwater movement, contaminant transport, cover design and mine closure planning and was the lead author for the BC MoE Groundwater Modeling Guidelines for the Resource Industry.

Dr. Paul Ferguson

Dr. Paul Ferguson has 15 years of consulting experience at Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. (RGC) in the fields of environmental geochemistry and hydrogeology and specializes in the prediction, characterization, and control of Acid Rock Drainage/Metal Leaching (ARD/ML) impacts to groundwater and surface water at mine sites.

Paul has a B.Sc. (Honours) in Earth Sciences and completed his Ph.D. in Earth Sciences in 2007 with a focus on isotope and trace element geochemistry. Paul has worked closely with regulatory agencies, mining companies, and other consulting firms during the pre-feasibility, active mining, and closure stages of mining projects in Canada, Chile, and Australia, so is well-versed in the permitting process and required regulatory interface during various stages of mining.

Paul is RGC’s project lead for the Rum Jungle Rehabilitation Project and directs RGC’s work at the Myra Falls Mine in western Canada, the former Bouchard Hebert mine in Québec, and the Sandy Flat Mine Site in Australia, amongst other projects. He has also worked at the former Mount Morgan Mine Site in Queensland (Australia), the Faro Mine Site in Canada’s Northwest Territories, the Browns site in Australia’s Northern Territory, as well as on several active mines in Chile.

Dr. Mahmoud Hussein

Dr. Mahmoud Hussein has a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering, an M.Sc. (Eng.) in Groundwater Modelling and a Ph.D. in Hydrogeology. He has over 13 years of consultancy experience and 5 years of research experience in the field of hydrogeology.

Dr. Hussein is Principal and Senior Groundwater Modeler with Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. He specializes in the application of groundwater flow and solute transport modelling techniques to assess seepage and associated groundwater impacts from mine waste facilities, and to design and predict the performance of proposed mitigation measures. He joined RGC in 2016 and has applied these techniques to a wide range of mining applications, including seepage from tailings impoundments and tailings dams, open pits, underground mine workings and waste storage facilities for mine sites located in Canada, Chile and Australia.

Dr. Hussein is also experienced in the field of physical hydrogeology and the application of the following techniques used for numerous consultancy and research projects:

• Aquifer storage and recovery testing,
• Design, implementation, supervision and interpretation of hydrogeological investigations,
• Analysis of aquifer and well performance testing, and
• Time series analysis applied to borehole water levels response to natural and anthropogenic influences.

Dr. Hussein has written 5 technical papers on groundwater flow & contaminant transport, time series analysis and groundwater vulnerability.

Tara Raketti

Tara Raketti​ has a B.Sc. in Environmental Engineering and in Biology and has nine years of professional experience in mining hydrogeology and environmental analyses. Tara joined Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. in 2013.

Tara’s technical experience includes development of water and load balance models, both in Excel and GoldSim, to support mine closure planning. She is well-practiced in supervision of both Dual-Rotary and Sonic drilling, well construction and development, and hydraulic testing and analysis. She has managed large multi-year drilling programs with budgets exceeding US$ 1 million. Tara has also managed her own water quality sampling programs and is well-seasoned in groundwater and surface water sampling.

Petr Kuranov

Petr Kuranov has a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Hydrogeology. He has over 10 years of professional experience on mining, civil and site remediation projects. Petr has joined Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. in 2019 as a hydrogeologist and groundwater modeler.

Petr has been involved in numerous projects for oil and gas and mining clients throughout Western Canada, in South America, Europe and Western Asia. His areas of expertise include:

• Numerical modeling of groundwater flow, solute transport and surface water-groundwater interaction processes,
• Planning and supervision of hydrogeological field programs,
• Hydraulic tests interpretation,
• Hydrogeological data visualization and analyses,
• Geological modeling.

Dr. Mina Seyedali

Dr. Mina Seyedali​ completed her Ph.D. in Earth and Ocean Sciences in 2020 with a focus on use of stable isotopes and trace metals in understanding evolution of paleo-seawater chemistry. Mina has an M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Mining Exploration Engineering with special focus on use of geostatistical techniques in exploration of ore deposits. Mina joined Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. in 2021 as a consultant in geochemistry. She has ten years of research experience in areas of:

• Low-temperature hydrothermal systems active in oceanic crust,
• Designing experiments, running, and interpreting result of various analytical instruments (e.g., ICP-MS, XRD, SEM), and
• Implementing predictive models, data processing and visualization.

Arturo Velasco

Arturo Velasco has a B.Eng and M.Sc. in Hydraulic Engineering and Environment with a specialization in water resources analysis. He has six years of professional and research experience in water resources and remote sensing environmental applications. Arturo joined Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. in 2021 as a Hydrology Consultant.

Arturo’s experience includes the construction of numerical models as well as the interpretation and analysis of results in water-related projects. He also has experience in the processing and application of remote sensing techniques using spaceborne and airborne data for water resources analysis.

His areas of expertise are:

• Hydrological and hydraulic modeling,
• Geographic information system and geospatial analysis, and
• Remote sensing (optical and radar sensors).

Aria Zhang

Aria Zhang has a B.Sc. (Honors) and an M.Sc. in Earth Sciences with specialization in hydrogeology and geochemistry. She joined Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. in 2023. She has four years of experience related to mining hydrogeology, hydrogeochemistry and modeling.

Aria’s knowledge and experience includes 3D transient groundwater flow and transport modeling, reactive transport modeling, mine waste characterization, and ARD remediation. She is also experienced in geospatial data, database management, and data analysis, with proficiency in Python, SQL, and ArcGIS.

Alex Bastyr

Alex Bastyr has a B.Sc. in Earth and Planetary Sciences and a Masters of Geomatics for Environmental Management. He has two years of research experience in utilizing forest inventories and satellite derived datasets to map and predict tree species across Canada. He joined Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. in 2023 as a GIS/Geomatics Analyst.

Alex has experience in the application of GIS and remote sensing tools and technologies for environmental and forestry applications. He specializes in geographic information systems, spatial analysis, machine learning, data visualization, and has proficiency in ArcGIS, SQL, and R.

Claudia Tu

Claudia Tu has more than 20 years administration experience and over 5 years bookkeeping experience. She joined with Robertson GeoConsultants Inc as of June 27, 2023 as Bookkeeper and Office Manager.

Claudia has rich experience in marketing, event management, and project management. She is proficient in MS office suite and familiar with accounting software.

Julia Tancon

Julia Tancon has a B.Sc. in Chemistry with a focus on Environmental Chemistry. She has research experience in transition metal catalysis for the synthesis of small organic molecules, which formed the basis of her honors thesis. She joined Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. in 2023.

Julia’s knowledge and experience includes experiment design, data analysis and interpreting the results of various analytical techniques (e.g., ICP-MS, SEM, XRD, NMR and IR spectroscopy).

Hamed Sharif

Hamed is a water resources engineer/hydrologist with a strong academic background and interdisciplinary experience in the mining and environmental sectors. After earning his M.A.Sc. degree, he joined Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. in May 2024. Since then, Hamed has contributed to mine water management and environmental assessment projects across Canada, Australia, and Chile, applying a range of technical and modeling skills to complex water-related challenges.

Hamed specializes in developing semi-distributed hydrological models, water and load balance simulations, and interactive decision-support tools. Hamed has hands-on expertise in ArcGIS Pro, R, GoldSim, and Python, and applies data-driven techniques, stochastic modeling, and geospatial analysis to support design, prediction, and optimization of water systems. His work includes flood studies, development of water and load balance models, and creation of dynamic web applications for visualizing model outputs from GoldSim.

Dongwei Sun

Dongwei Sun has a M.Sc. in Earth Science with specialization in hydrogeology and groundwater modelling. He has over four years of experience applying his knowledge to complex water-related projects. He has supported the development of innovative applications to answer clients’ questions and guide decision-makings. 3D Computational models were utilized as a sound basis to support environmental risk assessment, contaminant remedial action planning, mine pit dewatering and recovery, municipal water supply, water budget, source water protection, pump and treat system optimization, GW-SW interactions and climate impact related studies.
In Robertson GeoConsultants Inc., Dongwei collaborates with a multi-disciplinary team focused on being the trusted advisor to our clients. He analyzes comprehensive results and communicates key findings through technical reports and presentation slide decks to various stakeholders. His areas of expertise are:

• 3D Conceptual site model development.
• 3D steady-state and transient numerical flow and contaminant fate and transport model simulation, calibration, prediction and uncertainty analysis.
• MS Office suite, QGIS and Python language programming for data QAQC, management and analysis.

Dr. Nima Saberi

Nima is a hydrogeochemist with over seven years of academic experience, specializing in hydrogeology and environmental geochemistry. In 2025, Nima joined Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. as a geochemist. He brings expertise in the mineralogical and geochemical characterization of soils, mine waste rock, and tailings; assessment of acid rock drainage (ARD) and metal leaching potential; and identification of sources and causes of degraded groundwater and surface water quality.

Dr. Xiaomin Wang

Dr. Xiaomin Wang is a Senior Hydrogeologist / Groundwater Modeler at Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. (RGC). She completed her Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from the University of Waterloo. She has over 12 years of consultancy experience in the field of hydrogeology. Her project experience includes interpretation of hydrogeologic data, analytical and numerical groundwater modeling for water resources development and protection and to support the design of remedial measures, and groundwater remedy design and evaluation.  She has developed a one-dimensional solute transport code DECAY for multiple species involving advection, dispersion, sorption, and first-order reaction along a straight or branching chain.  She has assisted in the development and documentation of a particle-tracking code to accompany the new USGS version of MODFLOW for unstructured grids.  Dr. Wang is registered as a professional engineer in Ontario.

Claudio Sierra

Claudio Sierra is a Geologist graduated from Universidad Católica del Norte, with over six years of experience in applied hydrogeology, particularly in porphyry copper and IOCG deposit environments. His expertise includes surface geological mapping, core drilling supervision (DDH and RC), and core sample logging for economic, geotechnical, and hydrogeological purposes. He has a strong track record of leading field teams and coordinating multidisciplinary activities in diverse mining settings. Claudio is skilled in performing hydrogeological investigations such as pumping tests, Lugeon and Lefranc tests, standard penetration tests (SPT), and the installation and configuration of Vibrating Wire Piezometers (VWPs). He has extensive experience developing compliance and technical reports, conceptual hydrogeological models, mine dewatering plans, geological and piezometric maps, and interpreting hydrochemical and isotopic datasets. His capabilities include hydraulic test analysis, and 2D–3D pore pressure modelling and interpretation in structurally complex settings related to mining operations and tailings management.

Nima Najafi

Nima holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Mining Engineering and brings over a decade of international experience in open-pit and underground mining. He joined Robertson GeoConsultants Inc. (part of SLR Consulting) in 2025. He has worked on mining projects in Iran, Kazakhstan, and Canada, contributing to production scheduling, equipment selection, and cost control. His experience covers full life-of-mine planning, from short- and long-term scheduling. Nima has also supported prefeasibility and feasibility studies, orebody modeling, and optimization to ensure safe and efficient mine development. He is familiar with a wide range of commodities including Iron, Coal, REEs, Gold, Copper, Cement, Lead, Zinc, Titanium, Chromite, and Magnesite. In addition to his technical knowledge, he has overseen field operations, managed production teams, and enforced safety and environmental standards.

Areas of Expertise and Interest:

• Waste rock and tailings management
• Environments and green mining
• Mine closure planning and post-mining
• Underground and surface mining
• Mine operations and supervision
• Mine planning, design, and scheduling
• 3D orebody and mine modeling
• Cost management and production optimization
• Economic studies, prefeasibility (PFS) and scoping (PS) studies
• Equipment selection and haulage system efficiency
• Mining method evaluation and selection
• Drilling, blasting, and fragmentation optimization

Francisca Clemo

Francisca is a Geologist with a Master’s in Hydrogeology and Modeling from the University of Barcelona, Spain and a master’s in sciences from University of Concepcion, Chile. She has more than eight years of professional and research experience in water resources and 7 years of experience in consulting.

Patrick Bryan

Mr. Bryan has collaborated extensively with RGC on the following projects:

• Britannia Mine (B.C.) reclamation study,
• Cantung Mine (N.W.T.) site water and chemical load balance study,
• Faro Mine (Yukon) site water and chemical load balance study,
• Pogo Project (Alaska) water balances for tailings impoundments, and
• Questa Mine (New Mexico) comprehensive site water and chemical load balance studies.

Founder: Dr. Andy Robertson

Dr. Andy Robertson was founder and President Emeritus of Robertson GeoConsultants Inc (RGC). As founder and president of RGC, and prior to that SRK Consulting, he was directly responsible for a wide range of mining, geotechnical and environmental engineering projects for the mining industry and government clients, including site investigations and foundation design, rock mechanics and soil slope stability for open pit mines; design of a wide variety of tailings impoundments; and waste dump investigations and designs, including acid rock drainage (ARD) evaluations and control, mine closure plan development and risk assessment.

He was the lead investigator and/or designer for numerous project teams for mining companies and provided review and senior evaluation and counseling to a number of mining companies, research establishments, professional associations and provincial, state and federal agencies. Dr. Robertson participated on numerous technical review boards for tailings and mine waste facilities for mining companies and regulatory authorities. He published extensively, participated in the drafting of numerous technical guides currently used by industry and regulatory bodies alike, and was the recipient of a number of technical and industry awards. He performed numerous dam safety inspections and environmental liability assessments for tailings and water dams, mine waste dumps and mining properties.

Projects were undertaken in Canada, the USA, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, the Czech Republic, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Guatemala, Australia, Philippines, Vietnam, South Africa, Mali, Namibia and Papua.

More detail on Andy’s life and history can be found here.