BMA Chair and Professor
(MEA Node: The University of Queensland)
Email: p.knights@mea.edu.au
Phone: 07 3346 5620
Qualifications
B.Eng. (Mech), University of Melbourne, 1986
M.Eng. in Systems Engineering, RMIT, 1992
Ph.D (Mining), McGill University, Canada, 1996
Grad. Cert. Exec Leadership, The University of Queensland, 2010
Employment
Jan/10 – Current Executive Director, Mining Education Australia
Dec/06-Current BMA Chair in Mining Engineering and Professor, School of Engineering, The University of Queensland
Feb/05-Current Program Leader Smart Mining Systems, Cooperative Research Centre for Mining (CRCMining), Brisbane, Australia
Jan/02-Oct/05 Canadian Chair in Mining (endowed chair supported by Barrick Chile, Falconbridge, Placer-Dom
Rio Algom (now BHP-Billiton) & Teck-Cominco) Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Aug/03-Jan/04Visiting Professor (Sabattical appointment), Maintenance Technology Institute, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Monash University
Oct/02-Oct/05 Associate Professor, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Centro de Minería.
Apr/00-May/01 Acting Director, Mining Center, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Mar/96-Oct/02 Assistant Professor, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Centro de Minería.
Mar/94-Feb/96 Project Leader, Canadian Centre for Minerals and Energy Technology (CANMET) project to develop an automated underground ore tonnage tracking system.
Apr/88-Aug/92 Research Engineer, BHP Research Pty. Ltd, Mining Systems Group, Melbourne Australia
Mar/87-Apr/88 Project Engineer, John Holland Engineering Pty. Ltd., North West Shelf Gas Project.
Professional Affiliations
Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc. (SME)
Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIM)
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
Teaching Areas
Mining asset management and services
Mine management
Underground mine planning
Surface mine planning
Research Interests
Mine maintenance management
Mine operations and process control
Mining simulation
Mining equipment automation
Selected Recent Publications
Refereed Journal Publications
Louit, D., Knights, P.F., Jardine, A.K.S. “A Simple Graphical Multiple-Criteria Procedure for the Prioritization of Spare Parts”, submitted to International Journal of Production Economics for review, June 2006.
Knights, P.F. & Oyanader, P. “Best-in-Class Maintenance Benchmarks in Chilean Open Pit Mines” CIM Bulletin, Vol 98, No. 1088, pp.93 June/July 2005.
Knights, P.F., Louit, D., & Lay, A. “Determining Return-on-Investment of Maintenance Improvement Projects Using Statistical Cost Modeling”, Mining Engineering, Vol 56, No. 8, pp.33- 39, August 2004.
Lhorente, B.N., Lugtigheid, D, Knights, P.F. & Santana, A. “An Optimal Replacement Model for Wheel Motor Armatures in Electric Haul Trucks: A Case Study”, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, No. 84, pp.209-218, 2004
Knights, P.F. “Rethinking Pareto Analysis: Maintenance Applications of Logarithmic Scatterplots”, Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, Vol 7, No.4, pp252-263, 2001.
Garcia, P., Knights, P.F. & Tilton, J.E. “Labor Productivity and Comparative Advantage in Mining: The Copper Industry in Chile”, Resources Policy No. 27, pp. 97-105, 2001