![Nicholas Earner](/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bn-di-person/Nic_Earner.jpg?itok=YtA8TkZS)
Nicholas Earner has over 25 years of experience in technical and operational optimisation and management, and has held a number of executive roles in mining and processing.
Prior to his appointment as the chief operations officer of Alkane Resources in August 2013, he spent 4 years at Straits Resources including 2 years as its executive general manager of operations where he supervised employees in open cut and underground gold mines and an underground copper mine. For 11 years before that, Mr Earner had various roles at Rio Tinto Coal Australia's Mount Thorley Warkworth coal mine and BHPB/WMC Olympic Dam copper-uranium-gold operations. His 8 years at Olympic Dam included roles where he was managing the Concentrator and Hydromet functions which included milling, leaching and solvent extraction circuits. His other positions included production superintendent - smelting, and senior engineer - process control, instrumentation and communications.