Barry Upton
Managing Director
Barry Upton graduated from the WA School of Mines in 1983 as a Mining Engineer.
Since then, he has worked in the underground hard rock mining industry both in Australia and internationally and served as President of Thyssen Mining Construction Canada for 3 years from 2000 to 2002.
In addition to being the Managing Director of RUC Cementation Mining Contractors Pty Ltd, he also holds the following positions:
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President Director PT RUCCi (Indonesia)
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Executive Director RUCCEM LLC (Mongolia)
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Managing Director RUC Cementation Mining Contractors (Hong Kong)
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Managing Director RUC Cementation Mining Contractors (Phillipines)
Stephen Bennett
General Manager Fleet
Lawrence Newnham
Specialist and Key Account Manager
Lawrence began his mining career in South Africa as an Underground Maintenance Superintendent. Lawrence has been in the RUC group since 1983 as a Supervisor, Contracts Manager, International Operations Manager and as an Executive Director. He transferred to Australia to sink the VR5 Shaft in Broken Hill in 1990 and moved to Kalgoorlie to establish RUC Mining Australia Pty Ltd in 1993
David Smith
Director -People, Risk and the Environment
Gerrie Pieters
Finance Director
Gerrie started his career in South Africa with the Murray & Roberts group in 1990, his career of over 30 years was in the Underground Mining contracting field. He obtained his BCompt degree in 2003 and fulfilled various administrative and commercial roles throughout his career in all aspects of the Mining field which include Cementation, Raise boring, Surface drilling, Drop raising, Shaft sinking, Decline sinking, Development, Contract mining and mining construction. He was also responsible for various contracts in Zambia, Ghana, Namibia, DRC, Tanzania, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. He was on Murray & Roberts Cementation board since 2013 after which he moved to Mongolia for 15 months as FD for a RUC JV and finally relocated to Perth as Financial Director for RUC.
Robert Pettit
Associate Director International Operations
Greg Miller
RUC General Manager
Greg is a senior mining professional with +20 years of industry experience. Leadership responsibility for the Underground Division of a major Australian contractor, encompassing safety leadership, business development, operations management, and general business management activities. Experienced in the management, preparation and negotiation of successful tenders for contracts with a number of Australian mining companies. Involved with a diverse range of service offerings, mineral commodities, equipment types, contract styles, and geographic regions. Additional expertise as a member of the senior executive with active involvement in mergers and acquisitions, reporting to the Board of a publicly listed company, Strategy preparation and execution, Budget preparation and crisis management.
Steve Cooke
General Manager - Incycle
With a Graduate Certificate in Management and over 35 years mining experience in a number of disciplines, Steve started his underground mining career tapping into his mechanical engineering background from hands on to management in both surface and underground operations covering narrow vein stope mining to shaft sinking , block caving and stoping operations both nationally and abroad.
Steve has extensive experiences with production / development and construction projects, crusher and rail installation, head frame design and construction and he has most recently had experience working with and heading up teams developing some of the industries most advanced automated systems.
Steve has a strong interest in and has been instrumental in setting course content and facilitating numerous leadership, coaching, mentoring, supervisory and maintenance training programs across a number of countries.
Executive Leader with a zero harm value set and proven ability to strategically vision and plan SHEQ&T, engage and coach, execute and monitor, audit and continually improve risk management policies and procedures, and to introduce globally benchmarked initiatives that exceed business performance expectations and goals and also protects people, the environment, company reputation and assets. Led over 20 group entity and worldwide sites to achieve Best Practice SHEQ&T standards as the Group Manager – Safety, Environment, Quality and Training, for Byrnecut Mining.
Senior Project and Operational Leader with a proven ability to execute SHEQ&T elements and requirements on major capital projects during project study phases and board approvals, construction execution, operational readiness and commercial operation. In Ghana provided expert health and safety leadership and strategy management for the $1B Greenfield Newmont Akyem construction project which is now in commercial operation. Newmont Akyem was the first mine in Ghana to win the prestigious ‘Ghana Best Safe Mine Award’ two years in a row and was also the first Newmont operation to achieve over 400 days zero harm.
Robert is a seasoned mining professional with over 30 years mining and civil mining experience, with the past 18 years
in various management roles. He started
his mining career in 1989 on Western Deep Levels in South Africa. He obtained his National Higher Diploma in Metaliferous Mining in 1993 and his Mine Managers Certificate in 1998. In 1998 he joined Cementation Mining in South Africa and started his mining contracting career as a Master Sinker. Robert joined RUC in 2010
as a project manager for the HATS project
in Hong Kong. He has extensive experience in shaft sinking, decline sinking, development and mining construction.
In his career to date, Robert worked on numerous mining and civil projects in South Africa, Africa, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Mongolia.
Steve Cooke (Cookie) has been in the concrete construction industry for some 35 years. Predominately starting his career in
the building trade and Managing a number of building company’s. Looking for a change in direction, he entered the concrete construction and underground shotcrete industry. Cookie has held a number of Operational positions within the shotcrete industry over the past 25 years and has built up a reputation as someone that will deliver
a project safely, professionally and on budget.