Rio Tinto Minerals (formerly US Luzenac)

Eric

Currently as a Paper Applications Engineer, I have had excellent opportunities to visit pulp and paper mills. This travel has allowed me to communicate with customers, visualize their expectations, and conduct business with the sales force. Attendance at professional trainings and conferences has permitted further expansion of my knowledge of the paper industry.

I have three bachelors' degrees (May 2003) from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO: Chemical Engineering; Spanish Language & Culture, and Physical Science.

I chose these various disciplines because I enjoy mathematics, chemistry, languages and foreign travel.

In the future, I hope to obtain my Professional Engineer (PE) licensure and continue my education to higher levels. I desire to become fluent in a third language. By such accomplishments, I aspire to be more of a contribution to an ever-growing global economy.

I attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado and received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering in May 2003. I chose chemical engineering because I have always enjoyed chemistry and engineering. I have always appreciated how different manufacturing processes worked and what engineering went into making that process work efficiently.

As a member of the Paper business unit, I have had the opportunity to advance my knowledge of Rio Tinto Minerals (Luzenac North America) and talc, by visiting our Yellowstone talc mine and two of our talc milling operations. I have also been able to broaden my knowledge of the paper industry through my participation in paper courses and by helping with paper coating trials at different paper mills.

I work with Rio Tinto Minerals (Luzenac North America) in Denver, Colorado. I am a paper coatings technical engineer. I conduct research, analysis and experimentation on talc for new product development, for the paper coatings industry. I also technically support customers, sales and marketing, and our production facilities.

I aspire to advance my engineering career by obtaining a masters degree or an MBA and even possibly my professional engineering license. I look forward to contributing my time and effort to help make Rio Tinto Minerals (Luzenac North America) and Rio Tinto successful for many years to come.

In 2004 I graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a minor in Environmental Science. I chose to become a Chemical Engineer because of the wide variety of industries to work in and also because I love chemistry. Rio Tinto offers a safety conscious atmosphere and strives to protect the environment and promote sustainable development.

For the past few months I have working at Rio Tinto Minerals (Luzenac North America) North America in the Pilot Plant in Montana. I have been learning about talc and its properties and uses. Different projects I have been working on deal with benefication methods, start up of a new talc slurry plant, and new products such as Invelop which can be used as a sunscreen for apples.

Currently I am an Associate Process Engineer for Rio Tinto Minerals (Luzenac North America) North America, which is part of Industrial Minerals in Rio Tinto. I work in the Pilot Plant where we develop new products and try to improve processes and mitigate problems.

I like where I am and am learning something new and interesting every day. In the future I hope to work on developing new products with talc and continue learning something new each day.