About Us

Nicole is a low temperature/pressure geochemist with >15 years’ experience in academic research and private consulting. She specialises in identifying and quantifying the mechanisms controlling the chemical composition of surface water, soil/regolith water (unsaturated) and groundwater. Her skills in the fields of geology, geochemistry, hydro-geochemistry, hydrogeology, and numerical modelling are engaged by clients in the mining, industrial and water resource sectors to assess causes and implications of impacts, and to inform environmental management decision making.

As a Principal Geochemist at Geochemical Scientific, she provides quantitative solutions to clients facing a range of environmental challenges including management of soils/regolith and groundwater impacts from anthropogenic sources of metals/metalloids and nutrients; acidic and neutral mine drainage risks; acid sulfate soils; seawater intrusion; dryland salinity, surface water-groundwater interactions and contamination of municipal and irrigation water supplies.

Nicole is regularly engaged to undertake implications/risk assessments that include application of standard and customised methods to characterise mine-waste materials, develop tailored sampling and analytical programs, and apply detailed data interpretative methods including predictive geochemical modelling. Nicole specialising in a range of environmental tracer applications to identify sources of contaminants, assess natural attenuation, identify groundwater recharge zones, assess mixing between different hydrogeologic units, understand surface-water groundwater interactions, investigate pit water – groundwater dynamics, and quantity groundwater “ages” and flow rates.

Nicole is a trusted advisor to clients on matters relating to environmental implications/risks and routinely assists during engagement with environmental regulators to negotiate terms/timeframes of investigation requirements, present findings of technical assessments and respond to regulator feedback.

Matthew has over 20 years’ experience investigating physiochemical controls on surface water, soil/regolith water (unsaturated), and groundwater quality, with particular emphasis on contaminant sources and fate. Matthew’s skillsets span the fields of hydro-geochemistry, geochemistry, hydrogeology, biogeochemistry, geology and numerical modelling. These skills are applied to address a range of environmental and operational issues in mining, oil and gas, industrial and water resource sectors. Approaches and outcomes include: 

• identification of sources and stability of metals/metalloids, nutrients and organic constituents in surface waters, soils/regolith and groundwater;
• assessment of environmental implications/risks of current water quality impacts through detailed data interpretation and application of customised techniques;
• assessment of hydrochemical impacts to operational infrastructure due to mineral “scaling”, biological fouling, and corrosion;
• application of standard and costume methods to characterise the geochemical nature of mine-waste materials and/or impacted sediment/regolith;
• utilization of geochemical “tracer” techniques to distinguish between natural and anthropogenic sources, identify recharge zones, quantify recharge rates, assess surface water-groundwater interactions, quantify groundwater flow rates, and determine groundwater “ages”;
• application of geochemical modelling (GWB, PHREEQC) to predict the chemical reactions resulting from operational changes including post-closure predictions of seepage water quality, void water quality and groundwater quality;
• application of groundwater flow and solute transport modelling (MODFLOW, GWB, PHT3D, PHREEQC) to predict groundwater recharge and flow dynamics, predict contaminant migration and attenuation, and to investigate potential mitigation or remediation options; and
• advising clients on the environmental implications/risks and subsequent engagement with environmental regulators to negotiate terms/timeframes of prescribed investigations, present findings of technical assessments and assist with approvals.