Our team
Barry Carlson, P.E., P.Eng, QP - CEO/President
Barry Carlson, P.E., P.Eng, is a principal engineer with over 35 years of experience in project management and project design for numerous mining projects and operations across the United States, including heap leach water balance management and analyses, feasibility studies, geotechnical design and analyses, site reclamation planning and remedial action planning. Recent acknowledgements include optimizing recovery of heap leach operations through advanced metallurgical testing and dynamic systems modeling, process plant design and optimization, and stochastic water balance modeling for heap leach operations in the U.S. and abroad. Included in these projects were flow processes analyses and gold recovery projections. Areas of expertise include heap leach/process design, feasibility studies, mine closure and reclamation, geotechnical/civil engineering, hydrologic/hydraulic analysis, site characterization, well installation/monitoring, permitting/compliance and construction quality assurance, which he has provided to clients such as Newmont Corporation, Victoria Gold Corporation, McEwen Mining, Waterton Global Resource Management, Freeport McMoRan, Alexco Resources Corporation, Barrick Gold Corporation, Kinross and Goldcorp, Inc. As President and CEO of Forte Dynamics, Barry spearheaded the development of Forte Analytical (an advanced research and metallurgical testing laboratory), and currently serves as Forte Analytical's Business Manager.
Clint Green, P.E. - Director of Engineering
Clint Green, P.E., is a principal engineer with over 16 years of experience in engineering design and construction of infrastructure, including work as a consultant and contractor in the planning, design, bid, build and closeout phases of construction projects in areas such as water distribution systems (potable and non-potable), roads, hydrology and hydraulics, storage ponds, rapid infiltration basins and closure and reclamation of historic sites. Construction experience also includes quality control and assurance, scheduling and project management. Significant experience in field investigations such as geotechnical drilling/test pit observation, water sampling, percolation and hydraulic conductivity testing, and geotechnical lab testing such as proctors, Atterberg limits, sieve analysis and nuclear gauge testing, for both private and public projects. He has also demonstrated skill managing multiple projects through all phases of completion. He is a highly personable and self-motivated professional who is passionate about quality and satisfaction.
Brendan Fetter, P.E., QP - Director of Operations
Brendan Fetter, P.E. is a principal mechanical and civil engineer with seven years of experience in specialty modeling analyses, design and construction of water infrastructure, and heap leach modeling. His work experience includes application of various hydrologic and kinetic models predominately related to mine water and solution management. He has also provided design and construction quality assurance for hydraulic pumping systems, heap leach pads, and process ponds. Recently, he has performed several heap leach models for existing operations to enhance production and analyze optimal solution management and pumping scenarios. He has worked on projects across the United States, as well as international work experience in Canada, Mexico, Turkey, and South America.
Nick Gow, PhD, P.E. - Lab Manager
Nick Gow, PhD, PE, has over 10 years of experience in hands-on metallurgical testing, equipment design and manufacturing, with a focus in mineral processing feasibility. His experience includes design and due-diligence of metallurgical testing campaigns for processes including comminution, gravity, flotation and leaching of base and precious metals. This includes a focus on process development for whole circuit gold/silver processing (CIC/CIL/CIP) operations, including carbon adsorption and recovery methodologies. He routinely conducts metallurgical pilot and plant audit campaigns domestically and internationally. Forte Dynamics tapped Nick to serve as Lab Manager for Forte Analytical, an advanced metallurgical research and testing laboratory introduced in early 2020.
Tony Vu, P.E. - Director of Electrical & Controls
Tony is a technical expert in electrical engineering and systems controls. He is a professional project engineer and manager with over 35 years of experience in both field and office. He is adept with configuration of the PLC control systems and development of discrete controls. Tony also has vast experience with medium and low voltage systems. He has extensive experience in water and wastewater treatment and incineration facilities with P&ID development including: as-built, instrumentation specification, project commissioning and training, and SCADA systems and network design, PLC configuration. One of Tony’s greatest assets is his continued on-site construction support role for several projects. His life-cycle experience ranges from inception, through engineering and design, construction, commissioning, start-up and operation. Additionally, Tony has served as an Electronics Engineering Technology adjunct professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver for over 30 years.
Larry Snider - Senior Resource Modeler
Larry Snider is an economic geologist with 28+ years of experience in the resource modeling and project evaluation of precious and base metal deposits. For the last 13 years, he worked for Barrick/Nevada Gold Mines where he led a team responsible for the estimation and reporting of all resource models in the prolific Cortez District (~25 million Au ounces of reserves and resources at EoY 2020). While at Barrick, Larry also worked in the North America regional group where he provided support for Golden Sunlight, Bald Mountain, Ruby Hill, Pueblo Viejo, Hemlo, Round Mountain, Marigold, and other development projects. Prior to Barrick, Larry worked for Queenstake Resources, Kinross Gold, and Plexus Resources. Larry has emphasized new resource estimation approaches such as local varying anisotropy (LVA), which is very effective at leveraging geologic controls on determining metal distribution in a deposit. Comprehensive modeling of chemical characteristics using ICP and Leco assay data has been routinely used to aid ore and waste material routing and aid metal recovery development. Larry places an emphasis on the quality and usability of drilling and production sampling that can be used on the development of mineral resource model. He has worked at projects and site evaluations across the United States and Canada and in Colombia, Zambia, and Bulgaria.
Jon Heiner - Senior Mine Engineer
Jon Heiner is an experienced senior mining engineer with over 12 years of experience. Jon has worked in open pit coal and hard rock mines holding several different positions, including mine planning, mine design, special projects, and drill and blast. He has lead projects that included explosive trials, crest blast spillage reduction, slide mitigation/remediation, infrastructure moves, and well protection. He was a vital member of the mine planning team, creating long-range plans after the Manefay slide at the Bingham Canyon mine. Jon can review a process and find places for optimization and improvements. Jon has proven that he can help companies translate their business goals into reality.
Jake Cefalo - Senior Mine Engineer
Jake is a qualified operational mining engineer with over 10 years of experience at major mining operations and most recently working as the senior drill and blast engineer for the Bingham Canyon Mine. Experience includes cost reductions by expanding out blast patterns while optimizing product selection and maintaining production targets. Developed planning tools to create more efficient reporting, reconciliation, and compliance of monthly plans. Experience with managing explosives inhibitor levels for reactive ground and vibration and flyrock control blasting around buildings and critical infrastructure. Proficient with optimized timing with electronic and nonelectronic detonators for the reduction of wall response in geotechnically sensitive areas, especially in the field of frequency control blasting techniques. Completed multiple training programs in drill and blast technical and operational courses.