German Lastra is a mining engineer, aiming to improve coarse particle flotation in conventional cells.
German is a PhD researcher at the JKMRC working on a mineral flotation project within the Separation group, under the supervision of Associate Professor Kym Runge, Dr Angus Morrison and Dr Bellson Awatey.
German graduated with Highest Honours from the University of Concepción in Chile, with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and a Mining Engineering Degree. He was awarded ‘Best Mining Engineering Student Prize’, ‘Best Faculty of Engineering Student Prize’ and ‘University of Concepción Award’ for his undergraduate studies.
Prior to graduating, German received an international scholarship from the University of Concepción to carry out an internship at the JKMRC, in blast movement modelling and simulation. After his internship, he was awarded a research scholarship from The University of Queensland to conduct his Mining Engineering Thesis at the JKMRC, working in advanced blast movement modelling and simulation, mineral processing and Mine-to-Mill optimisation.
Before joining the JKMRC as a PhD student, German worked in JKTech as Drill & Blast Engineer. He was responsible for conducting technical drill and blast studies, and the development, testing, calibration, and value-based optimisation of JKTech's blast movement and fragmentation model JKVBOC. He implemented machine learning techniques in JKVBOC calibration. German's responsibilities also included delivering technical presentations and reports to clients, and providing JKVBOC training to their engineering teams.