Clara Balasko

About Clara Balasko

I\'m a civil engineer with 20+ years of experience in tailings and heap leach design, operation and closure with a specialization in tailings storage facility design including slurry, paste and dry stack tailings disposal. My responsibilities for tailings storage facility design have included:• Development of design criteria, • Site selection, • Development of tailings storage facility stage capacity curves and water balance models, • Design of embankment, environmental containment, tailings deposition, and supernatant water recovery systems for slurry, paste and dry stack tailings material, and • Closure design.I’ve worked on projects in the Americas, Australia and Asia, including: as a field engineer and QA monitor for three years during the BHP San Manuel Closure Project which incorporated closure of plant facilities, tailings impoundments, waste rock dumps, and a heap leach facility; The project manager for the conceptual design of the tailings storage facility and the heap leach pad for a 62 million ton gold operation in White Pine County Nevada; Responsible for the scoping level design of a 900 ton tailings storage facility design in South Australia; Responsible for the feasibility level design project coordination and assisted with the pre-feasibility and feasibility level design of the tailings and waste rock storage facility for the Xstrata Frieda River Project in Papua New Guinea which incorporated the design of a two large (greater than 200 m) earthen dams in an area of high seismicity; Resposible for the PEA-level design of a 56 million ton niobium tailings facility as well as the water management/treatment option analysis.

Experience

1. Lead Principal Strategic Portfolio

   BHP

   Mar 2026 — Present · Santiago, CL

Education

• University of Nevada, Reno

  Master of Science, Geological Engineering

  2000 — 2003

• Texas A&M University

  Bachelor of Science, Geology

  1996 — 2000