BIOGRAPHY
Thomas Kießling is the managing director and chief operating officer of ERCOSPLAN Ingenieurgesellschaft Geotechnik und Bergbau mbH. He has a degree in mining engineering from the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. In addition, he attended the EMC – European Mining Course at the Helsinki University for Technology/Finland, Technical University Delft/Netherlands, Royal School of Mining, Imperial College London/UK, RWTH Aachen University/Germany from 2002 to 2003. He has been working as an engineer in the mining and processing industry for 20 years.
His professional career began in 2004 when he was responsible for setting up a fluorite mine in Germany. The main fields of business were hard rock drifting, shaft remediation, narrow vein ore mining, backfill, ore processing and permitting. From 2009 – 2022, he worked for a German rock salt mine and former potash mine. As production manager and later as the managing director of technology and chief operating officer of the mine, he was responsible for an annual turnover of 35 million euros and 220 employees. The core businesses of the mine focused on rock salt mining, backfill, underground hazardous waste disposal, surface tailings remediation. In the course of his career, he was also involved in projects in Europe, Africa, Mexico and China as an expert for brownfield and greenfield projects.
His experience includes salt and ore mining, mine planning, the backfilling of mines and underground waste deposits, production and investment planning, permitting and mine rescue. For 16 years, he was a member of mine rescue teams and more than 5 years of this time, he was active as a rescue section commander and head of mine rescue squads. He was active as an explosives engineer for 17 years and he is still a holder of the explosives license for underground blasting. He is experienced in the introduction of new technologies and in the selection and implementation of equipment in underground ore and evaporite mines. He holds a certificate of competence in accordance with the Explosives Act - valid for underground blasting - and has 17 years of active experience in planning and carrying out blasting.
He is a Qualified Person registered with the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America since 2023. Certificate ID: 1581QP.