John Vann

John is a geoscientist and mining industry executive with 35 years mineral exploration, project development, and operational experience across five continents. His current role is Group Head of Discovery & Geosciences for Anglo American plc, where he has global leadership responsibility for all aspects of geoscience, from earliest stage exploration activities through to resources & reserves and operational mining geosciences, including ore control systems. His professional focus has been on the integration of geosciences with the broader value chain, on quantitative methods and data analytics, and on the implications of future technology and geoscience for both the discovery of new mineral deposits and the delivery of value from operations.

His previous career includes VP Resources at AngloGold Ashanti, Managing Director of Quantitative Group (QG), Technical Dircetor at SRK, and prior to that, geostatistical,  mining and exploration geology roles with RGC and Goldfields Exploration.

John has geology degrees from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology & the University of New England, a Master of Science (Geostatistics) from the University of Leeds and a Master of Business and Technology from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM, University of UNSW). He is currently an Adjunct Professor at The University of Western Australia and sits on the board of The Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET); he is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland (WH Bryan Centre).

John is a Fellow of the AusIMM , AIG, SEG and the Geological Society (UK), a member of the Geological Society of Australia and a life member of the International Association for Mathematical Geoscience (IAMG).

He has published over the years on geostatistics, mining geology, geometallurgy, project evaluation, philosophy of science and mineral exploration.