I am thinking it wouldn't have been hard to find one or more UCG experts ex University of Queensland (UoQ) for the Experts Panel.
A quick google search throws up Alex Kimenko and numerous collaborators:
Dr Alexander Klimenko Dr Bo Feng Prof Hal Gurgenci Prof Suresh Bhatia Prof Michael Blinderman (yes that's Ergo's Michael ) Dr Matthew Cleary Mr Dmitry Saulov Mr Paul Bedi Mr Chetan Chodankar
Search through Klimenko's co-authors in the following link:
As far as I can tell, Klimenko and his associates and students have been involved strongly in UCG from UoQ from the late 90's to the present.
When specific UCG experts exist within Qld's universities, why were they not on the panel?
Consider the likely UCG expertise of the actual scientific panel chosen by the Qld Govt:
# Dr Christopher Cuff, C&R Consulting (Geochemical & Hydrobiological Solutions) Pty Ltd; # Professor Chris Moran, Director Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland; and # Professor Joe da Costa, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Queensland
What skills/knowledge did these three have to comment on social issues at Kingaroy? What do social issues have to do with a UCG trial that perhaps only needed to run for three months?
What particular value is hydrobiology and sustainable minerals to a panel assessing UCG?
Imo, the panel was flawed/skewed from the start and by the Qld Govt instructing the panel to attend community meetings in Kingaroy whilst having no contact with Cougar, the panel was at the very least misdirected and compromised.
Imo it is obvious Cougar should seek independent international review of their submissions to DERM and the scientific panel's report from a half dozen or so known global UCG experts researching at say the Lawrence Livermore Institute in the US, Imperial College in London and many more.
Dex
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