Mitch Albert – Chief Engineer, PhD

Mitch has a PhD Mineral Economics has a B.Sc. in Geology-Cleveland State University, his M.Sc. in Mineral Economics-Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Mineral Economics-Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is one of 40 certified mineral appraisers (AIMA 1995-4), Rotary International Fellowship Scholar, a Paul Harris Fellow and inventor of patent #6,835,041B1 issued 12/28/04 entitled “High Capacity Bulk Material Transportation and Discharge Method & System”. 

His career began in South Africa working on energy and ferroalloy commodities for Mobil Oil Corporation, South African Minerals Bureau, Energy Institute, and African Explosives and Chemicals Industry Company. As Manager of Economic Services for Occidental Petroleum's Island Creek Coal Company, then the 4th largest U.S. coal company, he was responsible for project financial evaluations and strategic plans. 

Mitch joined Burlington Northern Inc.'s Meridian Minerals Company to develop and manage their marketing, financial evaluation and planning functions for coal, precious metal and industrial mineral projects. The 20 billion ton coal reserves were the 2nd largest in the US. Industrial mineral work involved 30 major commodities with emphasis on talc, diatomite, calcium carbonate and kaolin. As Manager of Business Development, he started Meridian's aggregate business with a large exploration program, and quarry acquisitions and obtained a +5 million tpy ballast sales contract eventually resulting in 20+ mines and +15 million tpy sales. Sales involved coordinating 4,600 railroad cars delivering 5-6 million tpy of rock for BNSF. He was president/owner of Agile Stone Systems, Inc. 1997-2000 and CEO/owner of Rock & Rail, Inc. 1987-2000. Rock & Rail, Inc. is a 52-mile Surface Transportation Board federally certified common carrier freight shortline railroad. 

The company operates rock unit trains from a newly permitted granite/Sand &Gravel mine built by Agile Stone Systems, Inc. The granite quarry was the first permitted on Colorado’s Front Range since 1976. A recent project involved 4 miles of new track built into a new quarry he located, 2 new quarry permits in the southwest and a successful income appraisal against the US Dept. of Justice as an expert witness for defendants in a federal taking District Court 1 Albuquerque New Mexico involving a 200 MWe geothermal power plant. He operates from Dry Creek Resources, Inc. Project work has included the purchase/ownership of railroad track and assets from BNSF and UPRR; construction/ownership/operation of track and mine facilities and several rail delivery off loading terminals; solely permitted 7 quarries/pits of 1-5 million tpy in 5 different states at costs of $10,000-$500,000/site; shortline railroad development; bulk transportation logistics-rates-equipment procurement-crew planning; development of an alternative productivity management tool; and applied linear programming techniques to a 2 million tpy aggregate plant reducing operating costs $0.20/ton; exploring, locating and leasing several new quarry/mine sites; multiple private and federal appraisals primarily for large mining land exchanges involving 22 billion tons of coal, 5 square miles of iron ore reserves; gold properties in several western states, a MT coal project with 5 billion tons of reserves and 7 logical mining units, 2 MT coal mines involving AVF (alluvial valley floor) deposits, a $400 million UT coal mine in the new federal monument area; numerous aggregate projects, and an operating diatomite mine for the US Department Justice and FL bankruptcy court. 

Mitch is or has been a member of the American Railroad & Engineering Maintenance Association, National Railroad Contractors Association, American Institute for Mining & Engineering, National Stone Association, American Institute of Minerals Appraisers, U.S. Justice Department Expert Witness Group, National Mining (Coal) Association Life Honorary Member, American Society for Testing & Materials, and a Washington State registered professional geologist.