Mark Sonter

Mark Sonter started with 2 years as a high school science teacher, 6 years as a University Physics lecturer in Papua New Guinea (1970-1975), and then 40 years in mining industry in radiation and safety management. Mark has a MAppSc in Medical Physics from QUT, and is accredited as an expert in ionizing radiation safety with the Australian Radiation Protection Accreditation Board (ARPAB). Mark was directly responsible for all radiation planning, permitting, and implementation of controls, in two uranium mining projects, Olympic Dam and Beverley. He has consulted on many uranium, mineral sands, and rare earths projects in Australia and overseas, plus several contaminated site cleanup programs, most interestingly the Maralinga Test Site Cleanup. Over the last couple of decades, Mark has become involved in NORM management in the oil and gas industry, and in radiation consulting for several Rare Earths Projects, required because of the thorium content of the ores. Mark has followed space industrialization since the 1970s, incorporated Asteroid Enterprises and gave his first Space Conference presentation in 1986, and organized a placement as a visiting scholar at University of Arizona Lunar & Planetary Laboratory in 1995. During 1995-97 he wrote a research thesis on the Technical and Economic Feasibility of Mining the Near-Earth Asteroids, which became a much-quoted text. Mark has continued to study and write scholarly articles investigating various aspects of space mining, resulting in his present standing as a specific expert in the resources and mining prospects of the Near Earth Asteroids. He was a Co-Founder and the Director of Mining & Processing, of Deep Space Industries, incorporated in 2012, until resigning from its Board in March 2018, and is now Co-Founder and Technical Director of Beyond Earth Resources, and Principal of Asteroid Enterprises.

Education

• University of Wollongong - MSc (Hons), Asteroid Mining 1995 - 1997
• QUT (Queensland University of Technology) - MAppSc, Medical Physics 1976 - 1978
• UNSW - BSc, Dip Ed, Physics, Geology 1964 - 1968