Laurence Donnelly

Head of Technical Department, A H Knight

Dr Laurance Donnelly is a Chartered Geologist, Chartered Scientist, European Geologist, invited Fellow of the Geological Society of America and registered with the UK National Crime Agency as an Expert Adviser (Forensic Geologist).

He is the Chief Geologist and Head of the Technical Department at AHK International. He holds a first-class honours degree and a PhD in geology and has 35 years’ international experience in over 80 countries in; mineral exploration, mineral resource evaluation, sampling, sample preparation, mining geology, forensic geology, engineering geology, geophysics and geological hazards. He has worked with government departments, geological surveys, mining companies, geotechnical consultants, lending institutions, metals traders, banks, law firms, minerals investors, police and law enforcement.

He has significant operational and consultancy experiences in the exploration and mining, compliant with BS, ISO, JORC, NI43-101, GHOST, AIM and industry best practice. He has provided operational support for the police and law enforcement investigators, including crime scene examination and sample collection, geological trace evidence analysis and the design and implementation ground searches for high profile burials related to missing persons, homicide (shallow graves), serious and organised crime, and counter terrorism. He is also leading provenance determination and traceability investigations relating to illegal mining, illicit minerals and metals crimes.

Dr Donnelly has pioneered and developed a new search strategy (the Geoforensic Search Strategy), not used globally. He collaborates with the police and law enforcement including the FBI, INTERPOL, UK National Crime Agency, DSTL, Home Office, Brazilian Federal Police and Colombian National Police and Australian Federal Police. He is the founder and inaugural chair of the Forensic Geoscience Group, of the Geological Society of London. He is also the founder and current Chair of the International Union of Geological (IUGS) Initiative on Forensic Geology (IFG).

He published approximately 500 publications, delivered around 200 guest and keynote lectures around the world. He is the recipient of awards and recognition for applied geology and forensic geology from; the Institution of Mining & Metallurgy, Geological Society of London, Geological Society of America and he was also honoured by the Russian Government, Federal Centre of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice of Russia in Moscow.