303-384-2690 Learn@mines.edu

October 6-10, 2025
Golden, Colorado USA

Course Instructor

Dr. Francis F. Pitard is a consulting expert in Sampling, Statistical Process Control and Total Quality management. He is President of Francis Pitard Sampling Consultants (www.fpscsampling.com) and Technical Director of Mineral Stats Inc. (www.mineralstats.com) in Broomfield, Colorado, USA. He provides consulting services in many countries. Dr. Pitard has six years of experience with the French Atomic Energy Commission and fifteen years with Amax Extractive R7D. He taught Sampling Theory for the Continuing Education Offices of Colorado School of Mines, The Australian Mineral Foundation, for the Mining Department of the University of Chile, and the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. He has a doctorate in Technology from the Aalborg University in Denmark. He is author of several textbooks on Sampling Theory and Practice. He is the recipient of the prestigious Pierre Gy’s Gold Medal for excellence in promoting and teaching the Theory of Sampling (Cape Town, South Africa, 2009).

Software Instructor

Max Pitard is the founder and CTO of HonuaTek LLC, a company focused on developing digital solutions for the mining, manufacturing, and utilities industries. He holds a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Colorado School of Mines and has over 20 years of experience in IT consulting where he has engaged customers ranging from technology startups to fortune 50 companies. His areas of interest include developing innovative solutions to complex analytics problems by employing the latest advances in information integration, aggregation, and processing technologies.