New Leaders Conference and National Mining Games '09

Every year students from all over Australia meet for the New Leaders conference and National Mining Games. Last night saw the conclusion of the 2009 events with a black tie ball at Rydges in Southbank.

This year’s conference presented some interesting perspectives on how the resources industry is adapting and will continue to evolve to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The conference ran over two days with a welcome function on the first night. This year’s welcome function was held on ‘The Island’, which for those that don’t know is a party boat that goes up and down the Brisbane River. It was a great opportunity to catch up with a few of the people I met last year at last year’s conference.

The Mining games were held on the weekend after the conference. Thanks to an exam on the Saturday our proposed Metallurgy team didn’t go ahead and we weren’t able to compete. Will have to wait until the International Mining Games in WA next year!

Overall it has been a great week and a fantastic opportunity to network with students from around Australia, chances are I’ll be working with some of them in a few years time.

Airlie Beach Vac Student Australia Day Party!

For Australia Day this year we organised for our engineering mates and vac students from around the area who could make it to meet in Airlie beach for the long weekend. The majority of us stayed in a backpacker’s right in the middle of Airlie and partied hard for three days! Was definitely the most fun I’ve ever had and I made a heap of new engineering mates at the same time. Is going to be an awesome year at UNI!

Vacation Work with Queensland Magnesia

This year I decided to take a one month job with Queensland Magnesia (QMAG) in Rockhampton to experience something a little different from last year. I stayed in Felicity’s house in the suburbs of Rocky and about 3mins from the head office! Thanks Flic!
The Magnesite deposit is mined at Kunwarara which is about 70kms north of Rockhampton:
– Deposit is largest known of its type
– Open Cut Mine, Washing, Crushing, Screening, Scrubbing, Separation & Sorting
– Bulk Shipments, or transported to Parkhurst in Rockhampton for processing
The processing plant and head office are located in Parkhurst, the processing consists of:
– Calcining (1030c), Screening & Blending
– Griniding, Briquetting, Dead-burning
– Electrofusion (3000c), Ingot Breaking, Crushing / Bagging
– Calcine, Bagged or Containerised
While there I was working in an OH&S position updating the operator training packages used onsite. It was a great experience to do something different and a good way to get to understand a different side of a mining operation!