Final vac work with Newmont

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So I have just finished my final years vacation work experience with Newmont at the Tanami gold operation and once again the experience was loads of fun and invaluable to my studies and technical knowledge. This site known as 'The Granites' is the most remote mine in the whole of Australia! Having never worked with gold before this holidays I was happy to be able to get hands on experience in gold leaching, electro winning and smelting. In my time onsite I had the opportunity work on the mill, in the laboratory and get involved with some Metallurgical project based work focused around the cyclones and gravity circuit.

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!

What is a Metallurgist??

A pseudo scientist, who uses undetermined suppositions,
inexpressible hypotheses; which are based on unreliable
information, uncertain quantities, and incomplete data;
derived from non-reproducible experiments and incomplete
investigations; using equipment and instruments of
questionable accuracy, insufficient resolution, and
inadequate sensitivity, to arrive at timid, tentative, cloudy,
abtruse, and non-committed conclusions prefaced by the
phrase: -
“IT DEPENDS……….”

Get involved on Facebook!

Interested in scholarships or vacation work with mining or energy companies? Search for and join this Facebook group: Vac work with Mining and Energy Companies

This group is for engineering and science undergrads who are looking for vac work with a mining or energy company. This page is regularly updated with information on when, where and how to apply for vac work with mining and energy companies. Via this page you will receive message with up to date with information on new vac work opportunities, reminders to apply for vac work when applications are closing, as well as contact details for some useful company representatives. You will not find this information anywhere else all in one place!

You may also want to join the Facebook group Engineering and Science Scholarships which lists more than 300 scholarships that are available. Likewise, you will not find this information anywhere else all in one place.

Also check out 'Graduate jobs with mining and energy companies.'

Joining these groups is the best way to ensure you are getting the most accurate and timely information however, if you are not on Facebook for whatever reason, email Emma Wimberley Manager, Careers Marketing and Strategy for Queensland Resources Council at emmaw@qrc.org.au.

Vacation Work at Birla Mt. Gordon
Start: 05/12/2007
Finish: 21/02/2008
Where: Birla Mt. Gordon Copper Mine, 120km northwest of Mt. Isa (close to the middle of nowhere).
Position: Metallurgical Engineer Vacation Student

During the Uni holidays Mitch, Felicity and myself were given the opportunity to work as a vacation students at Mt. Gordon copper mine. I am now at the end of my 2nd last swing here and looking back it has been an excellent experience and a great way to start a career in the resources sector.

I stated work on the 5th of December on a 9/5 roster, which means I work for 9days and then fly to Cairns for 5days holiday. For the first two swings I worked with the plant operators getting to know the ins and outs of copper processing.

The Mt. Gordon plant consists of a crusher which feeds onto a stockpile. From there the ore is fed into a Semi Autogenous Grinding (SAG) mill where is it is ground then sent on to the cyclones. The underflow from the cyclones is sent to the ball mill to achieve a finer grind and the overflow is sent down to the flotation plant. The flotation circuit consists of 4 rougher cells and 3 cleaner banks where the copper is floated and the rest is sent to tailings.

After acquiring some knowledge about the process used, I headed down to the lab where I began with preparing samples for analysis. After a few days of that I decided to find a job that would be slightly more exciting and involving (no offence to lab assistants). I teamed up with a Metallurgist named Daniel who was doing test work on Arsenic depression. For a few days I assisted him with his test work and after awhile was doing test work of my own. I have spent the rest of my time here playing with a mini float cell, discovering the effects of Ph, dispersants, depressants and reporting on my findings.

However to merely talk about the work would be leaving out a huge part of the experience. The camp that we stay in is located apox. 6Km from the mine. Myself and Mitch are staying in what are known as ‘dog boxes’. Basically they are tiny little rooms consisting of a bed, a desk, a fridge and whateva else you manage to fit in there. It sounds bad but realistically it’s all you need out here, although a bathroom would have been nice (damn you Felicity! :P)Between the gym, the pool and the bar I spent very little time in my room.

The people that I worked with also deserve a mention. Whereva I went and was willing to learn, someone was willing to teach me and towards the end people even began to ask for my opinion and treat me like one of the qualified Metallurgists. Most people seem to have the attitude that “These guys will be our bosses in a few years, we better treat them well”!

The bar is always packed after work for a drink or a pool party was the go, depending on what mood people were in. Fly out days are always the best, every1 is always excited about going home so the atmosphere is generally quite good. We have had a few pool parties lately, after I invested in a set of ipod speakers, apparently now I’m the ‘guy who hosts parties’. Not a bad reputation really! :P

Overall this has been an amazing experience and I recommend it to anyone looking to start a career in the resources sector and make some awsum friends at the same time!

Luke
(Pictures comming soon, the internet at the mine site won't let me upload them for some reason!)