An interesting week it has been, meeting my direct boss for the first time and getting a handover from her is where the story begins. As to be honest the journey back to the desert was rather uneventful and you sit there for 4 + hours wondering why I’m doing this. So back to the handover, and where the work begins, my boss was great, not having any expectations for me and leaving it at; “do what you can and anything you do manage to achieve is a bonus” as she walked out of the door to go catch her flight back to Perth. Which is where I sit now, writing this blog with the smell of grotty plane food around me, listening to the dolce tones of Jake Morrell. Which in turn are being drowned out by the noise of the Pratt and Whitney Engine happily spinning the propeller to my left as the sun is setting of the deep red sands of the desert of Western Australia.
So now I’m sat there in my office thinking,”wtf mate, this is it; you’re on your own now, where to start!” Blankly I stare at the weekly schedule trying to form a plan for a knock on the open door for the Mine Manager to come in a request my attendance in a meeting for a review of the stope failure that took place on my last swing. “Great I’m thinking, there is a start, but not the start I was expecting or wanting, but it is a start.” I sit there with various people while the HLSP (Health and Safety, I don’t know what if fully stands for, oops!) dude reads his way through the report and we discuss a few questions from that, and off I’m sent to see how the hiring of a C-ALS device is going and where we are going to drill our holes. A “C-ALS” it’s basically a down hole laser scanner that fires 1000’s of points at the stope wall and then you can view it as a 3D model.
Now being off and going for the week, people coming into my office, asking routine questions and me trying to give routine answers, like “I’ll look into it, or go see that person.” Very rarely I’ll be able to answer their question. And yes it did happen.
Thursday came about far too quickly, having had an awful night’s sleep, not being able to switch off and my mind still racing faster than Sebastian Vettel, I got up and tried to prepare myself for the day ahead wanting to tick some tasks of the list. I set about for filling one of my only aims from my boss was to get down the hole and underground as much as I could. For 2 reasons really, to get some experience in what I’m actually looking at and to build relationships with the operators which is key as they are normally your best sources of information. This in my opinion so far, has easily been the most fun; everyone is really helpful and willing to share information with you, to help you learn so you can help them. Especially when they find out that you’re a graduate not the experienced engineer they were told you are. So in spending time underground, that meant you have reports to fill in and conversations to act on when you get back in the office, which took ages as I was struggling to find the relevant procedures and documents that had followed and filled in.
Just as the day was ending the brute of a production foreman came in (actually a really nice guy, just talking about his size, and there is another story there but that’s for later) and said we had a pillar failure on the edge of a stope and could I go and check it out. INSERT NECLEAR BOMB to my tired little brain. He wanted to know if I could assess the area to see if his charge crew could load and fire some pillars underneath it! Quite rightly I’m thinking crap in many languages, in bold and capital letters. But the Brute, said don’t worry about it now, nothing is happening tonight, I’ll take you down in the morning as I couldn’t drive on my own and we can have a look at it then. Last week’s drama kicked in and I called for some help from the head office guys to see what I should do, and air my concerns as night shift could be going in there as who knows what they want to do. Head office allied my concerns and said I was thinking the right things and get the area barricaded off till I could assess it, which I did just before jumping on the bus to go home and have a beer and get to bed.
Back in my room that evening feeling exhausted from driving all day underground, let alone the hot, sweaty and some stressful bits in between the relative comfort of sitting in the air-conditioned Ute. I lay there thinking again; “wtf mate, why are you here going through this, your well out of your depth here, and the sharks are circling.” Finally I fell asleep to be rudely awoken by my alarm clock telling me it was that time again, and bleary eyed I rose again to start another day in paradise feeling like kak and rather overwhelmed.
Off underground we head with the Brute, the Papua New Guinean Senior Mining Engineer (who is also a top oke and my supervisor for the week) and a chick from HLSP to inspect this pillar. Nervously I cast my eyes around with the cavern of the stope not far in front of me and I start to assess the situation in my head. I stood there and stuck my head above the parapet expecting a sniper (Brute) to shoot me down like the Australian in Beneath Hill 60 (good film) and said; well that pillar is not safe, we need can’t charge that ring (line of explosives) safely, we need to make a plan, to which my supervisor agreed. Not knowing Brute to well and expecting his question I apprehensively stood there waiting for him to disagree with me, but surprisingly to me, he was in agreement! The 4 of us started throwing ideas around as to the options to get the gold laden “dirt” out of the ground safely. With no obviously solution but plenty of questions from me (not Brute) we headed on to several other places underground with only 1 possible plan at that stage.
Back on surface that arvo (afternoon) and with CALS progress and this pillar amongst the daily tasks the afternoon pasted rapidly and I almost missed the bus home only for one of the lovely girls in drill and blast who also almost did the same thing, dragged me out of the office, with me running to the photo copier so I could prepare my Newmont Core Value Topic for the following morning (Eek, I was thinking). Exhausted after 2 dreadful night’s sleep, and the long days, I stumbled back to my donga (hut) with my bottle of James Boags and promptly set about thinking what can my Core Value Topic be? Having found something, not sure if it was any good, I gave up and showered just before I shot-gunned my beer and passed out with not too much time to think why I was there or my uselessness.
Saturday morning at our daily pass meeting came my first surprise that I was at least doing something right. My Supervisor awarded me a scratch card for my efforts towards safety and trying to get a plan together for firing the rings under the pillar the previous day. Unfortunately I didn’t win anything, but my scratchy is in the second chance draw so another go at potentially winning $500, but more importantly was the feeling that I was achieving something and the effort was being noticed. My core value topic went down very well too, on the subject of how many other of our Core Values can be completed by doing this one 5 minute task of undertaking a SafeDRILL (watching your colleagues at work, and give them polite feedback on the good and bad things they are doing, basically anyway.)
Of I went after the meeting with one of the Mine Geo’s underground, chauffeuring him around his different rig sites and exploring the mine while stopping in on a couple of places I needed to visit too with the aim of the day getting as much underground driving experience as possible.
Meeting and scheduling day was upon us (Sunday), and with still not having much clue as to what I was actually supposed to be doing day to day, I had practically nothing to schedule (oops) but my superintendent didn’t mind and she suggested I try and go with one of the shift boss’s for the day and learn off him underground instead. This chance I jumped at, but wasn’t without any issue, vehicle availability was an issue and would stop me from going with him as he would be sharing a vehicle with someone else. A plan was hatched, our Tech Services Ute was in the LV yard having just been serviced, so if we could get that we would be good to go as no one else was going underground. So off we went, an hour late, having faffed around trying to get the Ute from the other side of the mine, with him showing some of the areas underground he was concerned with. Another massive learning day it was, and a feeling of accomplishment was achieved especially as I now had my 40 hours of supervised LV driving. But still also knowing things had to be done and it was the end of Sunday. The warning in the back of my head having been told, whatever you haven’t achieved by Sunday, you won’t get it done before handover. Monday was going to be hectic, as the Perth guys would be back online for the week to answer the questions that the guys on site couldn’t answer and I had neglected asking the guys who were meant to be enjoying their break.
Monday was indeed a hectic or more chaotic day trying to get the loose ends tied up and questions answered. The day flew by with not a lot feeling like it was achieved and me almost forgetting to leave the office only for my superintendent to chase me out of the office, having forgotten to keep an eye on the time again. Which I might add was rather lucky as she had only come to see me to give me another scratchy for some awesome safe check’s and setting the standard for the team, another blank cash wish but another good feeling (and not missing the bus).
Tuesday was another hectic lost feeling morning but slowly getting stuff done in the office, and a lightening trip underground to assess one of the Geo’s future diamond drill rig sites as a matter of urgency. The only problem being that it was at the bottom and I mean the bottom of the mine and both the geo and I had handovers to write. Back in the office, the training supervisor came in who I spoke to on Monday morning and said he could fit in my LV assessment. So I dropped everything and thought, well let’s tick this off too. So an uneventful and question packed 2 hour assessment later, he reckoned I was competent and would sign me off as long as one of the other people I had driven with underground would also put their name to paper and say I was competent, so for a beer and less hassling I found a willing volunteer. I am now scarily the proud owner of my underground LV ticket.
The chaos of handover was here, fortunately in the Tuesday sunset meeting, my opposite wasn’t yet in which gave me another few hours to write my notes the next morning. On Wednesday morning in the chaos of writing my notes, and answering question, while on the phone to my project manager from Coffey, my Maori opposite arrived, who had been on annual leave at the world cup enter. A really likeable and funny guy, we had a lot to try and sort out. Giving him as much information as possible so he could get back into the swing and continue the fun and games I was dealing with we talked and planned for the following 4 hours to give him a chance of getting back into it after the disasters I had caused. With a touch of luck, he will be fine…or so everyone says!
After that essay, if you’re not already bored, you will see I have survived, and am on a plane carrying a lot of gold across the desert in total darkness and nothing to be seen out of the window. Im off to enjoy my break and hopefully play some sport…
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