I had the privilege of accumulating over 150 hours of hands-on experience working closely with the UIS drillers, the Geo team, and various crews who generously offered to guide me and provide insights into their roles.
Within a year of working here I have gone from a placement student to undergraduate to graduate and the whole time I have been exposed to many diverse tasks, operations, people, and responsibilities.
My main project over the course of my vacation program included creating a commercial induction for the departments onsite, as well as helping with the changeover of accounts payable (AP) systems.
Being an inexperienced miner, my mentors while underground always ensured I felt safe, explained the tasks they were completing, and answered any questions I had about the operational side of things.
As a mining engineering vacation student, I mostly worked in the Tech Services team, in which I got to experience a range of engineering roles and disciplines such as mine ventilation, gas drainage and mine planning.
I completed this placement in conjunction with my thesis where I learnt all about condition monitoring and vibration analysis. The result of my project has the potential to be applied across each of the mine sites.
Every day I feel satisfied that I am contributing to bringing about a positive change for the world within the clean energy space and within the impactful mining industry.
I was given a lot of autonomy to select and apply appropriate materials, components and devices for the redesigned system, which would increase reliability and ultimately promote plant uptime.