What's your job about?
I am a Graduate Mechanical Engineer at Tropicana Gold Mine, which has been in operation since 2013. My position is within the Maintenance and Engineering team, which focuses on processing plant maintenance, improvement projects, reliability, and shutdowns.
My role is to manage plant improvement projects from pre-feasibility, budgeting, design, and procurement to execution, often within shutdowns and planned outages to negate production impacts. These projects are often varied due to the dry, wet, and elution circuits in gold processing, which allows for an overall better understanding of the process and where it can be improved. The improvements are to increase the maintainability, safety, and reliability of the plant for processing and maintenance teams. With the safety of the maintenance and processing teams at the forefront.
The reliability/ maintenance engineering team conduct root cause analysis (RCA) on failed components in the process plant and works with OEM to complete trials of improved products that are more reliable or cost-effective to maintain. This also includes condition monitoring of critical assets that are typically subject to wear and therefore a requirement to closely monitor condition.
What's your background?
I grew up in a small country town in the Central Wheatbelt, I attended the local primary school and attended numerous sporting activities each week in the surrounding communities. Growing up on a farm gave me a great insight into mechanical and maintenance tasks on machinery and farm equipment, which has then stemmed into mechanical engineering. Upon completion of my primary school journey, I moved to Perth and attended boarding school. I was fortunate to complete work experience at two different engineering companies in the construction industry during high school which solidified my intent to study engineering in the future.
I studied at Curtin University and commenced work at an engineering company in Perth that specialised in robotic welding and cladding. I stayed for two-and-a-half years, the second half in a production supervisory role while also handling planned maintenance for the equipment in the factory. I then applied for a vacation role at AngloGold Ashanti and commenced at Tropicana in November 2021. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and was fortunate to be able to continue part-time during my final year of university, applying my knowledge gained from university in a practical sense in the workplace. In February 2023, I commenced my current role as a Graduate: Mechanical Engineer and have completed numerous projects in the maintenance engineering team since including a secondary screen sump pump upgrade, CIL tank launder gates, wet screen platform replacement, acid wash piping and valve upgrades and Mill 1 magnet hoist upgrade. These projects have been incredibly satisfying in my development as an engineer being able to see a concept turn into a reality.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Yes, in most cases everyone has the same knowledge obtained from university, so I encourage those still studying to engage in vacation work as a student engineer in multiple industries to gain a deeper understanding of engineering or their relevant field. Having a background in technical fields and a high level of attention to detail will also greatly contribute to understanding how projects can be achieved.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The coolest thing about being an engineer is being able to see large-scale projects come to fruition. Due to the scale of the operations at Tropicana, these projects are varied significantly which gives lots of exposure to people in the early stages of their career. Being able to build relationships within your team and other teams within the organisation is also very satisfying as well as being able to work within a team that everyone can thrive in.
What are the limitations of your job?
Being an engineer, you do bear some responsibility, often supervising contractors and teams that come to the site to complete your projects. It is very rewarding to see something that you designed and planned come to fruition. The FIFO lifestyle is not for everyone; however, our team works a 4-day on 3-day off roster which allows us to spend time with family and friends on the weekends. However, except for shutdowns and larger projects, a typical 8/6 roster is often required.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...