What's your job about?
AngloGold Ashanti is a global mining company that focuses on gold exploration, mining and production. I work for AngloGold Australia as an Exploration Geologist in Laverton, Western Australia. My job is all about finding and interpreting economic gold deposition at the Sunrise Dam gold mine, a historic world-class deposit! As an exploration geo, I am required to work with many different departments on various projects that aid our collective goal of producing ounces.
An average day for me may include anything from logging the diamond drill core to creating drilling programmes, auditing our underground drill rigs, or managing assay data. This work allows me to be in the field and the office. All these jobs help us to obtain quality geological data, interpreting this data allows us to successfully find more gold and the cycle continues! Interpretation looks like using geological skills to investigate what pathways the gold is depositing through and where this is feeding from. A current project I am working on includes using historic data to best interpret and group trends in gold mineralisation using 3D visualisation software. Doing this allows us to mine with purpose and focus on areas with the grade.
What's your background?
I grew up in the Perth hills on a subdivided mandarin orchard, with lots of siblings, pets, and noise. I took a gap year after finishing high school and travelled around Europe for a bit. London stole my heart and later, I would return to study Geology for a semester.
I settled on earth sciences after having a conversation with a family friend who is a Geo-chemist. They told me stories of a fruitful and varied career in academia, and I was sold. I started my degree and loved the content. At that time, I had no connection to or understanding of mining at all, it was only after my second year in university that I would experience a mining environment through my first vacation programme.
In mining, vacation student programmes are paid internships for students. By the end of my studies, I had done programmes in open pits and underground mining and realised I was more interested in the underground environment. Knowing this, I applied for the graduate programme with AngloGold Ashanti and started work as a graduate underground mine geologist, moving to exploration in my second year.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Yes! Anyone can be geo, especially so if they like problem-solving, working outdoors (or underground!) and rocks!
Since starting my career, I have worked with all types of people, it is this exact diversity that promotes resilience, creativity and heightened performance which make for a strong and successful team.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
My job is unbelievably cool. I get to work hundreds of metres underground within host rocks that are 2.67 million years old! I get to see the result of mineralisation processes that formed gold with my own eyes.
What are the limitations of your job?
The time spent away from family and friends. Missing the little spontaneous moments and the big events too. Be prepared to miss birthdays here and there, Christmas celebrations, etc. However, the upside of FIFO is days off and annual leave is plentiful to make up for the lost time.
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