Garang Bulkoch

What's your job about?

AngloGold Ashanti is a global gold producer with mines in four different continents and is the 3rd largest gold producer by production. AngloGold Ashanti has two gold mines in Australia, Tropicana and Sunrise Dam. I’m an underground mining engineer at Tropicana, which recently cut a portal for Boston Shaker in 2019. It’s been a fascinating experience watching the mine grow significantly over the last couple of years, as it’s rare to see a new underground mine develop from the beginning.

I’m currently responsible for the ventilation underground and one of my main responsibilities is ensuring that contaminates, dust and heat are removed from the active headings to provide people with a safe working environment. This involves going underground to conduct inspections and vent readings to ensure the secondary ventilation is adequate.

Working as a mining engineer on a FIFO site is a fun, rewarding and challenging job. There are different roles within the team and department that you can experience such as ventilation, production and planning. The job also involves a balance between working in an office as well as getting to go underground to gain an overall experience as an engineer.

What's your background?

I grew up in Melbourne which is where I began my studies and then decided to move to WA in 2017 to continue at WASM. This involved relocating to Kalgoorlie for a couple of years which was an incredible experience that I highly recommend. Living in a remote mining time is a unique experience and you’ll get to meet a lot of great people in the industry.

I then joined AngloGold Ashanti Australia as a graduate and completed a two-year graduate program. The graduate program at AngloGold Ashanti is highly structured and involved different rotations on-site as well as formal training sessions in Perth. During this program, I was able to complete all my underground time which taught me lessons and skills that I will continue to use over my career.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

The coolest thing about my job is when you’re the drill and blast engineer you’re responsible for finding the most optimal way to blow things up! As you can imagine this can be a challenging but rewarding job.

Another cool thing about my job is the FIFO lifestyle, I have a great work/ life balance where I am on-site for eight days and then get six days off for R&R.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

1. Ask as many questions as you can while you’re a vacation student because it’ll only help you learn and make the most of the short period of time that you’re there.
2. On industry night/networking events, don’t be shy. Meet as many people as you can, ask as many questions as you can and remember they were once in your position. You will have the best insight into the industry through the experience of those that started in your position and are now well into their mining careers.
3. Enjoy your time at uni, gain the knowledge but most importantly have fun. This is just the beginning of a rewarding career.