Back to Work

**BMKal** · 12th September 2010, 11:49 AM

Originally Posted by LandyAndy

Good luck with that Brian
Whats your job title????
Andrew

Thanks Andrew.
Initially Processing / Crushing Superintendent, but I think they might have some other things lined up for me in the longer term. I have been asked to study and sit for my Restricted Quarry Manager's ticket, and to take a bit of interest in the mining methods they will be using. The mining is all done using Surface Miners, and not using conventional drill & blast, excavators etc. Using this method, the front end of the crushing plant can be smaller, as the Surface Miners break everything down to about minus 200. Ore is delivered to the crusher from the Surface Miners using 777D Cats, but not tipped directly into the crusher. We feed the crusher from stockpiles using 992 loaders (new ones I think). The crushed ore is loaded to roadtrains and hauled to FMG's Christmas Creek operations, where it is loaded onto their trains and railed to the new port operations in Hedland for shipping. We start up at 3 million tonnes per year, and upgrade that to 5 million tonnes per year once the plant has been running successfully for a while.

As it turns out, the crushing plant is one that I did some of the original conceptual design work and computer simulation on in my last job - so at least I'm familiar with all the gear there, and I know the people who are building it and will continue to provide some maintenance services once it is up and running.

Originally Posted by PAT303

Yeh,looks like we are going to Newman too.I like Kalgoorlie and have made some good friends but the package thats been dangled in front of us is to good to knock back. Pat

Will keep an eye out Pat. There's not too many LR's in Newman, though the numbers are starting to grow.

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

Good luck with it

9-5 on a mine???

9-5 is fairly common on iron ore sites Pedro. When I first started in iron ore, 6:1 (weeks) was the norm, with some sites still on 10:1. Then rosters moved to 4:1 (weeks), and eventually 2:1. A lot of the BHP & Rio sites have been on 9:5 (days) for at least 3 or 4 years now, and the new ones really have to match the conditions offered by the major players, or they will never attract and retain a good workforce. It is very hard to find workers for jobs up there these days, as there is so much going on and so much competition for any available workforce. The new operators, particularly the "juniors", also tend to pay better than the established players, again to attract the people they need to get things off the ground. But with most of the new ones, you tend to be in a bit more isolated locations, as the established players usually have towns at or close to their mining locations by now, or at least very large and well appointed established camps, whereas the new sites have smaller camps still under development.

At the moment, I can't get to site as they are still building the roads in and setting up the camp, and every available bed up there is required for construction personnel. But we should be on site next month - they want me up there during the construction and commissioning of the crushing plant.

**cartm58** · 12th September 2010, 12:01 PM

Crushing Services International building 460 tonne crushing plant for FMG at Cloud Break and Christmas Creek mines and will then operate the crushers under contract after completion.

Process Minerals INternational PMI, looking for Supervisors and Alternate Mine Managers for tier mines both iron ore and manganese and are opening new mine at Mt Marion and Carina near Kalgoorlie if you get tired of the FIFO life

let me know if your interested will give you the HR Recruitment manager contact details

**BMKal** · 12th September 2010, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by cartm58

Crushing Services International building 460 tonne crushing plant for FMG at Cloud Break and Christmas Creek mines and will then operate the crushers under contract after completion.

Process Minerals INternational PMI, looking for Supervisors and Alternate Mine Managers for tier mines both iron ore and manganese and are opening new mine at Mt Marion and Carina near Kalgoorlie if you get tired of the FIFO life

let me know if your interested will give you the HR Recruitment manager contact details

Thanks for that. I've known one of the Op's managers (Mick) at CSI for a while, and one of their Project Managers is also a mate of mine - used to work for me at Yandi & St Ives. We had CSI crushing plant at St Ives for a while a few years ago while ours (HWE) was being upgraded, so had a bit of dealing with them from those days. Mt Marion is not far from my old stomping ground as well - was at Jubilee for a few years back when it was PosGold. Might be an option to look at down the track a bit. At the moment, keen to get involved with this one though - it's a relatively new company in the mining scene in WA, though they're big in construction etc in Queensland - and I've always enjoyed getting in on the ground floor in a new company. Never know what the possibilities might be.

But geeeeez .............. working for bloody Queenslanders.

Now that might be a worry.

Company I was working for last year designed and built a scalping screening plant for Cloudbreak - it was used to process feed from Surface Miners. I was involved in that at the Perth end, but never got to site. Not sure what they are doing with it now - there was talk of putting a primary crusher in front of it, as their mining method was moving back towards conventional drill & blast in some areas, and the plant that we built definitely could not handle big boondies. There was also a Downer plant right next to the one that we built. FMG took over the running of that and I did a lot of simulation work on Bruno to see how it could be modified to meet their needs. They have a lot of strange gear up there from photos I've seen.

**PAT303** · 12th September 2010, 06:58 PM

Originally Posted by CraigE

So it is a done deal Pat??
Did you mention your wife is in HR?? As a fellow LR Driver that should mean max pay rises for fellow LR Drivers, yes??
Have you been up for a look yet?

Yeh mate,99% there.Tracey's in HR so I'd be more worried about getting chatted too

,we'll have allot of desert to explore. Pat

**PAT303** · 12th September 2010, 07:03 PM

Brain,BHP are giving us a new house and one of the reasons we were approached was we have a family and BHP are trying to move away from FIFO as you know they cause friction with the locals.All up I'm looking forward to the move,the only negative is that shooting sports aren't big their,Kalgoorlie is good and from what I hear so is Port Hedland but thats a bit of a drive. Pat

**BMKal** · 12th September 2010, 09:31 PM

Originally Posted by PAT303

Brain,BHP are giving us a new house and one of the reasons we were approached was we have a family and BHP are trying to move away from FIFO as you know they cause friction with the locals.All up I'm looking forward to the move,the only negative is that shooting sports aren't big their,Kalgoorlie is good and from what I hear so is Port Hedland but thats a bit of a drive. Pat

I'm sure you'll find a few people around there who are interested in shooting Pat. To make up for that small downside - there's plenty of great scenery around that way - some good water holes etc to take the kids out camping and swimming. When you get a bit of time, drive about 150km up the highway and take the left turn to Tom Price - you'll be in Karijini National Park pretty much as soon as you get off the main highway - and there's plenty of places to go once you're in there. Also, if you go a bit further up the highway, drop down through Munjina Gorge and turn left at Auski - that road will take you to Wittenoom (brilliant scenery and camping up the gorge with fresh flowing water year round), and you can also go further to Rio Tinto Gorge and into Tom Price the back way, or you've got Millstream a bit further up.

If you turn right at Auski, you cut across on the Roy Hill road to the Newman - Nullagine / Marble Bar road.

You could travel around that area for years and still not see it all.

**Bigbjorn** · 13th September 2010, 03:55 PM

One of my rellies is up there somewhere driving road train water tankers for a contractor. He delivers potable water to camps, and construction water to work sites. He says sometimes there is a lead of up to 200 k's. He is getting paid an extraordinary amount of money for this. When he started there in Jan. 2007, he told me the rate was $68 per hour. His first six months he grossed $93,000. He is 63 and would prefer easier work in better conditions but this is his last chance to make some retirement funds. His savings were virtually wiped out with medical expenses for his late wife. First lung cancer and a lung removed, some time later a brain tumour, then cancers found in liver, kidneys, and bowel.

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