By Luke McGarry. During the early stages of my career working as an underground operator and supervisor, I was fortunate to work for a mining contractor whom valued quality shift planning and recognised this as a key capability that underpinned a profitable contracting business. Working for an organisation that valued...
Benchmarks ain’t benchmarks
By Andrew Wells. For those of us old enough, you may recall that according to Sol “oils aint oils”. Well for me benchmarks ain’t benchmarks. The simplicity and one size fits all approach often used for benchmarking first hit me when as a young GM I had feedback about a planned...
Life as a FIFO: Looking After Our Mental Health
By Gustavo Picorelli. As the world of mining grows and lifestyles change, more and more people working in the industry are doing FIFO work and leaving their homes and families on a regular basis. As someone who has been doing this throughout my career – and almost every week for the...
Integrity – Do all mine plans have it?
By Tracey Rock. As an Engineer, I am drawn to tools that make my work easier and result in a better outcome. In my 27 years in the industry, mine planning software has developed as a tool that makes it easier to evaluate multiple, often 10’s and 100’s of mine...
Mentoring the Titans
By Robin Arman. In Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’ in ancient Greece, Mentor was a trusted friend and adviser of the king of Ithaca, Odysseus. An aged Mentor was tasked to raise and teach Odysseus’ young son Telemachus, and protect Odysseus’ palace and wife Penelope, while Odysseus was leading his army in...
For Want of a Nail
The story goes that it was late in August, 1485, as the summer heat was starting to soften, when one of the king’s grooms lead the monarch’s own favourite steed to the royal blacksmith. “Shoe him quickly, for the king needs to ride him to battle this very day,” said...
Man vs System
“In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first.” So wrote Frederick Winslow Taylor, often called the father of management consulting, in the introduction to his 1911 seminal classic “The Principles Of Scientific Management”. Taylor, born into a wealthy Quaker family, whose ancestor...
When It’s February And You’re Already Behind Plan
Are you in this spot? Before you are even get a couple of months into a new budget year you’re already behind. People just back from leave, a bunch of new starters to on-board, action list growing and day to day demands not affording you the time. When you reach...
Drilling Deeper
Aristotle, one of the fathers of geology, student of Plato, and tutor of Alexander The Great, once wrote – “Excellence is not an act, but a habit.” So, too, is the key to getting the most out of your geos – developing the right management habits. Although It might seem...
Don’t Find Yourself Precisely Wrong
When the Challenger space shuttle exploded off the coast of Florida on January 28, 1986, Wayne Hale was head of the Propulsion Systems Section, Systems Division, Mission Operations, NASA. If you think you’ve experienced systems failure in your job, imagine if the entire event was being televised live around the...