Vacation Work

I've currently been doing my second year of vacation work for about three weeks now. I've been working for Sedgman, designing & optimising coal preparation & handling plants. It's been good because i can now acytally apply my university studies to an industry job. I will be working here until march, enjoying every moment of it.

Mitch.

Whats Been Happening

Haven't done a great deal since returning from Europe, been pretty quiet because I spent all my hard earned money! Managed to do the annual Gayndah trip in september. Apart from that have been pretty focused on Uni, exams in two weeks time! Hopefully will be getting vacation work at a metallurgical consulting firm. Update soon.

Peace out,

Mitch.

Oh yeh woops forgot, I moved out of home!

Europe Trip

I have just returned from a whirlwind trip of Europe, which I financed with the money I made from vacation work over last summer, totally worth it now. Me and two mates went to heaps of countries. We visited London, Paris, Bruge (Belgium), Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Interlaken (Switzerland), Venice, Florence, Rome & Dubai. The trip went for five weeks. I experienced lots of different cultures, and compared to Australia, these places are very old, and very interesting. The only reason I was able to go on this trip though was vacation work, so if you are into mining, and want to do something like this while you are young, get some money over summer, (because Europe is too cold to visit anyway!).

Mitchy.

2nd year engineering....

So we are now half way through the first semester of second year engineering, I have to say its better then first, because subjects are alot more specialized, but the workload has picked up a bit, I'm still there 5 days a week....the engineers curse, however i finish early or start late most days which is good because i value my sleepins, unlike last year where i started at 8 every day.... next weekend we have a fieldtrip to Gladstone to an aluminium refinery & smelter, and then i have heaps of exams and assignments....fun. Its ok because at the end of this semester i have a trip to Europe to look forward to.....yay!

update soon,

Mitch

Mt Gordon Vac Work: 5th & Final

Twas my last swing at Gunpowder, and it was quite an exciting one. The boys seemed to know it was my last 9 days, and hence I bought a lot of cartons that week. Throughout the week i was working on ore hardness testing, which ended up failing after 8 days of work, and needless to say I wasnt very happy. On my last night i had a big party with maybe 20 friends from Gunpowder, which ended close too 3 oclock in the morning, and we had to be at work by 6 :(.

Overall Gunpowder was a good first experience, I had fun, and I learnt a whole lot from the guys there about processes, and the mining industry in general. I now know what to expect when i graduate.

Mt Gordon Vac Work: Part 4

http://uqedu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87936&l=f54b4&id=742020110. A link to my Mt Gordon Photos.

For My 4th stint in Mt Gordon, i joined the ranks of the metallurgists and started work on a major project of identifying and mapping the water systems of the plant, this involved a few days of research and note taking around the plant and then a few days of finishing my design. I also moved up into the '5 star rooms' for the 9 days because one of my mates was on holidays and loaned me his room for it. After I finished i spent 5 good days in cairns at the beach and wandering the rainforest. Apart from that i only have 9 days left at Mt Gordon left, and then i can say goodbye to gunpowder for a while.

mitch

Mt Gordon Vacation Work Part 3

Again I ventured back to the Mt Gordon mine for another 9 days of fun....This time I did some test work in the lab, but after a few days, i was kinda bored of it...So i did some work for the OH&S department and audited safety systems around the plant. My audit on the safety showers & eye wash systems proved succesful, identifying major faults, and thus new procedures were put in place to make sure these systems were working in the case of an emergency. It made me feel like i was actually contributing to the minesite as a whole. In other aspects, i really looked forward to nightimes as almost every night we would have a verandah session with maybe 5 or 6 of us, and of course the cold beer. I have also uploaded some photos of the Mt Gordon mine, and the surrounding area around Gunpowder, they can be viewed here:

http://uqedu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87936&l=f54b4&id=742020110

Mitch.

Mt Gordon Vacation Work: PART TWO!

I adventured back to the outback after a pretty cool christmas (although i had to fly back up here on Christmas day). This time was different though, this time i was working night shift. I can't say it was bad, i rather enjoyed it actually. It wasnt so hot, the flys were gone, and managed to have some enjoyable times with some of the younger guys that work here. I only had to work 8 shifts this time, and spent most of my time in the flotation circuit. This 8 days culminated with a large barbecue on thursday morning, a bin full of beer, a pool made of an old polytank, and the worst sunburn i have ever had. Lets just say the flight home on thursday afternoon was a very sleepy ocassion.

Mitch.