The End is Near...

So it's been a while since I've blogged, and there have been quite a few developments this year.

Firstly I learnt something when applying for jobs; if you don't succeed try again. The job I wanted for next year was at Olympic Dam; which is a Copper/Uranium/Gold/Silver mine north of Adelaide, which essentially houses everything a metallurgist could ever dream of. I applied through the normal channels, but didn't hear back for several months. I began to worry about job prospects, as I was due to travel overseas in June for a Europe trip, which was essentially the peak time for job interviews. I ended up emailing Olympic Dam my resume & a letter of application personally, and the next day, I had a phone interview! After that I had my full interview, which is usually face to face, on the phone whilst relaxing in the Spanish countryside.

Within a couple of days after returning to Brisbane, I flew to Olympic Dam for a site visit, and I was offered a contract! The moral of the story here is; do not hesitate to take things to a personal level. Just because companies have their normal procedures for hiring, it may not hurt to send things personally to a contact.

In other news, there is about 5 weeks left of uni, and we are tidying up our final design projects for the year. By the end of this semester, we would have essentially designed an entire Alumina refinery....without getting paid!

Holidays & 4th year uni.

The 4th & final year of uni started today, and as ever it was good to be back. The holidays was a bit of a disappointment, as I had to cancel my vacation work due to injury, and therefore had 14 weeks of holidays. It was good, for a bit, but when you're friends are all away on vacation work, it gets a bit tedious. Nonetheless I am looking forward to a good final year at uni. Many events are happening this year, to name a few;

• QRC is kindly sending me over to the new leaders conference in Kalgoorlie!
• I'm turning 21.
• Hopefully a metallurgy field trip to Chile & Brazil (depending on the extent of the earthquake damage).
• AND most importantly of all, a graduate job at some stage of the year.

Over the next few weeks & months I will be applying for jobs left, right & central....should be fun!

Mitch.

Coming This Summer.....

So it's vacation work season once again, and everyone at uni is in the process of signing vacation work contracts. For some people, it's their first taste of industry, but for vacation work veterans, like Sophia, Luke & myself, it is our third time going out for Summer work. I received offers from both BMA & Vale for their Central Queensland coal sites, but decided to go with Vale, because it goes for the whole 12 week period, and they have already given me 4 major projects to work on over the course of the period.

It has been two years since I have been out on site in Mt. Isa (refer to my earlier blogs), having worked in a design office in Brisbane last year. After working in the office last year, I have decided that site work is much better at my age, and it's way more fun being out in a small town, or in my case, a camp. I'll be sure to post updates throughout the summer on how the vacation work is going.

Mitch.

Recent Activities

The past few weeks have been some of the busiest of my life, with every university subject deciding to have several assignments due on the same day....but apart from that, I've been trying to make the most of free time to relax, as this is probably the busiest semester ever....

Recently, we had our annual QRC scholarship day, which as usual was very informative. Michael Roche, CEO of the QRC, gave a very informative speech about the future of the minerals & petroleum industry in Queensland. I had no idea some of the stuff he was talking about even existed, and after seeing the amount of development about to happen around Queensland, there's hardly any reason to worry about job security!

We also had very informative talks from the likes of companies such as Golding, BMA, Rio Tinto & Santos.

Anyway, i've got a plane to catch to New Zealand..........

New Leaders Conference

Last week I attended the Ausimm (Australian Insititute of mining & metallurgy) New Leaders conference. This conference presents information about opportunities in the resources industry, as well as technical papers related to certain fields. For example, this year there were presentations about climate change, mine design & specific types of jobs within the industry. The conference is a good opportunity to learn about new developments, as well as hear interesting debates (especially in regards to the climate change issue). This is the second time I have attended the conference, and as always it has benefitted me. The first day of the conference culminated with a welcome function hosted by Thiess on the Island party boat, whilst for the second night, I had too much study to do to attend those activities.

The 'R' Word

We've all heard it, The 'R' word......Recession. What does this word mean to us as resource engineers? For starters it means lower commodity prices, which means some mines which were profitable when commodity prices were good, can now now longer be sustained. For example, the mine site at which i did my first vacation work, Mt Gordon, has been significantly downsized. Because of this unsustainability, people tend to lose their jobs. Mostly the jobs that have been lost have been contractor jobs. Engineering jobs however, have tended to be quite safe, and as an engineer myself, it makes me feel a whole lot better to know that there is still a job out there somewhere for me.

3rd Year Engineering & Stuff

3rd year engineering is definetly a challenge. This is where the real subjects start to happen. I'm currently doing 6 subjects, but still manage to get almost 2 days off per week. Just finished the first part of the semester, and am on midsemester break at the moment, which I'm very grateful.

In general news, I moved into a house with my girlfriend & some other friends, and am currently planning a trip to New Zealand. All this again, would not have been possible without vacation work over the previous summer at Sedgman. We are also tryng to put together a metallurgy team for the mining games in a couple of weeks.