Consulting Mine Engineer — Open Pit

Posted: 31 Jan 2012
Apply deadline: 30 Apr 2012
Location: CO-Denver,USA

Job Description:

Description

 Founded in 1921 and publicly traded since 1925, Newmont (www.newmont.com) is one of the largest gold companies in the world.  Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, the company has approximately 34,000 employees and contractors, with the majority working at Newmont's core operations in the United States, Australia, Peru, Indonesia and Ghana.  Newmont is the only gold company listed in the S&P 500 index and in 2007 became the first gold company selected to be part of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.  Newmont's industry leading performance is reflected through high standards in environmental management, health and safety for its employees and creating value and opportunity for host communities and shareholders. Purpose

• The Consulting Engineer - Open Pit will work in a quasi matrix structure directly reporting to the Manager Engineering, Denver. The Consulting Engineer - Open Pit has a broad scope which reports to a Project or Mining Director when assigned to a project and may manage and direct the activities of other professionals whether individuals, small teams or consultants. The breath of management required will tackle complex, diverse and conflicting operational design objectives. The Consulting Engineer - Open Pit will develop the standard of mine planning across Newmont operations.
• The Consulting Engineer - Open Pit is responsible to provide mining engineering and mine planning services to meet the business needs to fill the project pipeline and support existing operations at Newmont. The Consulting Engineer - Open Pit performs complex engineering duties on major projects with significant business impact to Newmont. The Consulting Engineer - Open Pit brings a wide range of expertise, a breadth of experience, and demonstrated judgment to mining engineering at Newmont operations and projects.

Essential Duties

• Develop and complete Mine Engineering for stages; Target ID, Order Of Magnitude and Stages 1 to 4 studies of mining projects. These studies involve development of novel approaches in situations where there are conflicting design requirements, difficulties in scheduling, problematic interactions or challenges of coordination resulting in complex consequential effects on projects or operations.  
• The magnitude of the Consulting Engineer's decisions in the early stages of projects is greater than $100 million. The Consulting Engineer is accountable to capture the maximum value from each project.  The Consulting Engineer-Open Pit provides the strategic guidance for projects through determining the long term impact in the early stages. 
• Project manage Order of Magnitude and Stage 1 to 4 studies involving a range of disciplines of internal experts and external consultants in pursuit of concepts, designs or plans that reflect optimal project outcomes. Includes applying resources to projects and scheduling work to meet deadlines and budget constraints.
• Working on M&A and early stage gate work, requires the Consulting Engineer-Open Pit to utilize a seasoned background of experience to rely both on a first principles cost benefit analysis and the practical approach when solving interpretative "once off" situations. A key difference between Operating site based mine engineering and M&A/Early Stage Gate Mine Engineering, is that on operating sites, a "small step" improvement process can be utilized, where as in M&A and Early Stage engineering, the improvements must be born or justified on first principle build up and comparative analysis. Significantly higher risk is absorbed by the Mine Engineer working in M&A and Early Stage engineering.  
• The Consulting Engineer-Open Pit needs to draw from a seasoned and practical background that truly understands the discipline from first principles and practical applications to ensure that decisions made, with little to no data and without the ability to test using small step improvement processes, are correct.  
• Analyze information from operations and perform investigations in order to report on and recommend changes to design or operational practice, in pursuit of improvements to business. Assessing the applicability of such changes to other Newmont sites. All this being done in cooperation with other appropriate disciplines including Continuous Improvement, site senior, middle and lower management levels. 
• Application of seasoned mining engineering skills to situations of design or operational complexity. This includes the selection, implementation and modification of software; recommendation of, and input to, decisions regarding new technology; and contribution to relevant research and development. 
• Provide mining engineering skills to Project Evaluation and Due Diligence Teams.  Analyze information, investigate discrepancies and make recommendations to assist in decisions regarding potential mergers and acquisitions for Newmont. This position is responsible to review the existing operation within an M&A target and recommend the operational changes necessary for improved economics. Impacts of these recommendations will exceed $100million dollars. 
• Produce documented Life of Mine Plans and short/medium/long term schedules for mining operations, including material movements, equipment requirements, manning levels plus capital and operating costs. 
• Prepare resource and reserve statements for reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Typically, the Chief Engineer at operating sites would be responsible for this task. The task requires a high level of Mine Engineering experience and ability. 
• Provide high level strategic mine planning support to operations to meet business needs. 
• Provide a development and mentoring role to mining engineers based at operations. 
• Ensure that Stage Gate Studies meet the requirements of each Gate and are accurate assessments of what is realistic and achievable. This requires a quick (days) review, resulting in decisions based on seasoned experience, broad understanding of interdisciplinary impacts and using base logic that is adaptive to the deposit, location and situation at hand. 
• Ensure mine planning and economic evaluation of surface mining at Newmont Mining Corporation maximizes the value of the business. 
• Ensure that when approaching each project, however different from the others, that an adaptive approach is taken to properly define the problem and determine appropriate solutions. 
• Critical work values include flexibility and adaptability, collaboration with others and the ability to plan and deliver work results with quality, accuracy, punctuality and reliability. 
• Demonstrate awareness of and commitment to health, community and environmental protection recognizing and taking actions when unsafe practices or non-compliant  behaviors were occurring.

 Working Conditions

• The Consulting Engineer-Open Pit based at the Palazzo Verdi Office in Denver, Colorado.  Performance of the work requires travel (30-50% of work time) to domestic and international operations. Travel can be at a moments notice to overseas or domestic locations, including Newmont and Non-Newmont locations and Greenfield areas.

 

Qualifications

 

• Tertiary Qualification in Mine Engineering, advanced degree in Mine Engineering a plus.
• Minimum of 10 years experience in surface mining, underground mining experience a plus.
• Experience in operations as a Chief Mining Engineer desirable.
• Previous overseas work experience desirable.
• Extensive mine planning experience in a range of mining applications.
• Knowledge of exploration methods and resource estimation.
• Experience in differing ore deposits for gold and multi-element base metals.
• Site experience with oxide and refractory ores, with associated autoclave, roaster, or sulphide flotation plants.
• Site experience with oxide Au leaching and Cu/Au ore bodies.
• Site mine planning experience in multi mine, multi process situations.
• First hand experience dealing with Acid and impacted water management in jungle, mountainous environments.
• Seasoned knowledge of: mine methods, mine design, production scheduling, equipment selection, reserve estimation, maintenance development and expert systems.
• High level of experience in project evaluation at all stages from Target ID to Stage 4.
• High level of competence in the use of mine planning software, including optimal techniques and cash flow analysis.
• Well networked into industry specialists and consultants.
• Familiarity with business systems and standard office application software.
• Ability to build and maintain strong communications network with peers, Project Managers, Mine Managers, Chief Engineers, and JV partner representatives.
• Strong problem solving and 3D visualization skills.
• Strong technical writing, group presentation, and interpersonal skills including cultural sensitivity.
• Bilingual skills, or English as a second language a plus.

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