Student Journal - Melbourne Student Chapter - Civil Engineering Students Vacation Work
Bio
I’m a final-year Civil Engineering student pursuing a minor in Mining Engineering, and I currently serve as the Treasurer for the AusIMM Melbourne Student Chapter. I’m passionate about the mining industry, particularly the geotechnical complexities and engineering problems of underground mining. During my vacation experience, I’ve had the opportunity to apply my technical knowledge in an underground mining operation, gaining valuable hands-on experience. I’m excited to continue learning and contributing to the mining sector, where I can use my skills to help solve complex problems and make a meaningful impact.
Article
Over the last summer I have had the opportunity to complete my vacation work with Newmont at its Cadia Operations in Orange, NSW. The vacation work was a structured 12-week program in which I worked as an Operations Geotechnical Engineer within the Technical Services team.
During my time at Cadia I was involved in numerous tasks associated with the Operations Geotech's, as well as being assigned a project to complete over the duration of my vacation work. My main tasks within the production team involved damage mapping underground. As the operations team have geotechnical responsibilities for extraction levels, I spent a lot of time early in my vacation work damage mapping to quantify areas in the production levels that needed ground support rehabilitation. The damage to ground support was quantified using a damage rating based on loader/mechanical damage, corrosion, rock mass damage (stress and seismicity).
I was involved in LiDAR scanning, which is where a scanner is mounted either on a Light Vehicle or manually held to take point cloud scans of extraction drives, crusher chambers, fuel bays and perimeters. The data gained from these scans assisted in the geotechnical analysis of convergence which identified how much displacement is occurring in a drive as well as providing key geometric properties of the drives. Moreover, LiDAR enhanced photography was also a key aspect of fragmentation of the draw points. In which the photos are processed to distinguish particle size distribution to manage the inrush risk on extraction levels.
The project I was assigned to over the course of my vacation work involved the creation of updated Level Support Plans (LSPs) for extraction levels. This process included collating the historical ground support installed on extraction levels using old LSPs as well as Ground Support Modification (GSM) documents. The old ground support identified was then converted to the new support design system by comparing profile geometry including bolt/cable spacing, shotcrete thickness, energy absorption and type of mesh. The data collected was then used to draft the LSPs on mining CAD software Deswik, the LSPs were plotted/printed out and used as reference for future ground support rehabilitation on extraction levels.
Over the duration of my vacation program there were many key learnings as well as highlights. Some of the key learnings involved understanding the roles and various tasks of Underground Geotech’s in production and through this learning how to operate in an underground mine both safely and efficiently. Exploring Orange and its surrounding regions was also an exciting opportunity from someone coming from an urban environment in Melbourne. I got to experience my first country rodeo, mountain bike the trails of Mount Canobolas and indulge in the many wineries that make up the central west of NSW. Spending countless hours with other vacation students and graduates discovering the region also created life-long friendships.
Overall, I really enjoyed my vacation work experience with Newmont at its Cadia Valley Operations. It provided a perfect setting to apply the geotechnical skills gained studying at university in a real-world mining operation, which will only benefit my future as an aspiring engineer in the mining industry.
