Student Journal - Tasmania Student Chapter - Mechanical Engineering Students Vacation Work
I spent the summer working at BHP’s Prominent Hill mine in Adelaide, in their production drill and blast engineering team. The first half of my time at BHP’s Prominent Hill was spent gaining exposure underground, learning about the operations of different machinery and drill rigs, understanding different ground conditions and support with the Geotech's, and assisting the survey team with markups and scans. I was pleased to get enough hours to be signed off to independently drive and work safely underground.
My main project was to automate operators’ data inputs to more accurately calculate the kilograms of emulsion to fill drill holes to eliminate the need for top ups, which would reduce the time needed to charge headings. This involved a process of excel commands that take in and format the operators data into sheet 1, feed sheet 2 of equations which are then categorised by drill angle, type ect, and are then filtered for outliers, and finally fed into sheet 3 which automatically updates plots and use the line of best fit to provide an experimental equation to more accurately calculate the expansion factor used to calculalte the kg of emulsion to fil up.
The other project in the production team was using Deswik to process and capture stope overbreak and underbreak data to be used for drill and blast review. Which gave me a good understanding of the stope cycle and blast design.
Because of my interest in the on-site mechanical projects which align with my degree, I picked upside project with the maintenance and reliability engineering team. I designed 3D modelling and drafted a roof design for a conveyor underpass roof which was going to be a contracted job, and contributed to the FEA analysis of an underground blade failure.
The amount of exposure and enjoyment working FIFO was made possible thanks to the people I spent time around. The team was willing to take me driving underground and give me the exposure in each department and area on site (Tailing dam, processing plant, mill etc). I was given a variety of challenging projects which allowed me to problem solve and provide a solution that will be used by the team in the future, that aligned with my intersetsts while providing value to the team. Going into my final year, I have gained numerous connections with recent graduates and senior engineers who I can now seek for career guidance. The change in lifestyle and independence working in a different state gives me great confidence in thriving and positively contributing to the mining industry when I apply as a graduate.