This presentation is a 20 minute snippet of my professional career, and my progression in the mining industry, from a lazy uni student to an up-and-coming blast engineer in the middle of a mining boom._x000D_
My name is Daniel Hepburn and I am a blasting engineer for Orica Mining Services. I graduated from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), in Melbourne in 2003._x000D_
I completed both of my final year projects with Orica Quarry Services and was offered an assistant shotfiring job, which I accepted and worked for eight months._x000D_
Having missed the cut-off date for the Orica graduate program, I planned to work with Quarry Services until the following year where I hoped my marks and the experiences I had gained would secure a graduate position. I didn't have to wait long, as in August of that year, I was offered (and I accepted) a graduate position in Perth as a technical services engineer for Orica Mining Services._x000D_
The Orica graduate program is based over two years, and consists of real roles from day one; however, there is also opportunity to fast track the program for high performers. There is a structured rotation, from site to site, interstate or even international if you are so inclined. This includes the backpacker program, which allows graduates to experience the Orica culture in countries of their choice. There are also opportunities to try cross-functional roles in the different Market segments within Orica._x000D_
I was lucky in that I knew what I wanted to do and where I wanted to work, so I stayed in Perth for my entire graduate program. I was also lucky enough to be fast tracked and finished my graduate program in 15 months._x000D_
At the end of 2005 I accepted a position as an open cut blasting engineer based in Perth and even in such a short period of time I have already completed a number of major accomplishments. Some of these accomplishments are described below.This paper is available as a PowerPoint presentation only._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Hepburn, D, 2006. Blast engineering - an explosive career, in Proceedings New Leaders' 2006, pp 113-124 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).