Since I first enrolled to study Mining Engineering, the idea of working with big machinery and explosives has always appealed to me. After a few courses at uni, combined with vacation work and a number of presentations at the New Leaders' Conferences I had attended, I began to realise that the explosives side seemed to have more appeal than the others._x000D_
As I look back on the past two and a half years that I have spent with Orica Australia Pty Ltd as part of their graduate program, I would have never imagined the dynamics of explosives in mining. This I put down to the ever changing and rapid development in technology converting blasting techniques into a defined predictable science. The opportunities I have been given have delivered all the appeals from when I first started my study._x000D_
As a result of my entry into a profession that uses explosives to deliver broken rock in a range of mining and construction projects, through the use of advanced blasting technology and products, my experiences have been wide and varied._x000D_
These experiences have included the use of Orica's i-kon detonator technology and blast design software to allow for blasting operations to occur in a range of environmentally sensitive quarrying and construction projects throughout New Zealand, to the implementation of various Orica blast based services aimed at improving dragline dig performance and reducing coal loss thus improve overall mine sustainability in the coal mines of Central Queensland, to the advanced utilisation of Orica explosive products and technology in a number of the worlds largest copper mines in Chile._x000D_
I have witnessed first hand the blasting technology available within Orica Mining Services to both deliver fundamental changes in mining results and in turn kick off my career with a bang._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Batten, C, 2009. Orica - technology to kick off a career with a bang, in Proceedings New Leaders' 2009, pp 29-32 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).