Ore Quality Controller at Tharisa

Role Context 

Resource Management

• Provide input into required changes in resources (financial or non-financial) to enable the achievement of team and/or own objectives.
• Provide input into resource needs of the team and/or own area of work to achieve business outcomes.
• Request and allocate required assets and/or resources for the fulfilment of work objectives to guarantee quality outputs.
• Monitor the use of assets and resources within the team and own area of responsibility, to ensure assets and resources are consistently and appropriately utilised and managed.
• Provide staff with day-to-day direction and tasks aligned with Departmental procedures, to enable the usage of less resources more efficiently.
• Coordinate and manage the activities of the plant staff including process operators and plant attendants and general laborers in area of accountability to ensure resource management and adequate staffing for delivery.

Stakeholder Relations

• Communicate with all relevant Departments on issues of the area of speciality. Liaise across the relevant Departments by engaging with the appropriate stakeholders to ensure all stakeholders remain abreast of Departmental objectives, any potential derailers are appropriately managed and duplication of work is avoided.
• Communicate with internal stakeholders, where required, to achieve work objectives and to maintain relationships.

Compliance, Risk and Safety

• Conduct risk assessments per shift cycle/rotation, ensuring adherence to mining safety standards and best practices.
• Conduct inspections to identify and report/correct substandard and unsafe conditions, ensuring that drilling areas are set up and safely demarcated.

Data Interpretation and Reporting

• Interpret, examine and record geological data collected, to support management decision making timeously.

Ore Sampling and Analysis

• Contributes to the assessment of geological conditions, by collecting, examining, and identifying samples, according to sampling procedure, to support the gathering of geological samples and processing at sampling plant/area on a mine site (basic sampling).
• Conduct face sampling, by sampling the channel width according to sampling procedures to gather ore specimens for analysis.
• Conduct face mapping, by identifying, describing, geological features and mapping the lithologies according to standard operating procedures, to determine quality attributes of ores.
• Co-ordinate ORE material and Quality-Grade control processes in the pit, to optimise ore Blending flow throughput and minimise/control dilution of ore/waste mixing different ore types.
• Provide significant support to Mining Production operations whilst spending time in the pit as required in order to ensure adherence to the business Grade Control requirements as stipulated in the ore handling and sampling procedures.
• Physically measure mining dilution and control through digging of trenches on the ore/waste boundary/contacts, ensuring adherence to loading and material destination plans and reporting.
• Conduct blast holes/drilled holes spot checks to re-measure and audit compliance to drilling-plan, ensuring holes area drilled to the depth requirement.
• Conduct ore and waste/interburden waste (IBW) loading, by marking geological ore-waste contacts to help determine/establish waste exposing mining-cut in support of the waste digging plan and grade control dig plan implementation.
• Handle ore and continually monitor Stockpile qualities and dilution control, to support Run-of-Mine Material Destination Tracking/Crusher Plants ROM Ore quality management and feed control, line with the Crusher Feed Plan.
• Drill, log and capture test holes, timeously sample handover for processing and laboratory assays according to the requirement.
• Liaise with mining personnel regarding the material destination action plan to control daily stockpile material movement.
• Discard samples remains, including sample plastics, from the geology sampling process area and the laboratory, including on skip bins into the disposing area (stockpiles) according to procedure and per the Geologist’s instructions, to support site rehabilitation.

Quality Assurance and Quality Control

• Implement the developed protocols for assessing ore quality, ensuring compliance with established Quality Assurance and Quality Control standards.
• Identify deviations and recommend corrective actions, when necessary, to enable the mining production team to proactively address potential issues impacting production quality.  
• Collaborate with operational teams to implement corrective actions and optimize processes to maintain high-quality ore output.

Requirements

Qualifications:

• Grade 12 (NQF4) with Mathematics and Physical Science as subjects

Certifications:

• Basic Sampling Certificate
• Elementary Sampling Certificate is advantageous
• BSc or BTech in Geology will be an added advantage

Job-specific experience:

• Minimum of between two to three (2-3) years of experience in the mining geology environment
• Experience in the Geology Department is advantageous
• Computer literate in MS Office
• Valid Driving Licence (Driving in red zone area.)