Pit Grade Control Production Geologist at Tharisa

Role Context

Compliance, Risk and Safety

• Conduct geological plan task observation (PTO), to enable the identification and correction of substandard conditions.
• Liaise with mining personnel, including contractors, to agree on the implementation and adherence of all Geological-mining instructions and procedures.

Continuous Improvement

• Conduct weekly reconciliation of estimated plant feed against actual plant feed and suggest improvement actions plan to support the achievement of budget.
• Provide geology inputs to mining practices and optimise/implement ore quality and grade control from the pit, to contribute to ongoing geological improvement.

Database Management

• Capture relevant geological data into the Grade Control Database, including drill logs lithology, to support the identification and exploration of minerals.
• Conduct quality audits on samples collected, to ensure accurate sampling, mapping and data capturing into the database.

Material Destination Management

• Use developed ore destination tracking systems to ensure waste and ore are delivered to the correct place to prevent cross contamination.

Pit Geology

• Update Grade Control Model periodically, using all structural and mapping data, to flag any risk and/or opportunity areas.
• Monitor blasting and post block demarcation activities to ensure that all mining blocks have approved grade control dig plans.
• Daily progressive digplan updates.
• Audit drilled mining blocks with respect to drill coverage to maintain compliance with Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC).
• Schedule Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling programmes to meet grade control and mine planning requirements.
• Interpret mining geology data, considering the physical measurement of mining dilution and mining ore-loss, reporting thereafter to support mining operations decisions.
• Conduct interburden waste (IBW) Loading according to the geological digging plans and establish loading procedures/work instructions to ensure trench digging and other relevant activities are completed according to geological requirements. 
• Conduct geological logging, by inspecting the contents of the washed rock chips using a hand lens and identify and record major lithological changes and lithological/formation boundaries.
• Dispatch daily geological samples to laboratory for assaying according to the sample analysis request sheet in a timely manner.
• Validate material types and drill hole information by conducting in-pit inspections as well as spatial validations within the models.
• Implement the pit face sampling strategy to support effective and efficient pit geology activities.
• Conduct ore-type pit contact marking, and collect, record, interpret and communicate pit geological data to the mining team to form part of any technical mining decisions.
• Monitor geological drill-hole test holes implementation to enable interpretation and understanding of the orebody geometry.

Reconciliation

• Reconcile the ore digging operation of blast blocks and ore mining excavation for tonnage and grade control to ensure reliable and timely pit delineation of ore and waste pit mining.
• Reconcile grade control models and ore-types to understand the impact of decisions taken during grade control estimation enabling the immediate implementation of corrective actions to achieve planned grade.
• Reconcile plant feed plan grade with the actual mining feed grade to understand potential opportunities and losses in the mining value chain.

Reporting

• Provide input into the drafting of mining geology reports daily, weekly, and monthly as required, including the Weekly Crusher Plant Feed report, to provide decisionmakers with an up-to-date view of geology-related mining activities in the pits.

Resource Management

• Provide input into required changes in resources (financial or non-financial) to enable the achievement of team and/or own objectives.
• Determine 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.
• Monitor ore stockpiles inventory levels to support the effective management of ore demand and supply.

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 and/or external stakeholders, where required, to achieve work objectives and to maintain relationships.
• Liaise with mining personnel, including contractors, to agree on the implementation of geological-mining instructions and direct management of pit production team.

Requirements

Qualifications:

• Grade12
• Bachelor of Science Honours Degree (NQF8) in Geology
• Member of professional body (SACNASP)

Job specific experience:

• A minimum of between five to eight (5-8) years of mining experience, of which at least four (4) years must be in the open pit production mining environment
• Three to five (3-5) years of experience using geological software (Sable, Datamine Strat3D, Studio EM/RM, Sirovision and Deswik)
• Driving Licence
• Bushveld Complex Geology experience is advantageous
• Experience/Exposure on MS Dynamics F&O, Reporting tools: MS Power BI