Senior Production Geologist at Tharisa

Role Context

Continuous Improvement

• Develop and manage procedures and systems to allow safe, timely and accurate collection of geological information to optimise metal extraction.
• Translate complex technical geological data and grade into operational practices and draw operational constrains learnings to align production geology and grade strategies.
• Use data collected by the team to inform planning activities and enable efficient ore-utilisation and optimal ore-extraction.
• Manage continuous feed grade monitoring and control by conducting weekly reconciliation of estimated plant feed against actual plant feed; implement continuous improvement actions plan to achieve budget.
• Provide geology inputs to mining practices and optimise/implement ore quality and grade control from the pit, to improve the execution of the crusher plant’s feed grade stability.

Financial Monitoring and Control

• Monitor Departmental expenditure against budget allocations, requesting appropriate reallocation as required, to manage the prevention of unnecessary expenditure.

Material Destination Management

• Develop and manage the usage of ore destination tracking systems to ensure waste and ore are delivered to the correct destination to prevent cross contamination.
• Manage Run-of-Mine (RoM) material destination management to ensure material is delivered to the correct stockpiles.
• Manage external ore geological related information and stockpiling. 

Mining Geology

• Manage mining grade control activities, by carrying out pit visits/inspections before and after blasting, as well as post block demarcation to ensure that all mining blocks have approved grade control dig plans.
• Oversee and audit drilled mining blocks with respect to drill coverage to maintain compliance with Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC).
• Lead, control, manage and audit geological data collection adhering to geology procedures example PTO and related checks.
• Interpret mining geology data, ensuring physical measurement of mining dilution and mining ore-loss, as well as the relevant reporting is completed.
• Manage interburden waste (IBW) and ore loading, ensuring geological digging and loading procedures/work instructions are established and implemented to achieve the effective execution of mining geological dig plans.
• Lead, control and manage the formulation of the dig plan and the compliance, including related projects example the ore movement policy.
• Collaborate with Mining Engineers/Planners and Load and Haul manager to agree on how best to extract/utilise the ore reserve for inclusion into the Grade Control Dig Plan.
• Lead, control and schedule the ore digging operation of blast blocks and ore mining excavation and overall reconciliation, to ensure reliable and timely pit delineation of ore and waste pit mining.

People Management

• Create and maintain a conducive work environment by appropriately applying  Human Resources policies and procedures to ensure optimum performance is realised for the benefit of the Department and, by extension, the organisation.
• Lead the team according to Tharisa Minerals’ leadership principles and values throughout the entire employee life cycle (performance management, reward etc) to ensure, inter alia, a high-performance culture.
• Provide technical support to the Geology Team, ensuring shifts integration optimisation efficiency and mining grade business improvement initiatives is achieved.

Pit Geology

• Design, manage and monitor the implementation of the pit face sampling strategy to support effective and efficient pit geology activities.
• Verify ore-type pit contact marking is done, and all pit geological data is collected, recorded, interpreted, and communicated to the mining team to form part of any technical mining decisions.

Reporting

• Write 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.
• Manage ore stockpiles inventory levels to meet the demand and supply requirements of the mine.

Reverse Circulation and Test holes Drilling

• Design, manage and monitor the implementation of the Reverse Circulation (RC)/test-hole drilling strategy to achieve alignment with mining activities.
• Manage and monitor activities related to geological test holes, RC planning, and drilling execution to ensure quality logging and sampling of test holes.
• Establish and update all geological grade control procedures and work-instructions to maintain alignment with mining activities.

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.
• Regularly liaise with other Technical Departments to ensure the latest resource information is made available for monthly evaluation.

Requirements

Qualifications:

• Bachelor of Science Honours Degree (NQF8)
• Member of professional body (SACNASP- Pr.Sci.Nat)

Job-specific experience:

• A minimum of between eight to ten (8-10) years of mining experience, of which at least five (5) years must be in an open pit environment.
• Minimum Five (5) years in Bushveld Complex Geology experience is advantageous.
• Competency in Datamine Strat3d and Studio EM/RM, Sirovision, Deswik, Sable Datawarehouse, Ore Movement Policy System.
• Valid Driving Licence.
• Experience/Exposure on MS Dynamics F&O, Reporting tools: MS Power BI

Closing Date: 23 February 2026