Ventilation Engineer at Anglo American

Job Description

• The Ventilation Engineer will be required to apply ventilation expertise to establish, provide review, strategic direction, analysis and set business technical and operating standards for Ventilation. Set effective ventilation short- and medium-term solutions through the mine life cycle to ensure the mine is not ventilation constrained, is compliant to all internal, Anglo American Group and legal requirements and provides air standards to meet the needs of mine workers working underground – ensuring our workers are only exposed to acceptable conditions and standards in our mines. Apply legal compliance expertise to ensure the mine complies with all legal requirements under MHSA Section 12.1 and all related sections and regulations (Regulation 5.1, 9.2, 16.1, 16.6, 17.19 etc)

Your responsibilities will include:

• Apply your experience as an underground mining ventilation practitioner to the Venetia underground mine technical and operational teams, enhancing system design, vent standards and overall mine performance.
• Promote a ‘’Safety by Design’’ approach to Ventilation design and management.
• Develop, implement and provide execution tactics for the underground ventilation system in accordance with the business plan to enable safe and sustainable mine execution against targets.
• Ensure Venetia UG mine is supported by modelled and optimised ventilation strategies to deliver primary and secondary ventilation system solutions to support executable designs and efficient mine operations.
• Develop ventilation technical and operational capability within the ventilation, technical and operations groups to ensure ventilation knowledge and understanding develops within the mining teams.
• Establish systems and processes to ensure systematic and disciplined approach to legal compliance and routine measurement and health checks of primary and secondary ventilation systems (and mine refrigeration).
• Ensure ventilation activities and works are planned, scheduled and adequately resourced to support safe, sustainable and efficient mining operations (aligned to fundamentals of the AAOM - Anglo Operating Model).
• Ensure legal compliance and the development & maintenance of ventilation and occupational hygiene standards in line with site and Group Occupational Health and Safety requirements.
• Establish reporting databases to manage status and performance of ventilation assets.
• Continuously identify and prioritise opportunities for improvement or to de-risk ventilation systems, maximising value and performance enhancement to Venetia mine.
• Ensure systems of measure, review and reporting are embedded to provide effective management processes to identify non-compliance or trends that require escalation to management or reporting to stakeholders.
• Maintain effective links to Anglo ventilation group, industry regulators & educators, ventilation suppliers to ensure you are well connected in the underground mining ventilation network.

Qualifications

Qualification required:

• Formal qualification (equivalent to NQF Level 7) in Mining or Engineering or other relevant discipline such as Occupational Hygiene
• Intermediate and Advanced certificate in Mine Environmental Control (MEC)
• Member of Professional Body – Mine Ventilation Society of South Africa
• Certificate or experience in Mine Ventilation Simulation (VUMA3D/Ventsim) – is this essential or advantageous. If the former, how much is it closing out talent?

Experience and Knowledge required:

• Minimum of 8 years of practical experiences in Ventilation and Occupational Hygiene of which at least 3 years must be in a MHSA 12.1 Appointee position.
• Experience in underground trackless mining ventilation and occupational hygiene
• Considered an experienced technical and operational specialist in the underground mine ventilation field.
• Experience in formulating ventilation standards, procedures and code of practices
• Track record of leading ideas generation; translating these into practical initiatives to be implemented and demonstration of successful execution and delivery of underground mine ventilation strategies for individual mine operations.
• Previous experience working with Occupational Hygiene and Ventilation legislation.
• Has been part of project development, sharing of best practice and developing technical capability of mining personnel.
• Expertise in practical underground mine ventilation planning and design.
• Demonstrated ability to consider short and medium consequences of proposed changes to processes.
• Demonstrated success in the implementation of process improvements across multiple work streams in a mining operation.
• Computer literate in MS Office, and other relevant specialised technical programs
• Active member of the Mine Ventilation Society of South Africa

Additional requirements:

• Valid EB/Code 8 Driver’s License
• Successfully obtain a Medical Certificate of Fitness to work underground.
• The post is dependent on the successful completion of the Company’s pre-employment protocol such as qualifications verification, relevant psychometric and technical assessments and security clearance.