Open Positions at Tharisa

Operational Management

• Provide Rock Engineering expertise within the MRM Department, through which it offers technical support to the Mining Department
• Account for the achievement of optimum Rock Engineering standards
• Promote and enhance the effectiveness of the team
• Advocate good employee relations
• Oversee administration of necessary systems
• Plan monthly Rock Engineering requirements and priorities with the Operational Units’ Manager (Mining)
• Implement appropriate Rock Engineering measurement and planning systems for all the shafts
• Liaise with the relevant Managers to determine their individual needs according to their operational plans or problems encountered
• Oversee and assist with the preparation of plans and layouts
• Monitor underground stress levels and advise on appropriate actions as per operational requirements
• Confirm accurate calculation of stress fields and strata conditions
• Guide Managers in standards for section safety and performance
• Identify from Rock Engineering information opportunities to improve shaft performance
• Manage the activities of any allocated resources
• Manage Rock Engineering resources and budget control
• Audit mining standards for mine and support layouts to ensure conformance
• Advocate legal conformance to procedures and standards in terms of Rock Engineering responsibilities
• Support the investigation of Rock Engineering related incidents and accidents and advise on rectification solutions
• Assess and monitor ore reserves for future rock mechanical problems, proactively advise on solutions
• Determine optimum training of operational personnel in standards / strata hazard awareness and basic strata control principles
• Research and identify equipment to make measurements more effective
• Support the MRM function with Rock Engineering expertise
• Optimize and participate in the training, development, and management of Rock Engineering personnel

Compliance, Risk and Safety

• Set and communicate expectations
• Provide guidance, direction, and mentoring
• Plan the task and ensure work is done against the plan
• Ensure people that perform the task have the right competencies
• Provide a safe place of work
• Provide their line reports with the tools, guidance, and support to work safely
• Verify that work is being performed safely and intervene if not
• Undertake formal and regular monitoring of behaviours, acts and conditions and address unsafe acts, conditions, and practices directly and promptly
• Provide positive feedback and reinforce the right and safe behaviours
• Competencies related with these behaviours must be identified and developed. For example, to provide a safe work place you need competencies on risk assessment and management
• Oversee legal conformance to procedures and standards in terms of rock engineering responsibilities to achieve optimum rock engineering standards.
• Conduct regular safety audits and coordinate risk assessments of relevant standards, processes and procedures related to the monitoring of rock stability, enabling TM to conduct remedial action to observed deviations from support specifications.
• Review, compile and maintain mandatory Code of Practice to combat rock bursts and rock falls, in accordance with the requirements of the Legislative Compliance and reporting of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development (MPRD) Act.
• Implement appropriate rock engineering measurement and planning systems for the mine to enable effective monitoring of strata and use data gathered to guide the Mine Manager in mining safety standards.
• Keep abreast of changes in relevant guidelines and other legislation, to make recommendations where policies, processes and/or procedures require amendment.
• Promote, support and implement sound safety, health, and environmental management practices in line with legislation and mine policies and procedures.
• Adhere to relevant regulatory mining legislation.
• Develop and implement standards and procedures with respect to key aspects including slope and mine infrastructure.

 Data Analytics and Reporting

• Review and analyse the effectiveness of operational strata control programs, interventions, systems, and processes
• Review strata control data and information
• Participate in the identification of defects and improvement opportunities through troubleshooting and fault-finding
• Implement continuous improvement interventions related to defects and opportunities identified
• Monitor the impact of improvement interventions and record findings for analysis
• Align operational strata control processes with guidelines and standards, as well as operational plans and objectives
• Recommend changes to policies, procedures and operating standards as set out
• Conduct comprehensive geological assessments to determine the stability of rock formation within the mine.
• Lead the implementation of monitoring systems which continuously assess rock movement, stress and deformation. Analyse data from these instruments to proactively detect potential issues and trigger appropriate responses.
• Report on the geotechnical mine hazard plan and facilitate implementation thereof together with other rock engineering preventative systems to combat rock falls.
• Complete geotechnical design, model and rockfall analysis; liaise with geotechnical consultants for more complex designs.
• Utilise mine design software packages to assist with mine planning.
• Develop geotechnical databases for rock mass strength, defect strength and defect mapping.
• Develop geotechnical, structural, geological, hydrogeological, rock mass models for soil, rock, ore, discontinuities, and groundwater, ensuring these are interconnected with databases of material properties and chronological instrument data.
• Responsible for the continuous optimisation of open pit and rock pile slope geometry (or slope angles) as new data becomes available.

 Financial Management

• Analyse all relevant Department data and report on Departmental trends and operating requirements so as to determine funding requirements for the financial year.
• Monitor short-term Departmental budgets by scrutinising and aligning spend within the Department, to support and drive effective and efficient functioning within budgetary constraints.
• Monitor Departmental expenditure against budget allocations, requesting  appropriate reallocation as required, to manage the prevention of unnecessary spend.
• Comply with all financial, Supply Chain Management (SCM) and other Tharisa Minerals regulations and policies by facilitating the right actions, to reduce financial risk in the Department.

 People Management

• Execute development plans of personnel as per training and skills matrices
• Coordinate the adequate training of all the sub-ordinates and confirm that they are competent to fulfil assigned roles within the Rock Engineering department
• Manage discipline within department
• Determine whether all direct reports have clear understanding of their roles and the performance level expected of them
• Conduct regular performance reviews as per organisational requirements
• Preserve compliance with labour legislation
• Provide continuous feedback on reports
• Exercise consequence management
• Build relationships through mutual respect and effective communication
• 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.
• Train operational personnel in rock engineering techniques and standards controls to foster a safety-conscious culture and promote awareness of potential rock-related risks.

 Stakeholder Relations

• Build and maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including external contractors, to ensure information, advice or opinions on relevant matters is made available and/or communicated with all relevant stakeholders, to manage expectations and timelines.
• Utilise opportunities presented to enhance the relationship between management, unions and employees, and implement processes to maximise a collaborative working relationship.

Requirements

Qualifications:

• Grade 12/ NQF Level 4
• Relevant professional qualification, Degree or National Diploma in Rock Engineering / Geology / Mathematics / Physics / Mining Engineering
• Chamber of Mines Certificate in Rock Mechanics

Desirable Qualifications:

• Senior Leadership Programme (SLP) / Middle Management Programme (MMP)
• Business Management qualification (NQF level 7)
• BTech / BSc Hons (Geology/Mathematic/Physics) or BSc Eng / BEng (Mining Engineering)
• Advanced Rock Engineering Certificate

Job specific experience:

• At least minimum of ten (10) years’ post qualification experience
• At least five (5) years’ in a managerial capacity in Rock Engineering within the Mining industry
• Demonstrated ability to meet technical and responsibility requirements of MHSA Reg.14.1 (8) legal appointment
• Preferred fifteen (15) years’ relevant work experience in Rock Engineering
• Experience/Exposure on MS Dynamics F&O, Reporting tools : MS Power BI
• Valid drivers’ License

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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.)

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Role Context

• Make decisions wisely by balancing all viewpoints
• Take a step back and look at all the alternatives” thought process
• Keep in touch with corporate strategies, and recommend ways to improve or alter them
• Communicate closely with the production manager to determine workload, availability
• Update and modify drawings in Autodesk 3D & plant 3D / Navisworks and SolidWorks
• Understand and help to develop company design standards whether written or within the historical custom
• Share applicable technical knowledge to improve all Design & Engineering projects and further the knowledge and understanding of mechanical design within the company
• Detail drawings in Autodesk 3D & plant 3D / Navisworks and SolidWorks that meet or exceed the client’s need, budgets and expectations
• Contribute to a positive and collaborative office atmosphere through shared, respect, reflection and philosophy
• All information is to be clearly presented to both members of the project team and clients in written, oral or drawing format
• Identify areas where increased training or knowledge would benefit or compliment your expertise and determine a method for gaining this knowledge

 Core work outputs: 

• Assist in field measurements and inspections
• Understand and comply with all clients’ safety rules and regulations 
• Conduct work in a safe and effective manner and encourage others to do so
• Organize and purge electronic project. The resulting electronically filed information should be a clear, concise and manageable electronic file remains for future reference and use
• Manage electronic information in an effective and clear manner to allow all project personnel to access and understand the relevance of the information
• Identify as early as possible when a project will not remain within budget and communicate with the client the necessary changes to budget and project scope and schedule 

Requirements

Qualification

• Grade 12
• National Diploma in Draughts Engineering or related field – Sheetmetal / steel structures 
• Valid driving license code 08

Job Specification experience

• At least Five years Draughtsman experience, of which two years in the manufacturing environment
• Computer literate for role
• Mining background