Chloe Painter

5.00 AM

After hitting the snooze button a few times, I wake up to get ready for my 6.30am flight from Brisbane to Townsville, having stayed overnight at the airport hotel. Once at my gate, I scour through the many airport-goers dressed in hi-vis to find my two team members, also dressed in hi-vis like me. We get ready to board the plane, coffees in hand.

8.30 AM

Having arrived in Townsville, we pick up our rental car and set out to drive for 90 minutes along kangaroo-spotted roads to the mine site. That’s where we’ll be working for the next four weeks, from Monday to Thursday.

10.00 AM

We arrive at the mine site and undergo our daily temperature and breath tests (top tip: do not use hand sanitiser before taking a breath test. A high blood alcohol reading on your first day at the client site is not the best look – trust me!).

We say hello to the clients and then set to work. We start each day with a stand-up, where we align on the day’s actions, priorities and deliverables. This is a ~15-minute meeting that happens on almost all engagements and is a great way to continually align with the team.

10.30 AM

After our morning stand-up, we complete a tour of the mine, which mines and processes gold. We get shown around all different sections of the open-cut mine, from the pit (where the physical mining happens) to the processing plant.

Having never stepped foot on a mine site before, it is fascinating to see how it all works in practice. The pit is scoped out by geologists to identify where exactly the most concentrated gold ore is found (more concentrated = higher ‘grade’). These areas are drilled and blasted with explosives to make the ore body more accessible. Excavators then come in to remove the blasted ore body, take the higher grade ore to the processing plant and the waste to the dump section.

At the processing plant, the ore is first crushed to a finer size and then processed with cyanide, which makes it soluble and allows for the separation of gold from the rest of the rock.

12.30 PM

Once back at the office, we enjoy a lunch of sandwiches, watermelon and olive pasta. We then sit together, review the data we currently have and brainstorm what else we might need. We are at the mine to identify process inefficiencies, so we need to have data on the quantities and quality of ore at different points in the mining and processing steps.

2.00 PM

We then chat to people within various roles and teams to understand exactly what each team does. This is important to do because later in the week we will start holding Idea Generation Sessions: structured workshops with different teams’ key members to generate process improvement ideas and inefficiencies solutions.

We have to fully understand the functions of each team and have a preliminary idea of where improvements may be needed. These sessions are always fun because it’s the clients doing the thinking and coming up with the cool ideas – we’re simply there to facilitate the conversation and structure their thoughts.

5.30 PM

As we’re winding down, we have a tough decision to make: dinner at the mine camp or a local pub? The little mining town we’re in has two pubs, both equally as old and quaint as the other.

Alternatively, the mine camp has a ‘mess hall’ – also a good choice, with a variety of food options (including vegetarian options for those interested!). Whichever option we choose, my teammates and I always sit down, quickly reflect on the day and exchange stories.

As a new grad, I always find the experiences of other more experienced colleagues interesting and insightful. It is very rare to work with a more tenured colleague who has not worked all over the world!

7.00 PM

After dinner, we head to the camp and to our ‘dongers’, which are the rooms we stay in. The dongers are basic, with a small bedroom and bathroom, but are surprisingly comfortable – especially given the aircon! We then relax and make sure to get a good night’s sleep to prepare for an early start tomorrow.