Drill & Blast Engineer at Anglo American

Purpose

• Oversee all aspects of the drilling and blasting operations, ensuring adherence to established standards, implementing efficient procedures, optimising performance, and identifying opportunities for improvement.

Your duties will include:

• Consistently apply Safety and health principles in all team interactions and take personal responsibility for the safety of self and others to ensure zero harm and the elimination of fatalities.

  • Function as a role model and support a workplace culture where safety and health for the site are paramount.
  • Support an environment for team members to challenge and act on unsafe behaviours without repercussions.
• Support the site leadership team in embedding critical controls into daily work practices.
• Monitor blasting activities, analyse the results, and provide recommendations for rock fragmentation.
• Inspect and approve blast block designs to ensure safe blasting practices and adherence to established standards.
• Develop drill patterns for blasting operations.
• Ensure that all drill and blast processes follow company policies and procedures.
• Develop procedures for drill and blast operations that meet the standards set by company policies and industry best practices.
• Identify blast domains applicable at the mine by drill and blast parameters defined according to sound engineering principles.
• Design drill and blast patterns for each blast domain identified above to optimise fragmentation and satisfy grade control requirements according to the mine’s requirements and the company’s technical standards and guidelines.
• Continuously improve the blast design process to ensure that advances in principles and applications are incorporated into the performance of the drill and blast processes.
• Liaise with all relevant personnel to ensure that all drill and blast activities are carried out safely and cost-effectively, meet the mine’s requirements, and follow the company’s technical standards and guidelines.
• Provide advice to relevant stakeholders on surface blasting practices to proactively alleviate or avoid any unnecessary problems and to always ensure statutory compliance.
• Seek, test, analyse, and evaluate the latest blasting technologies and make the necessary recommendations before implementation to ensure viability.
• Provide technical support on timing, initiation point, blasting sequence, and hole tying to ensure conformance to set standards.
• Optimize drill pattern and drill sequence for better results.
• Improve drill rod, B11, and hammer performance through optimization.
• Ensure that all drill and blast activities (drilling, bench/face preparation, charging, blasting, etc.) follow design specifications that satisfy the mine’s requirements and the company’s technical standards and guidelines.

• Ensure the level of training of the drilling and blasting personnel is adequate and that their performance is not detracting from real-time gains. This will involve:

  • Listing of general performance based on daily audits.
  • Actions to be taken to correct deviations and improve dispatcher performance.
  • Identify dispatcher training needs and develop training programs to increase dispatcher skills level and performance.
• Maintenance of a drill and blast management system to govern all drill and blast activities at the mine.
• Compliance with MHSA, statutory, and mine related SHE regulations.

Qualifications:

• B Tech Mining Engineer Degree or other 4-year Mining degrees
• Blasting Ticket
• Valid SA Drivers License

Experience

• Operational experience as a Blasting/Drilling Specialist within a Mining operations environment.
• 4-6 years’ experience in Production, Blasting Operations, mine planning and pit layout.
• Understanding the mining lifecycle, value chain, and impact of mining activities.
• Technical problem-solving using geotechnical knowledge.