What is your background?
I was born and raised in Indonesia and moved to the Gold Coast in 2015. I was a boarder at St Hilda’s School, Southport from 2015 to 2019. I then studied at Griffith University from 2020 with an expected graduation at the end of 2023 with a Civil Engineering degree. My first-year university experience was cut short due to COVID – I only had three weeks of in-person classes before everything went online until 2022. I’m in my last year now and currently doing my thesis extending on the project I completed during my vacation program with Anglo American.
What was your Vacation Placement like with Anglo American?
From November 2022 to February 2023, I was based at Grosvenor Mine working as a geotechnical engineer vacation student within the Technical Services department. Depending on whether I go underground that day or not, my day-to-day tasks include attending daily meetings which discuss the previous 24h tasks and the upcoming tasks for the next 24h. Other tasks I do during the day include tell-tale monitoring and interpretation for strata monitoring and work orders and assisting the geotechs with other tasks they required. If I did go underground that day, my day would start by getting into my underground high-vis, helmet, self-rescuer, and cap-lamp then attending a pre-start meeting before jumping into the drifty. While underground, I follow the geotech and/or geologists to conduct underground geotechnical and geological inspections of the longwall and development to implement strata advice, work orders and ground support plans. During my time at Grosvenor, I accrued around 80h underground where I had the opportunity to develop an understanding of the mining operations, processes, and environment. Outside of that, I was also completing my project which involved building an empirical database for roof bolts, I attended an AutoCAD training course, permit to mine meetings, and risk assessments for critical tasks in the mine.
I haven’t been to other mine sites, but I found Grosvenor to be amazing! Described by other coal mine workers as the ‘Taj Mahal’ of underground mines, I was amazed at what the mine actually looked like. Whatever you may think underground is like, it’s probably completely different from what you have imagined! The people at Grosvenor were all so helpful, attentive, and friendly. Everyone in Tech Services was also so fun to work with – we even had a spicy noodle challenge! There were 6 vacation students in total at Grosvenor and on the weekends, we would plan to take trips around the area. Moranbah is a pretty good mining town but there’s only so much you can do. We spent our weekends going to Mackay, fossicking in The Gemfields and Emerald, and even to Airlie Beach! It was a lot of fun seeing another part of Australia that I wouldn’t usually go to. But if you’re in the area, you might as well explore and see something different!
One or two highlights of your Vacation program placement with Anglo American
A highlight of my vacation program was seeing the shearer cut across the longwall. No videos or descriptions can give it enough justice to seeing it in person. Another highlight would be the strong safety focus Anglo American has – during pre-start meetings any incidents, hazards, and safety TARPs (trigger action response plans) are addressed; SLAMs would be conducted before every task to assess any hazards and manage their risks; VFLs would be conducted to observe a task you don’t perform typically to scrutinise its risks and ensure the operators are authorised to work within their technical capabilities. Being an inexperienced miner, my mentors while underground always ensured I felt safe, explained the tasks they were completing, and answered any questions I had about the operational side of things. It was also really great seeing the senior leadership team emphasise safety above all other aspects because despite being a coal mine, the people who work at Anglo American are its most valuable resource.
1 or 2 pieces of advice to other university students
My biggest advice for other university students is to just go for it! When I first applied to Anglo American, I didn’t realise that the mining industry was an option for civil engineers, but I still applied, nonetheless. I know some university students might have a clear vision for their career and may only want to enter certain industries, but at this stage, you can’t limit yourself. It’s important to get experience and figure out what you do and don’t enjoy early on rather than wish you did something. For example, living remotely in Central Queensland can sometimes scare people off, but you might love it. I didn’t think I would be able to manage living in a donga in Moranbah but now that I’m back on the Gold Coast, I do miss it a little bit.