NSW

Downer EDI Ltd has signed a five-year mining service agreement with Idemitsu Australia Resources Pty Ltd for the provision of mining services at Boggabri open-cut coal mine in the Gunnedah Basin, New South Wales. Services provided will include drill and blast, mine planning, and load and haul of both overburden and coal.

A special ‘Women in Mining’ event was held during the recent Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Sustainable Mining Conference in Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

Almost 50 women, and even a few men, enjoyed the evening hosted by Nickel West Kalgoorlie. Guests were treated to a talk from Fran Burgess, Metallurgy Group Manager for Minerals and Metals Group.

With qualifications in mineral processing, applied economics, environmental management and two masters degrees, Fran shared her story as a third generation miner from Broken Hill, New South Wales.

BHP Billiton's Foundations for Graduates Program has been named the best in Australia - for the third consecutive year.

The Award, for Best Graduate Development Program, was presented to BHP Billiton at the Australian Association of Graduate Employers (AAGE) annual Australian Graduate Recruitment Industry Awards (AGRIA) ceremony. BHP Billiton previously won the Award in 2008 and 2009.

In partnership with the Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA), Mt Eliza Executive Education at the University of Melbourne will launch a course for existing and aspiring leaders in the Resources sector in 2011.

The week-long residential program will include a mixture of general management education and resources-related content.

The program is intended to foster leadership capability within Australia, with the added opportunity to export leaders and leadership training globally.

Shell’s Prelude Floating Liquefied Natural Gas Project, to be located off the northwest coast of Australia, has this month received its environmental approval from the Australian Minister for Environment.

Shell’s 100% owned and operated Project continues to progress through the engineering and design phase of development and is planned to be the first to deploy Shell’s innovative Floating LNG (FLNG) technology which processes the gas at the site of the gas field rather than piping the gas hundreds of kilometres to shore.

A large number of our competitors are all advertising for the same positions.
Rather than presume we know what you want when trying to entice a new Mechanical or Electrical Engineer, I would love to hear solid information so that URS can work with prospective applicants in order to make this next step for both parties a 'win, win' situation. Any advice or feedback is welcomed and will be most appreciated.

Please email me at Ross_MacDonald@URSCorp.com

To be come an ambassador for women in the mining industry and receive $8000 per anum during your final years of undergraduate study in engineering, you can apply for a Thiess/Minerals Council of Australia Women in Engineering Scholarship.

The Scholarship is open to all female engineering students studying in Australia.  You should apply in the year before your final two years of study.

Applications close 20 November.  Apply online at www.thiess.com.au.

A sharp increase in employee turnover over the past 12 months has reinforced mining industry fears of skills shortages and the resultant impact on their operations.

• Create one master resume with everything on it, then review and edit it every time to ensure it aligns with the requirements of the job to which you are applying.  We understand the temptation to want to tell someone everything about yourself, but as we’ve said before – your resume is actually more about me and less about you!  In other words, tell me what I need to know about how you can meet the requirements of my role, and as quickly as possible.

The past two years were a roller-coaster for the oil and gas sector with oil prices peaking at highs of more than US$140 per barrel in 2008 to less than US$40 per barrel in 2009. The drop in crude prices was primarily due to a decrease in global demand which was a consequence of the economic crisis as well as increasing global crude production capacity and large spare production capacity. Unstable demand, volatile commodity prices and larger stocking of oil made Companies wary with their investment plans a year ago.