Drill & Blast Engineer -North Mara Gold Mine

Drill and Blast Engineer is responsible for providing the technical assistance to ensure drilling activities are undertaken in a safe, environmentally appropriate and cost effective manner, while providing assistance in developing short term mining schedules. The position is a leadership role and so is accountable to ensure quality delivery of the drill and blast plans and machine allocation in a timely manner that are in line with the monthly plans and budget.

KEY RESULT AREAS/ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Key Result Areas	Specific Accountabilities
Safety	· Instill the culture of safety at North Mara Mining. Lead by example, and provide visible access of himself to the employees. Barrick’s Contractor Safety Management Policy must be in place, well understood and followed through on Ensure that there is adequate effective communication of all blasts planned to be carried out. Such communication must be done in a timely fashion as may be stipulated in Drill and Blast SOPs/SWPs. Suggest means for improving safety in the workplace. Must know, educate and advise the Operations Team on implementing all SOPs/SWPs regarding Drill and Blast Operations, and shall also review. Update and draw up new SOPs/SWPs as may pertain to Drill and Blast Operations. Shall keep updated records of all D&B SOPs/SWPs and shall ensure that these procedures are easily accessible. Ensure that geotechnical recommendations are considered in preparing blast patterns. Shall ensure that the facilities of the Explosives/Blasting Contractor are regularly audited and shall bring to the attention of the Chief Mining Engineer/Mining Manager, any defects that contravene the laws of Tanzania. Barrick’s Safety philosophy – Field Level Risk Assessment (FLRA) must be established and practiced
Continuous Improvement	· Suggest ways for making the operation more efficient. · Observe all requirements of the quality system and report any non-conformance to Supervisor and/or OSHE department. · Develop and initiate D&B continuous improvement projects to continually improve D&B processes on site. · Suggest projects for optimising cost from an engineering point of view. · Create an attitude of awareness to recognize and utilize continuous improvement initiatives and processes on a daily basis
Barrick Core Values	· Ensure that each subordinate employee understands the core values as related to them individually. · Mentor supervisory staff to incorporate core values into their daily duties. · Work as a team member to ensure production is maximised. · Develop mission and vision for the mining group with respect to the core values.
Environmental	· Ensure that all blasts are monitored by the Explosives/Blasting Contractor and the results kept for analysing and improving subsequent blasts. · Ensure all Drill and Blast activities are carried out in accordance with the NMGM’s environmental management systems, plans policies. · Ensure compliance with environmental management practices that minimise the impact of the operation on the environment. · Ensure compliance with all contractual, statutory and regulatory requirements · Ensure all activities of employees and contractors are carried out in accordance with the Barrick environmental management plan
People Management	· Provision of the leadership and motivation necessary to ensure that all subordinate employees adhere to all NMGM’s policies, standards and procedure during the execution of their duties. · Review and evaluate performance of direct subordinates on a predetermined schedule (as determined by NMGM) to establish objective salary, bonus and benefits review criteria. · Create a working environment that ensures that subordinate employees gain new skills and achieve their full potential by developing and implementing effective training and mentoring/coaching programmes. · Manage a Succession Planning process that ensures that NMGM’s commitments to the Tanzanian government with respect to the development of Tanzanian employee’s to allow them to assume positions of increasing accountability are achieved. · Maintain a high level of discipline and orderliness amongst subordinates. · Deputise for the Production Mining Engineer/Planning Mining Engineer and/or Senior Mining Engineer as may be required. · Mentor group heads to ensure personnel management is consistent throughout each area of Mining.
Production	Provide technical support to ensure Drill and Blast activities and plans are timely, reliable, and realistic. Develop Drill and Blast KPI’s to proactively monitor performance. Ensure proper allocations of the drill rigs by delivering the required results.
Reporting	Keep records (soft and hard copies) of designs of all blast patterns. Keep records of all blasts: videos, pictures, blast dockets etc. Produce accurately and in a timely fashion, the quantity of explosives and explosive accessories used by the Explosives/Blasting Contractor on a monthly basis. Provide technical analysis of drill and blast activities with the aim of improving optimisation. Attend and ensure that minutes are taken at all meetings held between NMGM and the explosives/Blasting Contractor; and between NMGM and Drilling contractors. Prepare weekly blast reports for Finance section; prepare monthly Drilling and Blasting reports for EOM reporting to Mining Engineers. Ensure there is reliable information or data in the drill and blast database at any point. Ensure mine working personnel are being notified on the blasting activity that is going to take effect at least six hours before the blasting time using the right format as in SOPs/SWPs.
Technical Support	Design blast blocks which will be used for designing drill and blast patterns. Such blast blocks should be completed for three benches ahead the current mining bench before the commencement of drilling on the respective benches. Co-ordinate and incorporate inputs from various sections (e.g. Geology, Geotech and Survey) into the designing of blast blocks that will optimise ore movement. Design drill patterns, charge plans and tie-ins for blast patterns that optimise ore movement while considering the major geotechnical structures. Monitor the use of explosives and explosive accessories and give timely warnings as may be necessary. Ensure all blast designs are being signed as per SOPs/SWPs. Ensure that explosives and explosive accessories reported as used during each blast by the explosives/blasting contractor are accurate and sign off appropriately. Assist the Senior Mine Planning Engineers/Production Mining Engineers/Mining Engineers in forecasting quantity of explosives and explosive accessories to be used. In conjunction with the Senior Mine Planning Engineers/Production Mining Engineers/Mining Engineers, ensure that weekly and monthly plans are prepared to required standards and issued to operations for use in production planning. Take active part, by advising and offering engineering information, in the daily planning done by operations team. Ensure that QA/QC sheets are made available to Drilling Contractors and D&B Coordinator/Foreman for such sheets to be completed. Additionally, ensure that such sheets are returned for filing and payment purposes. Assist D&B Coordinator in ensuring that controls are in place to ensure safe, cost effective and productive drill and blast practices. Ensure that all drilling and blasting activities achieve design specifications e.g. bench toe and crest. Undertake other engineering roles as may be prescribed by the Chief Mining Engineer/ Mining Manager.
Cost Management	Provide the Chief Mining Engineer / Mining Manager with advice/ initiatives that seek to reduce costs in drilling and blasting activities. Managing the budgeting process with extreme diligence. Detail and backup for assumptions must be demanded from each contributor Manage business processes in compliance to the Company Code of Ethics and compliance to the Sarbenes-Oxley (SOX) law and standards.

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

Education Requirements:

Degree in Mining Engineering.
A minimum of 3 years relevant experience in the mining industry in large open pit.

Job

Drill and Blast

Primary Location

Tanzania-Mara Region-North Mara Gold Mine