Steven Potter / Mining Engineer / Australia
Graduated in Mining Engineering, 1993
Manager (Mine Planning) Hammersley Iron, Western Australia
Q: what does your working day involve?
A: I manage 25 professionals to do mine planning. This involves personnel management, meetings, site visits, technical discussions and guidance, as well as trips to Japan to sell iron ore. The mine planning group does geotechnical work, dewatering, surveying, pit design and scheduling from 1 month to 20 years for all the mines in our area.
Q: what do you enjoy most?
A: There is an excellent and varied mix of work making a significant contribution to a big and successful company. I deal with people but I still have a strong technical role - as well as developing supporting arguments for big decisions (capital expenditure decisions of $100m-500m - and scheduling the mining for a business with operating costs of ~$0.5B).
Q: what do you dislike most?
A: Living in the middle of nowhere is a nice simple life but sometime you miss the bright lights. Working for a big company means that decisions often involve a lot of people which can translate to a frustrating and political environment.
Q: what has been the most exciting part of your career?
A: Short-term planning and drilling and blasting whilst working at Argyle Diamonds in Western Australia.
Q: what has been the biggest achievement of your career?
A: Putting together and improving the Hamersley 20 year plan worth between $0.3 to 0.5 billion to the
company.
Q: any suggestions for students starting out?
A: Do it if you like living in alternative locations - small places in a variety of countries. You need to be very flexible regarding the type of role, from operating to technical to personnel management to commercial/financial. It helps to be prepared to do any style of role as sometimes you don't get the breadth of choice that you may wish.
Q: would you recommend a career in mining and minerals?
A: It's different, varied with great, no-bullshit, "grounded" people. It can pay OK: better than suburbia but worse than working in the city. You won't get to live in the city of your choice. You'll often live in a small place where everyone works for the same company. If you like the people and have a good rep it's good to be part of such a tight-knit club. In the final analysis it's a personal choice. At the end of the day, I seem to be much more content than my friends in other professions back in the UK.
