Geotechnical & Hydro Engineer III - Newmont Mining Corporation

Newmont Mining Corporation is a leading global gold producer with key assets in Nevada, Peru, Australia, Ghana and Suriname.

Newmont’s Africa Operations holds two gold mining operations in Ghana: the Ahafo Mine located in the Brong-Ahafo region and the Akyem Mine located in the Eastern region. There is also near mine exploration and development focus in Ghana to annually replace gold reserves. Newmont Africa also has early-stage exploration programs in the African countries of Ethiopia and Morocco.

Our Africa operations employ approximately 5,900 employees and contractors, with the majority working at the Ahafo Mine. We offer an unparalleled blend of opportunity and career satisfaction with all the benefits you would expect from a global company. This, combined with our growth opportunities, makes Newmont a great company to work.

Our Akyem and Ahafo mines have made significant sustainable community development investments in our host communities. These include establishing Development Funds at our Akyem and Ahafo operational areas with each mine contributing US$1 per ounce of gold sold and 1% of net pre-tax annual profit into its community development fund.

The only gold company listed in the S&P 500 index, Newmont in 2007 became the first gold company selected to be part of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. Newmont’s industry-leading performance is reflected through our Africa operations’ high standards in environmental management, health and safety for our workforce and creating value and opportunity for our employees, host communities and Newmont’s shareholders.

About This Role

• To provide mining operation geotechnical engineering and hydrological support, related to the design and construction of key features within the mine (i.e. Pit Walls, Waste Dump and Tailings Storage Facility) that contribute to the ongoing economic sustainability of the operation. These include geotechnical & hydrological field investigations, monitoring programs, scheduling, data acquisition, modeling and interpretation, and preparation of technical reports.
• Actively demonstrate the Newmont values of safety, integrity, sustainability, inclusion and responsibility at all times.

In This Role, You Will

Geotechnical and Hydrological Activity Longevity

• Assist with the development, maintenance and implementation of strategic plans to enhance the operation’s slope stability program and suitable mining bench.
• Assist with the preparation of sustaining capital and operational budgets.
• Lead construction quality control and quality assurance activities (QA/QC) for the construction of key geotechnical and hydrological infrastructural aspects on the mine.
• Provide engineering assistance on effective dewatering of pit.

Geotechnical/Hydrological Demarcations

• Provide, implement and review mine design parameters for current and future pit, waste dumps and other facilities on the mine.
• Conduct geotechnical and hydrogeological planning, modelling and monitoring, including logging, mapping and rendering of results, utilizing specific software.
• Comply with mine design parameters on an ongoing basis to achieve highly profitable mining practices.
• Conduct reconciliation on designs.
• Provide geotechnical and hydrological analysis on various structural facilities in the mining area.
• Provide effective and efficient plans in meeting the Ahafo water management standards.
• Monitor the dewatering wells network to ensure efficient production and desired drawdown outcomes.
• Provide engineering assistance to the Ahafo site water balance modelling and groundwater modelling, as well as any geotech-hydro-related engineering, works.

Geotechnical and Hydrological Data Collection

• Lead geotechnical and hydrological instrumentation monitoring and data collection activities, structural mapping, pit dewatering rate and core logging.
• Lead the operational geotechnical data inventory efforts.
• Lead the Ahafo mine water management team in pit water data collection.
• Ensure all water related data in the mining area is adequately captured and feed to the Ahafo water balance model, groundwater model and the Ahafo water dashboard.

Additional Responsibilities

Geotechnical and Hydrological Testing

• Conduct geotechnical drilling, mapping and laboratory tests to anticipate any changes which may affect the geotechnical features of the mining area.
• Conduct verification tests and analysis of the pit walls, waste dumps and stockpiles, ensuring the safety of personnel and equipment.
• Conduct laboratory testing of rock and soil samples for geotechnical analysis.
• Coordinate with the environmental team on Ahafo water chemistry.
• Correlate on all water related issues on site including TSF, Water Storage Facility, Sediment Control Structures, Water Dams, Underground Operations and Projects etc.

Geotechnical and Hydrological Operational Monitoring

• Oversee the continuous monitoring of pit walls through visual inspections and instrumentation to predict and alert any potential instabilities.
• Monitor waste dumps, Stockpiles and TSF for any potential instability.
• Provide daily, weekly and monthly update on Ahafo In-pit Sumps and Pumping Volumes, Geotechnical-Hydrology reports.
• Document, report and present geotechnical and hydrological works including instabilities, inspection, dewatering KPIs, geotechnical analysis etc.
• Implement radar and RTS monitoring for designated site areas.

Geotechnical Installations and Implementations

• Lead regular geotechnical inspections of active and inactive areas in the mine.
• Supervise geotechnical and hydrological instrumentation installations in the mine area including prism installation, core drilling, VWP installation and dewatering wells.
• Provide assistance to contractors in execution of geotechnical and hydrological works.

Stakeholder Communication

• Communicate accurate, timely and relevant geotechnical and hydrological information to the mine operations supervisors and management team, planners, site management, Sustainability & External Relations, Corporate Functions and relevant stakeholder departments.

Health, Safety and Environment

• Deliver own prescribed outcomes and / or provide support services by applying Newmont’s Health, Safety and Environment systems, policies and protocols.
• Accept personal responsibility for the health and safety of all Engineers under or assigned to his / her supervision.
• Meet mining objectives and conform to Newmont mining standards, geotechnical and operational physical standards to promote safe mining operations within legislative guidelines.
• Oversee compliance with all relevant legal, environmental and occupational health, safety and risk management standards and best practices.
• Ensure that safety standards are adhered to.
• Plan, schedule and coordinate safety meetings.
• Attend monthly safety inspections and meetings.

Your Training, Skills & Experience Checklist

Formal Qualification (including Professional Registrations):

• Bachelor’s degree in Geological / Civil Engineering or related discipline.

Experience

• Minimum of 3 – 5 years of working experience in an open pit mining environment, with a solid background in Geology and Hydrology.
• Experience with MineSight.
• Experience with geotechnical and hydrological Software such as RocScience (Dips, Slides, Phase, Rocfall) and Dewatering System engineering estimation and modelling.
• Experience with geotechnical and hydrological modelling and interpretation.

Technical Skills

• Sound proficiency in software capabilities (CAD).
• Analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Effective communication (written and verbal) and interpersonal skills.
• Computer literacy skills – MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook), MS Project, Visio.
• Sound planning, organizing and prioritizing skills.
• Ability to conduct three-dimensional (3D) visualizations.