SUMMARY:
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POSITION INFO:
Lead Process Engineer – Cape Town
Duties
- Ensure that Process Engineering activities are conducted to the highest quality, ethical and in line with Company, Client and regulatory requirement.
- Establish design standards in areas of expertise for the process team.
- Coordinate the resources necessary to ensure that studies are completed on time, on budget and to the appropriate standard.
- Work collaboratively with personnel across all business units.
- Ensure overall process deliverables are achieved to a consistently high standard. Respond immediately to change to ensure projects are completed on time in accordance with the contractual scope of work and services.
- Utilise project reporting requirements in accordance with Company and Client standards to a high level of accuracy and professionalism.
- Responsible and accountable for all Process design functions carried out on designated Projects, whether handled personally or delegated to subordinate staff members.
- Deliver best practice process designs in accordance with project time, budget and technical requirements.
- Prepare and review study documents adhering to Company policies and procedures to a high level of accuracy and professionalism.
- Analyse data and its relationship to the process design.
- Manage the process components of scoping, pre-feasibility and feasibility studies to ensure they are correct and thorough, appropriate to the study phase.
- Carry out peer reviews of particular designs.
- Actively solicit new business and assist with established client maintenance.
- Suggest methods to improve operational efficiency within the Process Engineering team.
- Work in conjunction with a range of internal and external stakeholders to meet project design work criteria and deliverables.
- Develop and contribute to the delivery of improvement initiatives which support business priorities for continuous improvement.
- Contribute to engineers in training professional development by providing consistent mentoring and identify avenues of development.
- Proactively support other team members as required to ensure Project deliverables are met.
- Ensure a high level of communication is attained within the Process Engineering group.
- Provide leadership, guidance and direction to the Process Engineering group as required.
- Travel on an ad-hoc basis to suit the needs of the business and its operations.
Minimum Requirements
- University degree in Metallurgy, Chemical Engineering or equivalent qualification.
- A minimum of 15+ years of experience in mineral processing and/or related industries and post graduate experience.
- Mix of process plant operations and project development roles, within mining companies, and contract engineering organisations.
- South African Citizen or Permanent Resident
- Cape Town based (or willing to relocate)
Commodity:
- Gold and silver – free milling and refractory ores.
- Platinum group metals and chrome.
- Uranium
- Base metals (copper/lead/zinc/nickel/cobalt) – sulphides in particular, and oxides.
- Battery minerals (graphite/lithium).
- Iron ore (haematite/magnetite).
- Mineral sands (ilmenite/rutile/zircon/monatize).
- Industrial minerals (limestone/barite/talc/gypsum/potash/phosphates/etc).
Unit Process Focus:
- Comminution – crushing and screening, HPGR, milling (SAG, ball, rod, attrition) and classification.
- Ore preconcentration – DMS, machine sorting.
- Gravity separation – spirals, centrifugal bowl, tables, jigs.
- Froth flotation – including alternative equipment technologies – Jamieson, Woodgrove, Concorde, etc.
- Electrostatic separation.
- Magnetic separation
- Dewatering – thickening, filtration, centrifuging.
- Hydrometallurgical operations – leaching, carbon adsorption/desorption, solvent extraction, ion exchange, electrowinning.
- Refractory ore processing – roasting, pressure oxidation, Biox®, ultrafine grinding, Albion process.
- Heat exchange – process heating and cooling, crystallisers, dryers.
- Process plant instrumentation and control philosophy.
- Interpretation of mineralogical and metallurgical test work results.
Process Simulation/Digital:
- IDEAS or similar software.
- Digital twinning.
- Scenario modelling.
- Solid technical aptitude, analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Build and sustain positive relationships with all stakeholders, including clients, vendors and co-workers.
- Ability to work with people at all levels within an organisation and external providers.
- Excellent organisational skills with the ability to multitask and prioritise to a high standard of accuracy and professionalism.
- Ability to work effectively with minimal supervision whilst consistently producing a high quality of deliverables.
- Personal qualities of integrity, credibility and commitment.
- Demonstrate a strict practice of confidentiality, personal responsibility and discretion.
- Exemplify and encourage the core values and ethos of the business.
- Provide mentoring and identify avenues of professional development and succession planning for personnel within your group.
- Intuitive leader with the ability to initiate, lead and manage change in a complex environment.
- Capacity to delegate appropriately.
- Capacity to evaluate work practices, implement systems and suggest alternatives and refinements where necessary.
- Demonstrated ability to achieve consistently high standards within both budgetary and schedule constraints.
- Well-developed business acumen with the ability to adapt to different business environments.
- High attention to detail and exceptional knowledge of contract law and contract document requirements.
- Ability to travel on an ad-hoc basis to suit the needs of the business and its operations.
- High degree of professional ethics.
- Highly developed negotiation, influencing, analytical and problem resolution skills.
