Seppo Down Under

More about Phil....

So now you guys have met me mate Phil. Odd one, I know, but a good all around bloke. I promised to tell you a bit more about him, so here a few more peeks at his life.

Like I said, Phil is a Mining Engineer. When I mention the profession, people ask me (and Phil) what exactly that is. I sometimes struggle with a description because the mining engineer can fill any number of roles at a mine or even corporate office. The practicing mining engineer is a planner, and scheduler, a designer, a fixer, a drawer, an equipment operator, a salesperson, a scientist, a ditch digger, or a manager. We deal with people, equipment, and the finding, developing, drilling, breakage, haulage, and processing of mineralised deposits. Lets take my current location. Within the engineering office, we have engineers in the following jobs: drilling and blasting (my area of specialty), ventilation (mine airflow control), backfill (filling underground cavities after mineral extraction), planners (short and long term design), schedulers (operations management), geotechnical assessment (rock behaviour during mining), and operations management. Our partners in crime are the surveyors and geologists. Then there are the operations side of things that handle the extraction of the ore. There are far more of them, and the big battle that rages at a mine site is between engineering and operations. They want to take out more rock, faster. We want to make sure there will be rock for them to take out tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, etc. Oh sorry, Phil.

Phil is a good engineer. He comes to work on time (most of the time), does his job with care and vigilance, and doesn't waste company time. Lets pop in on Phil at work to see what the regular Wednesday morning is like.

What the??!?!?!? Phil, what are you doing?

Looks like the new company firewall is down....BAD PHIL!! You should be ashamed of yourself!!

Well, most of the time Phil is a good company man. He tries to do his job well, but sometimes his primal urges get him in trouble. Maybe I have a picture here of Phil actually doing his job and not cruising hand porn on the internet. Man, what an embarrasement. Phil, we'll have to have a talk about this one...letting me build you up like that and then letting me catch you looking at online finger smut...oh sorry folks I forgot the dictation mic was still on. So here's Phil underground...

That's better. Being the vigilant engineer, Phil wants to visually inspect the underground environment in which he is working.

The next installment of "Me mate, Phil" will be of our holiday in Cairns on the Northeast coast of sunny Queensland. There were a few hijinks. Stay tuned!