Sr. Engineer Drill & Blast

Job Title:  Sr. Drill and Blast Engineer

Reporting to the Mine Operations Superintendent, the Sr. Drill and Blast Engineer is primarily responsible for drill and blast design and performance. 

• Manage and ensure all employees and contractors are working in compliance with all Pinto Valley Mine and MSHA safety guidelines and procedures.
• Ensure all activities are compliant with Company policies and procedures, federal and state regulations as well as local regulatory agencies.   
• Strong collaboration and communication of plans and designs with various stakeholders.
• Supervise and control the design of the drilling platforms, ensuring compliance with safety and operation standards.
• Control the Blasting Protocol, evacuation plans, schedules, generation of meetings and attendees at blasting meetings.

• Control compliance by the contractors and vendors which PV is interacting in D&B matters.
• Control the development of the drilling patterns designs according to the technical definition in each blasting unit. (diameter, depth, etc.)
• Ensure the optimal fragmentation of the different materials destined for the processes established in our operation (leach, concentrator, waste, waste for buttress purpose, etc.).
• Control and optimize the usage of drilling consumables.
• Manage teams overseeing blasting and production drilling operations.
• Ensure the execution of the blasting warning and communication system.
• Manage the annual budget process of the resources for drilling and blasting services of the mine.
• Comply and respect the operating, risk prevention, environmental management and quality standards defined in the mine department.
• Manage assigned contracts by monitoring safety activities, expenses and service delivered.
• Ensure the QAQC of drilling and blasting.
• Manage the concept of continuous improvement by measuring and controlling management indicators, such as: Drilling effectiveness (ton/feet), blasting powder factor (gr/ton), utilizations and productivity of drilling fleets, over drilling, supplies expenditures, useful life and expenses on assigned contracts.
• Perform tests that allow us to improve our processes.
• Generate and control the budget and short-term budget.
• Develop technical studies to ensure high performance of drill and blast process in a sustainable way, considering fragmentation, fines percentages, vibration analysis and damage criteria as PPV critical, pre-split filter, among others.
• Connecting with Geotechnical engineer to develop modeling blasting units in the ore deposit.
• Participate actively in the mine sequence review in different scope of mine planning process, ensuring feasibility and acceptable achievable level of this sequence, considering:
  • Different types of blast (trim, production, secondary and pre-split), 
  • Typical stages of the D&B process to mine properly (Patter dimensions, timing to generate patterns, timing to drill patterns, blasting and loading interaction). 

Knowledge 

• 5 to 10 years of mining experience.  
• Mine Engineering or similar degree.
• Knowledge of drill-blast-load-haul open pit mining sequence is preferred.   
• Prior experience in a copper operation strongly preferred.   

Key Competencies / Skills

• Experience with MineStar or similar fleet management system.
• Experience with SAP or similar purchasing program.
• Prior exposure to mine planning software (Vulcan, Minesight) is preferred.  
• Prior exposure to blast loading and timing software (ViewShot, Delta E) is preferred. 
• Strong computer skills with Microsoft Suite (Excel, Word, Outlook, etc.)  
• Strong attention to detail.
• Quick learner with proactive mindset. 
• Proven ability to identify problems and devise solutions.
• Excellent communication, analytical, management and problem-solving skills are required.   
• Ability to speak, comprehend, read, and write English fluently. 

• This role is generally 50% office environment and 50% field environment. 
• Must have ability to stand and walk for short durations, including walking up and down stairs and across uneven surfaces. 
• Must have ability to kneel, crawl, stoop, and squat, occasionally in confined spaces.