I have worked for many fine and skilled process engineers. They are usually the folk on the mine who are assigned responsibility for the tailings facility, which is the place to which the process wastes (tailings) go. Currently two of my clients are women process engineers. They are demanding, detail-oriented, and good at geotechnical engineering, although they disclaim any expertise in the subject.
I am working with a process engineer in the copper industry. He is running ragged searching for a better way to get more gold and copper out of the ore and all the while make a tailings that we can cost-effectively dispose of.
I have never worked with a consulting process engineer. I have met a few, but the projects have never demanded interaction. From what I can gather, the consulting process engineer has to solve the very difficult problems that bedevil the mill.
A quick search of jobs on CareerMine shows that there are many job openings for process engineers in the mining industry. Most are in the oil sands. Many are in Vancouver, Perth, and Toronto. Here are some of the job descriptions–copied here in order to give you some idea of what the work entails.
A job in New Mexico: The Sr. Process Engineer develops and improves systems designs, creates, reviews, and maintains engineering documents and drawings, and supports proposals related to equipment systems. In addition, he/she completes and verifies calculations pertaining to process flow and system pressure losses; and completes CFD modeling per project requirements. The Pneumatic Conveying/Process Engineer will be responsible for the development and improvement of heavy industrial system design. Additional responsibilities will include flow calculations, system pressure losses, and CFD modeling.
A job in Kwa-Zulu, South Africa: Reporting to the division general manager, the client is looking to appoint a senior process or plant manager on a permanent basis with immediate effect. The successful applicant will be the lead in the development and implementation of an appropriate business strategy involving the entire plant and processing aspect of this senior level position.
A job in Perth: As the Senior Process Engineer your responsibilities will include but not limited to; Provide technical expertise on mineral process design to clients; Develop and review process design criteria; Work on varying stages of multiple projects from study phase through to detailed design; Mentor and guide junior engineers.
There are many more, so take a look at this link if you are interested.
My interest in this topic was piqued by an email from a reader of this blog who as a recruiting consultant is seeking for a client in Toronto a gold and copper projects consulting process engineer. Again the criteria for the job are demanding, namely:
- 15-20 years of experience but would look at 10+
- Leadership role therefore ability to lead.
- Consulting engineering background required although they may have been in operations for a time.
- Gold/copper projects ideally
- Toronto office downtown
- Mineral processing plants through and through – nothing transferable.
I wonder that there are that many process engineers out there waiting to fill the many positions advertised. Still if this job interests you, contact Daniel Mackay at Daniel@caglobalint.com I suspect he would like to hear from you.
