What is your background?
My name is Onai Chenje, and I am a final-year Mining Engineering/Information Technology student at the University of Queensland. I was born in Zimbabwe but only briefly lived there before moving to Montreal, Canada, where I spent much of my childhood. In 2013, my family and I left the icy winters of Montreal and moved to Brisbane, where I have been living ever since. I chose to do mining engineering as much of my family are mining engineers or involved with the mining industry in some way, and it was recommended to me as a future in-demand market for engineering. I’ve previously done vacation work with Anglo American at their Moranbah North Mine (UG coal) and Capcoal Open-Cut operations.
What was your Vacation Placement like with Anglo American?
This summer (Nov 22/Dec 23) I was based at Anglo American’s Grosvenor mine, an underground metallurgical coal operation in Moranbah. As a mining engineering vacation student, I mostly worked in the Tech Services team, in which I got to experience a range of engineering roles and disciplines such as mine ventilation, gas drainage, and mine planning. This was a really good opportunity for me to see how different departments work together and allowed me to reflect on which area I was most passionate about. I also had two main projects to work on; a time and motion study of the development operations and the interpretation of drill log data. Both projects required me to interact and familiarise myself with the development department from both operational and technical perspectives.
From the moment I started working at Grosvenor, I felt like a member of the team. Everyone at the site was extremely friendly and helpful, regardless of how busy they seemed. They always did the best they could to make sure I got the most out of my experience, whether it be taking me underground to see something new or explaining a technical process in detail, like how automation is applied at Grosvenor, or how the ventilation and gas monitoring systems worked. The Tech services engineers especially encouraged me at every opportunity to ask as many questions as I could. On the other side (or should I say underside?), the underground coal mine workers were just as encouraging and helpful, always ensuring I was aware of what hazards were present in my area, and never missed an opportunity to give me safety tips like stepping on and not over cables. The deputies also always made sure I was on my toes, taking opportunities to quiz my awareness and knowledge of the work areas I interacted with.
Being the only male vacation student at Grosvenor didn’t stop me from getting along and building friendships with the other vacation students. On the weekends, we’d often get together for dinner or lunch, or we’d plan trips around the area. We also got to engage with the vacation students at Moranbah North; we even had a joint Airlie Beach trip for Australia Day weekend.
One or two highlights of your Vacation program placement with Anglo American
One highlight of the program for me was getting to self-direct my projects, and creatively apply programming skills I learned in my Information Technology degree to derive insights and conclusions from data. I got to show the senior leadership team and fellow engineers in Tech Services how programming could be used to interpret information in new, original ways to create a deeper understanding of what conditions were like underground.
The other highlight of my placement was getting to spend time with operations underground in development. Showing up as the guy with the stopwatch made them pretty wary but they quickly warmed up to me and showed me the ropes about what they do, the things they think about in terms of production and safety, and in general what life of a FIFO coal mine worker was like. I was impressed by the level of safety consciousness expressed at Grosvenor through operators and the sheer wealth of knowledge available from the underground coal mine workers.
1 or 2 pieces of advice to other university students