Extreme Mining: from deep freeze to parched earth

“In Canada we have problems with pipes and equipment freezing up, and we have heavy snowfall so in the spring, we have so much water we don’t know what to do,” she said.

“In Australia it’s very different; it is so dry and water is a big issue.”

“Sometimes we use sea water or hypersaline groundwater for mineral processing, but that causes corrosion in the pipes. When that happens, we have to perform maintenance and change the pipes. Depending on the life of the project and how long it will last, we could use stainless steel pipes, but that is much more expensive so it’s something we have to consider when we do the costing on a project.”

Ms Guay said keeping down production costs for clients was a key part of her role as a consultant with Coffey Mining.

“An important part of what we are doing is making the client’s work more efficient and more cost effective,” she said. “For example, when I am in charge of a metallurgical project it is my role to find the most efficient and economical way of extracting the ore and to advise the client about how best to process it.”

“Most projects comprise millions of tonnes of ore, quantified by hundreds of drill holes from which metallurgical samples are extracted. The more samples we can process the better will be the estimate of the deposit. Unfortunately it’s not economically viable to test all of them. My role is therefore to find a selection of core sample that is representative and will give us the best estimate of the processing required for the deposit.”

“We also look at things like the engineering requirements, process plant design, mass balance and equipment sizing. We then analyse the results to figure out whether the process is viable, taking into account capital expenditure, projected revenue and operating costs.”

Ms Guay said helping clients to audit their processes is also a big part of her job at Coffey Mining.

“I help clients evaluate their processes by assisting in the development of their flow sheets and audits,” she said.

“We undertake metallurgical test work and propose the type of testing to do. We make arrangements with the labs so we can improve the process. We also look at everything that impacts on the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the processing cycle.”

With close to 15 years experience on the operational side of the industry, Ms Guay has a solid understanding of the processes involved, putting her in a strong position to provide good advice to clients.

“I worked with 3 companies in the gold, copper, zinc and iron ore industries, before joining Coffey Mining, so I have a lot of experience in operations,” she said.

“During the past three years I was working with iron ore, which is a very important industry in north-eastern Canada. I was the director of the concentrator and I had a team of 300 people working there. Along with the mine, they are operating a processing plant with crushers, gravity circuit, tailings facility, railroad system and shipping port. They handle 41 million tons of ore per year and produce near 15 million tonnes of concentrate. It is a quite large operation.”

“I joined Coffey Mining in Australia because I wanted to work more on the technical aspects of processing. When you are a plant director, you inevitably do more people and work relations management. I was spending most of my time dealing with the union instead of doing technical work.”

“My husband and I are both engineers and were in the operation side of the mining industry for close to 12 years in Canada when we decided to move to iron ore. We wanted to develop our knowledge with a completely different commodity.”

After 15 years in operational work she said part of her motivation to move to Australia had been to expand her repertoire of expertise by getting the opportunity to see how things are done on the other side of the planet.

“We moved to Australia because we wanted to have further experience with various types of mining and different products. As a consultant, having a broad base of experience is very useful for when I am working on an open cut or underground mine. I am speaking from a position of experience because I have worked in the field in that sort of mine before and I am familiar with the difference between these operations.

“It’s ironic that I came here to work with Australian mines and I have ended up working on all sorts of projects around the world in places like Europe and Africa as well!”

Working for a consultancy like Coffey Mining means Ms Guay is always on the cutting edge of industry best practice.

“We have to keep in touch with the latest technology coming into the market and maintain good relations with suppliers at all times so we stay up to date,” she said.

“If you adopt new technologies and use the right equipment, the results can provide considerable savings. We have a crew of six metallurgists with varied expertise and we help clients find solutions to all kinds of challenges.”

She said the Australian climate and lifestyle were among the bonuses of working for Coffey Mining.

“We chose Australia because we wanted a safe country for our kids. We have three kids aged 8, 6 and 4 and we are enjoying the Australian lifestyle,” she said.

“It’s quite different to what I am used to. Since we’ve been here, we have barbecues every night. Even the winter in Perth felt like the summer in northern Canada. We were living up North, 1500 km north-east of Montreal, and it was really cold so we had no summer there only Spring, Autumn and Winter. When we were lucky, we had a week of 25 degree weather!

“The kids started wearing their big (snow) suits in October and it would snow until the beginning of June. Here, we have enrolled the kids in a surf life saving club and every weekend we go to the beach and surf. We feel we are on holidays every weekend.”