Mr Lomberg is the Regional Manager for Coffey Mining in South Africa but on any given day he can be on the phone to colleagues in South Africa, Brazil, Australia and even Cuba. He said the global nature of Coffey Mining’s business meant that the idea of a traditional office space was becoming anachronistic.
“Defining a workplace in geographical terms just doesn’t take into account the way business works these days,” he said. “My physical office may be in South Africa but my work takes me to the four corners of the earth. At the moment I’m based in Johannesburg, but I have been managing a project in Cuba which was being implemented by a geologist from Brazil and will soon have engineering support from our team in Australia. This is just one example of the global nature of Coffey’s work. The idea that an office is defined by four walls just no longer applies.”
Mr Lomberg has been jetting back and forth to Cuba since March this year, supervising operations at International Copper Resources Mantua Copper Project in Western Cuba.
Mantua is one of the few resource based international projects of its kind being undertaken in Cuba.
“The Mantua site’s been in exploration since the early 1960’s when the Soviet Union was giving geological assistance to Cuba,” Mr Lomberg said.
”We’ve been using their data as a base for our own studies and we’re finding they were pretty much on the ball, even if they didn’t have the complex technological tools that we now have access to.”
Historically, the Mantua Project was mined for gold, but when copper prices went up it was viable to go after the copper.
Mr Lomberg admits that spending time in a country that has been virtually closed to Western visitors since the 1950’s has been a real eye opener.
“Cuba has been great. The people are friendly and I’ve been able to experience the best cigars and drink excellent rum next to the second biggest coral reef in the world. A workplace really doesn’t get much better than that,” he said.
“Where most people are chained to the desk, I’ve had this amazing opportunity to travel and see the world.
“I find the job fascinating. There is never a dull moment. It’s all of these things that make it fun. There’s not a chance that I could have done a normal 9-5 desk job. I like to do things that are different and geology is different. Mining is different – everything that’s unusual.”
Ken is working alongside geologist Fernando Okamoto, from Coffey Mining Brazil, who is in charge of the verification and testing of samples taken from the site. Mr Okamoto agrees that spending time in Cuba has been a career highlight.
“I’ve had some fun experiences here. One of the favourite Cuban pastimes is playing dominoes, however they play it differently than Brazilians,” Mr Okamoto said. “In Cuba, they do a lot of talking during the game and tease one another, which makes the game a lot more fun and competitive.”
Mr Okamoto said his role at the site was to assist with studies into the feasibility of extracting the copper.
“We’re verifying the data from all of the other exploration phases of the site and also taking our own samples,” he said. “The purpose of this initial investigation is to establish the best way of extracting the copper that is buried under this mountain.”
Mr Lomberg said there were good opportunities for people with adventurous spirits to have potentially amazing careers in the sector.
“I chose geology as a career and it’s taken me all over the world,” he said.
“I’ve seen so many interesting things and experienced life in some really far away places. This is a job that will take you far beyond the walls of a single office building and give you opportunities to work on projects all over the world and get a feel for how business works on a global scale. Not many people have a chance to do that.”
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Media contacts
Diana Krause, Global Manager External Communication
T: +61 3 9473 1300; M: +61 420 959 942; E: diana_krause@coffey.com
