Resourceful: Stories from the Site

Health and self-care are paramount in any profession, not least of all the mining and resources sector due to the obligatory long hours and physicality of the work. For some time now, the nature of this sector has led to resistance to the investment of sufficient time and resources in occupational health and safety. Joan McEwan, our guest today, is one of the pioneers of change in this area advocating for health and wellness, particularly for female leaders in the mining and resources industry.

She has an unlikely origin as a Registered Nurse with a post-graduate qualification in mental health. Eventually, Joan shifted her focus to occupational health and landed a job as an occupational health nurse in the mining sector in Perth. This was an unexpected change of scenery for Joan, one that led to the rapid expansion of her career and along with it, the inevitable deterioration of her work-life balance. Joan identified this and took steps to address it and in doing so, identified an area-of-need within her industry and an opportunity to assist her peers.

As a health and wellbeing leader, speaker, author, and coach, Joan’s career spans over 30 years and we are excited to have her on the show today.

For more useful tips and resources head to the Resources Unearthed website.

Joan McEwan's Book - “Show Up”: https://joanmcewan.com/book/

Find Joan on LinkedIn

Environmental impact and sustainability are thankfully terms that are now commonplace within the mining and resources sectors. Along with it comes the people who are giving their all to conceive and uphold eco-policies in an effort to address the current climate crisis. One such person is our guest today, Brenda Kuzyk.

Her bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences was obtained some 35 years ago in Alberta, Canada in a time where green-thinking was seldom emphasised. This meant the job market was somewhat unappealing. Being a resilient agent of mother nature, Brenda adapted dynamically and seized numerous opportunities to transition from her origins in the Canadian federal government to secure a private industry role as a sustainability professional. She assists companies within the mining and resources sectors to align with sustainability policies.

For more useful tips and resources head to the Resources Unearthed website.

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In order to achieve your career goals in the mining and resources industry, it’s necessary to move to where the opportunities present themselves. This can cause quite a strain on your relationships, friendships and your health. Throughout the Resourceful podcast series thus far we’ve heard from the engineers who’s careers have caused this shift and the ways they have been directly affected. Today we’re diving into another episode focused on families to gain insight into how the lives of our loved ones are affected.

We’re joined by Tricia Morland, partner to Richard who we’ve previously had the pleasure of interviewing on the podcast. In fact, Richard’s episode is our most downloaded episode so far and we’re sure Tricia would be up for a little bit of healthy competition to knock him off the top spot.

Tricia's honesty and positive outlook when discussing Richard’s career trajectory filled us with a warm, cosy feeling. With a focus on teamwork, communication and open-mindedness, it’s clear that Tricia and Richard have made the most of every opportunity. With every move, Tricia has emphasised how important it was for her to feel as if she had her own identity, her own agenda and to fully immerse herself in the communities they moved to. This has seen Richard and Tricia make many valuable friendships throughout their lives and happily call Yellowknife home.

As we discuss in this episode, Tricia has her own capes and accessories business, Taiga Blossom. Head to her website to learn more.

For more useful tips and resources head to the Resources Unearthed website.

We’ve got something a little different lined up for you as we’re putting our very own, Brett Cribb in the hot seat. An ex-mining engineer, Brett is the founder of Resources Unearthed, a director of Stratus Financial Group and the host of this podcast. He started his career in Mt Isa and progressed quickly through the ranks to Underground Mine Manager.

After some time working in the field, Brett came to realise that his passion was in a different industry. With a keen interest in financial services, Brett took the leap and joined the financial planning community. In previous episodes, Brett has mentioned the “hedgehog theory”, and today he delves into greater detail as to what this means, and how this can be applied to find the career path that will work for you.

If you'd like to speak to Brett about your own career journey, you're more than welcome to connect with him on LinkedIn.

For more useful tips and resources head to the Resources Unearthed website.

Today we’re sitting down with Matt O’Neill, the Chief Operating Officer of Glencore, North Queensland Assets, based out of Mt Isa. Although Matt grew up in Mt Isa and his father was heavily involved in the resources industry, he had originally been determined not to work in the area himself. However, years later this is exactly where he has ended up.

Although originally Matt felt it was necessary to leave the small town, pave his own way, and find opportunities in a bigger city, he discovered upon returning to Mt Isa, that there are very unique benefits from working in a regional area. The opportunities that are available to truly make a difference to the lives of those living in the area are unlike anything Matt experienced throughout his time living in Melbourne as a partner in a consulting firm. Matt reflects on the learnings that he has taken away from this experience, and that when it comes to business, it’s best not to take things personally.

Matt touches on some key principles today that have held him in good stead throughout his career. As a leader, he explains how necessary it is to really listen to your employees, and provide quality feedback. Your team need to feel heard and understood, and although you might not agree, you also need to explain why this is the case. Matt also provided some insight into the way his family adjusted from living in a bigger city, to the regional lifestyle and how it has worked out to actually be the best thing for all of them.

If you'd like to speak to Matt about your own career journey, you're more than welcome to connect with him on LinkedIn.

For more useful tips and resources head to the Resources Unearthed website.

Sometimes as a manager, you need to make extremely tough decisions, and these decisions can be even tougher if you don’t feel that you have the support of your team. Our podcast guest today, Paul Harvey has had to make many of these tough decisions throughout his career, and he talks us through how a manager can work towards the best outcome for the greatest number of people.

Paul is the Chief Operating Officer of South32. He is a highly motivated and skilled leader that has worked in both small and large scale operations all over the world.  When discussing his strategies on leadership and management, Paul emphasises the importance of care above all else, helping him to understand the impact of decisions on his employees.  He takes the time and utmost care in supporting their needs which in turn helps establish trust, the basis for any high performing operation.

If you'd like to speak to Paul about your own career journey, you're more than welcome to connect with him on LinkedIn.

For more useful tips and resources head to the Resources Unearthed website.

On the Resourceful podcast series so far we’ve spoken to successful and highly knowledgeable leaders in the mining and resources industry. We’ve picked their brains regarding career highlights, lessons they’ve learned and obtained invaluable insights. But behind every great person, there is another great person willing to sacrifice and support their partner through a career that is constantly changing and evolving.

To kick off our focus on families, we’ve brought our previous guest, John Landmark’s wife, Vicky in to provide us with an honest and inspirational look at what it’s really like to live and breathe mining and resources.

John and Vicky Landmark have recently embarked on their 10th international move and although John has previously discussed with us how he got to where he is today, we’re interested to hear how Vicky and their children have adjusted to a life where the only constant seems to be inconsistency.

Vicky is honest about the hard times that they have had to endure as a family, but also exudes optimism and a contagious sense of adventure. This type of life certainly is not for everyone, but for those that are willing to embrace change and see the glass as half full, there are significant rewards.

We’re excited to share this episode with you and look forward to delivering more from the families supporting our mining and resources industry.

For more useful tips and resources head to the Resources Unearthed website

With a career spanning over 30 years in the maintenance sector of the mining and resources industry, our guest today Gerard Wood has seen his fair share of machinery failure and productivity loss. It was a common occurrence for machinery to fail unexpectedly, and require considerable downtime to fix. Through Gerard’s experience in a variety of roles within the maintenance sector and a stint in the Global Maintenance Network, he developed a unique set of skills enabling him the ability to asses these maintenance issues and work towards positive business outcomes.

In his experience, Gerard has found that the most important factor to increasing fleet availability is not the documentation or procedures, but the work culture. There are good people at every mine site that genuinely want to do a great job, but getting everyone on the same page is the most common challenge. If you can create and foster a cohesive team, your productivity and profits will increase.

After years working on mine sites, Gerard’s inner entrepreneur took hold and with his savvy business partner, Gerard started Bluefield Asset Management. They have grown to a substantial size with offices globally, all working towards the common goal of creating efficient, profitable and safe mining environments. He is also working on a new company, Relialytics which improves asset reliability through a different approach to analytics.

If all of this wasn’t enough, Gerard has also recently written a book, Simplifying Mining Maintenance to share his extensive knowledge, which can be purchased here.

For more information on Bluefield Asset Management, head to their website. You can also connect with Gerard on LinkedIn.

To learn more about Resources Unearthed, head to our website.

There’s no denying that the mining and resources industry can involve a lot of travel and change. Fly-in-fly-out contracts are extremely common and long commutes can become a big part of your life, It’s important to recognise that change is inevitable, and in order to thrive in this industry, you need to embrace it.

Our guest today, John Landmark has done more than his fair share of travel throughout his 30 year career. In fact, along with his wife Vicky, they are just about to embark on their 10th international move. Through his experience in organisational change management, John understands the importance of flexibility in business and the opportunities that present themselves when you’re open to extensive travel.

John is a geologist by trade who’s held roles all around the world in exploration, mining operations and safety risk management.  Although he started out in exploration, he’s now Vice President of Human Resources for Kirkland Lake Gold in Toronto, a field that seems far removed from where he started. John explains however that there are actually a lot of similarities between exploration, and the work that he now does in HR.

If you'd like to speak to John about your own career journey, you're more than welcome to connect with him on LinkedIn.

For more useful tips and resources head to the Resources Unearthed website.

In order to empower your workforce to feel good about the work that they’re doing, you need to be willing to listen to their needs. Perhaps this takes the form of a monthly town hall meeting, conducting a survey or going to the site and discussing directly with those on the ground. Whatever form it takes, as a leader, it’s important to let your staff know that their opinion matters and that you’re willing to make changes.

Our guest today, Richard Morland strongly believes in the power of communication. He emphasises the importance of asking for help, which he believes is always more available than you might imagine, as well as relationship building within a team environment. He discusses the steps that are required to positively transform your workplace, improve mental health and reassess the needs of the business.

Richard also shares his view that we’re not defined by the industry we work in and that the skills you learn on the job can be applied to many others in order to benefit your community.

If you feel as if you have a need for some assistance in the area of leadership, coaching and management, you are able to connect with Richard via LinkedIn.

For more useful tips and resources head to the Resources Unearthed website.