In this podcast, we speak to Sarah Gordon, Managing Director at Satarla who are a global network of trainers, consultants and researchers who believe that risk management should be practical and enable real decisions to be made and acted on, with mining at the core of their business. Sarah often speaks at events and after seeing her talk earlier this year, and also having heard her speak at the recent Mines & Money event in London, I’m excited she agreed to appear on this podcast.

We talk about how she got her first graduate role and gives some tips for graduates looking for their first job. This episode provides a great insight around risk management and what mining companies should be implementing not only in their due diligence but also during operations. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Geology is all about uncertainty. No geologist truly knows about what is going on beneath the surface of the planet until someone excavates. Geologists are like risk managers in this regard, and so transitioning to this sector was a natural movie for Sarah.
• Sarah got her break in Anglo-American by going to a careers fair, where Rio Tinto were promoting their student internship scheme. While applying for Tinto, she applied for Anglo, who contacted her first.
• Putting yourself out there is certainly a better way of getting yourself noticed when leaving education. Every opportunity is a good opportunity. Never be afraid to speak up.
• Go to events, talks and networking summits. Tell them you’re a student and you will often get reductions, and in most cases, free of charge. Make sure you have business cards and CVs printed when talking to potential employers. Make sure you stand out, and make sure you follow up!
• Satarla’s goal when it was founded, was to provide rick management that was practical and accessible at all levels of the organisation. 
• Risk management varies from country to country. The issue many companies have is that they try to apply solutions and lessons learned to every territory worldwide. But they need to be re-evaluated on a territorial basis.
• Over the past few years, most other sectors have gradually brought all risk management sectors together into enterprise-wide risk management.
• Risk management is in danger of becoming overcomplicated by bureaucracy. It needs to become less management focussed and more assessment focussed.
• Simplify your process into four steps:
  • Understand what the context is and how it’s changing together with your objectives.
  • Identify those risks.
  • Put in place the controls to manage those risks.
  • Monitor, review, and report.

.BEST MOMENTS

‘Within the world of geology you’re typically focussed upon what’s going on beneath the surface of the earth’

‘When you’re trying to stand out, making sure everything is right helps’

‘Make sure you hook into their memory’

‘Risk management is that mechanism through which people can truly understand what the objectives are that they’re trying to achieve’

‘Risk is being pushed into the management space instead of the assessment space'

VALUABLE RESOURCES

 

Dig Deep – The Mining Podcast on iTunes

Satarla - https://www.satarla.com

Sarah Gordon LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-gordon-a618821a/?originalSubdomain=uk

ABOUT THE HOST

Rob Tyson is an established recruiter in the mining and quarrying sector and decided to produce the “Dig Deep” The Mining Podcast to provide valuable and informative content around the mining industry. He has a passion and desire to promote the industry and the podcast aims to offer the mining community an insight to peoples experiences and careers covering any mining discipline, giving the listeners helpful advice and guidance on industry topics.

 

Rob is the Founder and Director of Mining International Ltd, a leading global recruitment and headhunting consultancy based in the UK specialising in all areas of mining across the globe from first world to third world countries from Africa, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia. We source, headhunt and discover new and top talent talent through a targeted approach and search methodology and have a proven track record in sourcing and positioning exceptional candidates into our clients organisation in any mining discipline or level. Mining International provides a transparent, informative and trusted consultancy service to our candidates and clients to help them develop their careers and business goals and objectives in this ever-changing marketplace.

 

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected]

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/

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