1. Simon GERRARD sdgerrard76@yahoo.com.au 0400 141 478
Page 1 of 9
PROFILE:
For over 14 years in the mining sector alone, I have developed my reputation for being a willing, helpful, diligent,
thorough and reliable employee. I am recognised for my work ethic and a demonstrated attitude of “What else
could I be doing?” and always keeping busy. With a strong focus on safety and continuous improvement, I take
every opportunity to share my experiences with others and make changes where possible. I pride myself on
being a team player and am always willing to work with management to achieve tasks as required. I consider
myself to be a well organised and disciplined individual, also able to work unsupervised to achieve task
outcomes. I am a very time conscious person and working as an underground nipper was a very time demanding
role, which sometimes required me to be in 3 places at once! So I became very good at managing my day wisely
to achieve the tasks that were required of me on a daily basis.
My personal achievement I feel is being one of the most competent IT operators around. I estimate to have a
minimum of 3000hrs+ operating these machines alone in both underground and surface environments, which
includes loading/unloading of trucks with the IT. I thrive on shift work and have adopted FiFo work as a preferred
lifestyle choice rather than just ‘a job’, and have always enjoyed the demands of mining work more than local
employment. However, I am very adaptable, and of course, am able to work in suburban roles if required. I also
have experience driving HR class trucks, such as Agi’s, tilt-trays, travel towers, flat tops and taught-liners. I
possess an open MC license, and am fluent with Road-Ranger transmissions if the role requires it. I also
possess a Dangerous Goods driver license and am able to pass ongoing D&A tests at ANY time.
I am a motivated and self-sufficient individual who can work wholly unsupervised, and once familiar with my
current job role and all that is involved, I am always keen to learn other roles and responsibilities within the
company to keep my interests fresh and rewarding. I possess mechanical aptitude and a natural ability to
operate all kinds of machinery. Having a very firm understanding on how most machinery and equipment works,
I am also able to diagnose most problems both as/before they occur. I respect ALL machinery as if it was my
own and pride myself in being a confident operator able to get the most from the equipment without causing
negligent damage to achieve this outcome.
My most recent employment was working for MMG at Golden Grove for over 8yrs, but due to planned reduced
output and restructuring of the workforce/rosters, my role as Nipper/Truck Driver was made redundant in
January 2016. I worked constant 12hr shift-work on an 8/6-7/7 FiFo roster and am not afraid of working long
hours. During this time at Golden Grove, I had been personally involved in various safety improvements on-site
including developing an underground Truck Driver PowerPoint presentation that was passed onto new truck
drivers and also the contract haulage personnel on-site as well. From years spent in the underground mining
industry I have developed a professional attitude to my work, and confidence in voicing my concerns about
safety and providing suggestions on how I think a certain problem that I see happening can/should be improved.
CAREER HISTORY:
Employer: MMG (Minerals & Metals Group Pty Ltd)
Location: Golden Grove mine site, WA
Duration: 8yrs+ on-site
MMG for 7yrs + 7mth from Jun ‘08 to Jan 2016
7mths with Programmed Integrated Workforce: Oct ‘07 to Jun ‘08
Position Held: Underground Nipper
Duration: 2 years
Duties included:
Completing daily vehicle pre-start and Workplace Inspection documentation.
Keeping stock and ordering ground support materials to the 4 underground “Nipper Stores” as required
(normally twice a week) and utilising the mine schedules (ie: shift plans) to determine sufficient stocks
were ordered for the right nipper stores for incoming crews to start their swing with ample gear as required
for those locations.
Removing excess rubbish from stores as required and general housekeeping around the mine including
2. Simon GERRARD sdgerrard76@yahoo.com.au 0400 141 478
Page 2 of 9
daily clean-up of the underground crib room.
Transporting personnel around the mine as required.
Watering down of fired headings as instructed to improve the waiting times for bogging/trucking activities.
Jumbo Offsiding which included:
Assisting jumbo to set-up on arrival to site by helping the jumbo operator to ‘plug in’ and connecting up the
water hose to the jumbo and ensuring cable/hoses were hung on L-pins as required by SOP’s, whist the
operator positioned the jumbo ready to start work. Also helping install the Flygt pump and connecting the
bull hose to the pump line for de-watering of the heading/s if required.
Assisting in changing tools on the jumbo boom/s as required ie: Bolting dolly for drill steels, changing bits
and guide bushes on the booms and assisting in repairs of breakdowns when needed.
Assisting in the installation of 2.4m/3.0m bolts and mesh, 3.0m grouted stiff-bolts and chemical anchor bolts.
Choking off vent bags to other levels to ensure maximum vent to the working heading.
Fixing hose leaks by way of bandit clamps and punch-lock tool.
Ensuring signage at the sites were clean and legible, and placement of witches hats/taped barriers were
adequate to warn other personnel to the presence of the jumbo when entering the area (This was
especially important when doing rehab work in random areas around the mine where other personnel
could access the area from more than one direction)
Clean-up at completion of ground support activities by way of removing any leftover bolts/plates at the faces
and taking back to nipper stores, or using them to service other headings.
Frequented all working headings after leaving the jumbos to make sure all other available headings were
serviced with ‘GS’ gear and ready to go before the jumbo arrived there next time. (This was also to help
setup the on-coming cross-shift) At some headings I had to make sure Flygt pumps were installed and
running to ensure de-watering activities were happening between shifts, especially at the decline faces.
Often assisted with charge-up operations after the jumbo had left the working face by offsiding the charge-
up operator, helping to prime/charge and wire in the heading/s for firing EOS if no-one else was available.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
With the mine foreman’s approval, I designed a “bolt rack” for the nipper cuddy’s to eliminate the hazard of
bolts spilling out onto your feet when cutting the straps to open the 3mtr bolt packs. This also helped to
keep stores tidy by keeping the bolts contained and allowed up to 4 packs of bolts to be stored together in
one individual location.
Position Held: Leading Hand UG Truck Driver (Cat AD-55/B)
Duration: 4 years
Duties included:
Perform daily pre-start checks to ensure safe operation of equipment at the start of shift and report any
problems to maintenance fitters, my supervisor and mine control as required.
Perform trucking operations including moving waste and ore in accordance with production requirements
and targets, and as specifically directed by the shift-boss.
Watering down headings after firing as required and dropping signs for the bogger operator ready for
loading.
Conversed with the grader operators to keep the declines in good repair. I often drove the only Ejector truck
on site and it was also my responsibility to bring road base material down into the mine for the graders to
use on the declines.
Training new personnel (including contractor personnel) in the operation of an UG truck and all
expectations/requirements of the job.
As Leading Hand truck driver, I coordinated instructions from the shift-boss to all the other drivers, including
the contract haulage drivers.
Assisted in occasional recovery operations, towing broken down vehicles and equipment from the mine
workings to the surface workshops under guidance by the shift-boss and as per SOP’s ie: compressor units,
commando drill, LV’s and occasionally broken down boggers and trucks.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
3. Simon GERRARD sdgerrard76@yahoo.com.au 0400 141 478
Page 3 of 9
Due to a poor standard schematic mine map, I implemented a “Truck Drivers mine map” with the help of
the survey department to help new employees navigate themselves around the mine with minimal
assistance required.
Following development in my own time and with input and advice from the training department, I
implemented a “Truck Drivers PowerPoint presentation” in 2013 to help new drivers develop their
knowledge and understanding of how to operate a truck in the underground environment safely and in the
hope of reducing the risk of personal injury or unnecessary equipment damage.
Nil Recorded Injuries (MTI, LTI) in my time operating the trucks.
Position: Construction Crew/Backfill and Service Crew
Duration: 2 years+
Duties included:
Constructing permeable bulkhead walls for the filling of depleted stopes with CHF.
Operating an IT62 with basket to manoeuvre an operator around while they bored out the hitches using an
air-leg mining drill.
Installing/repairing services (air/water/vent) on the levels. Using a bucket to acquire sand for cementing,
cleaning up levels and creating bunds at stope accesses.
Blowing down the floor to bedrock to create a solid surface to poor the concrete footings on before beginning
construction of the walls.
Installing gewie-bar (Rio Bar with chemical anchors) into the floor/walls/backs for the bricks to bond to.
Constructing the wall by hand from permeable bricks, effectively performing brick laying duties.
Installing piezo instruments and drainage pipes for stope drainage included in the construction of the walls.
Installing/removing and maintaining poly lines/valves throughout the mine for the purpose of CHF filling
operations.
Other random concreting jobs around the mine including: raise bore pads, HV cable bunds, electrical cuddy
footings for subs (transformers) to sit on, mono-pump footings, truck tips/stop logs for trucks to use for
backfilling activities.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
Using an air-leg machine to bore out hitches to charge/fire to create a v-shaped void for permeable bricks
to sit in when constructing the bulkhead walls, I became very confident using this equipment.
Using scaffolding up to 4m to gain enough height to get to the top of the walls. Basic but frequent scaffolding
use experienced whilst employed in this position.
Official WA Worksafe accreditation and training was provided for compliance with state law whilst
in this role. However, this ticket has since expired as I am not using it anymore.
Employer: Geraldton Mini Concrete, trading as Readymix Pty Ltd
Location: Geraldton, WA
Position: AGI Driver/Operator
Duration: 8 months from Mar ‘07 to Oct ‘07
Duties Included:
Deliveries of premixed concrete in and around the Geraldton shire area
Operation of 2 & 5 cubic metre agitator trucks with both automatic & road-ranger equipped transmissions
Helping with some light civil works projects as required
Employer: Australian Raise Drilling Pty Ltd
Locations: As listed below..
Positions: Offsider to Driller 1
Duration: 4yrs + 1mth from Oct ‘02 to Nov ‘06, FIFO 2/1wk roster
2yrs working at BHP’s Olympic Dam operation in SA.
1yr, 2mth working at Newcrest Mining’s Telfer gold mine site in WA.
10mth working at the now BHP’s Leinster Nickel Operations ‘Perseverance’ mine site in WA
4. Simon GERRARD sdgerrard76@yahoo.com.au 0400 141 478
Page 4 of 9
Duties included:
Operating an Atlas Copco ‘Robbins 121R’ surface raise bore drill. Also some experience on the smaller
underground raise bore rigs.
Conducting surface to underground pilot hole operations.
Monitoring drilling media levels and viscosities and adjusting accordingly.
Monitoring and servicing 3x diesel powered high volume GD pumps for the drilling of the pilot holes requiring
frequent adjusting/tweaking to control output volumes.
Reaming/boring operations including frequent rig maintenance.
Instructing new employees on the everyday operations of the drill site, the expectations from management
and how to operate the IT safely ie: handling drill rods in the correct manner so as to avoid damage to the
equipment.
Complete rig demobilisations and setups at new drill sites.
Loading/unloading trucks of all ancillary drilling equipment between drill site/mine sites. This included up to
3 days of sorting/stacking rods alone, up to a week of rig demobilisation/set-up of the rig at the next on-site
locations and up to 3-4 weeks for mine-to-mine relocations.
Experienced underground installations of 1.2m/2.4m/3m & 4.5mtr reamer heads and performing regular
cutter changes as required.
Employer: Major-Pontil Drilling Pty Ltd
Location: Cobar, NSW
Position: Underground Diamond Drillers’ Assistant
Duration: 1yr + 3mth from Oct ‘00 to Dec ‘01
9mth at Pasminco Elura mine site
6mth at CSA mine site
Duties included:
Assisting in everyday underground diamond drilling operations, including the manual handling of drill rods and
other drilling equipment, core sample indexing/cleaning/preparation and storage/transportation and rig
demobilisation/set ups.
Maintenance of drill rig and general upkeep of LV.
Employer: Sherrin Hire
Location: Canberra, A.C.T./Queanbeyan, NSW
Position: EWP Travel Tower Operator
Duration: 12mths from Mar ‘99 to Mar ‘00
Duties included:
Operating and transporting various access equipment such as:
17, 23 and 40mtr truck mounted cherry pickers for the purpose of erecting billboards, tree trimming,
radio/television/communication antenna repairs/installation’s and window washing, and many other small jobs
as required from the customer.
12 to 35ft electric and diesel powered scissor lifts.
17 to 75ft diesel powered knuckle and boom lifts.
12mtr trailer lifts.
NB: Operating the scissor lifts/boom lifts/trailer lifts was only for the purpose of loading/unloading this equipment for
deliveries and pickups.
Experienced tying down of loads and making sure they were secure for delivery to the customer and also inter-
depot transfers of equipment as required.
Transferring equipment between depots (Canberra-Wollongong-Brisbane-Melbourne-Perth) requiring long
distance driving.
ALSO: Operated a new 8ton HINO tipper combined with a Bandit 150 wood chipper for the Canberra City Council’s
Parks and Gardens Department contract, assisting them with the removal/trimming/mulching of trees in the local
Canberra area. Some minor chainsaw work was also needed to help with these tasks.
5. Simon GERRARD sdgerrard76@yahoo.com.au 0400 141 478
Page 5 of 9
Employer: Pacific Coast Engineering
Location: Townsville, Far North Qld.
Position: 2nd
Class Welder, T/A
Duration: 12mths from Dec ‘97 to Dec ‘98
Duties included:
Assisting in the construction/welding of bi-folding aircraft hangar doors for RAAF, a gas-turbine generator filter
house, several 20 tonne hoppers and various other smaller welding applications.
Welding requirements included; 3 to 10mm flat, butt and positional welds (using trans-mig 400 welders), some
vertical, overhead and stainless steel welding.
Overhead gantry crane operations.
Operating guillotines, bending presses, cut-off saws, 10” grinders and hole-punch machines in the fabrication
of all of the above jobs stated above.
Employer: Pontil Drilling Pty Ltd
Location: Gunpowder Copper Mine, NW Qld.
Position: Underground Diamond Drillers’ Assistant
Duration: 12mnths from Dec ‘95 to May ‘96, and Nov ‘96 to Apr ’97
Employer: ISA Trade Waste
Location: Mt. Isa, Qld.
Position: Skip Truck Operator
Duration: 6wks from Aug ‘95 to Sep ‘95
Employers: Pavex Civil Constructions / Transfield Constructions / Steam-It Cleaners / Simon-Carves
Australia
Location: Mt. Isa, Qld / McArthur River Mine, N.T.
Positions: Labourer, T/A
Duration: Various short-term casual positions held during the time period from Dec ‘93 to Jun ‘95
CURRENT LICENSES*:
WA Heavy Vehicle drivers lic: #4646364 (class = MC) Exp. 23/10/2016
WA Dangerous Goods drivers lic: #DDB074733, Exp. 24/02/2021
VALID TICKETS*:
Dangerous Goods Security Card - #DGSC-013964, Exp. 08/03/2017
Working at Heights (WAH) - #000273, Issued: 16/06/2012
High Risk Forklift Ticket (LF) - #WL 3395855, Issued: 24/03/2016
Front End Loader (LL) - #000741, Issued: 16/02/2016
Construction Industry Induction (White Card) - #791450, Issued: 12/12/2006
*I am able to provide a ‘PDF’ file with scans of all of the above licenses/tickets which I will personally email upon request
REFEREES*:
Isabel Beasley (Gossan Hill HR manager, MMG, Golden Grove mine, WA)
Wayne Gavallis (Underground Manager: MMG, Golden Grove mine, WA)
Gerard Groves (Underground Mine Foreman: MMG, Golden Grove mine, WA)
George Luk (Production Shift Supervisor: MMG, Golden Grove mine, WA)
*Contact details are available upon request
