Welcome to Operational Geotechs’ latest e-update.
It’s been a while since we were in touch, so we’re pleased to bring you a fresh conversation with OG co-founder and director Ben Barsanti. Ben is expertly heading up our new Canadian operations and has now been on the ground there for nearly a year.
This update on the past six months will be released in two parts, with the second half to hit your inbox soon.
We trust you’ll enjoy hearing all Ben has to share in this first part of the series.
On The Road
Q Ben, you’ve been travelling a bit in recent months.Can you tell us about that?
A Absolutely. Back in late April, I set up a road trip through Ontario and Quebec visiting five different mines along the way, which was great. I planned to end my travels in Montreal in early May, so I could attend CIM CONNECT, a major event for mining and mineral professionals.
I’ve also been out to Young-Davidson mine, one of Canada’s largest underground gold mines, run by Alamos Gold Inc. This site was one of the ones I dropped into during my road trip and the team subsequently reached out wanting some help with a backfill management plan, which OG has a lot of experience with. I stayed on site for nine days going through the whole backfill system, spending time with their engineers and creating a robust management plan, which was really enjoyable.
I have also headed to Brucejack, one of the world’s highest-grade operating gold mines, in British Columbia to see OG team member Sachin Weerasooriya. Sachin’s been working at Brucejack since February and my visit was part of OG’s internal mentoring program, but it also provided a good opportunity to check in with our client, Newmont. I was on site for a few days, Sachin and I went underground together to get a look at the mine, and I got the chance to meet the technical and operations team.
I’ve personally been on site three times in the past two months for new clients, mostly recently at Vale Canada Ltd’s Thompson mine in Manitoba. There’s a geotechnician but no geotechnical engineer currently working on site, so I’ll be helping the tech services team, supporting them for a bit, providing guidance on their geotech systems.
Making Inroads
Q So OG is settling in well in Canada, Ben?
A Yes,we are.There’s definitely been a spike in enquiries now that word is starting to get out that we’re on the ground in Canada.
A lot of people I’ve met here have started to reach out and have the conversation with us about supplying people to site and looking to know more about the skills we have in the business. That’s a good sign that more people are starting to understand what we do.
Having Sachin here in Canada for nearly a year has been terrific to show clients exactly how we can help their team. Sachin started with OG in 2017/18 with vacation work while finishing his degree and went full time in 2019. In his six or so years with us, he’s been in and out of about nine mines, plus had exposure to another three during his vacation work. Sachin’s doing really well, he’s only ever known our way, and is a great person to represent OG in Canada and our business in general. Our clients are extremely happy with him; his time on site here in Canada has been extended at both mines in the past year, which is as good as a pat on the back.
Fall of Ground Incident Assistance
Q What’s the most pressing job you’ve had since you got to Canada?
A In early August I was urgently asked to get to Newmont’s Red Chris open pit gold and copper mine in British Columbia. They’d very recently had a fall of ground incident where three drillers were trapped underground beyond the rockfall. The drillers were safe in refuge chambers but communications and the travel way in and out of the mine had been cut off, leaving them trapped underground for 60 hours. The site team did an amazing job, and the trio was rescued uninjured.
Once the drillers were safe, the team moved into assessment/investigation mode and began looking at remediation options. As part of this, I was contacted by mining contractor Barminco, who we’ve done a lot of on-site work for, to represent them as a subject matter expert in the geotech field.
From the first call to arriving onsite, it was three days, then I got straight into helping the site team go through their risk assessment. I was involved in workshops related to how they were going to re-establish mine access, fix the rockfall area and ensure the workforce could successfully get back underground when the appropriate time came, after the internal investigation and approvals were complete.
I ended up being there a week helping the Newmont geotech and technical services teams and the Barminco team. I have incredibly high praise for how everyone came together and worked through it all with many varied opinions and experiences, and it was very satisfying to be part of.
Aussie Slang & Tim Tams
Q Ben, there are many similarities between Australians and Canadians – like being approachable, understated and down to earth – but have you found any challenges settling in?
A I have caught myself occasionally using some slang Aussie terms, then having to explain myself!
However, all up, I’ve been pretty conscious of the terminology I’m using and my accent when talking with people. I’m actively mindful of trying to use Canadian mining terms, rather than what Australians use ie. the use of imperial ather than metric for measurements.
I did introduce iconic Aussie chocolate biscuits Tim Tams to the crew at Young-Davidson and Thompson, and I ended up buying several packets in a few days. They went down pretty well!