Requisition ID: 102551

Job Category: Engineering

Location: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa

Join a company that is passionately committed to the pursuit of a better world through positive change. With more than 70 years of business and technical expertise in mining, energy, and infrastructure, our 10,000 colleagues in 150 countries tirelessly work toward bettering the industries in which we operate. With practical solutions that are safe, innovative and sustainable, we think globally while acting locally. Are you looking for an opportunity to join a diverse group of professionals who are committed to remaining exceptional? We look forward to hearing from you.

If it isn't grown, it's mined. Our mining and metals teams help our clients to safely and sustainably mine the minerals and metals used in our everyday lives. Want to play a part of innovating and optimizing the mining life cycle on greenfield and brownfield facilities? Apply today!

Role Purpose

The Mining Principal provides senior technical leadership and advisory expertise across mining projects, studies and operating assets, supporting clients in addressing complex mining challenges and improving overall business and operational performance.

The incumbent will work closely with mining clients, operations teams and Hatch's multidisciplinary specialists to provide strategic and technical guidance, identify opportunities for improvement, solve complex operational and project challenges, and develop practical, economically viable solutions.

This is a senior client-facing role requiring deep mining knowledge, strong operational judgement and the ability to take a holistic view of mining operations, understanding the interaction between the mine, materials handling, processing facilities, infrastructure and broader production system.

The successful candidate will bring approximately 15+ years of relevant mining experience, ideally combining operational exposure with consulting, technical advisory, studies, project development and/or project delivery experience.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Debottlenecking & Optimisation

• Lead technical assessments of existing mining operations to identify production constraints, inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement.
• Undertake structured analysis of bottlenecks across mining systems, considering areas such as mine design, scheduling, equipment capability, haulage, materials movement, infrastructure and downstream interfaces.
• Identify the underlying causes of production constraints rather than addressing symptoms in isolation.
• Develop and evaluate practical debottlenecking and optimisation solutions.
• Assess trade-offs between production improvement, capital investment, operating cost, technical risk and implementation complexity.
• Work with clients to prioritise improvement initiatives based on value, practicality and operational impact.
• Support the development of brownfield expansion, mine optimisation and production improvement strategies.
• Provide technical input into projects seeking to increase throughput or maximise the productive capacity of existing assets.

Mining Technical Leadership

• Act as a senior technical authority on mining matters across studies, consulting assignments and projects.
• Provide technical oversight and challenge to mining strategies, mine designs, production schedules and operating assumptions.
• Review mining methodologies, equipment strategies, productivity assumptions and operating philosophies.
• Lead technical reviews, due diligence assignments, optimisation studies and independent assessments.
• Provide senior-level input into concept, pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, particularly where existing operations are being expanded or optimised.
• Ensure recommendations are technically robust, operationally practical and aligned with the client's business objectives.

Operational Improvement

• Analyse the complete mining production system to identify areas where capacity is being constrained.
• Evaluate interaction between mine planning and actual operational performance.
• Identify opportunities to improve equipment utilisation, productivity, mining sequence, material movement and production reliability.
• Assess whether constraints can be addressed through operational changes or require engineering and capital intervention.
• Develop improvement roadmaps that allow clients to progressively unlock additional capacity.
• Ensure proposed solutions consider implementation within an operating brownfield environment.

Multidisciplinary Integration

• Work closely with specialists across mining, geology, geotechnical, infrastructure, materials handling, process, mechanical, electrical, civil, project controls and economics.
• Understand how upstream mining decisions affect downstream processing and infrastructure capacity.
• Facilitate technical workshops and multidisciplinary optimisation reviews.
• Ensure mining solutions are developed within the context of the overall value chain rather than as standalone solutions.
• Translate operational challenges into clearly defined technical workstreams or capital projects.

Client Advisory

• Develop trusted relationships with senior operational, technical and project stakeholders.
• Facilitate technical workshops, operational reviews and optimisation sessions.
• Communicate complex technical issues clearly to both technical specialists and senior management.
• Present findings, options and recommendations in a concise and commercially relevant manner.
• Provide independent technical challenge where existing assumptions or strategies may be limiting project or operational performance.

Studies & Project Development

• Provide senior mining input into scoping, PFS and FS activities.
• Review and challenge mine plans, schedules and production assumptions.
• Support trade-off studies and option-selection processes.
• Contribute to capital and operating cost assessments from a mining perspective.
• Support development of brownfield expansion and life-of-mine optimisation opportunities.
• Provide technical input to project execution strategies where mining operations interface with new or modified infrastructure and processing facilities.

Business Development

• Support Hatch in developing technical advisory and mining consulting opportunities.
• Identify opportunities to assist clients with operational optimisation, brownfield expansion, productivity improvement and asset development.
• Contribute to proposals, scopes of work and client presentations.
• Build long-term relationships within client mining and technical organisations.
• Represent Hatch as a senior mining subject matter expert where appropriate.

Experience & Qualifications

Essential

• 15+ years' experience within mining operations, technical services, mining consulting, engineering/EPCM or project development.
• Relevant degree in Mining Engineering or closely related discipline.
• Significant practical experience within mining operations and/or mining technical services.
• Demonstrated experience in technical debottlenecking, mine optimisation, operational improvement or production improvement.
• Strong understanding of mine planning, production scheduling and mining operating systems.
• Experience identifying and solving complex problems within operating mining environments.
• Strong understanding of the interfaces between mining, materials handling, infrastructure and mineral processing.
• Experience participating in or leading technical studies and multidisciplinary investigations.
• Proven ability to engage credibly with senior client stakeholders and operational leadership teams.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capability.
• Ability to convert detailed technical analysis into clear recommendations and practical implementation strategies.

Highly Advantageous

• Professional registration such as Pr.Eng. / ECSA, or equivalent international professional registration.
• Experience across both consulting/EPCM and owner/operator environments.
• Brownfield mining expansion experience.
• Experience with mine-to-mill or value-chain optimisation.
• Exposure to technical due diligence or independent technical reviews.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary optimisation or improvement studies.
• Experience across multiple commodities and/or mining methods.

Why join us?

• Work with great people to make a difference
• Collaborate on exciting projects to develop innovative solutions
• Top employer

What we offer you?

• Flexible work environment
• Long term career development
• Think globally, work locally

Don't meet every single requirement? You don't need to. At Hatch, we are building a diverse, inclusive workplace that fosters innovation. If you're interested in this role, we encourage you to apply even if your past experiences don't perfectly align with the skills we've listed.

We're committed to fostering a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities in which we operate and serve. Hatch is an Equal Opportunity Employer that considers applicants without regard to age, race, color, national origin, citizenship, religion, creed, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or any other protected status. If you have any accommodation requirements, please let us know. We'll do our best to meet your needs in accordance with applicable local legislation.

In order to consider any application for employment, we will have to process your personal information.

A law, known as the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 (POPIA) provides that when one processes another's personal information, such collection, retention, dissemination and use of that person's personal information must be done in a lawful and transparent manner.

In order to give effect to this right, we are under a duty to provide you with a number of details pertaining to the processing of your personal information. These details are housed under the Hatch HR Processing Notice which can be accessed and viewed on the Hatch website: https://www.hatch.com/About-Us/Privacy-Statement-South-Africa, which HR Processing Notice we request you kindly download and read.

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