MEC Mining’s CEO Christofer Catania joins Panel on Critical Minerals at WA Mining Conference

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The WA Mining Conference is just around the corner, and we’re thrilled to announce that MEC Mining’s CEO, Christofer Catania, will be a panellist on the panel: “Critical Minerals: Powering the Energy Transition.”

This panel discussion promises to be a thought-provoking and informative event for anyone with an interest in Australia’s role in the global energy transition.

Join Chris, fellow panellist Dr. Francis Wedin, Executive Chairman, Vulcan Energy Resources and moderator, David Parker, Executive Director, Western Australia, Minerals Council of Australia as they tackle critical issues, including:

  • Diversifying Supply Chain and Expanding Downstream Processing
  • Future-proofing and Optimizing the Critical Minerals Value Chain
  • Navigating Challenges with ESG, Financial Investment, and Business Growth
  • Harnessing New Economic Opportunities from Critical Minerals

Don’t miss this opportunity to gain insights from industry leaders and contribute to shaping a sustainable and prosperous future for our nation.

Date: Wednesday 11th October 2023

Time: 14:30 – 15:30

Venue: WA Mining Conference – Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre (PCEC) 

What I Have Learnt From The Last 1,000 Interviews

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Owning and leading a business for over 14 years has taught me a thing or two about interviews and has certainly sharpened my intuition for picking the best candidates. During the 14 years we have hired over 150 people, interviewed around 1,000 people face to face and screened at least 5,000 candidates. So what has been so special about the 3% of people that have applied to us that we actually employed?

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The 6 Best Things About Being A Mining Consultant

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Thinking of pursuing a career as a mining consultant? Here are six of the things mining consultants love most about their work.

1. It's never groundhog day

As a mining consultant, your schedule will vary depending on the nature and location of projects you’re working on. One thing that’s for certain is that you won’t be sitting behind a desk from 9 to 5. Mining consultants enjoy a varied schedule that’s never boring.

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Minerals Transport Infrastructure

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With the exception of gold projects, large mineral deposits require bulk product transport infrastructure to get the product to market. On average they say it takes 30 years from discovery to development for a large mineral deposit.  Most of this time is taken up building certainty and gaining the approvals required in order to build enough confidence to invest the capital. At any one time there are lots of projects that are waiting for certainty around the infrastructure and in many cases there are whole mineral regions that remain undeveloped.

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From the Director’s chair

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I’m writing to you today from my new desk in our open plan office. It’s quite a cosy layout, with everyone effectively sitting on one great big long centre desk. Prior to our move I had an enclosed office, which at the time I thought was great because nobody hear confidential phone calls or see my screen when. Well now I’m fully converted to open plan. It can get a little noisy as we don’t have any policies about silence and making phone calls in quiet rooms, and in fact, a little banter is encouraged. The brilliant part is that now everyone knows what is going on with everyone else’s work. Collaboration has really lifted and the time we spend in meetings has declined because you can just yell out. Everything seems to happen faster in this environment.

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Why grads don’t operate equipment anymore

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I started my career 18 years ago on a salary of $50,000 which was good money at the time. Mining was in a downturn and there weren’t too many jobs around. I sent 85 job applications and got one interview which thankfully went well and I got the job. Throughout the early part of my career a truck operator would get paid around $85,000 and most grads aspired to operating equipment for 6 months, motivated in large part by the extra money. Senior engineers in the 90’s were also actually mostly senior, many had aged enough to go a little grey or bald so it was understood that career aspirations would most likely take a while to play out.

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The cost of high mining intensity

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During the mining boom years, the focus was on producing as much as possible from the resource to take advantage of higher prices. OEMs did very well selling the addition machinery required to achieve the extra production. So now that commodity prices are low and capacity is already installed, the main game of late has been to drive economies of scale by pushing production even higher. This approach carries a penalty that might not immediately be obvious.

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