Project Geologist – Sandfire Resources

This role involves coordination with internal technical teams, drilling contractors, and community relations staff to ensure safe, efficient, and high-quality exploration outcomes. A key element of this role is to provide guidance and mentoring to the Graduate Geologists and Geologists.

Key Performance Areas:

• Supervise Pre-Drilling Activities: Confirm that all pre-drilling requirements such as land access agreements, water rights, and logistical preparations are completed in advance. This includes active coordination with the Community Relations Office and geology leadership.
• Maintain Accurate Rig Schedules: Ensure drilling schedules are current and aligned with exploration priorities. This must be conducted in close liaison with the Community Relations Office, Senior Geologist, and Target Generation Geologists.
• Supervise Drilling Contractors: Oversee the activities of diamond drilling contractors to ensure compliance with operational and safety standards.
• Monitor Core Drilling Operations: Track drilling performance and ensure timely and accurate capture, entry, and QA/QC of all drilling-related data, including coordinates, RL, drilled depth, surveys, and core orientation.
• Review and Approve Drill Plods: Evaluate daily drill plods, identify any inconsistencies, and follow up to ensure corrections are made promptly.
• Conduct Weekly Rig Inspections: Perform weekly inspections of drill rigs to verify safety compliance and operational readiness.
• Execute Technical Project Work: Undertake geological tasks as assigned by the Technical Specialist, contributing to the project’s technical development.
• Report on Drilling Progress: Provide routine updates on ongoing and planned drilling activities, including comparisons between expected and intersected geology.
• Complete Geological Logging: Perform detailed and accurate geological logging of drill core, ensuring records are maintained in a timely and organized manner.
• Oversee Core Processing and Data Collection: Ensure that all core processing and associated data collection tasks are completed thoroughly and without delay.
• Administer Geological Data Integrity: Guarantee that all geological and drilling data is fully captured and accurately entered to the database. Identify and rectify any missing or incomplete data sets.
• Validate Drilling Results Against Models: Cross-check drilling outcomes against initial targets and 3D geological models and provide timely technical feedback to the Senior Geologist and Target Generation teams.
• Mentorship & Supervision: Manage, coach, and support Junior and Graduate Geologists by providing guidance on technical procedures, logging standards, and data management protocols, while ensuring adherence to company policies and professional standards. Report Hazards and Non-Compliance: Immediately report all safety hazards and HSE non-compliance issues to the HSE team for corrective action.
• Uphold HSE Standards: Ensure that all drilling activities comply with company HSE policies and site-specific safety protocols.
• Follow Up on HSE Actions: Track outstanding INX (incident management) actions related to the drill rig or drilling program and follow through to ensure timely close-out.

Technical Competencies

• Knowledge in sediment hosted base metals.
• Understanding of mineralogy, petrology, structural geology, stratigraphy, and field mapping.
• Strong problem-solving & critical thinking skills.
• Contractor management.
• Advanced knowledge of drilling techniques.
• Full understanding of all discipline relevant legislation.
• Excellent organisational and planning skills and attention to detail.
• Excellent numerical skills and computer literacy.
• Geoscience Software & Tools – familiarity with GIS, Micromine, Leapfrog, CorePlan (or equivalent).

Behavioural Competencies

• Adaptability & Continuous Learning – willingness to learn new techniques, adapt to field/office environments.
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills. Behave in a professional and respective manner to colleagues and other stakeholders.
• Effective time management. Ability to respond effectively to time sensitive tasks. Must be able to plan, prioritize, and manage their own activities and office workflow even when working under tight deadlines ensuring that projects are completed on-time.

Qualification & Experience

• A bachelor’s degree in Geology.
• Valid Class B Driver’s Licence
• 5 years or more relevant experience