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Home >> News Archive >> from the School >> 2004 Eureka Mining Games

2004 AusIMM New Leaders Conference and
Eureka Mining Games

Between April 21 & 24, fourteen students from the School of Mining Engineering at UNSW attended the annual AusIMM New Leaders Conference and the inaugural Eureka Mining Games at Ballarat, Victoria.

The theme of the Conference was “The minerals industry – Future directions for New Leaders”. Papers presented at the Conference were of a high standard and covered a range of topics relating to the mining industry; including its direction, careers, and new technologies.

The opening paper: “Mining Professionals – The Way Forward”, presented by Paul McCarthy, MD of Australian Mining Consultants, provided a brief history of education in the industry and suggestions on some practical steps that could be taken to ensure the future viability of the mining industry. Subsequent papers covered the role of future leaders in the minerals industry and technical themes such as the application of new technology in the mining industry.

The final forum at the Conference focused on the issues in and the promotion of the mining industry. Some of the key points to emerge from this last session were:

The need to focus on society’s changing perception of the mining industry;
To promote the importance of the mining industry in underpinning our current standard of living;
The need to promote and become enthusiastic about the high degree of environmental responsibility of today’s mining industry;
To confront some of the misinformation concerning the mining industry and present an alternate perspective; and
Plan and manage your future and career. Where would you like to end up?

The Conference program was extremely interesting and worthwhile, from both a technical and social/networking aspect. All students found it very encouraging to meet young professionals in the industry, to discuss similar passions and to learn about their experiences in industry.

Several technical tours were organised following the Conference. The UNSW delegates elected to tour sites around Bendigo including a tour of the now closed Wattle Gully operation and of the Bendigo and Perseverance Mines. The Perseverance Mine is just beginning operations, so it was an excellent opportunity for students to see a developing mine. The technical tour proved to be an enjoyable trip and provided a great insight into the gold operations of Victoria.

The Eureka Mining Games were held on the Saturday after the Conference at the University of Ballarat. This was a great culmination to the week’s proceedings and allowed delegates to socialise further and share skills learnt during industrial training. To see the day out, theoretical knowledge from our courses, quick thinking, and physical endurance were required.

UNSW entered two teams; a guy's team and a girl's team. In fact, the UNSW girl's team was the first ever feamle team entered in an Australian student mining games competition; this was exciting for both the team, and all the onlookers.

Despite the weather events continued throughout the day. Games events included surveying, railway laying, sieving, safety, rock drilling, cable tying, blasting, gold panning, and volume calculations.

From a 7:30 am start through to a 6:00 pm finish, much coal, mud and fun was shared between the students. The mathematical perfection of the UNSW guy's team landed them with a first place in the orebody volume calculations section, whilst the UNSW girl's team gained first place in both the female rock drilling category and gold panning, and a notable third place in surveying.

The conclusion to the Mining Games was held at the Ballarat Bell Tower – a formal event where prizes and certificates were awarded. Not surprisingly the overall winning team for the games was Ballarat University. However, it was quite impressive that the UNSW Girls outclassed the UNSW Guys in the final rankings! Of note, two UNSW students – Emma Kitching and Melanie Hodgson – received special presentations of Drizabone coats for their phenomenal efforts in the rock drilling event.

Thus, many memories were shared, much mining knowledge gained, friendships made, and hopefully such great enthusiasm for the future of the mining industry can be shared with our peers back in Sydney!