Rio Tinto - more than just mining!
‘With such a diverse range of operations and locations, Rio Tinto provides options that will suit your lifestyle, and experiences that will develop your career.’
A lot of people don’t realise the diversity of career opportunities that exist within the mining industry, and at Rio Tinto we offer more than just careers in mining! We have a vast range of opportunities for graduate engineers across a variety of disciplines. Our operations range from underground and open cut mines to refineries, smelters and research centres from which we produce aluminium, copper, diamonds, coal, uranium, gold, industrial minerals and iron ore. With such a diverse range of operations and locations, Rio Tinto provides options that will suit your lifestyle, and experiences that will develop your career.
With advancements in technology, a skilled and educated workforce is essential. Jobs in the mining industry today require multidisciplinary skills with high levels of education across a range of areas. Increasingly, Rio Tinto is hiring more and more engineers outside the traditional technical mining disciplines, and whilst we still recruit a large number of graduates each year in the areas of mining, geology and processing, we also hire a considerable number of engineers in the areas of mechanical, electrical, geotechnical, surveying, chemical, civil, and environmental engineering.
In particular mechanical and electrical engineering graduates are in high demand and Rio Tinto is keen to profile these disciplines in order to provide graduates with some insight into the type of work that they could expect to undertake within these disciplines as part of a career in the mining industry.
What does a mechanical engineer do?
Mechanical engineers employ engineering principles in the areas of energy, machinery, equipment and materials. They apply their engineering knowledge to ensure that all the equipment on site works in a safe and highly effective manner. Mechanical engineers within Rio Tinto are likely to perform the following tasks:
- lead maintenance and production teams in mine maintenance, or fixed plant facilities
- design/redesign assets, equipment or systems taking into account safety, costs, material suitability and life
- manage technical programmes in Asset Management such as Hydrocarbons, Condition Monitoring, Defect Elimination, RCM and others
- develop capital plans and budgets for operating assets
- develop new operating sites, or the extension of existing operations working together with all engineering disciplines
- apply industry knowledge to all relevant fields including marketing, logistics, human resources, and IT.
’Rio Tinto is filled with opportunities. I joined the graduate programme four years ago in a fixed plant operation in the Hunter Valley. Since then I have worked on marketing projects in China, Asset Management projects in the Mojave Desert, USA, and various projects around Australia. I have used my mechanical engineering degree in ways I never imagined’. (Robert Beckman, mechanical engineer—Asset Management, Rio Tinto Coal Australia).
What does an electrical engineer do?
Electrical engineers apply scientific and engineering principles in the research, design, manufacture, operation and maintenance of electrical and electronic equipment, machine systems and components. Electrical engineers within Rio Tinto are likely to perform the following tasks:
- project management—design, write specifications and tender documents, supervise consultants and contractors, and commissioning
- reliability engineering—data analysis, defect elimination tactics development. Facilitating Root Cause Analysis of failure events
- use of Computerised Maintenance Management Systems to assist with data analysis, planning and budgeting
- fault finding on electrical power and control systems
- programming of SCADA and PLC systems
- supervision of maintenance and project teams.
An engineering career with Rio Tinto offers graduates the opportunity to work with leaders in the industry. Every day across our operations a diverse range of people are achieving extraordinary results empowered by an environment where health, safety and a commitment to excellence are priorities.
For more information please click here to review our organisation profile, or visit our graduate website at: www.graduates.riotinto.com to apply.