Ok, perhaps the second low-point, if we wish to be specific.
Then again, given the first one occurred when I was 14, and an impressionable teenager, perhaps I can be forgiven for my transgressions then. It is fair to say that the experience I had being found out to be a thief and general liar back in 1988, hit home hard. It also changed me for the better, at least for a long period of time. At Murrin, I needed to be reset again. It happens I guess.
So yeah, after all the, we're back to the low-point in my life occurring during this period.
I look back now and wonder why. Why did I leave Tarmoola in 2002? I guess because I was running away, and in damage control without realising it. In 2000-2001 I took most of a year off work to watch my father slowly die in front of his family. Whilst there is no denying how painful that was in periods, and even more so at the end, I had figured that once he had moved onto the next life, and I had returned to work, I would kind of pick up where I had left off.
I was seriously fucking wrong.
I left Tarmoola to follow Bruce, which is always a good thing. Murrin (MM) was a nickel laterite / cobalt operation, a good ten years old by then, but still not quite finished ironing out its teething problems, largely in processing. The equipment they used there was serious shit - massive acid plant to make sulphuric acid, and enormous autoclaves to treat the laterite ore and extract the metal. Plus it was an unusual set-up in the mine. Instead of the normal 1 or 2 pits, this place had about 100, with say 4-5 going at any one time. It was spread over a big area too. Check out the website if you're interested.
https://www.minara.com.au/
So yeah, mine planning was a big thing here at Murrin. While I was there, Bruce got me to put together a capital proposal to install Wenco on our fleet. Wenco is a GPS-based production monitoring system. I am not sure how it compares to other offerings these days, but back in the late 90's and early 2000's, it was ground-breaking (and therefore bloody expensive) technology. It really helped in terms of keeping an eye on production, and ensuring that diggers were well-supported with enough trucks, and that their hourly BCM rate was on the money. I chuckle when I think back to this, as in those days, capital proposals were a new thing for me - I could state the technology, the costs, and the benefits in terms of data and therefore decision-making. What I couldn't do was put it in terms of financial benefit. So instead I used terms such as "the will of the people", to gauge the benefits. My boss, Bruce, thought this was hilarious, and got me to stick to the facts. Needless to say, we got it through, and soon Wenco was up and running at MM. I even employed Luke from Tarmoola to manage it for me.
Speaking of Tarmoola, soon we had numerous Tarmoola-ites there. Yvette and Gully were already there, Luke as I mentioned. I also hired Adam and Hugh into mine planning, which was a big boon for me. Seriously good guys and good at their jobs. The photo below is Bruce in the centre, with Hugh and me alongside him.
So yeah, MM was challenging, but rewarding, in that I got to contribute to a lot of good initiatives, including a vastly improved grading and remuneration system for the operators, which I was very proud of. I was working a 5:2, 4:3, 9:5 roster for the last year I was there. It was good from the point of view of regular breaks, but as a single man, a 9:5 would have been better for me. I was well-respected, doing a good job of team-building, delivering mining, planning and operational improvements, and having a finger in many pies around the business. I was still immature though, as referenced by Bruce cracking it with me one day for making disrespectful remarks in front of others. Bruce was my friend yes, but at work he was my boss first. I was also in a senior role, and needed to act professionally. I didn't always see the distinction, and that was part of my downfall. Frankly, I didn't see the importance of that distinction until much later in life, and in some ways, I have never fully made that transition. But I guess that's who I am.
So yeah, apart from capital projects, I was mainly in charge of production. I started as an engineer, and was soon promoted to Production Superintendent, the same role I finished at when I was at my previous job in Tarmoola. I think I built the team well, although not all the supervisors working for me were as motivated as they should have been. I remember a young guy, Fieldy, who was one of the real up and comers, and unsurprisingly, he has done tremendously well in his career since. The challenge was the varying distance from the numerous pits we worked, back to the plant. Bruce soon had them building blend fingers, instead of pit-based stockpiles. Blend fingers were something he introduced in Tarmoola, and they did very well. The premise being that you build a single stockpile in a rectangle shape, along the length, from your various ore sources. When finished (and you had to work out the optimum size of these things, bus usually anywhere from 2-4 weeks of feed) you reclaimed them from the side, so perpendicular to the build direction. This meant that for the whole life of the feeding of the blend finger, you delivered to the plant, the same consistent blend of ores. Consistent feed allowed the plant to reach steady-state, in terms of throughput, dosing of chemicals, retention time, and recovery. I have used this approach at numerous locations since, and always with great success. Thanks Bruce!
So yeah, mine planning was a challenge. We were constantly updating schedules, and at one point, I was working almost throughout the night, trying to come up with the best ones. In the end the senior planning engineer did, which was no surprise really. I was ok with that. But it was in that time that other weaknesses crept in, both in and out of work. I was single in those days. Hey no surprise really, I was a fat, drinking and smoking Aussie guy, shy and lacking in personal confidence. Plus I was very naïve, so I never flourished in relationships. The only really successful one I had had to that point was with Lucette, and I think she dumped me because I was enjoying the excesses the mining life could provide too much. From then (1995) up to Murrin (2003 at this point), I had a couple of flings, and yeah, visited sex workers a few times. Hey, don't judge too harshly, it is what it is, and I am trying to paint the picture of my life here. I had weaknesses, made some bad judgement calls, and lived to excess. But this period, after Dad passed, until probably about 2006, saw me living on the edge. More on this to come.
The photo below is from their website, and shows a typical view of a pit wall. The brown stuff on top is iron laterite and is just waste / overburden. The whiter stuff below is the clay. I can't tell which one it is from this photo, as it has been a lot of years now, but that's the stuff that hosts the nickel laterite.
Life in Perth also changed for me somewhat over the course of the MM years. I started living with Kero in North Perth - I had moved in with him while at Tarmoola. It was a good house and in a great location, but Kero and I fell out in the end. Partially his fault, partially mine. I escaped his place with Yvette's help one weekend, moving into a shitty 1-bedroom place down on the Esplanade in Perth city. It was a great location, but an aged building. I am pretty sure it has since made way for modern condos. I was down on the Esplanade when I visited Perth last year, but didn't think to check it out. I stayed at that place for about 6 months I think, and then Adam said he was looking for a place, so we ended up sharing a beautiful modern 2-bedder just around the corner from the Esplanade, and within 50m of the Terrace. So a super spot! I have many fond memories of this time; watching the Olympics with Adam, watching the Bledisloe Cup around the corner at Fenian's with Adam, yum cha in Northbridge with Luke, lots of great friendship memories.
But of course, these will always be tainted by the other memories of this time. You see, I became somewhat addicted to strippers, and other forms of adult entertainment. I was always shy, fat, and low in confidence. I know now that I could have found a relationship if I looked in the right places. Alas, look there I did not. Instead I spent all my money on other activities, which was so dumb. I also got into online porn too, even at work. That's why I eventually had to leave MM, as I got caught. It was bloody embarrassing, for Bruce too I'm sure, and a severe wake-up call for me. It was beyond embarrassment though, and actually pretty humiliating. I didn't really fully wake up for a while though, but it seemed to be the right time to not only leave MM (not my choice that one) but also leave W.A. and look for a new beginning. I found that beginning in Gladstone, Queensland, at the East End Mine....
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