MINE MANAGER - BORROW PIT

01. Role Overview

Energy Africa Recruitment is representing an international heavy civil engineering joint venture appointed to deliver a major bulk raw water augmentation scheme for a South African state water entity. The joint venture pairs a global infrastructure contractor with a South African engineering partner.

The works comprise a large-diameter welded steel pipeline system, a diversion weir and abstraction works, two pumping stations, balancing and break pressure reservoirs, and the associated ancillary infrastructure, built across a corridor in Limpopo over a multi-year construction programme.

The contract specification requires a qualified and competent Mine Manager for the borrow pit and quarry operations that supply material to the works, together with implementation of the approved Mine Plan. This role holds that appointment. You accept and discharge the formal written appointment under section 3(1)(a) of the Mine Health and Safety Act, and carry full accountability for the legal compliance, safety and production performance of every designated borrow pit and quarry on the project.

The role sits within the Construction Management function on site, and works across the construction, planning, quality and site engineering teams that draw on the material produced.

Location: Limpopo, site based. Fixed-term project appointment for the duration of the works.

02. What You Will Do

Statutory appointment and legal compliance

• Accept and discharge the formal written appointment under section 3(1)(a) of the Mine Health and Safety Act.
• Ensure compliance with Sections 3(1) and 5 of the Mine Health and Safety Act, 1996 (Act 29 of 1996).
• Ensure compliance with the contract specification governing the operation, including the requirement for a qualified and competent Mine Manager and implementation of the approved Mine Plan.
• Ensure that each borrow pit or quarry operation is conducted within the limits and conditions of its applicable permits, authorisations and approved plans.
• Establish and maintain a legal register for each operation, and verify that all required statutory appointments are made in writing and accepted before work commences.
• Confirm that appointed persons are competent, trained, medically fit, and provided with sufficient authority, resources and supervision.
• Ensure that no statutory function is delegated to a person who is not competent, authorised or adequately resourced.
• Comply with lawful instructions, directives and notices issued by the Principal Inspector of Mines and other competent authorities.
• Obtain the required permission or confirmation where one Manager is proposed to be responsible for more than one mine, borrow pit or quarry.

Site establishment and readiness

• Confirm survey and demarcation of authorised extraction boundaries, access roads, stockpile areas, exclusion zones and rehabilitation areas.
• Ensure that fencing, gates, security controls, warning signage, lighting, drainage and stormwater measures are established before operation.
• Ensure that highwalls, faces, edges and dangerous areas are benched, sloped, barricaded or otherwise protected against collapse and falls.
• Establish safe separation between pedestrians, light vehicles and heavy mobile plant.
• Approve the area-specific Traffic Management Plan, the emergency access arrangements and the pre-commencement readiness inspection.
• Verify that site facilities are located outside active plant zones and that the operational layout is consistent with the approved plans.

Operations and production

• Prepare and implement the borrow pit or quarry operating plan and production schedule.
• Coordinate stripping, excavation, ripping, drilling, blasting where applicable, loading, hauling, crushing, screening, stockpiling and dispatch.
• Ensure that extraction takes place only within approved boundaries and authorised depths, levels and slopes.
• Manage mining faces, benches, haul roads, loading areas, stockpiles and material handling to prevent instability, contamination and loss.
• Ensure that drilling and blasting activities are lawfully authorised and undertaken by competent, appointed personnel.
• Coordinate material demand and production with the construction, planning, quality and site engineering teams.
• Monitor productivity, plant utilisation, fuel usage, material yields, production quantities and stock levels.
• Implement contingencies for plant breakdowns, adverse weather, access restrictions and material quality variations without compromising compliance.
• Ensure compliance with all health, safety and environmental regulations.

03. What We're Looking For

Essential

• A recognised degree, diploma or equivalent qualification in Mining Engineering, Mining, Surface Mining, Quarry Management or a closely related discipline.
• At least eight years' relevant experience in surface mining, quarrying, opencast mining or borrow pit operations.
• At least five years' experience in a supervisory or management position.
• Demonstrable experience as a statutory appointee, or in a role carrying comparable statutory accountability.
• A level of competency, certification or certificate of competency appropriate to the nature, scale and risk profile of the designated borrow pit and quarry operations.
• Evidence of suitability and legal acceptability for appointment under section 3(1)(a).
• Experience managing heavy mobile plant, extraction, processing, hauling and stockpiling operations.
• Experience implementing health, safety, occupational hygiene, environmental and rehabilitation systems.
• Experience managing subcontractors and multidisciplinary teams.
• Formal training in risk assessment, incident investigation and legal liability under mining health and safety legislation.
• Computer literacy, including operational reporting, spreadsheets and controlled document systems, with proficiency in Microsoft packages.
• The ability to write and present accurate monthly reports.
• Medically fit for the applicable work environment.
• A clean criminal record.
• A valid South African driver's licence.

Advantageous

• Experience on major civil engineering, pipeline, road, dam, bulk water or infrastructure projects.

04. What We Offer

• A statutory appointment under section 3(1)(a) of the Mine Health and Safety Act, with full accountability for the designated borrow pit and quarry operations.
• Ownership of the operation end to end: establishment and readiness, extraction, processing, hauling, stockpiling, dispatch and rehabilitation.
• Material supply into a major bulk water infrastructure programme, with the production schedule tied directly to the construction programme.
• A multi-disciplinary site environment, working across construction, planning, quality and site engineering.
• Direct interface with the Principal Inspector of Mines and other competent authorities.
• A fixed-term project appointment for the duration of the works, site based in Limpopo.