Trent George-Kennedy

5.30 AM

After absorbing about an hour of blazing Kalgoorlie morning sun through my bedroom window, it’s now time to rise and shine! I make my way downstairs to continue practising my French lessons on the laptop. “C’est trop tôt pour ça…..”

6.15 AM

I grab my lunch and jump in the car, for the 7-minute journey past the Mt Charlotte headframe to the world-famous SuperPit gold mine.

6.30 AM

Arrive at my desk, have a coffee and check emails, as well as the processing plant performance trends from the night before. At this stage, I get a good idea of where some bottlenecks were overnight, which likely will be discussed in the morning Processing meeting to come shortly. I’ve also currently taken over the commissioning of a fixed gas detection project at the Gidji processing facility just out of town, so I begin to gather the drawings and equipment I will need to complete this task today.

7.45 AM

The processing meeting is underway at 7:45 AM sharp! We go through the performance of the Plant from the previous day as well as our safety performance and any potential threats to uptime going forward for the day.

8.30 AM

I head out to the Gidji processing plant and set out to commission the equipment install. My colleague and I systematically test each sensor and alarm strobes functionality, while making some small calibration adjustments along the way. Given some of the sensors are in a chemical storage area, we suit up in our mandatory area PPE, consisting of chemical suits and full-face respirators.  While testing, we’re remotely logged into the plants Distributed Control System via laptop, we notice some of the signal output isn’t being read correctly thus begin fault-finding the wiring from the sensor head back to the substation control cards. Fortunately, it’s only a loose terminal at the nearby junction box which we fixed easily, saving us a great deal of potential time!

12.30 AM

With the system now fully commissioned and operational, I head back to the Fimiston plant at the SuperPit for a well-earned lunch and a chance to chat with the Electrical Maintenance supervisor about some new Work Instruction documentation I’m preparing.

1.30 PM

I spend the afternoon reviewing Australian Standards regarding Earth testing requirements for substations and subsequently developing an updated Work Instruction that plant Electricians will use in future scheduled Earth testing programs. I also research and obtain a quote for a new piece of test equipment that hopefully, we can use as part of this updated testing program.

4.00 PM

I pack up and make the short journey back to town, briefly stopping by home to get changed and then off to the local cricket club for a training session. Social sport has always been an integral part of my life and it’s no different despite moving to a regional town!

6.30 PM

After working up a good sweat, I head back home to make some dinner and hit the hay, ready to do it all again tomorrow!