A Day in the Life

It's been about 4 months since my last post and most of the reason for this is laziness, but a small fraction is due to simple lack of time. Through a battle of attrition and stubbornness I have ended up as the most senior geologist on site at QR Mine. It sounds like fun on paper, but mostly involves me asking a lot of questions of everyone to know what the heck I'm supposed to be doing. The stress level is certainly up from when my only duty was to log core in a timely manner. It sounds cliche but 90% of my job is not geology but dealing with people. It is amazing how much you can get done with some friendliness and compromise. It may also help that I am female- asking nicely seems to do the trick most of the time.

A lot of people seem to see geology as this mysterious vocation and I am constantly getting questions about what my job entails. From my accountant to the woman who sold me my phone, everyone is curious. Woman are particularly interested in how I manage living and working in a place that is 95% men. I found this a surprising question at first since I had never really considered it before. Everyone is generally polite and respectful to me and there are rules on sexual harassment and discrimination should I ever be concerned, but it has never even come up. There is the odd stupid joke in the morning safety meeting about wives and the like, but nothing particularly offensive, as far as I'm concerned.

My standard day starts off at 6:30-6:45 with the morning safety meeting where the mine shift foreman goes over a particular safety topic and then we discuss the schedule for underground work for that day. I consult with my underground drillers and tell them where I need them to be working and then I head up to the geology trailer to talk to the other geologist(s) on site (if any) about what are plans are for the day. At 7:45 there is a main meeting with the Mine Manager, and the other department heads (mine, mill, geology, environment, surveying). After that I go underground to map the geology, check on the drillers and take samples. In the afternoon there is usually more office stuff and core logging to do, as well as check on the surface drill and sample the rock that has been brought up out of the mine that shift. On a quiet day I finish at 5:00 and go for supper. If we are nearing an ore body or lagging behind in core logging, I might not get out of the office until 6:30 and then have to come back after supper (one of the downfalls of a 1 minute commute is how easy it is to get back to the office in the evening).

As I said, not the most glamourous of occupations, but I love going underground and walking THROUGH the geology; sure beats working in a cubicle! And gold mine is not all that dangerous compared to a coal mine- no gasses or explosive dust to deal with. I promised my mom I would never work in a coal mine and I don't plan on it, especially after what happened in New Zealand. I am sure that I will end up at a desk all day at some point, but probably not until the osteoperosis kicks in.

-A.