Principal Geologist

A cement plant needs its limestone inside a narrow chemical window, every month, for forty years. A glass maker needs sand with almost no iron in it. A quarry hemmed in by suburbs needs to know how many years of premium rock sit between the pit face and the boundary fence.

In our world, a resource is rock that will make product, and the decisions riding on it run for decades: kiln feed, quarry extensions, acquisitions. Someone has to build those models, defend every assumption in them, and sign their name to the result. That's the job.

When a buyer was weighing up a hard rock quarry, the question was simple: how much premium rock is really left? The test work was thin, so we built a numeric model of interpreted rock quality from the drilling and logging, separated the premium rock from the altered material between the flows, and gave them a number they could decide on. Here, you don't just build the model. You stand behind the number, and you can show exactly how you got there.

Who you'd be working for

Eltirus is the technical advisor to quarry, cement, aggregates and industrial minerals operators across Australia, New Zealand and North America. Our clients range from major producers to family-owned quarry groups and councils. For many of the smaller ones, we effectively are their technical department : their geologist, their mine planner, their surveyor.

Every plan and schedule our engineers build starts from a geological model, and ours don't end up on a shelf. We hand them to clients live in Leapfrog Central and Strayos.

We're Brisbane-based and a Deswik, Seequent and Strayos partner. We delivered the first international use of Deswik.GO for aggregates, sand and cement operations, and we're usually the firm clients call when a problem has already defeated someone else.

The role

This is a principal seat. You'd lead Eltirus's geology practice: the standard it works to, the people who deliver it, and the work it wins. You'd report directly to me.

The rhythm of the work:

• Sign the resource. You'd act as Competent Person on our resource work, within the scope of your experience. Your name is on the number, so you set how it's built: drilling design, QAQC, density, compositing, estimation, validation and classification.
• Model what the rock will make. A cement limestone model carries the oxides the kiln cares about, so the plant can blend to its lime saturation and silica ratio targets. A sand model carries grading and iron. A hard rock model often carries interpreted rock quality, because the test work is usually thin.
• Due diligence. Independent review on transactions where a buyer is committing serious capital on the strength of your read of the resource.
• Stewardship, alongside project work. For a number of clients, we drill, re-model and re-assess year after year. You'd refine our own models with each program and see it tested at the face.
• Build the team. You'd lead and develop our geologists through our structured training programme, from logging to modelling to resource assessment. You'd be the Competent Person they're working towards becoming.
• Grow the practice. Scope, price and win the work. Turn what this year's model shows into next year's drilling programme. Be the credible voice in the room with a quarry manager or a plant's technical lead.

The honest version of the conditions:

• You'd be Brisbane-based and hybrid. Site travel is usually 1–2 days at a time, about once a month.
• Expect roughly 60% technical delivery and 40% leading the practice: people, clients and new work. If you want a purely technical role, this isn't it.
• We're a small firm. The title is Principal, but you'll still log core, map faces and check QAQC yourself when the job needs it.
• Every report gets a hard review before it goes to a client. At this level you'll do most of that reviewing, and your own work gets the same treatment.
• Our reporting standard, data management and file naming discipline will surprise you at first. You'll also write down how you do things so others can repeat them. We value systems over heroics.

Who I'm looking for

I want someone I can hand the geology side of the business to, and whose signature I trust. Someone who asks where the density came from before signing the tonnage. Someone who'll tell a client their resource is smaller than they hoped, show them why, and keep them as a client. Someone who reads this year's model and comes back with next year's programme, not a question.

What we need

Essential

• Extensive resource geology experience at Senior or Principal level, including leading and developing other geologists.
• Competent Person status for Mineral Resources under the JORC Code: membership of the AusIMM, AIG or another Recognised Professional Organisation, and the relevant experience behind it.
• Deep, hands-on geological modelling in Leapfrog Geo.
• Resource estimation you can defend line by line: QAQC, density, compositing, estimation parameters, validation and classification.
• A degree in geology or a closely related discipline.
• Report writing that a client, an auditor and the next Competent Person can all rely on.
• Credibility with clients, and the commercial instinct to grow a practice rather than just run projects.

Highly regarded

• Resource work in cement raw materials, silica or construction sands, hard rock aggregates or other industrial minerals.
• Quality-driven modelling in any commodity: iron ore, bauxite, mineral sands, phosphate or coal.
• Chartered status: AusIMM CP(Geo) or AIG RPGeo.
• Due diligence or independent technical review experience.
• Time on both sides: operations and consulting.
• Experience with MX Deposit and Leapfrog Central.

No industrial minerals experience? If you've modelled quality in bedded or product-driven deposits, the step across is shorter than you'd think, and the geology is more interesting than it looks from outside.

Talk to me directly

This is a significant hire for us. Please apply through the site, but I'd rather have a conversation than read a cover letter: Steve Franklin, +61 474 183 939.