Alexandra is an accountant at a mining site in the Pinjarra, in Western Australia. She isn't your average accountant – especially when it’s revealed she began in the mining industry as a Chemical Engineer in Sao Luis, Brazil.
“I initially graduated as Chemical Engineer in Brazil" says Alexandra. "Due to the nature of this qualification, the resources industry offered lots of opportunities for development in different sectors.” Alexandra has certainly taken advantage of these opportunities.
“For a Chemical Engineer, working in an alumina refinery is like a dream because lots of equipment and processes I studied at Uni are used in the alumina process - it's like joining theory to practice.”
Alexandra applied for a graduate Chemical Engineer job through a Graduate Program from Billiton PLC in Brazil.
After working as a Chemical Engineer, Alexandra moved on to become an Operations Analyst at the Head office in Rio de Janeiro, working in Alumina and Aluminium. After a year and a half, Alexandra tried her hand as a Mettalurgist, this time in Queensland, Australia.
For Alexandra, it was a strange experience coming from Rio de Janeiro to work as an Engineer in Outback Australia. “Being a city person I was uncomfortable with all the bugs around me!”
And Alexandra has proven that working in a mine dosen’t limit your experience or thirst for variety. Since working in Australia, she’s worked as a Metallurgist, a Business Analyst, a Business Advisor and now she’s started working as a Management Accountant. “I have worked in different roles, different fields, different countries and all my post-graduation degrees were sponsored by the mining companies that I was employed on.”
As her current role as an accountant, Alexandra’s role is quite varied. “At the beginning of the month, I work on the location forecast for future months. During the month I work on business improvement opportunities to reduce cost and improve internal processes. In all these tasks, I interact with people from different areas such as finance, production, engineering, HR, safety, and environment.”
“At month end, my job involves the consolidation of the financial transactions from the location I work in so we can report in a timely manner to the business unit and from there to the headquarters in USA.”
In this role, she loves to help operating personnel to understand the finance jargon and improve their cost control from there. “Because I started as a Chemical Engineer and transitioned to Accounting and I understand their difficulties and can teach them in an easy to understand way.
In order to work in mining, critical thinking is essential. “Critical thinking to understand and then solve some complex situations, listening to more experienced people and be a team player because many projects are done within a team environment with people from different disciplines.”
She also shares that mining isn’t something simply for men. “The most challenging part is the male dominated culture. But with persistence and resilience we can change it slowly.”
Alexandra says that one of her goals in working in mining is to increase the participation of women in the resources industry and also in leadership positions.
Despite the lack of females, the community in mining is very strong, Alexandra shares. “The best part of the job is the people I work with. Everyone is very friendly and this makes everything easy.”
In mining, Alexandra has experienced a wide scope of careers, learning and experience - and isn’t stopping now. “I'm working towards the CPA qualification” she says.
Advice for anyone wanting to enter mining?
Start taking all vacation work opportunities because when you graduate, this will count in your favour.
Join some professional associations that are closely connected to the industry you want to follow as a student member (for example, AusIMM for resources). The people you will meet in these environments can assist you on your career path.
And last, but not least, never be afraid to try. It's a great industry with great opportunities all over the world.
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