Senior Hydrometallurgy Engineer

Business Development/Marketing

• Provide process engineering input to marketing and proposals by providing technical assistance to support Business Development and Marketing strategies
• Produce cost effective, conceptual & timeous proposals
• Determine customer’s requirements
• Communicate with customer and review customer’s enquiry documents and evaluate requirements and constraints
• Define the process/plant scope of work
• Produce the conceptual design and generate alternatives
• Produce and agree mass and energy balances and conceptual PFD’s
• Contribute to basic design criteria document through preliminary equipment & motor list, preliminary control criteria and major equipment & material specification

Project Life Cycle

• Provide Process engineering input to project implementation and Project set up

• Provide input to generate scope of work, schedules and budgets
• Refine scope of work, review contract and design discipline design criteria and engineering deliverables
• Define Battery limits and control and report scope variances
• Generate detail discipline schedules and review overall discipline requirements
• Contribute to procurement and identify long lead items
• Determine/prioritize work breakdown structure
• Issue data to planner
• Review/co-ordinate & adhere to schedule of implementation
• Control and report variances
• Generate and develop detail discipline budgets and identify indirect/resource costs
• Adhere to budget implementation and control and report budget variances
• Consolidate documentation for monthly project progress report
• Provide input to monthly discipline reports

• Provide feedback to functional manager

Design

• Generate the following engineering deliverables:
• Detailed mass & energy balance
• Detailed PFD’s
• Detailed equipment/motor list
• Equipment specifications
• Data Sheets (Develop & Approval)
• Operation & Control Philosophy
• Detailed functional specifications
• Write operating manual
• Generate detailed plant process guarantees
• Check and review design layouts, including vendor packages
• Adhere to schedules and budgets
• Issue, review and control final process design documentation
• Check and obtain approval of calculations and specifications
• Consult with specialists for novel or unusual designs

Client Relations (Internal & External)

• Prepare approved vendor list and issue enquiry documents
• Perform technical and commercial adjudication
• Obtain client approval
• Participate in pre-award meetings, review quality plan and contract
• Review quality/expediting reports and witness key manufacturing hold points
• Provide technical backup for expediting team
• Proactively maintain information flow
• Attend co-ordination meetings
• Advise changes early
• Co-ordinate deliveries
• Adopt flexible approach
• Respond to needs of other disciplines
• Ensure awareness of Company vision and departmental goals/objectives

Plant commissioning

• Produce and submit commissioning plan/manual
• Determine critical path and establish commissioning sequence/schedule
• Define and secure resources
• Define battery limits of commissioning
• Define commissioning systems/procedure
• Produce commissioning files, including commissioning documentation
• Ensure commissioning meets project requirements
• Issue remedial inspection reports during construction
• Monitor installation and commissioning checklists
• Arrange and co-ordinate commissioning meetings
• Conduct on-site commissioning
• Provide technical back-up for site QA team
• Assist in performance testing in terms of design base
• Supervise and train operating personnel
• Contribute to close-out report and adhere to close out procedures
• Provide post-commissioning process support
• Ensure plant optimization and plant operating analysis
• Ensure regular visits/communications with client

Legislation, Policies & Procedures

• Lead design reviews and Hazops
• Ensure legal compliance with design codes and authorities
• Contribute to public participation process as per National Environmental Management Act (NEMA)
• Enforce process veto rights
• Maintain standards
• Adhere to and update Company standards
• Utilize engineering tools/systems

Continuous Improvement

• Consult with specialists for novel or unusual designs
• Review industry standards making use of network periodicals, attending shows and conferences
• Identify areas of improvement
• Review all previous close-out report
• Review systems and procedures
• Recommend best practices
• Continuous professional development
• Identify and address training needs

Company Image

• Actively promote the Company’s professional image, both internally and externally
• Present technical papers
• Advertise in accordance with Company guidelines
• Interact with professional bodies
• Network and participation in seminars

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bsc/B.Eng Chemical Engineering or Extractive Metallurgy or Minerals Processing and ECSA registration as a professional engineer.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• A proven experience of 5-8 years experience in industrial operations and successful technical design in any of the following - concentrators, smelters, leach plants and refineries for copper, cobalt, zinc, nickel, gold, uranium, platinum group metals; coal washing plants, iron ore beneficiation plants, heavy mineral sands concentrators.
• Control Philosophy - Knowledge of how the plant should be controlled
• Construction & Commissioning -Understanding of on-site construction work such as commissioning or customers and suppliers’ interactions
• Risk Analysis -Ability to identify project and activates risk from any point of view including knowledge of hazard and operation HAZOP
• Value Engineering - Ability to optimize a process by adding value either as saving in cost or simplifying the process
• Process Flow Diagrams - Ability to produce, understand and deliver Process Flow diagrams
• Testing -Knowledge of testing techniques and procedures including specifications and interpretations of test works
• Equipment & Components - Knowledge of process, control, quality, electrical etc. equipment specifications, suppliers and features (including equipment installation and components)
• Legislation & Standards - Knowledge of sector specific law (e.g. Engineering, safety reqs, Audit regulations, Insurance laws etc.) and knowledge standard specifications (e.g. Plant layout requirements, etc.) including the ability to integrate these standards.
• Technical Documentation - Ability to create, understand and communicate technical specifications
• Economical Awareness - Knowledge of economic fundamentals and ability to make estimations and proposing alternatives
• Process Simulation - Ability to simulate processes by means of software or other methodologies
• Mass balance - Ability to calculate (using software and spreadsheets) the mass balance of a process
• Process Design Criteria - Knowledge of parameters required to design the process
• Piping & Instrumentation - Diagram Ability to produce, understand and deliver piping and instrumentation diagrams