A Chief Operating Officer for De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) he was accountable for seven mines including Greenfield and Brownfield growth projects, and incorporated all South African operations where he was appointed the Section 4.1 for Safety, Health, Environmental and Social. He has overseen operations, growth projects and building of mines in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa.
From a technical perspective, at De Beers Consolidated Mines, as General; Manager of Finsch mine, he lead the implementation of the block 4 block cave project, which was a highly successful block cave with no tunnel failures and the world’s first automated underground trucking system. He was also instrumental in initiating the first block cave draw control program with Gemcom called PCBC which monitored daily draw on all draw points through the vehicle monitoring system. Finsch mine was awarded 3 Noscars for safety over this period, and was awarded the Department of Minerals safety flag twice for the best underground mine. At Cullinan Diamond mine he was the Section Manager accountable for the delivery of the BB1 East Block cave which involved planning, costing and development of all infrastructure for the block cave, from justifying the capital vote, to implementation involving access to workshops, undercut tunnels, ore passes and eventually the production draw points on the extraction level. He also set up a six man multi-skilled high speed mechanized development crew which replaced a conventional 24 man crew.
Mike was the Managing Director technical for Pala Investments, a Swiss based resource investment company, where he oversaw all technical aspects of the investments, including the risks associated with resource performance, project management, ramp up, operations, and the associated working capital and financial controls as well as health, safety, environment and social responsibility. He completed a number of DD exercises on new projects and oversaw the construction of mines in Sierra Leone, Vietnam and USA. On all these projects he was the Chairman of the safety and health committee on the board.
Whilst at Namdeb Diamond Corporation, he was mine manager for mining area 1 and accountable for all production over 300km of coastline and two production plants, and was appointed the legally responsible safety, health and environmental person. He managed over 300 earthmoving machines, including maintenance and replacement. As the Mine Manager he lead strategic business planning to optimise mining production and profit over a twenty year LOM period, managed feasibility studies to ensure future project levels, and achieved 5 star safety awards.
Whilst in Botswana as mining manager, he was responsible for production, survey, vehicle maintenance, mine planning, and safety and health for Orapa mine.
Mike Brown | Our People | Palaris
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