UMSS Students on arriving at UNSW

The UNSW Minerals Summer School (UMSS) began with a day at the University, involving a walk around the campus, some talks about the industry and career options including mining engineering, geological, environmental and other exciting possibilities. The first afternoon was spent in small work groups in the rock testing and ventilation laboratories; and in the Virtual Reality Laboratory where students were each put through time trials on a load – haul – dump cycle for a large mine dump truck in a “virtual mine”.

The next day was a trip to Muswellbrook to visit one of the most modern and largest open cut mines in the Hunter Valley – Mt Arthur North, owned by BHP-Billiton.  Here the group saw some of the biggest haul trucks in the country, as well as gaining insights into the comprehensive community liaison and environmental management programs of the mine.

On the fourth morning the group returned to Sydney, where the final event was a lunch back at UNSW with a number of awards presented, and a certificate to all participants, before much swapping of emails and phone numbers, then back to parents, home, holidays and hopefully some good memories and a lot of thought about the new career options that they had learned about over the past four days.

The final event was a lunch back at UNSW with a number of awards presented, and a certificate to all participants, before much swapping of emails and phone numbers, then back to parents, home, holidays and hopefully some good memories and a lot of thought about the new career options that they had learned about over the past four days.

On their last day of the trip before heading back to the University (hq)

Some of the feedback and comments from the UMSS student survey conducted on the final day were::

• 94% of the students indicated that as a result of the trip they would definitely be considering a career in the minerals industry.
• The experience of the trip was invaluable to my future career decisions; impressed by the interest shown by all the employees - they really wanted us to be part of the industry
• This has helped me to find out more about the minerals industry, and encouraged me to have a career as a mining engineer.
• The whole trip was great, a chance to meet people within the industry and experience mining in a detailed and informative way.  I found the industry dinner especially good, to talk to people from industry.
• After coming in with no knowledge of the mining processes, I am very impressed with the amount I have learnt.
• The program was worthwhile and enjoyable - it has definitely opened up my career options - looking forward to pursuing a future within the industry and the university.
• I had the best time and met some great people...The good thing about the progam was that it showed me what is involved and it made it look fun...It has given me a real incentive to study and work hard this year for a good HSC mark...I look forward to (hopefully) studying with you in 2009.

It is also interesting to note the impact of previous UMSS programs.  From the group of students who attended UMSS 2007, in January, 2007 – at least six have been offered 1st year places in Mining Engineering at UNSW in 2008, and a further five or six are known to have been offered mining or geoscience places elsewhere in Australia, as a direct result of their exposure to the industry and the career opportunities through the UMSS program.

UMSS is an independent initiative of the UNSW School of Mining Engineering.  The students contribute financially to attend, but UMSS is underwritten by our major sponsor, Xstrata Coal.  UNSW and the student participants all express their appreciation to Xstrata Coal and all of the host sites and personnel involved during the trip for their time and helpful support.

For further information about the 2008 UNSW Minerals Summer School , or to know about plans for the 2009 UNSW Minerals Summer School, contact Professor Bruce Hebblewhite on 02 9385 5160, or email B.Hebblewhite@unsw.edu.au. The application form for the 2009 UNSW Minerals Summer School is available for download.

[Note: (hq) - a high quality version of the image can be downloaded by clicking on the image.]

Bruce Hebblewhite