Mineral processing covering letter

Living in Chacewater, I would like to apply my experience and knowledge to this very Cornish mission of minerals processing.

Metallurgist by training and experience

Physical metallurgy

I am a Doctoral level physical metallurgist by training and career experience. From starting in the Sheffield steel industry 40 years ago.

Physical metallurgist => now significantly a design and structural engineer. Applications: design concept development; lifting operations planning; etc.

Extractive metallurgy

I have cover-to-cover'ed Wills' Mineral Processing Technology

My involvement in and study of mining, minerals and geology
Range of activities there - eg yes I can use a Holman air-leg rock-drill.
Networking has made much of learning possible.

Industrial scientist and technologist

My strongest "selling points" must feature the fundamental strengths coming from my industrial background leading into applied scientific research in a challenging field.

I am noted for "a foot in both camps" of theory and practice.

Needing explaining : all my projects have been at the start of the learning curve, breaking new ground, creating new knowledge and giving high returns. As represent here:

Major projects where this very much was so:

• steelworks - "central soundness of large rolled products"
• Doctoral research - weld hydrogen location and movement in time - thesis [Brunel University]
• fatigue-resistant welds - welded structure able to bear high cyclic loads

For a consultancy role - have this crucial characteristic.
That my career has had challenges is a consequence of forcing directions and making things happen. Coming from being a shop-floor steelworker, I had no choice - I pushed passed the obstructive "no's" and had to keep going.
The most extreme positive application of this characteristic is 3rd bridge across the Bosphorus, Turkey, 2015 where I was brought-in to un-stall this US$2.7Billion project, which had stopped progressing going into the steel construction phase. I succeeded - in fact I found it a task well within my familiar abilities.

So this is all high returns / remunerative solutions.

Examples of industrial-background character

These will be recognisable to you:

• "question the question" - the stated causes are rarely correct - all you know is the organisation is in pain - and the solution(s) you identify are very likely to be of a nature no-one had any prior recognition of
• where others see a gleaming planar picture I swoop around and see the causal connections linking from location to location on that "picture", seeing independent and dependent variables - what are causes and what are consequences
• my Doctoral level knowledge and understandings are high enough to see through spurious explanations leading to politically advantageous stances which are damaging to the overall endeavour

Juncture to make more points

It became clear early-on in my industrial career that I was seeing correlations and solutions which many never would - what aptitudes they had were not this.

I have been noted for building a bigger network in a workplace in weeks than many would achieve in years.

I can travel with work and go on assignments to client's plants, but do intend to be settled here now.

About the consulting environment : when on the 3rd Bosphorus Bridge project, I operated from boardrooms to getting tools and showing how tasks could be done. My reach is very broad.

Experiences demonstrate I can "be tough" and be considered helpful.
In the oil&gas engineering industry there was a line in getting assignments as "the Client's representative", going to manufacturing subcontractors where problems were arising. So that meant getting out of a taxi at a factory in a country you had never been to before, walking through the doors and "sorting it out".
I can proudly say that despite starting off declaring many things unsatisfactory and rejecting / not-accepting them, I could get firm hand-shakes wishing me well as I departed.

Contact me : Contact form passes your contact details to me.

(R. Smith CEng PhD MSc etc., 19Apr2024)