Shane Reeves

Experience

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  University of Melbourne

  Oct 1999 - Dec 2001

  Technical Services Manager

  Responsible for managing the majority of the department laboratories including AAS, XRF, XRD, RNAA, GFAAS, etc and supervising post-graduate students. Co-authoring numerous publications with staff and students. Operation of electron microprobe and electron microscopy equipment. Outsourcing skills to external mining and other industries to generate income for the laboratories.

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  Western Mining Corporation Limited

  Aug 2001 - Dec 2006

  Chief Chemist

  Lead a team of 25 personnel, running XRF, XRD, AA, wet chemical, mineralogical equipment in a remote location (Leinster)

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  Energy Resources of Australia Ltd

  Feb 2006 - May 2014

  Manage the entire Plant Operations Accountabilities, with 7 direct report superintendents: technical superintendent (laboratory and metallurgical), mechanical maintenance superintendent, water treatment superintendent, planning superintendent, reliability superintendent, electrical maintenance superintendent and production superintendent. Accountability for site 25MW power station, water treatment to 4 GL/a (MF/RO) and brine concentrator.The role managed a total team of ~220 personnel, and delivered record plant utilisation and recovery, a significant step change reduction in unit costs and excellent personal and process safety statistics. Process Safety – Rio Tinto Working Group role advising the steering committee on Process Safety Management Implementation Strategy and developing a site process safety team, focussed on the fire system, ammonia, acid, tails system and potable water, and incorporating classified plant and equipment. Show less Technical Superintendent - uranium hydromet operation.Responsibilities Principal metallurgist responsible for the metallurgical performance of the Ranger operation responsible for 7 metallurgists and the laboratory team and involved close liaison with the mechanical and electrical maintenance, planning, reliability and production superintendent’s teams. Role supported management of numerous in-house improvement projects, direct project supervision, liaison with other Rio Tinto functions, the entire reagent budget ($40M), production scheduling and ore blending and identification of new improvement opportunities. Under my direction the technical team achieved record uranium extraction levels for the operation through modifications to leach chemistry and optimisation of grinding.Significant process improvements including crushing modifications to reduce feed size to mills, grinding improvements to reduce product size or increase throughput, leaching improvements through improved understanding of economic drivers, mineralogy and ore blending, reduction in soluble loss through improved understanding of causes, and improvement of product quality through understanding of penalty element and other controls in solvent extraction.Achievements Introduced production mineralogy to ERA, oversaw significant orebody knowledge understanding improvements and plant optimisation improvements. Leaning on cost initiatives returned over $4M per annum. Close collaboration with Rio Tinto T&I, ANSTO and others to deliver process optimisation in numerous areas of the operation. Worked closely with RTU to develop working relationship with Chinese customers including a site visit to the CNEIC facility in China. Show less

  • Operations Manager

    Sept 2010 - May 2014

  • Technical Superintendent- Processing

    Feb 2006 - Aug 2010
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  Oyu Tolgoi LLC / Оюу толгой ХХК

  May 2014 - Oct 2016

  Operations Manager

  Operations Manager for the +41Mt per annum Oyu Tolgoi copper concentrator, southern Gobi desert, Mongolia.Responsibilities Initially as Maintenance Manager, then Maintenance-Concentrator Operations Manager, then Concentrator Operations Manager. Manage Concentrator Operations Accountabilities, identify and develop Mongolian Nationals into 9 direct report superintendent roles and progressively displace Expats.The role managed a total team of ~400 personnel, budget in excess of $250M p.a including a small dedicated HSE team reporting directly to me. Introduced HSE planning and monitoring systems and standards reviews and developed safety team to be accepted as part of the operational team. Delivered record plant utilisation and throughput, a significant step change reduction in unit costs and debottlenecked the plant as production throughput increased from 28Mtpa to the current +40Mtpa. Delivered excellent personal, CRM and process safety statistics. I lived in country with my family for 3 years.Implemented Process Safety for the Concentrator and Critical Risk Management. Introduced annual HSE planning processes and metrics and created focus groups to identify and resolve plant issues relating to dust management, machine guarding, fire system improvement, Victaulic coupling risk and so on.Achievements Best CRM performance in Operations, MOC programme improvement, launched process safety in the concentrator, Mongolian Nationals to senior leadership positions including my own role. Record throughput at record low unit cost, incremental improvement year on year in mill rate, crushing rate, asset utilisation, etc. Show less

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  Rio Tinto

  Oct 2016 - Mar 2017

  Acting General Manager

  Operations General Manager (acting) for the Oyu Tolgoi 41 Mtpa copper-gold operation, south Gobi desert, Mongolia.Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer and representing the Mine, Planning, Concentrator, Product Load Out and Various Infrastructure Teams over 1000 personnel.

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  Oyu Tolgoi LLC / Оюу толгой ХХК

  Mar 2017 - Nov 2017

  Concentrator, Maintenance, Technical, Mine and Operations Transformation Manager

  Responsibilities Identify through Deep Dives opportunities to enhance cash flow, improve production and influence teams to adopt and manage these programmes. Develop initiatives and manage through the DRIVE system milestones. Support Cascading Business Review processes across the teams and develop Integrated Operations initiatives.Achievements Completed key Deep Dives and generated projects exceeding $50M annualised value. Drove a culture of recognition of success and a project pipeline framework to maintain the transformation culture as a ‘how we work around here’ mindset. Show less

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  Rio Tinto

  Dec 2017 - now

  Principal Advisor Processing Productivity

  Currently Principal Advisor Processing Productivity. Engaged in productivity improvements across multiple operations and commodities (mine to market). Personally interested in the correlation between safety improvements and productivity benefits, and also process safety.Oversee the application of constraint utilisation (CU), working very closely with the development team, to deliver CU models across RT (currently 32 models in various stages of completion). While CU dominates my current role, a large proportion of my time is spent in metrics development and supporting numerous ad hoc demands from the product groups, with 2 direct reports engaged in similar activities, including next generation innovation evaluation, project reviews, etc.Engage operational product group teams through building full potential (BFP), through production reviews and benchmarking, and through problem solving and collaboration, conference presentations, communities of practise and working groups.Conduct Technical Evaluation Group reviews of proposed projects of the order of 100’s $million.Represent the processing team on the Rio Tinto Geometallurgy Community of Practise, Processing Leadership Forum, Materials handling workshops, etc.Career mentoring of Mongolian nationals and Australian indigenous employees. Show less