Swing Nine: Purple Circle

I completely forgot to mention a few more bug encounters during swing eight. There was something in the air that swing as I just seemed to attract everything. One day on the bust into work it was a moth that wanted to hang around my hair for whatever reason. The next day it was “the Australian death bug”. Okay, so that’s not a real bug, but this bug had a red stinger that was about an inch long. It was flying around near me and I felt a bit threatened so I squished it against the window with my backpack. At this point all the guys were giving me crap. Some told me that the bug I had just killed had photographic memory that was tied in with all the other bugs in their family. Those bugs will now be out to get me in order to avenge their mates untimely death – hence the “Australian death bug” name. Yes, I work with a bunch of smart guys. Who knows what the scientific name for that bug was, all I know was it looked a lot nicer when it wasn’t flapping about!

Another encounter happened one night, this time with a little field mouse. I noticed the little one scampering a few metres away from me the night before our close encounter. I was sitting down with my legs crossed, reading, whilst waiting for a floc mix to be ready. Something felt a bit weird so I looked up from what I was reading, only to find the little mouse eyeballing me from where he had crawled up – just on top of my knees. I jumped up in fright and then felt so bad that I may have hurt the mouse in the process. I am pretty sure he survived unscathed though; I have seen him scampering around most nights, or at least I think its him or her…

Anyway, enough of David Attenborough nature encounters on site. This swing was huge. Another part of the plant came into service during our break so we had a new part of the process online. This time it was a section at the front of the plant which grinds the ore. The flow on effect of this new part being commissioned is that there is a lot more being processed through the plant, which means there is a lot more coming into the thickeners. The consequence for my little area came in the form of dirty water as our little temporary floc set up couldn’t keep up with the tonnage going in. I should clarify, it wasn’t just dirty water but REALLY dirty water. I was very stressed out when it started – one minute it was decent and then about 20 minutes later it was no longer water, it looked more like mud. My level of stress must have been pretty high cause two guys from my crew, supervisor included, made the effort to talk to me and tell me there was nothing else I could do.  It wasn’t my fault the water was dirty; it was just a flow on of what was happening in the front end of the plant. I decided to listen to them (this doesn’t happen very often), stopped stressing and embraced the mud. I pretended I was in Willy Wonka land and I had a giant chocolate fountain. From then on, every time someone called on the radio about the dirty water, I corrected them. It wasn’t dirty water, it was chocolate water!

My chocolate fountain was A LOT bigger than this. A LOT.

Due to the inability of the existing floc set up to keep the water clean, the proper reagents/floc area got commissioned in a flash. As with everything new, it’s a learning process which means it involves sorting through various hiccups. In this instance, it was the floc feed hopper getting blocked. What’s a feed hopper you ask? It’s the box where the dry floc powder passes through before it goes into the pipe and onto the tank where it’s mixed with water. Or as I would usually explain to the guys when I need a hand, it’s the “thingy” where the floc goes through. Yes, I know, I am very technical! Thankfully the blockage issue was sorted out by the commissioning guys after a day. The solution was simple enough, since the feeder blocked up during continuous feed they put together a computer program (also known as logic, have I mentioned how technical I am yet?) which was an automatic on/off cycle. I did a few mixes using this cycle and it was all roses! Now the floc mixing tank was about 10 times the size of the temporary one and the floc was now doing its job. It was now keeping up with what was going into the thickener and the water was clear again. The bad news was that I lost my giant chocolate fountain. I was no longer in Willy Wonka land. It was a sad day! Thankfully though the reagents area have purple pipes – lots of pretty purple pipes which match my crib bag, flash  light (or as it’s known in this part of the world – torch), pen, and boots.

Yes, I have a purple Maglite.

And YES, I am saving up for the purple Leatherman.

Frustrations ran a bit high this swing. Surprisingly not from the crew who were (yet again) sweating it out in the heat, dealing with all the niggly issues around the plant, and missing breaks. It was the first swing wherein most of us needed coverage before we could go on breaks. Being short on people didn’t help. Some days meant just a one hour break. One day in particular meant a half hour lunch break. On this day I had a pretty interesting exchange with someone on site. I won’t name names, nor will I mention roles as that will make it obvious. Let’s just say that one of the office based white collar folks had the pleasure of dealing with the blocked sample lines us operators deal with on a regular basis. This person dealt with it once and pretty much lost his cool at the commissioning guys and myself. I couldn’t believe it. Years of mining experience under their belt and 30 minutes or so of dealing with a pesky blocked sample line and we copped the brunt of his frustration. I understand there were other factors in play – other issues frustrating them, a flight they had to catch, and whatever else was happening in their own little world. I get all that but I still struggle to get my head around the fact that this person took it out on us. I figured years of experience would have taught people how to cope under pressure or at the very least how not to unleash it on unsuspecting folks. I felt embarrassed when this person let his frustrations out on the commissioning guys and then walked off. For those who know me can probably guess as to what happened next, but I must say I was still a bit surprised. I stood there flabbergasted at what just happened, looking at the commissioning guys and looking at this person as they walked away. After a few seconds, I couldn’t help myself and chased after the person to explain that the commissioning guys actually hadn’t done anything wrong – they did what any of us operators would have done to unblock the sample line. However, this person was miffed because we hadn’t sat on our hands waiting for them to get back as they went around looking for another way to unblock the pipe, sourcing parts and fitters and so on. The exchange that followed was pretty interesting. I must say I was proud of myself for standing up for what I thought was right. Even when out of my comfort zone I can still stand strong for what I think is right. Mind you I am still baffled that someone in that position reacted in the way they did. Completely baffled. Although this person did apologise via a note left with my supervisor, I am sure I am not their favourite person now but I honestly do not care. Hey, honey badger don’t give a shit right? And last time I checked, it said Honey Badger on my helmet…

I wish I could explain how the nickname started. All I have is a link to the video that started it all… The rationale behind the nickname lies deep in the psyche of a certain Miss Coco Nut http://youtu.be/4r7wHMg5Yjg