Mine to Market November-December 2012 - Mount Isa Mines

Martin Zgrajewski’s
Story
I first joined Xstrata
Zinc and the Lady
Loretta team because
I was interested in
the opportunity to
be involved with a
new mine right from
the development
phase; to be there
from the start and
to have ownership
across the board.
I have now been
the Underground
Mine Manager at
Lady Loretta since
October 2011, and
I’m really enjoying
the challenge.
I have a great group of people in the
mining team, and together, we are
developing an operation that I am proud
to be a part of.
I am responsible for all mining
related activities at Lady Loretta, so
my team consists of mining engineers,
geotechnical engineers, geologists,
surveyors, underground operational crews,
and electrical, maintenance and service
personnel. We also work with contractors
engaged specifically to assist us in the
development of the mine decline and
ventilation shafts and the construction
and installation of our paste plant. The
relationships that have developed between
the Xstrata Zinc crews and contractor
personnel are strong and have allowed
us all to work together as one big mining
team, focussed on achieving our goals.
This achievement is something to be
proud of.
We are developing a decline-access
underground operation to mine high
grade zinc-lead-silver ore at a depth of up
to 500 metres. Every effort has gone into
making the design of our mine as simple
and functional as possible. Quite simply,
I’m excited about what I see when I drive
down the decline; the physical structure
of the mine we have developed, and the
high grade minerals we are pulling out
every day.
I would have to say, the thing that
I am most proud of at Lady Loretta is
that we have developed a mine that is
producing ore more than 12 months ahead
of our original schedule. We are not yet
at full production, and are continuing to
develop the lower levels of the resource
whilst gathering development ore from
the upper levels, but we’re also on track
to beginning commercial scale mining
by mid-2013. After nearly 20 years in
the mining industry, I can say that, for
me, the differences at Xstrata are the
people, the level of autonomy given at an
operational level and the access we have
to senior management.
The people I deal with on a daily basis
are fantastic. There are some individuals
who are just truly out of the box. They have
such a fresh way of looking at things. The
great thing about Xstrata is the way the
company embraces new ideas and gives us
the autonomy to make things happen.
I have really appreciated the level of
access I have had to senior executives,
both within our Australian operations and
from our headquarters in Spain. Having
the chance to meet and engage with
these people on a semi-regular basis
really helps facilitate the achievement
of objectives at our mine site in remote
western Queensland.
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