Design and Applications Engineer (Mechanical)

Mining Plant Design | East Rand, Gauteng

Turn a client’s ore and tonnage into a plant that gets built

Our client is an established supplier to the African mining industry. They design and build complete crushing, milling and screening plants on a turnkey basis, and also supply capital equipment, spares and wear parts to mines across the continent. They are looking for a Mechanical Engineer to join their Technical team in the East Rand, reporting to the Technical Director.

The role
This role sits at the front end of every project. You will take a client’s ore, tonnage and site, select the equipment, lay out the plant, and hand over a clear design that the costing team can price. You will present and defend your choices to clients, and when a plant on site has a problem, you will be one of the people sent to find out why. There is drawing work too, but the role is more about engineering judgement than detailing.
The company is small and collaborative, with no walls between departments. Most of your time will go to technical and proposal work, but you will help Projects when they need it, and they will help you.

Key responsibilities

• Develop plant and equipment layouts for proposals and projects, including flowsheets, equipment selection and sizing, and general arrangements, with clear reasoning behind each choice
• Hand complete designs to the costing team so bids are priced on what will actually be built, and support each bid through to award
• Present and explain designs to clients on site and in meetings, including the trade-offs behind each choice
• Troubleshoot equipment and plant problems on site: diagnose, propose a fix, and see it through with the client and the team
• Carry out engineering calculations and selections covering throughput and capacity, drives, structures, wear and materials
• Produce and check drawings, from concept GAs to fabrication detail, in Autodesk Inventor, and work with the drawing office on the rest
• Feed site learnings back into the company’s designs and equipment range, including standardisation, improvements and new designs

Minimum requirements

• BEng, BSc(Eng) or BTech in Mechanical Engineering
• 3 to 8 years’ experience in heavy industry, ideally minerals processing, materials handling or mining equipment, with real exposure to plant layout or equipment selection
• 3D CAD proficiency (Autodesk Inventor is used)
• Understanding of fabrication and installation, so that your designs can be built and maintained
• Comfortable on site and confident working on a machine that is not performing
• Able to explain technical choices in plain language and stay calm when challenged

Advantageous

• Progress toward ECSA registration
• Autodesk Inventor experience
• Comminution (crushing, milling and screening) experience

You are a steady, practical engineer who can hold a technical position with a client and change it when the facts say so, and who is happy to work across departments in a small team.