Despite the past turmoil at Queensland mining company Whitehaven Coal, it’s good to see some positive mining news coming out of the mining camp.

Last month the mining company was placing ads on mining jobs boards to find suitable workers for its controversial $767 million Maules Creek project. Work has been ongoing at the site with over 50 percent of the ground works completed and coal is expected to be finding its way to the coal terminals around the first quarter of 2015.

Activity is hotting up as Whitehaven start the process of awarding vital contracts to manage operations at the mine.

Mining equipment fleet management is an integral part of the daily operations on a mine site, so choosing the right contractor is essential. Whitehaven Coal have chosen Wenco International Mining Systems to handle the entire fleet on-site.

Wenco – who are they and what do they do?

Wenco are a pretty big deal. They are an international company specialising in a wide variety of services across a lot of industries. They’re big on engineering, providing onshore and offshore services, steel fabrication design, maintenance and refurbishment services and even equipment hire.

Wenco have worked on big projects such as the Karratha Gas Plant, Pluto LNG Plant in WA, the Goodwyn A Platform, North Rankin A platform and have even been contracted to the Royal Australian Navy.

They are based in Western Australia and operate from a 13000 square metre workshop facility in O`Connor, WA. They love their cranes and have over 20 gantry cranes with maximum lifting capabilities of up to 80 tonnes.

What will Wenco be doing at Maules Creek?

The high-tech Wenco’s fleet management system will be installed on all mining vehicles operating at the mine. The purpose of this is to deliver real-time data on the performance of the vehicles and to provide a platform for extensive maintenance information.

How to dig deeper and uncover unadvertised mining jobs

At iMINCO we are continually foraging through hundreds of websites and digging deeper to look for creative ways to help the thousands of readers who visit our website each day.

iMINCO is a mining information provider and we assist people to uncover information about the Australian mining and resource industry that can assist in the development of a mining career. Unfortunately, many people don’t know how to gather information online and use it to give themselves an advantage when looking for and applying for jobs.

That’s where iMINCO comes in . . .

I think we all agree that mining�can be�a complicated business, no matter where you live in the world. There are many levels to the mining process and more often than not, it can be too frustrating to even know where to start looking for employment.

Many people head straight to the mining jobs boards like SEEK, Career One and Indeed . . .�and there’s nothing wrong with this; as there are tons of mining jobs advertised online every single week.

The only challenge with that approach is, everyone else seems to do the same, so the competition for jobs increases and there can be literally thousands of people applying for a handful of jobs. Now that’s frustrating!

Recruiting companies are for the most part responsible for placing job ads on behalf of a mining company or contractor. There is a lot of pressure on recruiters to find the right people for the job being advertised. There’s a lot of money riding on it because recruiting companies are always beating off other recruiters who are competing for the same slice of the labour hire and jobs market.

It’s not uncommon for thousands of job applications to end up in the bin – way before they even reach the desk of a human. Don’t believe it?.. go grab your copy of the iMINCO guide to ‘beating resume scanning software‘ and find out for yourself.

If you are looking for work in the mining industry, or perhaps you’re thinking that a mining job could be a good way to earn a living . . . read on.

What you need to do is this . . .

Forget about mining jobs boards for now and start prospecting for jobs. Just like in mining, you have to go out there looking for the minerals. You must be inquisitive and have the right tools and mindset to be able to see light at the end of the tunnel and have the confidence to know that if you keep looking, eventually the rewards will be there.

We’re going to give a few tips on how to find jobs with Wenco and its partners.

You can use the same process to find jobs with any other mining company or contractor.

Listen up…

• Google ‘Wenco’ and you’ll get a list of good results returned back to your computer screen
• First stop would be their website at www.wenco.com.au. Read as much information as you can about the Wenco company. Create a folder and print out their website. Make small lists to highlight their projects and list the other companies they have worked for. This new list will provide dozens of opportunities to research other companies that could offer employment opportunities. One such company is Roy Hill. The massive iron ore mine that is currently under construction in WA – there’s another lead for mining jobs right there! It makes total sense, don’t you agree?… keep reading.
• Search the Wenco website and look for clues as to the structure of the business.
• Wenco also have another website www.wencomine.com where you can learn about their fleet management systems. This also revealed (in their news section), that they are a very progressive international business; servicing the US, Canada and Indonesia to name a few.
• The wencomine.com website is an ‘Aladdin’s cave’ of information for job seekers. Read through their news section to find more hints about their joint venture partnerships and contracts with mining companies and contractors.
• There are some good articles by Wenco’s director of research, Martin Politick and Wenco`s Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Glen Trainor, that will build your knowledge of the company. This information is invaluable if you are serious about finding a job in the mining industry. The more knowledge you have, the more confidence you will possess which will shine through in your correspondence with the company.
• We can see that Wenco is a Pty Ltd company and it is not a public listed company. This means it has a management structure you can easily discover. For instance they have an organisational chart on their website (although it’s from 2012) . . .�however, this shows the basic structure of the company and even shows the name of the General Manager.
• Wenco International Mining Systems Ltd were awarded the contract to supply fleet management and high-precision GPS solutions for the Meandu coal mine, which is a Rio Tinto project. Coal from this mining operation provides fuel for the Tarong and Tarong North power stations. In January 2013, Downer EDI� (another opportunity to seek out career opportunities) was�engaged as the long-term contract mine operator�on behalf of Stanwell Corporation Limited (Stanwell) who generate electricity for the National Electricity Market (the NEM).
• Find out even more information on Wenco by following them on facebook� www.facebook.com/Wencomine and Twitter. Although we have to say, their social media manager is falling behind with keeping their news up to date. Still, you never know what kind of information you can find out from a mining company’s social media channel.
• YouTube is also a good place to search for information and clues as to what a company can offer. Wenco have a few YouTube videos to look at . . .�simply Google ‘wenco youtube’
• And of course, we can’t forget Wenco jobs can we? Wenco jobs can be found advertised here: www.wencomine.com/about/careers/ and iMINCO also found various Wenco jobs on a range of mining jobs boards just by Googling ‘wenco jobs’. Its not difficult to uncover where the jobs are – the most challenging task is to figure out how to apply, what to write in your resume and how to follow up a job application and the best way to prepare for a mining job interview.

You can see, just by reading through this post, how one simple news story can quickly develop into a multitude of mining job ideas. This is the difference between competing in a tough jobs market and sliding into a well-paid job before it’s even advertised.

Build your knowledge on the mining and resource sector . . .�it’s not a difficult task. It may take an hour or so to gather the right information and it will dramatically increase your career opportunities because knowledge is one of the best cards you can have up your sleeve no matter what you do in life.

If you’re not getting the weekly iMINCO Project News in your email inbox each week, you will be missing out on news articles just like this.

Well . . .�what are you waiting for?