Job Principal - Strategic Mine Design Copper SA, Adelaide

At BHP we support our people to grow, learn, develop their skills and reach their potential. With a global portfolio of operations, we offer a diverse and inclusive environment with extraordinary career opportunities. Our strategy is to focus on creating a safe work environment where our employees feel strongly connected to our values and objectives, and where the capability of our people is key to our success.

Come and be a part of this success.

About the Role:

BHP's copper province in South Australia (Copper SA) comprises the Olympic Dam, Prominent Hill and Carrapateena underground mines, with smelter and refinery complex at Olympic Dam. The company is also progressing the Oak Dam exploration prospect.

Reporting to the Superintendent Strategic Mine Planning, you will be part of a team supporting growth studies, Life of Asset planning and Mineral Reserves reporting to the Copper SA assets. Through insight and innovation, you will play a critical role in long-term strategic mine planning to support and align with business priorities. This unique role can influence and inform strategic mine planning outcomes across multiple assets using various underground mining methods while interfacing with project teams to deliver value. Your extensive industry experience will enable you to develop and maintain effective working relationships with a wide stakeholder group with the ability to communicate at all levels of the organisation.

Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Roster: 5 days on; 2 days off - office hours, based in our Adelaide Office (occasional visits to site will be required)
Department: Strategic Planning and Studies
Manager: Superintendent - Strategic Mine Planning
Employment Type: Permanent.

Applications close: 25 July 2025

• Develop mine planning strategies to support growth opportunities within the Copper SA province.
• Support the integration and optimisation of the Copper SA.
• Focus on understanding and supporting mine long-term planning and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Leverage your expertise and industry connections to bring new technologies and ways of working to the business to improve safety and productivity.
• Promote mine planning as the vehicle that supports, collates, and drives forward all technical disciplines and asset optionality.
• Support the annual Ore Reserve estimation and declaration.
• Provide technical support for significant mine planning projects, studies, and reviews.
• Apply divergent thought to value optimisation for the operations.
• Communicate and collaborate with other Planning and Execution teams.
• Plan/Design to extract the value from the orebody by working with the other Planning, and Execution teams.
• Develop scopes of work to engage additional external stakeholders as required to support business needs.
• Project management of packages of work as required to support studies.
• Monitor and maintain progress for all design work, using the relevant team tools.

• Degree qualified in Mining Engineering (or equivalent), with a strategic mindset.
• Extensive experience in underground mine planning and operations across various operations/projects.
• Expertise in underground hard rock mining methods including caving methods.
• Demonstrated experience in a studies environment.
• Demonstrated successful communication of complex issues and influencing positive change.
• Demonstrated experience leading and influencing diverse groups in a large organisation.
• Demonstrated deep technical knowledge of mine planning as an integrated activity with all other technical disciplines.
• Sound written and verbal communication skills.
• Previous experience delivering studies through to operations readiness and execution advantageous.
• Previous experience as a Competent Person for Ore Reserves Reporting is advantageous.
• Proficiency in Deswik software suite.
• Proficiency in Cave mining method production scheduling software.

At BHP, we are committed to employing individuals who align with the BHP Charter Values and meet the requirements of the role. As part of the recruitment process, there are a number of checks which may be conducted to demonstrate applicants' suitability for a role including police / criminal background checks, medical, drug, and alcohol testing, due diligence checks, right to work checks, and/or reference checks.

If you are already employed directly by BHP, please log in using your BHP email address or apply via our internal jobs portal.

The size, stability and magnitude of our business not only provides significant opportunity for professional development, but also attractive salary packages with performance-based bonuses and a best-in-class employee share program. We know there are many aspects of our employees' lives that are important, and work is only one of these, so we offer benefits to enable your work to fit with your life. These benefits include flexible working options, a generous paid parental leave policy, other extended leave entitlements and parent rooms. 

At BHP, we know that we are strengthened by diversity. We are an Equal Opportunity employer that is committed to making BHP a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and be at their best every day. We are focused on creating a workforce that's more diverse and represents the communities where we work and live. providing a work environment in which everyone is included, treated fairly and with respect. We are an Equal Opportunity employer and recognise that true diversity includes gender, age, race, disability status, sexual orientation, religion, neurodiversity, education levels, and many more aspects of your identity.

BHP is committed to providing a recruitment process that is fair, equitable and accessible for all. If you have a disability, we know that it may be helpful for us to adjust our process to make it equitable for your individual situation. If you would like to reach out to someone about your situation and our recruitment process, please email us at *********@bhp.com.