Perhaps Roni’s motivation comes from his mum, who instilled strength and compassion into Roni from a young age. She was a single mum who worked in a law firm for 35 years before moving into an HSEQ admin training role in oil and gas, now working alongside Roni’s wife!
Roni’s career started in 1999 when he left high school at age 16, started working for his uncle’s earth moving company and then went into construction a few years after.
It wasn’t until 2010 that he decided to try his hand at mining with a trainee role at NRW Holdings at Christmas Creek. After his third swing, during a night shift, Roni suddenly realised, “I’ve made it in mining!” This made him feel proud, the sign he needed to continue in the industry. After just four months, Roni had the opportunity to start his training on a dozer, then progressed to a digger a year later.
When NRW lost the contract at Christmas Creek, and it was taken over by Macmahon, Roni started his journey with us.
After about a year with Macmahon he found himself in a Leading Hand role. He stayed in the position until the end of Macmahon’s contract at Christmas Creek.
Roni quickly learned that if you want to succeed, you need to take every opportunity that comes your way.
If someone offers you something, they must see something in you. Be courageous. Don’t let self-doubt stop you from progressing in your career.”
After working with Downer at Christmas Creek for a few months, Roni returned to Macmahon in 2016, joining Telfer as a Production Supervisor. Roni had to learn about the geotechnical side of mining and looked to the geology department for guidance.
Ask lots of questions. Be aware of your surroundings and take advantage of all the teaching opportunities – they’re all around you! Take your key learnings and apply them to the next site.”
Roni got the opportunity to cover for the Superintendents at Telfer, which exposed him to even more responsibility. A permanent position opened up in 2020, and he jumped at the chance to progress. He learnt a memorable lesson at Telfer, “If you don’t have dirt in front of you, you can’t dig.” He keeps this in mind and says it’s all about drilling, keep them drills going.
Yet again, Roni decided to level up his knowledge. This time, he made the most of the Human Resources team to learn how to manage people and took supervisor courses to learn effective communication.
Roni has his team members’ best interests at heart. For example, supervisors used to work a 2:1 roster which they found challenging. So Roni worked hard to change the roster to 8:6 to reduce stress and burnout. Roni also took on a mentor role for leading hands. The challenge was teaching people what he knew, especially safety and managing and reducing risks.
In 2021, Roni worked at Mt Morgans until completion in 2022. At Mt Morgans, Roni spent time seeing how the drill and blast side works – understanding their challenges and finding out how he could make their job easier.
Roni is currently working at Warrawoona. His experience at different sites has been a great learning curve, and he can utilise these learnings to teach others in his current role.
One of Roni’s memorable moments at Macmahon came just before the Mt Morgans mining contract was completed. He received a call from our CEO, Mick Finnegan, at 7.51 AM asking to deliver an important announcement at 8am. He didn’t know what it was, but whatever the case, he was asked to let the team know they would not be losing their positions with Macmahon. This was a big announcement. Although this was hard news to share, everyone was offered positions on other sites, and Macmahon helped to pay people in the gap between jobs, which was fantastic. Knowing this information made delivering the message easier than expected. Shortly after that, our General Manager and Project Manager arrived on site to confirm the news, which showed genuine care for our people.
Roni loves that Macmahon continually evolves its values. He particularly loves the United value, as he knows how important it is to work together to achieve a common goal. Roni also likes Macmahon’s focus on sustainability and believes people need to show green behaviours – His saying, “Don’t tell me, Show me”.
Roni believes that to progress at Macmahon, you need a positive and genuine attitude. He wants to work with people who want to work in the mining environment, not just for the money.
Roni has already contributed so much to Macmahon and the site cultures he has been a part of, taking pride in everything he does. We’re thankful to Roni as part of our team. Roni is already looking forward to the next challenge – and playing in the sandpit, as he calls it!
