As we continue to grow, we are seeking a Chief Metallurgist to join our team. The purpose of this role is to lead, develop, and optimize the metallurgical aspects of our gold recovery processes to ensure the operation delivers safe, efficient, and cost-effective production.
Responsibilities
- Collaborate with senior management in the development and execution of site-wide metallurgical strategies that maximize gold recovery and align with business objectives.
- Lead metallurgical input into feasibility studies, detailed engineering, commissioning, and operational ramp-up to reach steady state operations.
- Provide expert guidance on process design, flowsheet optimization, and technology implementation.
- Serve as technical advisor on comminution, heap leach, gold recovery, and refinery performance.
- Monitor KPIs including recovery, grade reconciliation, leach kinetics, reagent consumption, and refinery performance.
- Implement metallurgical accounting and reconciliation systems.
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives to maximize throughput, recovery, plant availability, and reagent efficiency.
- Conduct metallurgical balancing, performance modeling, troubleshooting, and root cause analysis to ensure stable operation and predictable production.
- Validate and optimize crushing, stacking, leaching, adsorption, elution, electrowinning, and refining circuits.
- Validate and optimize crushing, stacking, leaching, adsorption, electrowinning, and refining circuits.
- Ensure all metallurgical deliverables are completed safely, on time, and within budget.
- Oversee assay laboratory and metallurgical laboratory operations to ensure accuracy, precision, and data integrity.
- Implement robust QA/AC systems and best practices in the lab.
- Lead, mentor, and develop metallurgical engineers, laboratory staff, and technical personnel to build a high-performance, safety-focused team.
- Support regulatory compliance, environmental performance, and sustainability initiatives.
- Collaborate with vendors, consultants, and technology providers.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering, chemical engineering or similar field required.
- A minimum of 10 years of extractive metallurgy and mineral processing experience required.
- Five or more years of assay and metallurgical laboratory management experience required.
- Experience in heap leach operations, cyanide-based recovery systems, gold and silver recovery circuits and mine-to-mill integration preferred.
- Metallurgical accounting and reconciliation expertise preferred.
- Must be authorized to work in the U.S. for any employer.
- Must possess a valid driver's license.
At Orla, we prioritize our people, creating and maintaining a workplace culture of diversity and inclusion where employees are respected, valued, and recognized for their contributions.
