Gerhardus Jacobus (Gazza) Steyn

Core capabilities

Mapped to the selection criteria recruiters use most.

Career history

1. 

   2026

   Senior Specialist – Business Improvement / Operational Excellence

   Perilya, Broken Hill NSW

   • Designed and launched a value stream management process (primary and enabling value streams) for the operation.
   • Managed daily and month-end leadership reporting; delivered automated Power BI dashboards and integrated reporting.
   • Built digital idea-submission forms and standard pre-start agendas (Safety, Alignment and Innovation) in Microsoft 365.
2. 

   2017 – 2026

   Senior Scheduling Engineer

   Perilya, Broken Hill NSW

   • Owned short-, medium- and long-term underground schedules for the Broken Hill operation, built from mine designs in Deswik CAD, IS, SO and Sched and Vulcan; one direct report.
   • Ran the weekly pre-plan and 3-month forecast meetings covering shaft, electrical, fan and equipment availability; tracked schedule compliance.
   • Maintained the mining model (as-built depletion, survey void shapes, stope optimisation in Deswik SO) for annual resource reporting across the South, North and Potosi mines.
   • Migrated scheduling from Datamine to Deswik; standardised mining models across three mines; built tonne-kilometre tracking from first principles.
   • Automated end-of-month, GM, daily and scheduling reports and dashboards in Excel.
3. 

   2014 – 2016

   Senior Scheduling Engineer / Vacuum Drilling Supervisor

   South32 Worsley Alumina (formerly BHP Billiton), WA

   • Delivered 2-year budget and 3-month forecast schedules, including bauxite stacking and reclaiming plans, using OPMS, HAULSIM and XACT; built an automated stacker/reclaimer scheduling tool.
   • Commissioned and supervised grade-control vacuum drilling (2 rigs, 4 direct reports) as trainer and assessor; more than doubled first-season targets with a strong safety record.
   • Statutory workplace inspection appointee under the WA Mines Safety and Inspection Regulations (2015).
   • Site: ~19 Mtpa bauxite ore plus ~10 Mtpa waste.
4. 

   2013 – 2014

   Technical Services Superintendent

   St Barbara – Gold Ridge, Solomon Islands

   • Led mining engineering and survey for 4 open pits feeding a 2.5 Mtpa mill (about 700 staff); short- and medium-term plans, drill and blast, budgets, survey and life-of-mine input.
   • Relieved as Mine Manager 8 times over 5 months (Apr–Sep 2013) and as Acting Production Superintendent; site leadership team member.
   • Maintained compliance, waste dump and traffic management plans; coached and developed Solomon Islands national staff.
   • Site: fleet of Cat 775, Bell B50 and Cat 740 trucks, Hitachi EX1200 and Cat 385 excavators.
5. 

   2011 – 2013

   Senior Mine Planning Engineer; Senior Long Term Planning Engineer (from 2012)

   Glencore (Xstrata), Mount Isa QLD

   • Issued final stope and development designs for sublevel open stoping on the ENT orebody (2012 targets: 6.2 Mt hoisted at 2.63% Cu); coordinated and checked designs from four engineers; mentored junior engineers.
   • Led annual reserve updates and resource-to-reserve conversion; maintained the ore-pass risk register and vertical-openings inspection list.
   • Project-managed an underground workshop conversion to a fresh-air base (AU$10M investment; NPV of AU$138M).
   • Site: sublevel open stoping across 86 levels and sublevels, 3 shafts plus a subshaft, 9 surface fans and 7 refrigeration plants.
6. 

   2009 – 2011

   Senior Mining Engineer / Technical Lead

   BHP GEMCO, Groote Eylandt NT

   • Led survey and planning (4 direct reports, plus consultants and contractors) for a ~6 Mtpa manganese strip mine; designs, schedules, drill and blast and monthly reconciliations.
   • Lean Six Sigma Green Belt project to increase direct-feed ore and cut rehandling; sourced the XACT pit-to-port planning tool.
7. 

   2007 – 2009

   Mine Planning Superintendent

   BHP Hotazel Manganese Mines, South Africa

   • Set up in-house mine planning for Wessels underground (board and pillar, ~1.2 Mtpa) and Mamatwan open pit (3–4 Mtpa): XPAC models, life-of-mine plans and 4 direct reports; saving of about ZAR 8M a year.
8. 

   2000 – 2007

   Shiftboss, Short-Term Planner, Automation Control Room Supervisor, Acting Mine Overseer

   De Beers Finsch Mine, South Africa

   • Statutory shiftboss for groundhandling (5 km of conveyors, 8 ore passes, 19 apron feeders and 8 sizers over 3 levels) and for drilling and blasting.
   • Short-term planner (budgets, reconciliations and forecasts); automation control room supervisor for a block cave (remote and autonomous loading, trucking and crushing).
   • Acting Mine Overseer for construction, production, and shaft and groundhandling; mines rescue member.
9. 

   1990 – 2000

   Learner Official to Production Shiftboss

   AngloGold (Freddies), Free State, South Africa

   • Came up through the Learner Official programme; production shiftboss (appointed 1994) in deep-level gold stoping and development, leading crews of up to 130.
   • Legal inspections, blasting and explosives control; performance tracked monthly against square-metre and face-advance targets.

Systems and skills