Matt Graham President of the Coober Pedy Miner’s Association attended the BHP Pathways into Industry meeting earlier this year and discussed how BHP could help the community.

Matt and his committee had first discussed beneficial options before meeting with BHP Billiton, CEG (Career Employment Group), AMYAC (Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara Aboriginal Corporation), Umoona Community and other members of the community about running some Pathways Training and Shared Services that would benefit Coober Pedy.

“It was highlighted that those looking for employment in the mining industry needed industry training and pathway options to get started. It was decided that, to begin with, we would run a small group through the Grader and Roller course that would see 5 people from across the community trained and ticketed.

The training would take place on the opal fields mining roads, and would help to restore some of those roads into good condition after several rain events,” said Matt.

“Works have begun on the main roads into Olympic Field and will progress further north. BHP have also agreed to have the grader continue on a bit longer, to tidy up more sections of road,” Matt continued.

“We will look to gate 13 next and then the roads through at the 11 mile, north through 14, 15, 17 mile areas, as parts of these have been identified as needing immediate attention.

“There are plans to continue to run training and pathways courses in and around Coober Pedy. We all know of the many benefits of having good roads on our Opal Fields. Industry-specific training will give our community more skilled people to help fill local jobs.”

“We thank BHP, and CEG for their time and guidance and sponsorship.. We thank Mick Insch trainer and assessor for supervising the road repairs and Kresh Simac Mantaworks for providing the Loader and the Roller for training purposes.. We thank AMYAC for providing us with a training room at the AMYAC Offices, and finally the DCCP for allowing some of the employees the time to participate in the training during this past week,” concluded Matt.

Coober Pedy Opal miner Roger Bulovic who noted the works taking place out on the Olympic field roads said, “I feel to say thank you to BHP for offering this opportunity to our local workers for roller and grader training which will have practical application benefits for our local opal mining industry.”

“The ticketed training will also help with employment prospects here in Coober Pedy and across the district, in creating a valuable career option for the future,” said Roger.