Managing three mines in Western Australia’s Pilbara region with a combined operationg budget of $90 million has earned Michael Westerman a 40under40 award. Mr Westerman is mine manager for of Rio Tinto’s Pilbara Iron operations at Paraburdoo, Eastern Range and Channar. In that role his responsibilities include: the health and welfare of 450 employees including contractors, the scheduling and production activity at the three mines; the pit operations for their 13 operating pits, delivering five different products into the Pilbara Iron system; and coaching and developing the operational superintendents at those three operations. Mr Westerman was also mine manager at Australia’s largest underground mine at Mt Isa. He cites the Mt Isa time as providing his biggest business disaster, because the decisions made were about cutting costs and hurt workforce morale.
