What are the responsibilities and job description for the Principal Advisor Opportunity Assessment – Nuton position at Rio Tinto Group?
Principal Advisor Opportunity Assessment – NutonTM
- Be part of the team pioneering the commercialisation of Rio Tinto’s novel NutonTM heap leaching technology You challenge. We reward.
- Key role in a diverse and global organization
- Role based in Salt Lake City Utah
About the role
NutonTM is an innovative new venture that aims to help grow Rio Tinto’s copper business. At the core of Nuton is a portfolio of proprietary copper leach related technologies and capability – a product of almost 30 years of research and development. The Nuton technology offers the potential to economically unlock known low-grade copper sulphide resources, copper bearing waste and tailings, and achieve higher copper recoveries on primary copper sulphide material, allowing for a significantly increased copper production outcome. One of the key differentiators of Nuton is the potential to deliver leading environmental performance, including more efficient water usage, lower carbon emissions, and the ability to reclaim mine sites by reprocessing mine waste.
We are looking for a Principal Advisor Opportunity Assessment to lead the engagement with one or more of our partners and the associated evaluation of the viability and subsequent deployment of the Nuton technology at our partner sites. This encompasses the development, coordination and engagement of the following areas of work and subject matter experts: Resource/orebody evaluation, laboratory-scale test work, predictive process modeling, engineering design, capital and operating cost estimation, financial modeling and business case evaluation.
Reporting to the Opportunity Assessment Manager, you will:
- Lead the Nuton component of the study development for a Nuton deployment at a partner site/operation.
- Work with the project manager of the Nuton partner to develop and implement study scope, estimates and plans in accordance with the business and regulatory guidelines
- Work with our partner’s study manager to identify and resolve any project delivery performance issues in a timely manner
- Manage relationships with key project stakeholders, both internal and external to Rio Tinto
- Provide technical support and direction to project stakeholders, building on and sharing the lessons learned
- Collaborate with the Nuton Technology Transfer team to ensure the optimum design is specified for the application, while still protecting Nuton IP
- Collaborate with the Nuton ESG lead to ensure leading practice in this important project area
- Identify and where appropriate, implement improvements to operational and technical aspects of the Nuton process
- Actively participate in the development of the long-term strategy of Nuton by identifying areas for improvement for R&D to work on, leading implementation/transfer in business and supporting plants to identify solutions and action plans
- Collaborate with the Nuton Technology Development team to direct, monitor, manage and report on relevant evaluation test work programmes
- Support functional teams and/or strategic initiatives that have significant impact on cost and business at the site or business unit level
- Influence technical and operational leaders and other functional leaders at the business unit level by developing process improvements to problems with high impact/cost to the business
- Work with the Nuton Projects Controller to develop and manage the budgets and schedules for various work programmes
What you’ll bring –
To be successfully considered for this role, you will have:
- A commitment to the safety of yourself and your team.
- A Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering - Metallurgical, Chemical, or related field preferred.
- Project management experience
- Proven experience in cross-functional stakeholder management
- A minimum of 15 years of experience developing and implementing studies and plans in mining
- Ability to work in multi-functional and multi-disciplinary teams and deliver measurable outcomes
- Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal skills to effectively communicate with employees at all levels of the organization and external vendors and stakeholders
- Experience in leaching processes, but especially copper heap leaching, will be favourable
What we Offer
We are committed to providing our employees with a generous benefits package. Be recognized for your contribution, your thinking, your hard work, and go home knowing you’ve helped the world progress, we provide:
- A safety-focused and inclusive working environment
- Advantageous salary package with annual cash incentive awards (STIP) for eligible employees
- Access to top-tier family-friendly health programs including medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, life insurance coverage, and various voluntary benefits.
- Excellent retirement plan including up to 6% defined company contribution; Generous 401k matching program
- Generous Rio Tinto employee share program, which allows you to purchase Rio Tinto Company shares.
- Comprehensive leave policies which cover all moments that matter in life: PTO (paid time off), paid holidays, and paid bereavement leave.
- A favorable child-caregiver leave program (Up to 100% salary top-up)
- Discount programs for leisure purposes and access to Virgin Pulse with incentives supporting your wellbeing
- Ongoing Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for you and your family; to help in addressing educational opportunities, addiction treatment, depression, stress, domestic issues, financial management, and legal concerns.
- Our team and industry experts are here to support and work with you to explore your learning potential and career goals
About Rio Tinto
Every idea, every innovation, every little thing the world calls ‘progress’ begins with a first step, and someone willing to take it: explorers, inventors, entrepreneurs. Pioneers. For nearly 150 years, Rio Tinto has been a company of pioneers – generations of people spanning the globe, all with the grit and vision to produce materials essential to human progress. Our iron ore has shaped skylines from Shanghai to Sydney. Our aluminium – the world’s first to be certified “responsible” – helps planes fly and makes cars lighter. Our copper helps wind turbines power cities and our boron helps feed the world and explore the universe. Our diamonds help us celebrate the best parts of life.
Where you’ll be working
The role will be based in Salt Lake City, with some domestic and international travel requirement.
Every Voice Matters
We are committed to an inclusive environment where people feel comfortable being themselves. We want our people to feel that all voices are heard, all cultures respected and that a variety of perspectives are not only welcome – they are essential to our success. We treat each other fairly and with dignity regardless of race, gender, nationality, ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation or anything else that makes us different.
At Rio Tinto, we particularly welcome and encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples, women, the LGBTQ community, mature workers, people with disabilities and people from different cultural backgrounds.
Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D/V
Rio Tinto participates in E-Verify to confirm work authorization. Please visit http://www.uscis.gov/ for more information.