Latest news

Meet Heath Guthrie, Mine Electrical Superintendent who will celebrate his 20th year at Fosterville Gold Mine in November.

Heath was recently named a finalist in this year’s Agnico Eagle Larry Connell Award for collaborative excellence.

“It was a busy week when that all happened,” Heath laughs. “I was told to go to a meeting and I was like, I’ve got a lot on! So, when I found out why, it was a really nice surprise.”

As a finalist, Heath was given the opportunity to choose a charity of his choice that Agnico Eagle then donated $1,000 CDN towards, and he chose Sunshine Bendigo, a social services charity who do great work supporting families around our region.

“Fosterville has always considered itself a part of the community; and not just that, they have brought a lot of our suppliers on board to support community initiatives as well; some people haven’t been around long enough to see all the community work that Fosterville has done, but I have and it makes me proud to work here,” says Heath.

Small town beginnings

Heath hales from Queenstown on Tasmania’s West Coast, which is the centre of the well known Mount Lyell mining district, were gold was first discovered in 1862 and operated as a copper mine from 1893 to 1994.

The Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company operated in the region for 100 years, and Heath is proud that he and a friend were the last two electrical apprentices to be put on by the company before it closed down in 1994.

“Looking back on that time of my life, I realise how lucky I was to have had the chance to start my career there, but at the time it was my second choice as I wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force,” he explains.

Heath was pretty devastated at being knocked back by the Airforce at 16, but in the end, it meant he was able to complete his electrical apprenticeship in his home town before moving around to other mines to further develop his skills.

“I even worked at Beaconsfield in its hey day; it was a great place to work in the early days before the infamous disaster which made it famous for all the wrong reasons,” Heath recalls.

Moving to the mainland

After getting married and doing some travelling around Australia, Heath applied for a job at Fosterville.

“I was offered the job and told my wife that we would just move to Bendigo for five years, but we’ve been here for 19 years now, and counting”.

From the ground up

“When I first started, Perseverance Gold were the owners of FGM; there’s been seven more owners since then, but I always thought Perserverence was a good name for a mining company, because if you don’t have perseverance, you may as well walk out the door. 

“Especially in the early days, when the mine was being built; it was really challenging work and everything was on really tight deadlines.”

Heath recalls being given a lot of responsibility fairly early on in his career at FGM. 

“Prior to the mill coming on line, we needed a terminal station – which converts the power off the grid from 220KV to 11KV – and I took ownership of that project , and I still help to look after it today.

“I think that’s the secret here. A lot of people take ownership and you don’t have to be told, you just know you own it.

During his time at FGM, Heath has worked on more than 150 varied electrical projects, from HV Installations, UG pump stations, to vehicle and equipment maintenance, to installing one of the largest underground Wi-Fi networks in the southern hemi-sphere.

“I can honestly say that in my 20 years of working here, I’ve never been bored; really tired at times, but never bored,” he smiles.

Great people

As is often the case, a big part of what Heath enjoys about his job, is the people he works with.

“Over the years, I have had the privilege of working with and supervising some excellent people, who are really good at adapting and talking through the challenges that often arise in the mining environment,” he explains.

“Change is a constant at Fosterville, so it is important to have people around you that are motivated to find solutions, no matter what … that’s the kind of people I work with,” Heath concludes.