Profile on Justin Armstrong

Justin Armstrong is George Fisher Mine’s (GFM) Superintendent for Fixed Assets and Operations based at Mount Isa.

Originally from South Africa, Justin came to GFM in November 2011 to start as a light vehicle fitter. Initially arriving solo, his family soon followed and arrived just in time for Australia Day in 2012.

The high standard of education in Australia was a driving force for Justin and his family to immigrate to Australia, so that his twins could attend school. They were four years old when they arrived in Australia.

Before Mount Isa, his family lived in Nigel, a small gold mining town in Gauteng Province, south-east of Johannesburg, where he worked in oil and gas, and hard rock exploration.

Shortly after his arrival, the expansion project at GFM led to a change in jobs, where he was an equipment inspector for a year. One of the priorities of this role was to ensure contractors’ equipment coming on-site met site requirements and standards.

In 2013, Justin became the Supervisor for light vehicles. One of the key achievements during this period included GFM reducing its maintenance expected budget by $1 million.

“We saved a lot of money in maintenance over that period. It was a team effort, accomplished by a hard-working team willing to put their time, energy and resources into the project.”

In 2014, Justin was approached by Superintendent Mike Adendorf to start as a Supervisor for 16L crushing and conveying.

The crushing and conveying role was a good challenge for him and he enjoyed the learning curve. His pursuit of knowledge and continuous learning gave him the opportunity to move into the surface crushing area.

“I then became the Supervisor - Surface Crushing and Utilities, looking after fitters and operators in the crushing plant. This is where I learnt about batch plants, paste plants, primary ventilation fans, water reticulation (raw, potable and processed water), gyro-rotary crushing system,” says Justin.

His expertise from having worked in so many areas at GFM meant his skills were transferable and led to him being approached for the hoisting supervisor role in mid-2016. Despite not having previous hoisting experience, Justin took the position to look after the P49 double-drum hoist and the L72 friction hoist.

“This was the first time that I was supervising an electrical team, which was another big learning curve,” he says.

“Initially the hoisting role was challenging, due to the volume and details with which you need to understand the systems. But I had the opportunity to settle in and understand the systems.”

When the Mount Isa Copper Operations (MICO) and GFM integrated their systems in 2020, Justin could cross between MICO and GFM operations.

In 2022, Justin was successful in gaining the Superintendent for Fixed Assets and Operations, where he works today.

He is driven by strong values for safety, teamwork, family and community.

In June this year, Justin had the opportunity to hand out Glencore’s 200,000th book donation to students at Camooweal State School as part of Glencore’s sponsorship of the Books in Homes program.

“I love spending time with the community and reading with children. It energises me and it’s my passion to help where I can”, Justin says.

A typical day for Justin starts around 6am with the review of critical actions overnight, carrying out a health check on the plant to review data and production figures.

Justin then leads discussions at the supervisors’ meeting, reviewing key issues, concerns about the day’s activities, and safety aspects. Following that, Superintendents and Managers meet to discuss the plans for the day.

The team then holds a site meeting with the operations, tech services, and maintenance teams to discuss safety, top mine priorities, issues and relevant action plans.

Justin’s day varies from there and he takes the opportunity to catch up with supervisors to deal with improvements, tenders, engineering reviews and HR related issues.