Say g’day to newbie Annabelle Pfitzner.
Annabelle recently joined NSS as a financial accountant after making the journey from Adelaide.
It’s old ground for Annabelle, who previously worked in the Mount Cuthbert Resources head office in the South Australian capital.
The company operated in the Cloncurry region mines of Mount Cuthbert and Rocklands until the Copper Resources Australia subsidiary responsible for Rocklands went into administration.
So, she’s a North Queenslander by default.
The logistics, transport and stevedoring roles fulfilled by NSS had a direct correlation to mine sites in North Queensland, Annabelle said.
“For a good three years I was doing the visit to Townsville, then to site and back again.
“I saw the mining production of copper, gold and silver. We would sell our copper concentrate to Glencore which would be trucked to Mount Isa daily.
“Glencore process the concentrate and what we see drive past every day (at NSS in Townsville) is the copper cathode ready to go overseas.
“So it’s great to follow the whole process from the actual mining of the ore now to seeing it exported as metal.”
It helped to be familiar with terms coming across her desk, Annabelle said.
“I’m looking at my Glencore Purchase Order and it’s got ‘grinding media’ referenced, which I know is used in the mill to grind ore”
“And then the shortened term for sodium ethyl xanthate (SEX), stored by NSS until required. This terminology is used in the processing plant and is also a reagent used at my very first position, Olympic Dam at Roxby Downs SA, which is now a BHP business.”
Annabelle’s position at NSS comes with the responsibility for staff, for who she said she was prepared to offer a lot of support.