Senior Geologist

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Job Description

Are you inspired by “what’s next”? So are we.

When you join the Albemarle team, you contribute to a better tomorrow. You will play a role in powering many of the world’s largest and most critical industries, from energy and communications to transportation and electronics. We are putting innovation to work to improve people’s lives and we want YOU to be a part of it.

Job Description

Company and Job Overview

Albemarle is the industry leader in lithium and lithium derivatives. We maintain the strongest vertically integrated position in the industry, from our unique natural resource position to specialty product manufacturing. As stewards of the planet, we at Albemarle are committed to meeting the needs of our customers for high quality products in a sustainable, safe, and environmentally responsible manner.

Albemarle is hiring for a Senior Geologist role at the Kings Mountain Mine (KMM) project, located in Kings Mountain, NC. This is a permanent on-site role based at Kings Mountain and will report to Lead Geologist – Kings Mountain.

The Kings Mountain Mine project is one of the largest and highest-quality hard rock lithium deposits in the world. The deposit consists of spodumene-bearing pegmatite set in metamorphic rocks and is part of the Carolina tin-spodumene belt. Mining has occurred historically at the project site, and modern exploration and development activities have been ongoing since 2017.

The Geology Team is responsible for the geological model and the resource block model at the KMM project. As the project progresses from feasibility studies to production, the geology team will also be responsible for managing operational geology including a best-practice grade control program.

The Senior Geologist is an essential part of the KMM Lithium Resources Team. Responsibilities include management and coordination of all drilling and field mapping activities, design and implementation of operational grade control, data management, oversight of data collection activities, and support for other project stakeholders (including but not limited to community affairs, environmental permitting, and mine engineering) at the KMM project. Well-suited candidates should be capable of strategic and critical thinking, collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team, and will possess exceptional geologic observation skills.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Operational management of on-site and near-site geological investigations, including but not limited to resource core drilling, reverse-circulation (RC) grade control drilling, and field mapping.

• Continuous evaluation of drilling (and other) contractor performance and timely remediation of deficiencies.

• Safety leader for all drilling/geology activities. Ability to guide and refine inputs to HSE guidelines to fit with overall corporate policies.

• Timely communication of geological drilling plans/schedules to relevant stakeholders, ensuring smooth execution of projects.

• Diamond and RC drill hole planning to support future geological investigations and mine operations with quality data while optimizing program cost.

• Continuous analysis of drilling data/results to identify new locations for potential resource conversion/expansion.

• Supervise high-quality data collection and ensure that relevant information is captured reliably and accurately.

• Maintain a strong line of communication with the project team to ensure geological inputs/requests are understood and implemented.

• Management of core storage facility and core processing activities.

• Preparation of drill core/chip sample shipments and coordination with analytical laboratories for timely turnaround of results. Perform QA/QC checks on returned assay data.

• Coordination of on-site drilling and sampling logistics.

• Manage field mapping efforts, including data collection, validation, and integration into geological modeling software.

• Develop and implement bulk/core sampling to support metallurgical testing, business development and environmental permitting.

• Assist in annual budget planning and project reviews.