Thank You Letter

Hello Leah,

I just wanted to express my gratitude to you for your support and guidance during my internship here at Freeport-McMoRan under my course program at Arizona State University. 

It has been a pleasure to be able to work under your direction, and I really appreciate all the positive feedback that I have received from you.  It's a great organization to work for, and I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity to be a part of the success we all have demonstrated in the recruiting and staffing departments.

I'm very fortunate to have worked with such great leaders and supervisor; along with my team here in Bagdad and down at Corporate.  I look forward growing with the company, and very excited to be a part of this wonderful organization.  Thank you again.

Best regards,

Lynda Davis

Important Things I Learned from My Internship

Hello,

My internship was a little different because my internship was with my full-time employment.  But the things I learned a lot was the diversity of different walks of life from the people that are employed here at Freeport-McMoRan.  Since the company is international, we converse with people from India, Africa, all over the world.  I've learned so much in recruiting and staffing and different process that we go through up to the interview point, and all the processes after the interview point.

The professionalism, set of guidelines, ethics, and standards from day one is structure very high in this organization.  We all give our customers and candidates the best service that we have to provide.  I feel that I did meet my initial goals because I set out to continue to give my strongest work ethics that I have.  I'm an individual that works hard, will stay as late as needed to get the job done.  I'm a team player that demonstrates flexibility and very organized to do the best that I can.  I also feel that I met my initial goals because I know that my supervisors are very proud and happy of the work that I have performed.  It's a great feeling at the end of the day to know that you have done a great job, and give excellent customer service in my organization that I'm associated with.  I have also really enjoyed reading the other student's circumstances with their internship!

2nd Career Services Write-Up

Earlier in this year, we hosted a Career Fair in our town of Bagdad.  I don't know of another town wherein the company owns the entire town, but that is how it is here in Bagdad.  Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold owns the small little town of Bagdad.  The high school students are not afforded many opportunities for employment since the town is so small; there are not too many options for them for employment.  Most of the high school students either leave Bagdad to attend college or a few have the opportunity to receive employment with the mine.

I had the opportunity to participate in this job career fair as a recruiter and in staffing but not so much from the standpoint of recruiting the students for work; more importantly to advise them of the opportunities that are available once they receive a college degree.  Our accounting, engineering, human resources, geologist and other jobs do require a bachelor's degree. 

It was a great turnout and most all of the high school students did attend.  I enjoyed visiting and educating them on the different types of jobs we have at Freeport and also the great benefits regarding health, dental, 401(k) benefits that the company offers to their employees.  I was glad to hear that most of the students planned on attending Yavapai College in Prescott or Arizona State University and/or Arizona State.  The main thing was that they had a plan for their future.  Encouraging young students to plan ahead and attend college, I believe is the best for their futures.

Free Write - Colorado School of Mines Turn Food Garbage to Glass!

In Golden, Colorado, the Colorado School of Mines engineers found an alternative to digging into mountains for minerals.  They started mining the minerals from food waste.  They were able to turn putrid banana peels, eggshells and rice husks into crystal-clear glass.  Now, they are investigating other muck.  In their lab, they rigged up a cooking system that starts at a fridge, students donated garbage.  This garbage is ground in blenders, dried, then pounded into fine white powder containing pure minerals, such as silica and oxides, which are typically used in mining mined using heavy diggers and toxic chemicals.  An oven heated to 3,000 degrees melts the silica powder into a molten red substance that when it is poured into the molds morphs to glass.  Now, the US Government has registered a provisional patent on this!

Free Write - Finding Gold in Gum Trees

Mel Lintern who is the CSIRO's team, found gum trees bringing up gold from a depth of up to 30 metres to the surface.  He says this is groundbreaking research to actually locate the gold in living tissue.  His team was not expecting this, but that seeing the gold particles in the leaves was quite a Eureka moment for them.

He stated, "These trees are sort of telling us what's going on below the ground, and the eucalypts and acacia trees that we did the research on appear to be bringing up the gold from a remarkable 30-metre depth."

Using tree specimens to identify possible mineral deposits could conceivably slash the costs of multi-million dollar drilling and exploration programs.  This development in bio-prospecting could be an adjunct to normal prospective practices.  The exploration is in the Kalgoorlie Boulder Region (Australia) where the rocks are laterite.  This indicates that they are ancient and highly weathered.  This is why he believes the gum trees were able to show the traces of gold.  Eucalypts tend to grow in areas of deep weathering where it's known for volcanic rock (greenstone belt).  It's a great breakthrough to be able to identify this.

Strengths of Freeport-McMoRan

Our organization has so many strengths.  The core values are all about honesty, fairness, respect, trust, and integrity.  Freeport-McMoRan is successful because they recognize the importance of their employees, teamwork, and commitment to hard work, safe and environmentally sensitive operations, and caring also for their communities.

The company has a Principles of Business Conduct to guide employees with on a daily basis.  It’s committed to the highest level of ethical and legal conduct of its business operations.  The company conducts business all over the world.  It does not tolerate any type of drug or alcohol abuse, and promotes a safe work environment performing pre-employment/for cause/random drug testing in accordance with the law.

Freeport-McMoRan also has a great educational assistance program that offers up to $5,200 yearly educational reimbursement.  Further, they have a great intern program for students in many different job positions.

They believe in environmental obligations, human rights, and one of the most importance strengths the company has is an open-door culture and policy.  Meaning, you can feel free to openly discuss any questions or concerns regarding any issues.  This open communication is vital to the growth as employees, a team and a company.

There is actually not one thing that I can think of at the moment that I would change or do differently if I was in charge of a similar organization.  The only negative thing is that most mining employment is in remote towns and traveling back and forth to the city can be very tiring and time consuming, but for the most part it can also be positive not having long commutes dealing with traffic.