Chief Metallurgist

Orla Mining is striving to be the emerging gold producer of choice with a geographically diversified asset base, a prospective development and exploration portfolio, an experienced management team with a successful track record, and a high-quality board and shareholder base.

Orla is advancing permitting and development on our South Railroad Project, a feasibility-stage, open-pit heap leach project located on the prolific Carlin trend in Nevada. This project is part our larger South Carlin Complex which includes a prospective land package. We also operate the Camino Rojo Oxide Gold Mine, a gold and silver open-pit heap leach mine, located in Zacatecas State, Central Mexico. This low-cost operation is 100% owned by Orla, covers over 139,000 hectares, and includes a large sulphide mineral endowment located beneath the oxide resources.  Orla also operates the Musselwhite Mine located in Northern Ontario, a gold mine with more than 25 years of operating history and the potential to expand resources and mine life for years to come.

Orla is building a legacy of excellence, respect and sustainable value through responsible gold mining. We work to create a net positive benefit for all and leaving a legacy beyond the life of our mines. We do this through building and operating high quality mines supported and led by an experienced team. We are custodians of the assets we run and the environments in which we operate, and we are committed to fostering a culture of excellence, care, and respect.

As we continue to grow, we are seeking a Chief Metallurgist to join our team. The purpose of this role is to lead, develop, and optimize the metallurgical aspects of our gold recovery processes to ensure the operation delivers safe, efficient, and cost-effective production.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with senior management in the development and execution of site-wide metallurgical strategies that maximize gold recovery and align with business objectives.
• Lead metallurgical input into feasibility studies, detailed engineering, commissioning, and operational ramp-up to reach steady state operations.
• Provide expert guidance on process design, flowsheet optimization, and technology implementation.
• Serve as technical advisor on comminution, heap leach, gold recovery, and refinery performance.
• Monitor KPIs including recovery, grade reconciliation, leach kinetics, reagent consumption, and refinery performance.
• Implement metallurgical accounting and reconciliation systems.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives to maximize throughput, recovery, plant availability, and reagent efficiency.
• Conduct metallurgical balancing, performance modeling, troubleshooting, and root cause analysis to ensure stable operation and predictable production.
• Validate and optimize crushing, stacking, leaching, adsorption, elution, electrowinning, and refining circuits.
• Validate and optimize crushing, stacking, leaching, adsorption, electrowinning, and refining circuits.
• Ensure all metallurgical deliverables are completed safely, on time, and within budget.
• Oversee assay laboratory and metallurgical laboratory operations to ensure accuracy, precision, and data integrity.
• Implement robust QA/AC systems and best practices in the lab.
• Lead, mentor, and develop metallurgical engineers, laboratory staff, and technical personnel to build a high-performance, safety-focused team.
• Support regulatory compliance, environmental performance, and sustainability initiatives.
• Collaborate with vendors, consultants, and technology providers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering, chemical engineering or similar field required.
• A minimum of 10 years of extractive metallurgy and mineral processing experience required.
• Five or more years of assay and metallurgical laboratory management experience required.
• Experience in heap leach operations, cyanide-based recovery systems, gold and silver recovery circuits and mine-to-mill integration preferred.
• Metallurgical accounting and reconciliation expertise preferred.
• Must be authorized to work in the U.S. for any employer.
• Must possess a valid driver’s license.

At Orla, we prioritize our people, creating and maintaining a workplace culture of diversity and inclusion where employees are respected, valued, and recognized for their contributions.