The LiveMine product suite stands out from its competitors due to the extensive expertise of the team behind it. Robert Burrow joined LiveMine in 2022 as a software engineer, but it’s his background as a mining engineer that sets him apart and enables the team to develop a product that truly meets the needs of the industry, based on firsthand knowledge of the job.

Rob began his career as an underground mining contractor with Byrnecut Australia after graduating from university, gaining experience in various roles such as trucking, service crew, charge up, bogger, and production drilling over a period of five years.

“I really enjoyed development bogging. It was just satisfying, moving so much dirt. And then when you get quick at it, it just becomes fun.”

Rob then worked as a Project Engineer and did a lot of contract management and forecasting.

Seeking a new challenge, Rob explored opportunities to merge his mining experience with his growing skills in software development, which he had been developing through tasks like creating Excel macros and developing webapps for conveyor design.

“I found that I got sort of a thrill out of the software world. It's rewarding to build something and then see it work.”

Having heard of LiveMine while working for a conveyor design company, the opportunity to combine both his experience and interests, Rob jumped at the open software engineer position.

“Now I get the best of both worlds.”

Reflecting on his time underground, Rob says the best part of mining is the people, “there’s a bunch of different people from different walks of life, they’re very interesting. There’s also a sort of passion for underground mining that’s hard to describe but for those who have done it know what I mean.”

“And blowing shit up, I did a couple of years on charge up –that was hard work but good fun.”

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