Time on the tools and in the industry, coupled with a strong focus on building and maintaining relationships, is a tried and true formula that Elastomers Australia gold sector specialists Darren Bright and Mark Sutton have every intention of continuing.

Business Solutions Specialists Darren Bright and Mark Sutton understand the value of face-to-face time with customers.

The pair, who have recently teamed up to focus predominantly on the gold sector and Goldfields region, have spent their careers in and around the mining industry.

Darren, who recently celebrated his five-year anniversary with Elastomers Australia, came from a background in shutdown maintenance, working at mine sites around Western Australia before stepping into a supervisory role for the company.

That time on the tools was invaluable for helping Darren understand what matters to Elastomers Australia’s clients. He says it provided the perfect foundation for his current role.

“It’s all very much about building and maintaining relationships,” Darren said. “It’s common in the mining sector for people to change jobs so those long-term relationships are often the thing that leads to new opportunities as they move from one site to another.”

Having spent the best part of 30 years working in and around the mining industry, recent Elastomers Australia starter Mark agrees that relationships are everything, particularly when dealing with clients in the Goldfields region.

“People in Kalgoorlie get annoyed if you jump on a plane from Perth, do a half-day site visit then go home and don’t come back for six months,” Mark said.

“It’s quite different if you are seeing them regularly, know the areas where they work, get to know the operations and become a familiar face on site.”

Between them the pair has a range of complementary skills, Darren being the subject matter expert when it comes to screening and screen media, while Mark has a broad understanding of many facets of the mining industry and a strong network throughout the State.

Originally from the UK, Darren’s path into the industry started with a backpacking adventure through Asia that culminated with a working holiday in WA. He had every intention of returning home but Darren fell in love with the country, found work in the mining sector and the rest is history.

While he admits sometimes missing the time on the tools, with two young children, Darren says the new role allows a far better mix of onsite and home-based time.

For Mark, who has one child studying at university in Perth and another completing secondary school in Kalgoorlie, the role with Elastomers provides the perfect opportunity to split his time between both locations.

While gold caters for the bulk of the work Darren and Mark are focused on, they also manage relationships and look after clients in the lithium, nickel and mineral sands sectors. That means they look after a sizeable territory, from WA’s Pilbara region, to sites in the State’s far south and hundreds of kilometres to the east of Kalgoorlie.

As with all Elastomers Australia clients, the focus is on increasing productivity and efficiency, and reducing risk for operators.

But wherever they find themselves from one week to the next, both Darren and Mark say it is the people they meet that make the job worthwhile.