Accurate and persuasive reports are essential for securing approvals, funding, and stakeholder buy-in. Yet many mining professionals struggle to communicate their knowledge and recommendations. Skilled report writers can effectively advocate for their projects and ideas, influence key decision-makers and help their organisations succeed. Reports are often used to make critical decisions; well-written reports contribute to better decision-making and, ultimately, the success of organisations and mining projects. This course will help you communicate, and demonstrate, your expertise to key/senior readers inside, and outside of, your organisation.

Module 1 | Explore report writing in the mining sector

In the first module, you will learn: 

• The importance of effective report-writing to your work and career
• Key expectations of report writing in the mining sector
• Common report types in the mining industry  

 This includes:  

• Benefits of good report-writing for companies, consultancies and individuals
• Different report types and their structure
• Report and communication structures and when to use each
• Specialist mining reports, such as feasibility studies and public reports, their purpose, goals, and prescribed content    
• For each report type, how to structure, sequence information and ensure technical completeness

Module 2 | Meet your audience’s needs

In the second module, you will learn how to meet your audience’s needs by:

• Choosing the level of detail that is appropriate for your intended audience
• Structuring your argument logically at every level of the document
• Ordering information to ensure it is effectively communicated  

This includes:  

• The importance of selecting the correct level of detail, structure and order of information
• Understanding the essential components of a technical report and their order
• Establishing the purpose, objectives, and key messages
• Creating an outline
• Checking and addressing logic gaps
• Ensuring the purpose and objectives are met
• Ordering information in topics, paragraphs, and sentences  

Module 3 | Make your report effective and impactful

In the third module, you will learn how to clearly communicate your argument by selecting and using textual and visual elements. 

This includes:  

• Importance of using textual and visual elements to communicate clearly
• Choosing the most effective language (formal vs informal, jargon, idioms, accessibility, avoiding bias)
• Eliminating basic errors that distract the reader
• Using hyphens and capitalisation to make your meaning clear
• Accepted conventions for formatting reports, such as numbers, measurements, citations and references.
• Using visual elements to illustrate your ideas, including charts, tables, and other graphical elements    
• Why punctuation and grammar are important
• How to address common causes of ambiguity and misreading
• Eliminating wordiness 

Module 4 | Put it into practice

In the final module, you will learn how to plan and apply an effective writing and editing process. 

This includes:  

• The value of developing and using an effective writing process
• The overall process, from planning, through writing, to review and quality control
• The writing processm, use of writing tools, and effective use of AI
• The editing process and tools, peer review, QA, and proofreading
• How to bring these together into a final, professional document
• Avoiding common traps and errors
• Using your report-writing skills to advance your career

This course is suitable for early to mid-career professionals: 

• Professionals responsible for writing reports to Code
• Mineral processing engineers
• Mining engineers
• Metallurgists
• Environmental scientists
• Geoscientists (including geologists, hydrogeologists, hydrologists)
• Technical staff responsible for reviewing reports
• Support staff responsible for reviewing and editing reports
• Mining consultants of all specialisations and levels

• A good working knowledge of English.
• AusIMM courses are generally suitable for people who have completed their tertiary education and have been in the workforce for at least two years.
• No other pre-requisites are required.