NEW ZEALAND QUARRYING & MINING Volume 14 - No 2 | April-May 2017 | $8.95
When you need real tough steel Hardox steel is the preferred option for hard-working gear in Road Metals’ quarries
Flying start for IOQ youth scheme Pilot youth incentive programme exceeds expectations
Stones and scones mix well Winstone’s river-side Otaki Quarry and its gourmet neighbour INCORPORATING
Aggregate News
Second time lucky Trans-Tasman Resources is optimistic over EPA approval
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C O N T E N T S
NEW ZEALAND QUARRYING & MINING Volume 14 - No 2 | April-May 2017
INSIDE
12
UPFRONT
4 6 12
Editorial Upfront IoQ Youth incentive scheme
ON THE COVER 14 A combination of hardness and toughness makes Hardox steel the preferred option for hard-working gear in Road Metal’s quarries
FEATURES
Company profile 16 Celebrating family and mining heritage
Quarrying
20 Stones and scones mix well 24 For the good of energy 25 A train passes over it 26 Quarry plant innovations – Rocktec 28 On-site quarry for Waikato Expressway project 30 IMG expands mining and quarry profile
Mining
32 Second time lucky, says TTR 33 Clutha dredge moves on 34 Bathurst braces for court – again
35
Aussie sniffing around old Otago prospects Silica harvested from geothermal waste
Aggregate & Quarry Association of NZ
36
Aggregate News
16 28
AT THE BACK 40 Innovations and products 40 Advertisers’ Index
ON THE COVER: A combination of hardness and toughness makes Hardox steel the preferred option for hard-working gear in Road Metals’ quarries
See story page 14
30 Q&M April - May 2017 3
E D I T O R I A L
NEW ZEALAND QUARRYING & MINING
Ideological swings – the condensed history of NZ politics The political divide in our country between hands-on government ‘bureaucracy’ and ‘free market’ libertarianism is deep-rooted. The Crown, in its own interest, promotes a cheerful ‘version’ of the founding of our country, and it didn’t happen on February 6, 1840 as most people think. The much touted northern ‘treaty ceremony’ was simply a ‘sod turning’, so to speak. Who turned over what sod – is still debated. The Crown (think NSW Australia back then) had to wait for all the treaty signatures around the country to return to Governor Hobson, which would have been about September 1840. Unfortunately, a number of treaty versions were circulated, and the original draft is lost. It’s also anyone’s guess how many folks here at the time could actually read and write. A moot point, because events, or free-market private enterprise, overtook the Crown’s treaty plans. The Wakefield immigrants had already arrived in the future city of Wellington earlier in 1840 and the founding fathers were preparing to set up a republic. Worse, the French Navy had arrived escorting immigrant ships heading to the South Island to declare it a colony under a private charter. Hobson (who by now would have been painfully aware of the large number of Maori tribes who declined to sign his treaty, especially in the centre of the North Island) hastily declared British sovereignty over this country on May 21, 1840. The South Island by ‘right of discovery’ and the North Island by ‘concession’, whatever that mean’t? He used military force to disolve republican intentions in WLG, and confronted the French at Akaroa with his own naval vessel. In this country’s first ‘Crown ownership deal’, the French ended up with the settlement of Akaroa and the French Navy stayed here for another 16 years. At our first parliament in Auckland on a “wet miserable day” in 1854, the house was divided between Crown royalists and free-market Wakefieldites. A brawl broke out when the representative from Christchurch (later to become our first Premier) “pounced” on the member for Nelson and “seized him by the throat”. Closer to Q&M readers’ memories, ‘Crown control’ culminated with Rob Muldoon’s governments (1970s-1980s) with a ultra tight fiscal approach; push of our welfare state; taxes on goods; Think Big strategy, where the government borrowed heavily for large-scale industrial projects; and the infamous ‘freeze’ on wages, prices, interest rates and dividends in 1982. CONTINUED OVER PAGE
Q&M covers news, views and trends from the extractive industries, along with features on projects and people in the industry. www.contrafed.co.nz PUBLISHER
Contrafed Publishing Co Ltd Suite 2.1, 93 Dominion Road, Mt Eden 1024 PO Box 112357, Penrose, Auckland 1642 Phone: 09 636 5715 Fax: 09 636 5716 EDITOR
Alan Titchall DDI: 09 636 5712 Mobile: 027 405 0338 Email: alan@contrafed.co.nz GENERAL MANAGER
Kevin Lawrence DDI: 09 636 5710 Mobile: 021 512 800 Email: kevin@contrafed.co.nz ADVERTISING
Charles Fairbairn DDI: 09 636 5724 Mobile: 021 411 890 Email: charles@contrafed.co.nz REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS
Hugh de Lacy, Neil Ritchie, Richard Silcock and Peter Owens ADMINISTRATION/SUBSCRIPTIONS
Email: admin@contrafed.co.nz DDI: 09 636 5715 PRODUCTION
Design: Tracey Asher, TMA Design Printing: PMP MAXUM Contributions welcomed. Please contact the editor before sending them in. Articles in NZ Quarrying & Mining are copyright and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission of the publisher. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the shareholding organisations or the publisher. The views expressed in the Aggregate News section of NZ Quarrying & Mining may not represent the views of Contrafed Publishing or its shareholding organisations. VISIT THESE WEBSITES Aggregate & Quarry Association www.quarrying.org.nz Institute of Quarrying (NZ) Inc www.ioqnz.co.nz New Zealand Minerals Industry Association www.straterra.co.nz Extractive Industries Training Organisation www.mito.org.nz Civil Contractors NZ www.civilcontractors.co.nz NZ Ready Mixed Concrete Association www.nzrmca.org.nz Connexis www.connexis.org.nz
Alan Titchall, Editor 4 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
ISSN 2463-509X (Print) ISSN 2463-5103 (Online)
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U P F R O N T CONTINUED from EDITORIAL ON PREVIOUS PAGE
Enter the Lange government and its unexpectedly (think WTF) pro-free market swing towards privatization, and a raft of freemarket legislation known as Rogernomics (after Labour’s finance minister Roger Douglas). Some in his cabinet were to form, later, the Act Party. The free-market swing was continued into the 1990s by succeeding National governments and included the sale of public utilities (and Think Big projects) on the theory that ‘competition’ makes utilities cheaper – yeah right, we are still waiting. Neo-liberal finance minister Ruth Richardson (whose policies were called Ruthanasia) produced a budget noted for its drastic spending cuts that she called ‘The mother of all budgets’. A line, unfortunately, inspired by Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein uttering ‘The mother of all battles’ just before he lost the first Gulf War in 1991. The same year the RMA (a world first – always a worrying selection of words in a tiny country on the bottom of the world) replaced many resource-use regimes, including the 1944 Quarries Act, which required quarries to be registered and annually report their production levels. The reason I am revisiting the bi-polar politics of this country is because, last month, I visited venerable industry veteran George Cunningham who was in the middle of a big clean-up of his home office in Matamata and was digging up old extraction industry documents. Among them was a complete set of annuals tabling quarries and mines in this country and their annual output. The first one dated 1972 is called Annual Returns of Production from Quarries and the last – the New Zealand Annual Mining Review 1993. In 1992, with the RMA, the government decided it a waste of time and resources getting the extraction industry to compile these reports, and they lost sight of our industry. Now government agencies are desparately trying to locate quarries in this country to take a more hands-on role with H&S. Maybe WorkSafe should contact George? We know the number of ‘new’ quarries since 1993 can be counted on two fingers, so it would only be a matter of eliminating the ones that have closed. If anyone else is interested in old quarry documents – do contact George, he might just have what you are looking for. Meantime – stand your ground – 1840 or 2017, aggregates are still the backbone of the nation’s infrastructure and you are in charge. Alan Titchall, Editor
Exams communication problem The startlingly high failure rate for quarry managers sitting the B Grade oral Certificate of Competence (CoC) examinations does not reflect attitudes to health and safety in the industry, says Roger Parton, the chief executive of the Aggregate and Quarry Association. The 60 percent failure rate in the lower of the two grades of CoC reveals more about the oral test itself than it does about the competence or otherwise of the applicants, he says. The failure rate is less of a competence problem than a communication one. A meeting between industry representatives, WorkSafe NZ, and the Mining Industry Training Organisation (MITO) was scheduled for about the time Q&M went to press. Roger says there were three factors contributing to the low pass rate, with the first being the difficulty some applicants were having in verbalising their knowledge and skills in the presence of the examiner. The second factor was that “the questions themselves don’t elicit the appropriate response” from the applicants, and the third lay with the examiners themselves because, “they are not quarry people”. A lot of quarry managers who are highly competent in their field, and with excellent safety records and good management skills, are having trouble understanding the questions and relating the nomenclature the examiners use back to their own work environments. They lack confidence in the oral examination situation because it is one they’ve never encountered before, and they have trouble communicating with the examiners because they do not share a common quarrying background with them. The failure rate has not precipitated the closing of any quarries so far because WorkSafe’s High Hazards Unit manager, Mark Pizey, says he has been “cutting the industry some slack” where the level of competence was adequate. Improvement notices are instead issued giving the applicants up to three months to re-sit the exam, and none of those who had initially failed have lost their jobs. Under the new health and safety laws introduced in the
Calling for support
wake of the 2010 Pike River mine disaster, the managers of
The Thames Museum Society is celebrating
Grade CoCs.
the 150th anniversary of the discovery
all 1600 known quarries are required to renew their A and B The changes allowed B Grade certificate holders to
of the Thames Goldfields at the Thames
manage bigger quarries, provided they were not using
Historical Museum on the corner of Pollen
explosives, but they made the certificate harder to acquire.
and Cochrane Streets. Through government
Mark Pizey iterates the failure rate does not reflect either
and community grants the society is trying
poor attitudes to health and safety in the quarrying sector,
to set up an exhibition with videos, storyboards and artifacts.
nor that WorkSafe was going soft on safety standards.
However, a lack of resources means the project is still in progress.
Any changes coming from the planned meeting will be
If you can help in any way – call them on 07 868 8509, or email
made part of this year’s review of all the quarrying industry
thamesmuseum@xtra.co.nz.
regulations. By Hugh de Lacy.
6 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
U P F R O N T
On the Ngakuru Pozzolan site
Saddlehill saga
Hi Ed
The long-running battle between the Dunedin City
The article about the Ngakuru Pozzolan was interesting reading, but I would
Council and the owner of the Saddle Hill quarry on
like to let you know that quarry closed down around 1980 from what I
the skyline above Mosgiel is heading back to court
remember.
after the parties failed to agree on the extent of
Pete Edwards who is the manager of Priceright Parts and Machinery in
the ongoing quarrying that should be permitted.
Rotorua owns the land and we have both looked at all sorts of options to do
In March this year the council decided at an
something with the material, but even after a few beers we have no answers.
extraordinary meeting to again take on landowner
So, in the meantime it remains closed.
Saddle View Estates (SVE) in the Environment
Cheers, Haddy Hatfull
Court, at the same time dismissing a staff
Guthrie Contracting, Ngakuru
recommendation that the company and its lessee,
Much appreciated Haddy. Please keep us posted if you and Peter decide on doing something with the old site.
South Canterbury Screening and Crushing (SCSC), be permitted to quarry an increased area on Jaffray Hill, the lower of the ridge’s two distinctive humps. The council’s decision follows a three-part
Dear Ed I am the current owner of the Pozzolan site at Ngakuru, which I purchased in 1998. I enjoyed reading the article in Q&M that was given to me by an earthmoving client and neighbour. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but to the best of my knowledge it ceased operating in the early 1980s. The factory is still largely intact, but the ball crushing mill and silos have been removed. When I purchased the property my neighbour across the road had worked at the site and was going to give me a heap of pics. However, he moved on and may well have passed away by now. If you could point me in the right direction re further history on this site it would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Pete Edwards General manager, Priceright Parts and Machinery, Rotorua Thanks for the update Peter, I have sent you the original articles scanned from Road Transport and Contracting magazine, which turned into our Contractor magazine in 1975.
declaration by the court last October which said the quarry’s 1960 resource consent was limited to the 50,000 cubic metres of volcanic rock needed at the time for the construction of the Momona Airport, and that the consent was now no longer in force. The third declaration was the question of whether ongoing quarrying could be authorised depended on whether it was an existing use in 1970 – pretty much the council’s argument against any expansion, and the real bone of contention. The court in October urged the parties to consult on the legitimacy of the 1970 existing use rights, but they were unable to reach agreement. While he declines to comment at this stage, the proprietor of SCSC, Paul Smith, confirms that the parties are headed to court again. No date for the Environment Court hearing had been announced at the time Q&M went to print.
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Q&M April - May 2017 7
U P F R O N T
Advocacy versus public charity When is a protesting entity a public educational ‘charity’, or simply another opinionated advocacy group? At the end of last year the Charities Registration Board made a decision on that difference when denying Kiwis Against Seabed Mining ‘charitable status’ and the tax breaks that come with it. This group has made submissions against Trans-Tasman Resources’ application to subsea mine in the south Taranaki Bight (although it says is opposed to ‘non-essential’ seabed mining and not all seabed mining), and Chatham Rock Phosphate’s bid to mine the Chatham Rise. As Straterra, our natural resources association, points out – it is also an advocacy group out to increase public awareness of mining proposals and mining matters and the group’s status is no different than its own, albeit with an opposing ideology. The Otago Daily Times reported earlier this year that, for the year ended March 31, 2016 Kiwis Against Seabed Mining generated about $25,500 in income of which $17,200 came from membership and donations. It spent $21,300, with its biggest expenses legal costs at $8800 and wages at $8600. The group brought to the attention of the Charities Registration Board the relevance of a Supreme Court finding on Greenpeace’s charitable status, where the majority of the court’s bench found that ‘political advocacy’ could be charitable, depending on the goal and its promotion, particularly where environmental objectives were at stake. However, the board couldn’t determine whether Kiwis Against Seabed Mining’s focus on stopping seabed mining constituted a ‘charitable public benefit’. “The board considers on balance that the wider consequences in prohibiting and opposing seabed mining are too varied to assess the society’s advocacy against seabed mining as clearly advancing a charitable public benefit,” it says, adding that it considers “any public benefit is unlikely to be capable of demonstration by evidence”.
Mediation in Christchurch Two of the companies seeking permission from the Christchurch City Council to dig below the peak water-table level in the Waimakariri River bed have gone into mediation and are tight-lipped about its progress. Isaac Construction and Fletcher Construction-owned Winstone, on behalf of its wholly-owned subsidiary Selwyn Quarries, had signalled they would take the council to the Environment Court after it rejected a joint application from eight companies, representing 10 quarry sites, to dig deeper into the aggregate-rich riverbed. The existing rule is that quarry owners must stay a metre above the highest recorded groundwater levels at their McLeans Island, Yaldhurst and Prebbleton sites, but the quarry owners wanted to be allowed to dig up to three metres below it. The joint application was declined last year by the council, on the grounds that it would threaten the purity of Christchurch’s famously pure water supply. Christchurch’s water is sourced from about 170 deep underground wells, distributed by 55 council-owned pumping stations, and is so pure it is delivered to homes and businesses straight from the wells without treatment. Christchurch City Council is the country’s largest authority supplying untreated water. Predictably the quarry owners’ application, which would have added 30 million tonnes to the available resource, fired up a storm of protest. In its 84-page decision the council said it had not been provided with “enough accurate information … to be in a position to offset positive effects against adverse effects”. Unburdened by other applicants, Isaac Construction and Selwyn Quarries have instead gone it alone. Isaac has modified the original joint application, and while it still seeks to dig into the highest-recorded groundwater, it proposes backfilling to the required metre
In the next issue: June – July 2017 Burning lime in Havelock North – a profile on Websters Hydrated Lime, one of
above the water level with material from its existing quarry. Neither company was prepared to
just two such operations in the country and now over 70 years in production
comment on the progress of the talks at this
with the same family.
stage. By Hugh de Lacy.
8 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
‘39
‘66 1940
1950
1960
‘98 1970
1980
1990
‘16 2000
Eric (with a “c”)
2010
was leading the charge for expanding the family firm’s reach beyond european shores. Rumours of construction growth and mining prospects in the Asia Pacific region provided the perfect excuse for a big OE. Fortunately for him (and us) the whispers were true, and although we’d been ‘worldwide’ for ages, we knew that our Swedish flair for precision european design and componentrycoupled with a state of art assembly facility closer to this rich, new world would allow us to become extremely competitive and create new opportunities for our antipodean customers. So we bought Samsung in 1998. In doing so we also became the first foreign company to invest in Korea. We dig that.
0800 848 267 www.transdiesel.com
volvoce.com
2020
U P F R O N T
Guidance for submitting mine plans New guidelines for planning mines were released early this year making it easier to prepare and submit mine and tunnel plans to regulators. The Guide to Completing and Submitting Plans for Mines and Tunnels, jointly developed by NZ Petroleum & Minerals and WorkSafe, is said to incorporate extensive feedback from the mining industry. “The aim is to provide the industry with consistent guidance that improves the process for complying with the requirements for submitting mines plans,” says Marcos Pelenur, national manager, minerals at MBIE. “They capture valuable information that has many benefits. These include supporting WorkSafe’s regulation of health and safety in the industry, providing information on the hazards associated with new mining activity, helping NZP&M assess permit applications, and outlining the location of where resources have been extracted. “To make the submission process easier, the new guidelines provide simple checklists and tables to explain how the plans need to be prepared, what information to include, and when they need to be provided to each regulator. “Bringing the various forms of information together into an easily digestible format means it’s now much less complicated for operators to meet the regulators’ requirements.” The guidance has been prepared as part of a wider project that will also deliver an online repository to make historical mine plans available to the public. This is expected to be delivered later this year.
Plans opposed in Canterbury
A sizzling finger-licking fest The city of JAFAs puts on some good
A residents’ group has formed to oppose Christchurch Ready Mix Concrete’s (CRMC)
shows over the year, but few proved so
pending application to open a new quarry near the Eyrewell Forest west of Christchurch.
good as the inaugural Meatstock festival
CRMC managing director Brian Grant told Q&M the company had met with some of the residents opposed to the yet-to-be-filed application with the Waimakariri District Council and was “considering their feedback”. There was no timeline on lodging the application relating to a planned small-to-medium-
held in February at the Auckland ASB Showgrounds. The two days of smoked meat should have been called Meat & Woodstock,
sized quarry on land owned by the Spencer Bower family, between Isaac and Murray
as evident by the clouds of BBQ smoke
Roads, bordered by farms owned by the Ngai Tahu iwi.
drifting over salivating guests and the live
The company plans to run the quarry seven days a week from 7am to 7pm, with a maximum of seven hectares active at any one time. The land would be quarried to a depth of six metres, possibly more if the groundwater gradient on the site permits it, and consent would be sought to operate for 20 years.
music that rained down on their heads. The wood burning two day line-up included competitions such as the ‘Barbeque, Butcher and Barber Wars’, as
Opponents have formed the Isaac Road Residents Committee, which also has
well as demonstrations and workshops.
concerns about Waimakariri Irrigation’s unrelated plans to build an 8.4 million cubic
The event is garnished with BBQ inspired
metre storage dam in the area which, if it were to breach, it is claimed, could flood 212
food trucks and craft beer for purchase.
neighbouring properties.
Add t-shirts with slogans such as ‘Drink
The committee has suggested that the quarry and dam projects could be combined,
responsibly – don’t spill your beer’ and
with the irrigation water stored in the quarry excavations to eliminate the risk of a
stalls called ‘Made in NZ by imported
breach.
Frenchman’ and it made for a great food
Selwyn MP and Justice Minister Amy Adams has waded into the growing debate, with a letter backing the Yaldhurst Road Residents Association’s opposition to expanded quarrying in the Waimakariri River bed. In it Adams says it was her “clear view no quarrying should be permitted within 250 metres of an existing residential property”. CRMC’s Brian Grant declined to comment on the prospect of the district council
carnival atmosphere. The show originated from Sydney’s and is now held at the end of summer in Melbourne and Auckland. Cost this year was $35 for a one-day ticket, including booking fee, and $55 for
formally notifying the application, when it is eventually made, under the Resource
a two-day pass. Look out for the 2018
Management Act.
show.
10 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
U P F R O N T
Regulations scare mineral investing According to the Fraser Institute’s latest survey of mining
The report noted that Indonesian investors are concerned
companies this country has plummeted in terms of attracting
over the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, which
investment.
has taken a hard line against foreign mining companies –
The 2016 survey was distributed to approximately 2700 managers and executives around the world in companies involved in mining exploration, development, and consulting. We ranked 39th out of the 104 surveyed jurisdictions around the
including OceanaGold – on environmental grounds. The report also notes that ‘resource base’ rather than ‘regulation’ is the main driver in the overall rankings. Overall – Australia beat Canada and the United States as
world on the institute’s Policy Perception Index (PPI), down nine
the most attractive region in the world for investment when
places from 2015.
both policy and mineral potential are considered.
We fell even further on the Investment Attractiveness Index – some 23 places to 67th. On the Best Practices Mineral Index – which combines the above two indexes for an overall ranking – we fell 24 places to 86th. “Uncertainty of environmental regulations” has proved our weak
For the fourth year in a row, the Republic of Ireland had the highest PPI score of 100. It was followed by Canada’s Saskatchewan province in second, which moved up from fourth in the previous year. Sweden, Finland, Nevada, Manitoba, Wyoming, New
point and on ‘regulations’ we fell 22 places to 95th. The quality of
Brunswick, Western Australia, and Northern Ireland, which
our geological database placed us 45th, or 18 places lower than in
was included for the first time in the 2016 survey, made up
2015.
the top 10.
Despite that, the report says we still stand out in Oceania
The 10 least attractive markets were Venezuela,
(excluding Australia), which has seen overall conditions worsen –
Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Mongolia, Philippines, Indonesia,
particularly in Indonesia and the Philippines, which had respective
South Sudan, Ecuador, and Chubut and Mendoza, which are
rankings of 99th and 100th.
Argentinian provinces.
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Q&M April - May 2017 11
I O Q
Y O U T H
P R O G R A M M E
Youth incentive scheme off to flying start W
orkers in the extractive industry represent an average age of 50 years plus and we need to encourage younger professionals into the industry, and do this urgently. This is what the Institute of Quarrying New Zealand, the association representing individual members in our industry, was thinking a few years ago, when it came up with its Youth Programme, which was launched recently. “We have an urgent need to identify and support young people as they move through their careers within the extractive industry by providing opportunities for extractive operators to make lasting relationships, and gather knowledge from established industry leaders,” says the programme facilitator, Matt Webster from Webster’s Lime. The Youth Programme was conceived after the Quarry NZ conference in 2015, he adds. “During our AGM at that conference there was a clear message from the floor that one of the biggest issues we face is the lack of young blood in the industry.” The IOQ NZ board took up the challenge and worked on a scheme that will identify young talent within industry and assist those who demonstrate the qualities and commitment to become a future leader within the extractive sector. They will then be supported with the opportunity to meet veteran extraction workers and form relationships with current industry leaders to assist them through their development. “The advantage of this being there is still a wealth of knowledge and experience that needs to be passed on,” says Matt. “It seemed the logical focus would be to capitalise on this experience before it exits the work workforce.” The first move was to run a pilot programme to understand how this initiative will run and be received by members at large. Once the initial pilot programme was accepted the intention was to select candidates from each island. Nominations were made from current IOQ NZ members and the final selection of candidates was made by the IOQ NZ board. Pilot programme applications started after the 2016 conference in Blenheim last year and closed on February 1. “As this was a pilot programme it was relatively closed house,” says Matt. “We gained applicants by advertising at the 2016 conference and at a regional level.” The response came as a pleasant surprise to the IOQ NZ board. “We honestly didn’t expect more than one or two applicants as we hadn’t really pushed the programme. But we had a great response with eight applicants from all over the country.” These applicants had a wide range of experience and all were 35 and under. Some were from corporate extraction companies and others from private companies. “It was very pleasing to have a female applicant among them, and we were also impressed with the effort they had all put into their application letters outlining why they are interested in this programme opportunity.” 12 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
Youth Programme facilitator Matt Webster, from Webster’s Lime, says there’s an urgent need to identify and support young people as they move through their careers within the extractive industry by providing opportunities for extractive operators to make lasting relationships, and gather knowledge from established industry leaders.
The Youth Programme pilot scheme was relatively ‘closed house’ and nine applicants were recruited by advertising at the 2016 conference and at a regional level among the IOQ membership.
Relation with the Webster Family Scholarship The BR Webster Family Education Scholarship was set up in memory of Bruce (a founding member of the New Zealand IOQ branch) and Rae Webster – and has been available since 2002. The scholarship in Bruce’s memory is to be awarded to individuals who are studying towards qualifications in order to advance their tertiary study or practical learning. Matt says he is unsure about the total involvement for the Webster’s Education Scholarship in the long term, but there is already a link. This year’s costs for the Youth Programme have been kindly covered by BR Webster Trustees with the view of assessing how the pilot programme goes, he says. “As the Webster Scholarship is designed to help educate young members within the industry the Youth Programme could be a good way to draw applicants for the future of the scheme.”
Youth Programme criteria Candidates need to have between one and two years’ experience in the extractive industry; be employed in the extractive industry; have or be working towards a B Grade CoC; have the support of their employer; be able to supply character references to determine suitability; be between 18-35 years of age; committed to upholding the IOQ NZ code of conduct; and, if successful, put together three progress reports during the year, outlining conference information they have learned and two subsequent follow-up reports on their progress through the industry.
What you will be entitled to Successful candidates get entry to the Quarry NZ conference plus accommodation costs; a year’s student membership to the IOQ NZ; exposure to the extractive industry on a regional and national level; and an opportunity to form relationships within the industry. The next call for Youth Programme applications will be at the Quarry NZ conference in Auckland in July, with applications closing February 1, 2018.
BR Webster Family Education Scholarship This Scholarship is awarded to individuals who are studying towards industry qualifications with limited financial ability to contribute to the costs – with or without the support of their employer. Nominations should be forwarded to the IOQ NZ Secretary by May 31. Final decisions regarding the awarding of the Scholarship remain with the Education Trust Scholarship sub committee. Q&M Q&M April - May 2017 13
O N
T H E
C O V E R
A combination of hardness and toughness makes Hardox steel the preferred option for hard-working gear in Road Metals’ quarries. By MARY SEARLE BELL.
W
ith over 60 years in the extraction business, Road Metals knows its stuff when it comes to aggregates and how to move them. Based in the South Island, the company has 12 permanent quarries throughout Canterbury and Otago, and provides sand and aggregate to projects throughout the country. Naturally, to achieve this, they use a range of heavy machinery that is tough – really tough. To get the longest life from its equipment, Road Metals uses Hardox from Real Steel in its truck and trailer bodies and equipment wear parts. Hardox is a high quality hardened steel manufactured by SSAB (Swedish Steel) in Sweden. It is harder and tougher than regular steel – making it less prone to abrasion, and more resilient to bumps and bangs. Hardox is also much cleaner than other hardened steels, says Real Steel managing director Luke Mathieson. “It’s easy to make hard steel, but it’s much harder to make hard and tough steel,” he says. “SSAB uses high grade Swedish iron ore and very clean coking coal to manufacture Hardox. “Combined with a very advanced steel making process, the result is a steel with lower alloys and impurities, which makes it very workshop friendly, while retailing superior hardness and toughness.” 14 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
George Kelcher, general manager at Road Metals, can attest to this. “There’s a lot of wear parts in our impactor crushers, and by using Hardox the wear rate is lower and therefore more cost efficient. “This also goes for our buckets, where we achieve very good wear rates from Real Steel’s Hardox Enduroblade cutting edges. “In truck bodies, Hardox is very resilient – we can cut down the thickness of the steel without losing strength. This brings the tare weight down. “And it doesn’t dent and bend as much as regular steel.” Hardness is what gives Hardox its wear resistance and structural strength. SSAB says it delivers the same wear resistance during the plate’s entire service life, since it remains equally hard throughout. Hardness also provides excellent yield and tensile strength to resist deformation. The impact force from large and heavy objects is distributed over the plate, resisting dents and cracking. The metal absorbs the energy and returns to its original shape, like a tennis racket hitting a ball. The toughness of Hardox also enables it to be bent, formed and welded without cracking. If a Hardox wear plate is stressed beyond its yield point and plastically deformed – on purpose in the workshop or when hit by a heavy rock on site – it will resist cracking. If a localised crack should occur, it will resist propagation.
To get the longest life from its equipment, Road Metals uses Hardox from Real Steel in its truck and trailer bodies and equipment wear parts.
Daniel Francis, operations manager of Road Metals Co.
This all means a good wear life, which is essential in quarrying and open pit mining operations. These environments deliver some of the world’s toughest wear challenges. Throughout the whole production flow – from diggers, dozers, loaders and trucks, through to feeders, screeners, crushers and conveyors – Hardox wear plate’s superior wear resistance brings extended service life between repairs or the replacement of parts. Real Steel imports Hardox from Sweden in plate form. The company then works with its customers to design and manufacture products specific to their requirements. Wear parts are built in-house, but truck bodies are constructed by a third party. In the case of Road Metals, these are built by Transport & General Engineering, which has ‘Hardox in my Body’ certification from SSAB, and TMC Trailers. “Real Steel has invested quite heavily in their plate processing plant,” says George. “They provide trailer components to TMC as a kit. In particular, Real Steel’s large 1000 tonne, eight-metre press brake allows them to use longer sheets so there’s less welding. “This not only reduces fabrication costs, but increases strength, as the weld is always the weakest point with high-strength Hardox.” George adds that Road Metal’s decision to use any particular product
boils down to getting good value for money, and Hardox provides this. “We generally run two brands of everything,” he says. “It’s just company policy – it gives us a good comparison, as well as buying options.” Looking at the performance of Hardox against its rivals, George says it compares well. The relationship between Real Steel and Road Metals is an important factor too. “I’ve known the family at Real Steel for a long time,” says George. “Business is all about relationships, and partnerships built on integrity – and that goes both ways. “Real Steel are also very good supporters of the Institute of Quarrying – they’re one of the ‘Friends of the IOQNZ’ group – and we recognise this. We like to give back to those who support us.” Real Steel imports several grades of Hardox from Sweden – 450 grade is used for truck bodies, and 500, 550 and 600 are harder grades, used for blades, cutting edges and wear plates. Real Steel has recently added Duroxite to its product range. Duroxite is an overlay plate of wear-resistant steel that is bonded to the base metal. SSAB says Duroxite overlay works especially well in sliding wear environments where small and hard materials are processed. It can withstand different types of wear such as abrasion, heat, metal-to-metal and erosion wear. • Q&M April - May 2017 15
C O M P A N Y
P R O F I L E
Right: John Norton with daughter Shelly Norton. The operation carries the oldest quarrying licence in the country of a company still being owned and operated by the same family – four generations of the Norton family.
Celebrating family We mined clay in this country before mining coal, and back in February over 100 folk from all over the South Island gathered near Pukerau to celebrate a family who has extracted clay since the 1880s. PETER OWENS was among the guests.
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amily and old customers gathered at Camp Columba near Pukerau to watch a film on the Norton’s Brick and Tile Company. The operation carries the oldest quarrying licence in the country of a company still being owned and operated by the same family – four generations of the Norton family. The audience included members of the widespread Norton whanau who had travelled long distances for the event, and a large number of farmers, and retired farmers, who have patronised the business over the years. The film was made by Fergus Sutherland,
16 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
a well-known southern educationalist and environmentalist, with the assistance of his wife Mary. The couple was deluged with requests for copies of the video after the screening. The business and its plant at Pukerau in Southland were founded by John Norton, who came out from England in 1875 looking for a suitable place for the manufacture and sale of bricks and “pipes” (as field tiles were known in those days). He found and bought a site in Pukerau near the rural servicing town of Gore and close to the just completed railway line between Dunedin
and mining heritage and Invercargill. The site had a good source of clay and coal for the kilns. The business has remained on the same site ever since, but no longer makes bricks after a fire in the 1990s destroyed the technology used in their manufacture. Since then, the business has concentrated on only making and selling field tiles, for which there is strong demand. The original plant built in 1880 was moved in 1915. The old site is now a bird sanctuary and a favourite refuge for the local ducks during the shooting season. The ‘new’ plant where the field tiles are
made, fired and sold is bounded to the north by the South Island Main Trunk Railway and to the south by State Highway 1. In 1902 the company purchased 20 acres of land on the other side of the State Highway as a source of raw clay for its operations. In 1915 the company received the approval of the then Southland County Council to excavate a tunnel under State Highway 1 linking its two properties. This tunnel still functions daily and is lined with bricks made in the company’s plant. A 20-inch light railway line was laid between the two properties through the tunnel, and used to convey clay
Above left: Dale Norton. Top: Trolleys with mined clay inside the plant. Above: The 20 inch railways line and the tunnel under the man road. In 1902 the company purchased 20 acres of land on the other side of the State Highway as a source of raw clay for its operations.
Q&M April - May 2017 17
C O M P A N Y
P R O F I L E
Clay in the pit ready to be mined. The Pukerau site was not only chosen because of the clay resource – it also had coal nearby for the kilns. In 1957 the company installed a fully automatic diesel-fired kiln, but with the escalation of fuel costs, the company reverted to using coal.
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in wheeled bins from the excavation face to the plant. At first it was driven by a hand-operated continuous wire rope. These days the bins are pulled back and forth by a small petrol-driven locomotive designed and built by the present company manager, Dayle Norton, the son of John Norton II. The Pukerau site was not only chosen because of the clay resource – it also had coal nearby for the kilns. In 1957 the company installed a fully automatic diesel-fired kiln, but with the escalation of fuel costs, the company reverted to using coal. The Nortons have kept the operation as simple as the original. John Norton II, who recently retired as general manager of the company, says tried and true methods remain ideal for the business and, over the years, no other methods have been found to be better. Despite the cynical attitudes of other business people when the company reverted to coal-fired kilns, John Norton says coal firing is as efficient as electrical energy and much less expensive. Nor has the company reverted to decimalisation. Field tiles are still made and ordered sized in inches. From the beginnings of the business until relatively recently, the company
dispatched thousands of field tiles and bricks all over the South from the nearby main trunk railway that borders its land. These days either the farmers collect the field tiles themselves in their own vehicles, or else they arrange for a carrier to collect and deliver them. In 1915, John Norton, the founder of the company retired as manager and was succeeded by his son Frank. Frank managed the business until 1966, then he in turn was succeeded by his sons, John and Eric. Eric Norton however withdrew from the business in 1974 and from that time until recently John Norton II managed the company. These days it is managed by his son, Dayle Norton. John Norton II and his wife Anita still live in Pukerau in a two-storey dwelling adjoining the plant, while Dayle and his wife Margaret live just across State Highway 1 from the site. The technology is simple but effective. Clay is mined from on one side of the road by a machine, railed through the tunnel to the plant and mixed with water. It is then extruded under pressure into moulds and expressed in a long tube. This is then cut to the desired length by a machine designed by the Norton family in 1929. The tiles are then baked at about 1000 degrees Celsius in the coal-fired kilns. Q&M
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Q U A R R Y I N G
Quarry manager Shane Hagai on the weighbridge where truck and trailer units have their loads of aggregate weighed every few minutes.
20 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
Stones and scones mix well NEIL RITCHIE visits a river-side quarry on the Kapiti Coast and discovers a neighbourhood café.
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hen Q&M visited the River Cottage Café, just across the road from the entrance to Otaki’s main quarry operations, it was a delightful day with mild sea breezes belying the fact that the industry, including the quarry and several concrete plants, surrounds the almost idyllic café setting near the banks of the Otaki River. And, as well as the general public, quarry staff and quarry visitors alike also frequent the fine food venue. “Yes, we are well known there,” says Shane Hagai, Kapiti Quarries manager responsible for the Belmont (Lower Hutt) and Otaki quarries, as well as a distribution yard at nearby Waikanae that used to be an operational quarry but now just handles material from the other operations. The Otaki quarry has been a highly visible and involved part of the Kapiti Coast community for decades, with the original quarry supplying ballast for underneath the main trunk railway line that still runs alongside State Highway 1, right next to the eastern side of the quarry. And there is still a rail siding in place where ballast is loaded from a hopper that is fed by conveyor from the quarry plant straight into KiwiRail wagons as required. Winstone Otaki has two fixed plants – a concrete aggregates and ballast plant visible from, and on the eastern side, of State Highway 1, as well as an older aggregates plant on the western side.
“And we supply all the nearby concrete plants; we have three different companies operating five different concrete plants,” adds Shane. Sister company Firth Concrete is onsite at the quarry, feeding an onsite Stresscrete pre-cast concrete panel plant, while Higgins is on the other side of the highway. There is also an Allied Concrete plant further north at Ohau. There are nine full-time quarry staff, all from the Kapiti Coast or southern Horowhenua, and Winstone brings in contractors as and when necessary. As well, some teams from the New Zealand Canoe Polo Association use the canoe polo pitches at the artificial quarry lakes, as do some waka ama teams (similar to Chinese dragon boat racing). The Otaki operations are among the largest, perhaps the eighth biggest, of all of those of Winstone Aggregates, the country’s largest manufacturer and distributor of aggregates and sands and part of the Fletcher Concrete and Infrastructure group. One of the quarry’s most recent projects is being a major contributor to the first stage of the Kapiti Expressway – part of the Wellington Northern Corridor Roads of National Significance (RoNS) scheme – involving the construction of the MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway (commonly known as M2PP) involving Q&M April - May 2017 21
Q U A R R Y I N G
18 kilometres of a new four-lane highway, major upgrading of two kilometres of existing highway, 18 bridges, millions of cubic metres of earthworks and millions of tonnes of aggregate and tens of thousands of cubic metres of concrete. The NZTA specified a new blend of basecourse for M2PP and, following a series of tests and trials in 2014 using aggregate from Otaki and repeated load triaxial shear (RLTS) tests, the NZTA came up with a new 35mm basecourse, AP35, as opposed to the usual AP40. Winstone Aggregates brought in nine mobile crushing plants for producing the AP35 for the project and the Otaki quarry has supplied the bulk of the higher strength materials for the $630 million M2PP project that will take about four years to complete. The quarry has also invested a lot of time and effort into product certification throughout the M2PP project, conducting a series of trials on its crushers and often resetting them. Some byproduct has also been produced, with the quarry blending this into other customers’ mixes. “M2PP has been our biggest project … the highest spec project, the highest strength,” says Shane. “And we now know where in the lake any stockpile of aggregate comes from … we have had the whole lake mapped and tested for aggregate qualities, so we can provide product information for each load.” The quarry has its own onsite tester and also the use of the Winstone laboratories in Wellington and Auckland. It also has a Volvo EC350 excavator that was brand new just a few months ago, two Komatsu HM 400 articulated dump trucks and three loaders, two Hyundai 770 machines and a Komatsu WA480. “We started supplying the M2PP job with drainage material during mid 2014 and ended up supplying all the AP35 and concrete in what turned out to be a $5 million or so job.” While Winstone Otaki supplied the concrete and modified basecourse, the Higgins quarry at nearby Paraparaumu supplied the sub-base, and also the top course. 22 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
Shane says Winstone is working with the NZTA regarding the government unit taking some quarry land for the Kapiti Expressway. “We are working to provide the best outcome regarding losing some quarry land, bearing in mind that we already effectively have a road going through our site, with one quarry operation on one side of State Highway 1 and the other quarry operation on the other side of the highway.” Aggregates extraction at the Otaki quarry is primarily from the artificial lakes and also from the Otaki River. But Winstone Otaki recently opened up a new extension to the east, called Ashford Park, which Shane is enthusiastic about. “With Ashford Park now fully consented we now have another 20 years or so of alluvial aggregates production. “We are all alluvial rock and doing anything from 150,000 cumecs to 400,000 cumecs a year.” Winstone is also investigating having a new aggregates plant, to be located next to the existing ballast and concrete aggregates plant as development of Ashford Park continues. And it’s likely this could involve components from other Winstone sites around the country. “Though our work on the M2PP part of the Kapiti Expressway was scheduled to finish by the end of 2016, we are starting to wind up on the next section, the Peka Peka to Otaki part of the project. “And, later still, there is the Otaki to Levin section of this RoNS project. And the main basecourse for the Otaki to Levin phase will probably be an AP40 aggregate. “That’s one of the things; we prove we can do something and then it’s ‘let’s take it a bit further for the client’.” And Shane has no doubts about the future of the Otaki operation. “Winstone Aggregates are looking to be heavily involved and we are pretty confident [of winning more work] for this [RoNS] project. “All this northern Wellington Corridor work will mean it’s easier to get to and from the Kapiti Coast, more residents, more residential buildings and maybe even the construction of more commercial buildings.” Q&M
There are lots of rainbow trout in this artificial lake.
Q&M April - May 2017 23
Q U A R R Y I N G
Despite its massive size, Big Ben can be moved more quickly (in two weeks or less compared to three weeks for other rigs) and with fewer loads (about 75 truck loads compared to approximately 130).
How’s this for a drill! Todd Energy’s $42 million Big Ben rig, imported from Germany, is the biggest, best and quietest land rig in the country. The Bentec Euro 450-tonne rig is an integral part of Todd’s $800 million Mangahewa Expansion Project (MEP) that is still in progress. Most Mangahewa wells are drilled to a vertical depth of some 3500 metres to 4400 metres, though the total along-hole, or deviated, length can be up to 5500m or so, ensuring access to enough of the tight Eocene aged Mangahewa Formation to make hydraulic fracturing of those near horizontal sections worthwhile. Although not an ‘off the shelf’ model, only a few modifications were necessary as many Taranaki wellsites have narrow access roads and close proximity to neighbours – similar to conditions in Europe where the original rig design evolved. Big Ben can also be moved more quickly (in two weeks or less compared to three weeks for other rigs) and with fewer loads (about 75 truck loads compared to approximately 130). So downtime between drilling assignments is reduced, as is the impact on neighbouring properties with the reduction in rig-based traffic. As well, it is also quieter than other rigs. All on-site generators are fully enclosed, reducing noise to a maximum of 45 decibels some 350 metres away, meaning less disturbance to neighbours from roundthe-clock drilling operations. The drilling console is also fully enclosed, with windows of course, enabling drilling supervisors and others to work with less outside noise. And, as with nearly everything these days, electronics and the internet play vital roles in drilling operations. The driller’s console looks a little like Luke Skywalker’s cockpit from the Star Wars movies because of the myriad of instrumentation and other electronic devices scattered around and the sophisticated computerised chair the driller sits in. Well operations can also be remotely monitored from Todd Energy’s New Plymouth office. Q&M 24 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
For the good of energy Taranaki company Burgess & Crowley Civil (BBC) has provided services to the region’s energy industry for almost three decades. Recently it provided aggregates for Todd Energy’s new Mangahewa G wellsite – the latest expansion of the company’s commercial gas field. BCC did not use production from its own quarry near Toko in eastern Taranaki, but trucked in aggregates from a more northern Inglewood quarry. “This was a win-win situation for everyone, for all the parties concerned,” says BCC company director and general manager Owen Burgess, regarding the work that finished during the latter half of 2016. “It was good for Todd Energy, it was good for the Inglewood quarry. “But, most importantly, our latest contract with Todd Energy regarding wellsite construction enabled all that hard fill and aggregate to be transported on lesser routes, avoiding 900 or so truck movements on the narrow and sometimes twisty Otaraoa road.”
Burgess & Crowley Civil general manager Owen Burgess pictured at the company’s Inglewood headquarters.
It was an 11-month project, with about 94,000 cubic metres (cumecs) of earthworks (top soil and dirt) shifted from Brendan Lyons’ farm, then about 9000 cumecs of hard fill (GAP 150), which was not crushed or screened. Inglewood Metal’s Everett Road quarry supplied about 5000 cumecs of AP40 and AP65 aggregates. As well as the construction of the large (exceeding 200 metres by 100 metres) wellsite, there is also the ‘footprint’ of where Todd Energy’s ‘Big Ben’ rig will go when Todd decides to drill some development wells. This ‘top off’ was a combination of AP40 and AP65. Q&M
Track ballast typically rests on a layer of small crushed stones – the sub-ballast – which provides support and reduces ground water seepage. Sometimes an elastic mat is placed on the layer of sub-ballast and beneath the ballast to reduce vibration.
A train passes over it PETER OWENS looks at Southern Aggregates’ hard rock quarry
at Greenhills near Bluff, which produces new Ballast Track Specification 140.
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n the 19th century a rapidly constructed and comprehensive rail network was essential for the development of the young colony. Our rail links are still very important and KiwiRail operates services on 3898 kilometres of track, of which around 500 kilometres is electrified. Track ballast is vital to the continuous and safe operation of this national rail network and KiwiRail is very particular about both the ballast and its suppliers. The southernmost section of our rail links Dunedin and Bluff and Southern Aggregates of Invercargill is one of the main suppliers of rail ballast to the exact specifications set by KiwiRail. Southern Aggregates’ hard rock quarry at Greenhills near Bluff produces the ballast, made to the new Ballast Track Specification 140, amongst other materials such as ornamental boulders and concrete sand. At the quarry track ballast is stored in certified stockpiles and is handled in conditions that prevent material contamination, segregation and degradation. Quarry manager, Kerry Sands, says there isn’t a ‘continuous’ demand for the specified ballast, but that it is always there whenever the customer needs it. It is a world standard that the thickness of a layer of track ballast depends on the size and spacing of the ties, the amount of traffic on the line, and various other factors, but is never laid down less than 150mm thick. However, beyond a depth of 300mm adds no extra benefit in, say, reducing vibration. Track ballast typically rests on a layer of small crushed stones – the sub-ballast – which provides support and reduces ground water seepage. Sometimes an elastic mat is placed on the layer of sub-ballast and beneath the ballast to reduce vibration. The ballast is also piled as high as the ties and a substantial ‘shoulder’ placed at their ends that is a minimum of 150mm wide and up to 450mm wide. The shape of the ballast is also important. Stones must be irregularly cut, with sharp edges, so that they properly interlock and grip the ties in order to fully secure them against movement. Spherical stones cannot do this. In order to let new ballast settle and interlock, speed limits are lowered on sections of track for a period of time. Q&M
Top: Kerry Sands Southern Aggregate Quarry manager at Greenhills near Bluff. Above: The southernmost section of our rail links Dunedin and Bluff and Southern Aggregates of Invercargill is one of the main suppliers of rail ballast to the exact specifications set by KiwiRail. Q&M April - May 2017 25
Q U A R R Y I N G
Quarry plant innovations Four years ago we were invited to Roctec’s engineering workshops in Matamata to see the early design of a new vertical shaft impact crusher and screen made for Stevenson’s Drury quarry when it commissioned a $7 million aggregate processing plant with the Kiwi-made VSI crusher at its core. The set up was featured in Q&M in the December 2015 issue and can be read in full here: bit.ly/DruryQuarry
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ince then the company has built two more. One of them was hauled out of the yard on Q&M’s visit last month while the third was being built in the workshop. Both were made for client Stevensons Quarries (now Stevenson Construction Materials), with one going to Drury and the second one going to Stevie’s Huntly quarry. “At Drury we’ve built a new plant where the old block plant was,” says Jason Tapper, Rocktec’s technical design and sales manager. “We reused the old hopper, and then built a new plant out from there.” Huntly has been preparing site works for a new plant, near the pug mill, also built by Rocktec. Jason says the company took a different direction building the plant than it did with the first plant at Drury. “We did a lot more assembly in the workshop and then sent big chunks to site. We designed the structures so it was all very similar in size; in fact all 16 x 5 [Rocktec Avalanche] screen structures are identical. We’ve also sold them a Terex Cedarapids 20 x 8 horizontal – a big triple deck horizontal screen.” Rocktec also took an innovative approach to the foundations for this new equipment. “Instead of having a skid frame, we used a big precast concrete slab with a steel frame around it. It is full of reinforcing and we had the concrete poured at a pre-cast factory on our border and they simply lifted it over the fence. “The bolting to the frame is all the same though, so it becomes modular. The top section and bottom section [on top of the slab] were sent to site on the same truck. “The foundation was sent with the complete screen structures with the chutes tucked in there as well. “At the site we only have to complete a few lifts – the foundation and the first half of the structure in place in one lift, and then the 26 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
top half of the structure on top of that. Sixteen bolts later and the complete support structure is in place. “The stairway, travelling inside the chute, is attached with two more bolts and now we’ve got walking access around the whole thing with three lifts within one day.” And time onsite costs money, adds Jason. Streamlining the building of the new plant also involved making all the stairs the same, and all heights the same. “We were then able to get the designers to focus on the chute work because that’s really where the magic works.” The modular approach means that in five or 10 years’ time if the quarry wants to make a different product or add anything to the plant it can. “We can just take that one chute segment out and put in a different one that sends to a conveyor elsewhere, or we can put a different segment in with a flop gate and a splitter. “It’s designed to last and be future proof in terms of function. “The old fix plants are set up to do XYZ, and that’s it, and anything that you want to change becomes more complicated.” Jason says while there was a trend towards mobile plant for a few years he’s noticed an increasing demand for fixed plants. “There’s more serviceability in a fixed plant. To change and maintain the rollers in a plant conveyor is a very simple process, and it’s got all that nice wide space to walk around for changing the screen media.” Rocktec also built the structure for a Metso cone crusher (GP330) supplied to Huntly. “Same concept. “We built a concrete slab, which is neat and tidy and can be hosed off. If needs be they can also use a little bobcat to clean up spill around the edges as it won’t damage the concrete because of the steel on the outside.” Q&M
Instead of having a skid frame, Rocktec used a big precast concrete slab with a steel frame around it. It is full of reinforcing and it had the concrete poured at a pre-cast factory on its border and then the slabs were simply lifted it over the fence.
The structure for a new crushing plant at Huntly Quarry was mostly assembled in Rocktec’s workshop and then sent in ‘big chunks’ to site. Structures were all very similar in size – 16 x 5 [Rocktec Avalanche] screen structures, plus a Terex Cedarapids 20 x 8 horizontal – a big triple deck horizontal screen.
Q&M April - May 2017 27
Q U A R R Y I N G
On-site quarry for
Waikato Expressway project The Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway project will soon have its own quarry providing rock to the roading project. By MARY SEARLE BELL
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s part of the project works, a massive 57-metre-high cut at Taupiri Pass will see 1.2 million cubic metres of earth removed from the mountain range. The material from the cut will comprise 500,000 cubic metres of greywacke clay, much of which has been removed this summer; 400,000 cubic metres of weathered rock, which will be used as bulk fill in the project; and, finally 300,000 cubic metres of hard rock. This rock will be blasted and processed on site by a mobile crusher as 150mm all-in rock. It is to be used as subgrade improvement material on the project. Project director Tony Dickens, from Fulton Hogan, says they are yet to seek a subcontractor for the quarrying work, but will be inviting tenders during July and August this year. “It will be a critical activity for the project,” Tony told Q&M. “There will be a high rate of production and good cooperation needed to coordinate the road construction, rock extraction and rock processing all at the same time. “It is very much a roading project and it will not be your typical quarry operation. We have to take anything that comes out of the excavation and make the best of it, rather than selecting only the best rock to use,” he explains. “We’ll have to stockpile along the narrow roading corridor too.” The entire Waikato Expressway will see a four-lane highway constructed all the way from the Bombay Hills, south of Auckland, 28 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
to Cambridge – a total distance of 102 kilometres. The project is being delivered in seven sections, three of which are complete. The Huntly section of the NZ Transport Agency’s Waikato Expressway project stretches for 15.2 kilometres, from the Ohinewai section south to the Ngaruawahia section, and will see a busy part of State Highway 1 move away from the township of Huntly. The quarry at the Taupiri Pass is roughly in the middle of the section. Earthworks are in progress on the Huntly section. It has been a challenging season for the Fulton Hogan-HEB joint venture, with the weather doing its level best to slow things down. The goal is to move 2 million cubic metres this season, and Tony says they are well on the way to achieving this goal. However, with three weather events so far this year, it seems unlikely they will reach this target before the earthworks season finishes. “The reality is we have 30 more earthworks days ahead of us and only 33 days left in the summer season,” he said in mid-March. “Getting 30 dry days out of 33 is impossible – we’ll have to work harder next year!” Fortunately, says Tony, as it’s a four-year-long project we have room to adjust. “Our critical path is still intact.” The Huntly section, and the whole Waikato Expressway project, is due to be completed in 2020. Q&M
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Q U A R R Y I N G
IMG expands mining and quarry Growing heavy engineering company IMG has taken over the Stevenson Group’s engineering division as it expands into the extraction industry. ALAN TITCHALL explains.
30 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
Bruce Bonner and some of the newly formed team (IMG in yellow vests, the folk from Stevenson are in orange vests.) Clockwise backwards from Bruce Bonner – Russell Stewart (SEL); Kyle Thompson (SEL); Mike Bonner (IMG); Dave Teague (IMG); Ward O’Donnell (SEL); Rudi Duncker (SEL); Dave Pinfold (SEL); Andrew Skelton (IMG); Muir Hamilton (IMG) and Rob Kerridge (SEL). For clarity, the guys from IMG are in yellow vests, the folk from Stevenson are in orange vests.
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any years ago Bruce Bonner started his career at Stevenson Engineering in Auckland as an apprentice and grew through the ranks until he became general manager in the late 1990s. He remembers his time there fondly, which is just as well for the current employees because he now owns the business. Bruce is the managing director of Integrated Maintenance Group (IMG), which bought the Stevenson Group’s engineering division, SEL, in early February this year. This makes Bruce a significant player in the heavy engineering sector. “There’s a lot going on in the sector, and it remains a very competitive market with lean margins,” he says. “There are, however, economies of scale and in that light, the acquisition of SEL presents further opportunities for growth. The consolidation of premises, including IMG’s exit from our Wiri workshop, with its high overhead, gave us rent to equity ratio that was sound.” Also based in Auckland, IMG is a privately owned family business with more than 20 years’ experience in the heavy industrial sector. Bruce says the expanded company, which grew instantly by 30 percent with the acquisition, intends to be the foremost company here in the heavy industry maintenance and project space. The Stevenson Group now becomes an anchor client of IMG, he says, which will continue to maintain and service the Stevenson Group’s mining and quarrying heavy equipment. “Stevenson Group wanted to divest their engineering services division as it was not a core business function, and IMG are in active growth and diversification mode. “I see this as combining two good companies to make one great company. “IMG has earned a reputation for innovative thinking and quality work for our maintenance services to the steel sector. “We have since diversified into the forestry industry, and now the acquisition of Stevenson Engineering launches us into the mining and aggregates sector.” Bruce says there are still some ‘old faces’ at SEL that he knew back in his younger days while working there. “Which is a testament to the family and business ethos that Stevenson Engineering and IMG have in common.
“We remain a privately-owned family business, and we’re growing rapidly because our philosophy is relationshipbased in the way that we treat our clients and our staff.” IMG general manager Andy Skelton says Bruce has always had a very strong passion for heavy diesel and quarrying and mining and you can tell this when you are in his company. “Bruce is not a conventional business owner, he’s very entrepreneurial about opportunities, and driving those opportunities to provide customer service and quality service to the market.” “So when the opportunity came up to purchase this business it suited his IMG portfolio very much. “We haven’t been into quarrying and mining directly before, however there’s lots of synergy between the two businesses. “The other thing is the capability of this engineering shop in terms of what it provides. It gives us another angle where we could provide a far better service to the market then what we currently do as IMG. I’ll use the terminology ‘all the stars aligned’ to create a great opportunity to grow the business.” Andy adds “because IMG are totally independent we can supply an independent service to the market, without being aligned to any particular brand or supplier.” “It would be an addition given the market growth at the rate we are currently seeing. By all accounts this growth phase is not going to end tomorrow and we see opportunities both large and small.” Andy says IMG is also working closely with Stevenson Mining, providing engineering support as a subcontractor at the Rotowaro mine near Huntly. Generally, IMG wants to become a big player in the quarry and mining engineering support market, he adds. “We believe we’ve got the capability and skills to do that. We’ve got some great people we’ve inherited here with good skills in engineering maintenance. “It has been a market that has been neglected over the past few years in terms of apprentices and recruitment of young people and we have invested in apprentices already. “We recognise, while we need some short term strategies we also need a long term strategy and for us that’s about apprentices.” Q&M Q&M April - May 2017 31
M I N I N G
Second time lucky, says TTR
After hearings in Wellington and New Plymouth, Trans-Tasman Resources is confident that its second attempt at obtaining Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) approval for subsea mining will be rewarded. By NEIL RITCHIE.
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rans-Tasman Resources’ first application in 2014 to mine iron sands from the waters off South Taranaki was turned down by the EPA. This time the company feels it has done everything necessary for the EPA’s Decision Making Committee to make an ‘informed’ decision in its favour. “We are confident we have done the hard work, but we respect them and are not trying to pre-empt their decision,” TTR chairman Alan Eggers told Q&M towards the end of the Wellington EPA hearing in late February. TTR, which is about 45 percent foreign-owned, hopes to start offshore mining operations in 2020, assuming the EPA grants the necessary consents during the first half of this year. Eggers, a fifth generation Kiwi with decades of international mining experience, says that since 2014 the company has completed more scientific and engineering work, more stakeholder engagement, and further analysis that clearly show the economic benefits of the development of its proposed South Taranaki Bight (STB) iron sands project. These benefits include the employment of over 220 staff and export earnings of about US$400 million per year. Developing the STB resource will also be “a significant opportunity for New Zealand”, says Eggers, and could see this country become “a global leader” in marine mining. TTR proposes dredging 50 million tonnes of iron sand per year from shallow waters, some 20 to 50 metres deep, and approximately 22 to 36 kilometres offshore from the town of Patea. The iron sand will be extracted by remote-controlled 450-tonne seabed crawlers, excavating up to 8000 tonnes per hour. About 10 percent titano-magnetite from the sediment will be processed offshore aboard a purposebuilt integrated mining vessel (IMV) that can operate through most weather. The remaining 90 percent of the sand will be returned to the seabed, backfilling mined areas. Overall, the 20-year project will involve extracting about a quarter of a cubic kilometre of iron sands weighing one billion tonnes. Iron sand mining in this country is an old established industry and has been operating on a large scale for over 50 years. Our iron sand beaches and dune deposits on the west coast of the North Island are some of the largest deposits of their type in the world, stretching along 480 kilometres of coastline with no environmental issues. Over February Eggers spoke at the Wellington hearing (and was at the New Plymouth hearing though he did not give evidence). At both hearings there was lots of evidence for and against, involving 32 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
Trans-Tasman Resources chairman Alan Eggers.
a myriad of information from sediment plume modelling and marine ecology, to fisheries, penguins and whales. Eggers reckons TTR managed to agree on “most” issues throughout these hearings. “As part of the hearing process parties have worked through outstanding or disputed science and engineering issues, and reached agreement on most.” For example, he says Sanford Fisheries, the major quota holder over TTR’s proposed mining area, reached agreement over its concerns. But other submitters who oppose the project, such as Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, Greenpeace, Royal Forest & Bird, will probably never reach agreement with TTR, he adds. In a few cases the opposition evidence was proved incorrect, outdated or misleading, Eggers says. For instance, the evidence given by Oregon State University professor and marine mammal expert Leigh Torres who said, in collaboration with the Department of Conservation, that any seabed mining would have “a severe impact” on the whale population in the area, citing the results of a recent survey in the STB that found a blue whale population of at least 68. Eggers says there have been only 14 whale sightings and they were 50 to 100 kilometres to the west and south of the company’s mining licence. Since 1986 there’s only been one whale sighting that was closer and that was some 29 kilometres southwest of TTR’s proposed mining area. “No sightings have been reported or recorded near our proposed mining area and … these whales feed in deep water on the edge of the continental shelf and graze around the country.” Eggers says TTR already plans to train some vessel staff as marine mammal observers, already compulsory on offshore oil and gas seismic survey ships, and will scale back dredging operations if any marine mammals come within 500 metres, or even cease operations if they come within 250 metres. The government’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) supported the TTR application, as did New Plymouth district councillor (and former Associate Energy and Resources Minister) Harry Duynhoven, while the Taranaki Regional Council made a submission, but remained neutral. Aussie company Origin Energy opposed TTR’s plans but it is believed its prime concern is the setting up of a mining exclusion zone around the infrastructure surrounding the nearby offshore Kupe gas field. At the New Plymouth hearing held in March, various Taranaki Maori tribal organisations spoke against TTR. Late last year Ngati Ruanui took out newspaper advertisements
Map of TTR’s proposed project location.
claiming the sediment plume from TTR’s proposed seabed mining of the iron sands would be as large as Mount Taranaki (2518 metres high and covering more than 300 square kilometres). The proposed seabed mining would effectively be a giant quarry that would negatively impact on marine life amongst other things, it claims. Organisations with a marine interest, such as the New Plymouth Sport Fishing and Underwater Club and Raglan Sport Fishing Club, also made submissions opposing TTR’s plans. But Eggers stresses the project will have a “relatively small” environmental impact, involving areas of only about 0.27 square kilometres (900 metres by 300 metres) mined at any one time. He also told Q&M that since October 2013 the company has spent about $18 million so far on its two EPA applications. The country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) marine consent process is “complex and expensive; being an adversarial process makes it very costly”, he adds. While it is difficult to compare our marine consent process with other national or state jurisdictions, he says this country “is at the upper end of the scale”. When asked if TTR will have a third go if it’s knocked back again by the EPA, Eggers declines a straight answer. “We are totally focused on delivering the required information to EPA and all stakeholders to have our marine consent approved in the second quarter 2017,” he iterates. “We are certainly not going to wreck the environment and we believe the responsible development of natural resources is good for everyone.” James Stevenson-Wallace, the general manager of MBIE’s energy and resources division, agrees. He told the EPA that the iron sands are a “world class resource” which the ministry wants developed. “Since the mid-2000s there has been an increase of interest in exploring for offshore iron sand deposits along the Taranaki and Waikato coasts. There is ‘world interest’ in exploring those opportunities,” he told the four-man hearing panel. “We believe that granting TTR’s marine consent sends a positive signal to investors that will support New Zealand’s efforts to support foreign investment.” Q&M
The 75-tonne gold dredge was lifted out of the Clutha River at Three Beaches near Roxburgh and transported on heavy haulage equipment south to Beaumont, where it was re-launched into the river.
Clutha dredge moves on Recently, the 75-tonne gold dredge owned and operated by Cold Gold Clutha was winched from the Clutha River at Three Beaches near Roxburgh and transported south to Beaumont, where it was re-launched into the Clutha River. Cold Gold Clutha project manager, Peter Hall, says the dredge has worked out the old area of the river where it was originally operating but can’t say how long the dredge will operate at its new location, other than “for the foreseeable future”. Cold Gold Clutha gained Otago Regional Council consent in 2008, and launched operations just below the Roxburgh Dam in February 2012. Its consent allows it to operate for 10 years between Roxburgh and Tuapeka Mouth. The company has made many modifications to the dredge over the years. It was taken off the water in Ettrick in October 2012, as it was not finding enough gold, and was redesigned to be more efficient. It was relaunched in August 2013. The 24-metre suction dredge collects gold by sifting through dirt, gravel and sand, using steel buckets. It was built in Nelson over a period of 18 months, and was designed to suck up the gold left behind from the old dredging days. It started operating with a 300mm-wide suction pump capable of drawing up 30 cubic metres per hour. Q&M Q&M April - May 2017 33
M I N I N G
Aussie sniffing around old Otago prospects
Bathurst braces for court – again No-nonsense coalminer, Bathurst Resources, is preparing to do battle in the High Court again. PETER OWENS explains. Bathurst Resources is defending a writ issued out of the Wellington High Court Registry in late December 2016 filed by L&M Coal Holdings (LMCH). This writ claims Bathurst owes LMCH US$40 million ($57 million) in performance payments under the terms of various agreements by which Bathurst acquired from it a number of coal permits in the Buller region. LMCH was formerly owned by Kiwi interests, but now all its shares are held by a Hong Kong company. Bathurst is no longer listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, but is still listed on its Australian counterpart. When the exchange re-opened after Christmas, the company told it that it rejected the claim and stated its intention of defending the matter if it is called in the High Court. The company secretary, Jason Hungerford, in advising the exchange of the writ, as he is obliged to under the terms of Bathurst’s listing, says his company disputes any performance payments to LMCH. He says, under the terms of the agreements for sale and purchase and their amendments, as well as an associated Deed of Royalty, that so long as his company made the agreed royalty payments, then no performance payments were due for payment. Q&M
Left: Richard Tacon, CEO Bathurst Resources
34 www.quarryingandminingmag.co.nz Q&M
Melbourne-based New Age Exploration (NAE) has been sniffing around the old gold fields of Central Otago. The company has approval for two gold prospecting permits in Otago; at Teviot near Roxburgh (which was heavily prospected during the 19th century), and the second at Mahinerangi not far from Lawrence, another traditional gold mining town. Both permits cover over 400 square kilometres each. The Mahinerangi site is not far from the famous Gabriel’s Gully Goldfield, where over half a million ounces of gold were recovered from 1861. According to NAE, the initial exploration programme will start soon. This will be directed by Dr Douglas MacKenzie, a teaching and research fellow of the University of Otago’s Geology Department, who also conducted the previous exploration for NAE. His team’s fieldwork will concentrate on soil sampling and geological mapping to identify drilling targets. Recent research by the university has identified what it says is a “mirror image” geological setting in the south of the Otago schist belt – and within the areas permitted to NAE. It suggests this southern geological setting reflects the same as that in the north of the belt where, just 60 kilometres away, OceanaGold’s Macraes Mine has yielded about 4.3 million ounces of gold in the past 26 years. NAE will be the first to explore this southern schist belt and if tests confirm the presence of gold, a further application will be lodged to drill for gold with New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals. By Peter Owens.
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Silica harvested from geothermal waste Australian company Environmetals (EVM) is investigating the feasibility (including production costs) of producing commercial silica from geothermal power generation. Environmetals has operated two pilot plants here and one in Japan aimed at recovering marketable amounts of colloidal silica. The Kiwi pilot plant was based on the Contact Energy Wairakei geothermal field from February 2014 to September 2015 and processed over 25,000 tonnes of geothermal fluid from the feed stream of the binary power station. More importantly, it also produced more than one tonne of colloidal silica that was shipped as samples to potential customers here and in Japan and England. Reports indicate that these samples were well received. While the Wairakei plant was closed in September 2015 another pilot plant was operated at the Norske Skog pulp and paper mill site on the Kawerau geothermal field. Environmetals says trials will continue at Kawerau on various fluid streams over the next few months to provide data for final design of the proposed first commercial-scale plant treating 5000 tonnes per day of geothermal fluid. These pilot plants have not gone unnoticed. In January 2015, Japan’s Geothermal Energy Research & Development (GERD) visited NZ to learn more about Environmetals’ silica extraction technology. In October last year GERD applied to its government for an Environmetals trial extraction plant at the Kakkonda power station in Japan. The board of Environmetals is well-known in the Australian and New Zealand minerals industry. The chairman is Bill Turner who ran several successful mining companies in Australia and Africa. Another Australian director, Peter Bradford, manages the big Perth-based miner Independence Group NL and has run, or helped manage, other companies in Australia, Canada and Africa, while a third director is Adam Peren who has had 30 years’ involvement in NZ’s financial markets. John Lea, a New Zealander and the managing director of Environmetals, is also a chemical engineer. By Peter Owens. Q&M
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U P F R O N T
Aggregate News AGGREGATE & QUARRY ASSOCIATION OF NZ
Just part of what quarries do – spraying exiting truck loads of aggregate with water is just one of the measures taken to reduce dust.
Rain, dust and BANANAs
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s I write parts of the upper North Island are recovering from some of the worst flooding in recent memory. It again brings to mind just how important good infrastructure like stormwater and durable roads are to New Zealand – and the role our industry plays in providing for that. I guess I’m feeling a bit miffed that sometimes, this is not recognised. It’s sparked by concerns around respirable crystalline silica dust – and that’s a valid concern which we take seriously in our industry on behalf of our workers. But our redoubtable European quarry colleague Jim O’Brien has advised us, he knows of no case of respirable crystalline silica reaching to and over a quarry boundary in sufficient volumes to cause a neighbour any issues. And Europe is only just now moving to confirm the same maximum level of workplace acceptable RCS as New Zealand has in place. Admittedly, the Europeans are probably en route to halving that level over the next decade but the point is, they are not tardy on these issues. For ECAN to ban any dust – whether with respirable crystalline silica in it or not – just defies logic. Not just quarries but all and every industry that turns over a piece of ground will be affected. It’s an example of some of the BANANA attitudes we see in our sector; Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody. As well 36 www.aqa.org.nz
as covering the ECAN ban this edition looks (page 37) at the astronomical cost of getting a resource consent for a quarry and the gradual push of our industry out of urban areas. We also report (page 36) on the AQA/ IoQNZ’s efforts to get some rapidly moving solutions in place before the serious issues with CoC exam failure rates Brian Roche become a crisis. And we preview our 2017 QuarryNZ conference in Auckland which promises to be a cracker. Among other things, we’re inviting the politicians to come and front us as well has providing you with plenty of CPD hours. And on a final note regarding oral exams, we would do well to remember that it is up to those of us who are the employer, to be sure that the candidate we are putting up in front of an Oral exam has the knowledge required to pass. You can’t delegate your responsibility on that even if you think you have paid a trainer enough to take them through. It is not the trainer sitting in front of the examination panel! Stay safe – and dry Brian Roche AQA chair.
Dust ban would dust bin much economic activity In early March, a collective media statement headlined “Quarries under closer scrutiny” was issued by the Canterbury District Health Board, regional council (Environment Canterbury – ECAN) and the Christchurch City Council.
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he statement outlined a new comprehensive air monitoring programme being set up for quarries in Yaldhurst, on Christchurch’s urban fringe. The monitoring was sparked by some Yaldhurst residents raising health concerns about dust from the quarries, with some initial results showing some mined silica in the dust. (Respirable crystalline silica (RCS) is a known cause
Brian Roche says the quarry industry is very willing to share its scientific advice on silica dust issues and to work with local authorities to address any consent issues which may arise from dust control at any quarry. Mr Roche says dust is a factor in quarry operations around the country and quarries work with their local authorities and neighbours to have best practice controls
of lung and other health issues. Some years ago the acceptable workplace level of respirable crystalline silica was halved.) The DHB said while no resident had shown abnormal lung function tests, some had been suffering with symptoms consistent with mined silica exposure. The DHB said it was important to ensure that any dangerous exposure to mined silica dust was dealt with by quarry companies. ECAN then took things to an entirely different level, announcing it will now consider “any dust beyond the boundary as offensive and objectionable given the new information about the potential health risk of the dust.” After discussion around the AQA board, the following media release was prepared. The Aggregate and Quarry Association says if Environment Canterbury implements a new ‘no tolerance’ ban on any dust beyond quarry boundaries it could end a whole range of land-based activities. The AQA represents more than 80% of New Zealand’s registered quarries and chair Brian Roche says its members take the health issues presented by potential exposure to higher levels of respirable crystalline silica dust seriously. That said, the AQA chair was not aware of any particular or pressing issues. ECAN, the Canterbury DHB and Christchurch City Council have jointly announced a new comprehensive air monitoring programme around Yaldhurst quarries given concerns from residents about potential exposure to mined silica dust.
including spraying water over truckloads of aggregate leaving a quarry, wheel baths and planting shelter belts. “We acknowledge that silica dust at certain levels can present risks to staff working at quarries. Many quarries, particularly larger operators, conduct regular health and respiratory monitoring of their staff and I’ve not been made aware of any particular, pressing health concerns. “Our European quarry colleagues who take a firm line on these things advise there is usually minimal risk if any health effects of any fugitive dust on neighbours.” Mr Roche says the New Zealand workplace standard is for respirable crystalline silica to be below 0.1 milligrams per cubic metre of air volume over an 8 hour average. “If there is any evidence of that level being exceeded and either a quarry worker or neighbour being exposed, we’d expect
authorities to respond.” “However, for ECAN to now announce a ‘no tolerance’ approach to any dust beyond a quarry boundary just beggars belief.” “Quarries are like other land-based activities including farming, sub-divisions, forestry and road works. When a howling nor-wester blows, you will have some dust no matter what controls you put in place. Whether there’s any respirable crystalline silica in it is another matter; such finer particulate levels get naturally diluted outside the quarry.” Mr Roche says if ECAN’s ‘no dust beyond the boundary’ edict prevails, it won’t just be quarries that are unnecessarily shut down. “Farmers won’t be able to farm if there’s ever any dust caused. Canterbury’s building programme will draw to a halt because earthworks inevitably create some dust. ECAN itself will have to stop river protection work because there’ll be some dust in extracting the rocks and later repositioning some of them on river banks.” Brian Roche says the quarry industry accepts some neighbours may perceive there to be issues with higher than acceptable dust levels and particular
concerns about the amount of any crystalline silica in the dust. “We are more than happy to work to address such concerns but an overnight blanket ban risks on any dust is going Europeans match NZ limit on silica – for nowto have enormous unnecessary consequences for Members of the European Union are aggregate producers group. That said, our economy and society if it is allowed not known for dragging their heels on the commissions view, likely to be to stand.” health and safety issues. endorsed by the European Parliament The European Commission has as a whole, gives a 10 year period for recently agreed to set 0.1 milligrams of further assessment before a review respirable crystalline silica in a cubic at 5 years which may halve the RCS metre of air as the binding exposure limit to 0.05mg. The aggregates limit, given the health risks posed by industry in Europe and in the USA higher levels. This is New Zealand’s believes that such a proposed low current limit and has been accepted level limit of exposure is unnecessary and endorsed by UEPG, the European and technically and economically
www.aqa.org.nz April - May 2017 37
Aggregate News
WorkSafe’s Mark Pizey wants to work with quarry operators – or at least those who are actively trying to get their CoCs.
CoC failure rates – where things head from here Everyone in the quarry industry must now be acutely aware of the very high level of failure rates with B grade oral exams and the emerging consequences for quarry operations.
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n recent weeks, as well as industry media coverage, the agreed that the causes of failure are complex and there is not 60% failure rates have been covered by Radio NZ in a story one simple solution. Action points emerging from the meeting headlined Quarry-supervisors-failing-industry-exam. The story included: reported WorkSafe Chief Inspector (High Hazards Unit) Mark • A request for moderation of the panel conducting the oral Pizey as saying that he had already told quarries they would not examinations, to ensure consistency and uniformity. be closed down immediately if a manager failed an oral exam. • The AQA and IOQ agreed to seek from oral exam candidates He said he was cutting the industry some slack where it showed some of the questions they were asked, so that a bank it was trying to get it right but “only where there is evidence of of questions can be created and used for training future the fact that they are in training and they are awaiting an oral candidates. Please respond to AQA’s survey by emailing examination and where the risk is such we are prepared to accept questions from 2016/17 oral exams to office@aqa.org.nz that that level of competence is adequate,” he said. • Mock oral examination courses to be organised so candidates “If you are not in the enter an oral exam room Please respond to AQA’s survey by emailing questions from process you will not be knowing what to expect. 2016/17 oral exams to office@aqa.org.nz allowed to operate that quarry • WorkSafe to develop a better and you will need to appoint somebody who does have the Certificate of Competence.” WorkSafe was issuing an improvement notice which gave managers up to three months to sit, or re-sit, the B grade exam. Some commentary in that Radio NZ story was also disappointing, with a union spokesman claiming the quarry industry was determined to avoid any regulation. AQA CEO Roger Parton responded, saying nothing could be further from the truth. “ What is true is that the quarry industry did not want to be included in the rushed mining laws that followed the Pike River disaster. Sorry, but given the last underground coal mine is now closing this year, we were right to say we did not need our guys wading through laws which referred to issues like methane which don’t exist in quarries; we wanted and still want quarry-specific regulations.” Meanwhile, questions about the failure rates, their causes and implications were asked by Members of Parliament at a select committee meeting with WorkSafe. Recognising these issues, a special meeting was called by the AQA and IoQNZ in February and also attended by WorkSafe’s Chief Inspector (High Hazards Unit) Mark Pizey. There was a wide ranging discussion and it was generally 38 www.aqa.org.nz
letter to applicants who have Not Yet Qualified asking if they want to resit the oral examination or have their results obtained so far to go to the Board of Examiners. In this instance, the BoE make a decision and any resit as a result requires a new application with Police check and payment of a fee. • WorkSafe to advise if documents and books (such as Good Practice Guide) are allowed into the examination for the candidate to refer to. • Mismatches between the questions asked in oral exams and the content of training received by the candidates are to be addressed so training provides the correct and complete information for candidates to pass the oral exam. • The industry agreed as a matter of some urgency to review all unit standards required for the CoCs including development of a standard for quarry management • A need to develop a Site Specific CoC as already provided for in the Regulations was promoted as an interim solution pending a fuller review of CoC requirements. There is also a proposal emerging from WorkSafe, supported by MinEx, AQA and IOQNZ to develop a comprehensive set of regional forums focused on CoC issues. These would be similar
The sky is the limit when it comes to the costs faced on consenting quarries – or importing material into Auckland.
Astronomical costs emerging
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n January, the AQA called on New Zealand’s politicians to take note of the increasing costs being imposed on the economy by the gradual push of quarries from urban areas. Radio NZ did a follow-up article – Warning over moving quarries from urban areas – which said access to aggregate resources was worst in Auckland and quarries wanted the Government to step in before they are pushed out. AQA Technical Committee chair Stacy Goldsworthy was interviewed, saying that despite Auckland’s ramp-up in civil engineering projects over the last couple of years there had were fewer quarries and a lot more aggregates being shipped in from further away. Stacy said a lot of cost increases were emerging for ratepayers and other consumers and these would continue to rise without change. Radio NZ reported AQA figures that 28 tonnes of basic aggregate costs $406 at the quarry gate and $821 once carted 30km away, and over $1000 at 60km. It said Auckland’s expansion blueprint, the unitary plan, allows for more than 100,000 new houses to be built in the surrounding countryside. AQA chair Brian Roche said councils
and courts were too ready to shut down quarries or make it hard to open them near where anyone lived. Auckland councillor Chris Darby who chairs the city’s planning committee said the Auckland council was well across this: It had made the rules clear for quarries and were putting in buffer zones so housing did not encroach. He said the industry had not lodged any court appeals about the 18 quarry zones outside the rural boundary and one inside, as set by the Unitary Plan, or against the regional policy on mineral extraction. “We’ve been working very closely with the industry and the owners of the quarries for quite a few years now .We have also gone so far as identifying key transport roads for quarries to the Auckland markets. You have got to get it there by a significant number of trucking movements on roads that can handle those.” Brian Roche said he had seen nothing since the Auckland Unitary Plan came in last year to convince him that the Auckland Council understood quarries’ issues. No AQA board member was aware of the Auckland council having identified ‘key transport roads for quarries.’ Board
members commented on ‘astronomical’ costs faced in getting quarries consented and not just in Auckland. George Kelcher said Road Metals’ consent for its Rolleston quarry south of Christchurch took approximately five years and cost in the vicinity of $2.5 m. This did not include any of Road Metal’s staff time or costs incurred in purchasing and holding the land for that period or extra land to insulate it against further perceived effects becoming an issue. These all added to the cost of a tonne of product out the gate. Economic Development Minister, Simon Bridges, told Radio NZ that the issue of quarries in urban areas was complex. “There is a tension between needing land to open up for housing and keeping quarries in close proximity to urban areas to keep prices for raw materials down.”. He said the quarry industry could make submissions on proposed law changes around streamlining large projects around urban areas. A $4 million, four year governmentfunded study into the quality and quantity of aggregate, and the demand for it across New Zealand, was due to finish next year, and would also help with making policy. However, Brian Roche said that www.aqa.org.nz April - May 2017 39
Aggregate News
Lock 2017 conference in your calendar
In the quarry sector, the words ‘bigger and better’ usually refer to machinery’; this year it applies to our annual conference. The 2017 conference – from Eruption to Construction – is being held at Auckland’s ANZ Events Centre on Viaduct Harbour from Wednesday July 19 to the gala finish on Friday night, July 21. Registrations will open shortly – and conference organisers are confident they’ll match or exceed your expectations as set by previous years. As attendees at last year’s excellent conference in Marlborough will recall, CPD hours are now a particularly important feature of the Quarry NZ conference. New Certificates of Competence (CoCs) are required to be held by anyone managing a quarry or mine. New A Grade managers annually need at least 24 hours per year of CPD (16 hours formal minimum/ 8 hours maximum informal) and B Grade Quarry CoCs require 12 hours minimum per year (8 hours formal min / 4 hours
Les Ward and Roger Mahan at QuarryNZ 2016.
max informal.) Attendees at the QuarryNZ conference will receive four hours formal CPD hours for conference itself. The format is also being rejigged to allow more formal learning hours to be claimed. This recognises that the quarry sector is built around a range of sites, large and small, urban and sometimes remote rural, making it difficult to get to other events which are regarded as part of CPD hours. Workshops on a range of CPD topics will be available at the conference starting from the morning of Wednesday July 19. The AGMs of the AQA and IOQNZ will also be held that day and these also qualify for CPD hours. By attending all workshops, the conference and both AQA and IOQ Agm’s, delegates can obtain
Mainland grip on MIMICO Awards up for challenge
Can the North Island get a look in this year to the MIMICO Environmental Excellence Awards? Last year’s prestigious awards saw a clean sweep by Canterbury quarries.
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IMICO awards judge, former Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Morgan Williams gave Gold to Isaac Construction for the ultimate legacy project at its McLeans Island quarry on Christchurch’s northern outskirts. Silver awards went to Canterbury Aggregates for its commitment to handover its Amberley Beach Quarry as a future community asset, and to Fulton Hogan Miners Road quarry for leadership in environmental policy and sustainability practice.
Dr Williams said the standout feature of last year’s winners is they all fully integrated environmental management goals into their operations, not as add-ons. He would appreciate early Registrations of Interest to office@aqa.org.nz so he can schedule visits. It’s easy to enter – just email as above and complete the entry form when received, getting your General Manager to sign off. The winners will be announced at the 2017QuarryNZ conference in Auckland.
If you need any advice or help on preparing an entry, contact Brendon Burns, Communications Advisor, AQA on 0274 305501 or comms@aqa.org.nz . All entries must be received by Thursday 25 May 2017, and posted to:
CEO, AQA, PO Box 32019, Maungaraki LOWER HUTT 5050. Or by courier to: 11 Wisteria Grove, Maungaraki LOWER HUTT 5010
The Aggregate & Quarry Association appreciates the support of our associate members
40 www.aqa.org.nz
AQA Board Chair
Review of MinEx
Brian Roche, Ravensdown
A strategic review of the Mining/Extractives Health and Safety Council – MinEx – was held in Auckland in mid-February, attended by more than 20 quarry and mining sector representatives. At the start, Stevensons Group stated that allowing for a 12 month transition, it would only provide funds to a single, peak, extractive sector organisation organisation to include Straterra, MinEx AQA and IoQNZ. Earlier, Stevensons had told the AQA and IOQ AGMs at last year’s QuarryNZ conference that it wanted progress on bringing the two organisations together within a year. Stevenson’s contribution to the MinEx strategic review was essentially beyond the scope of the meeting’s objectives, but provided a strong steer that supported the main objective of the review – can the Extractive Sector agree to work together through a single entity, and on H&S issues via MinEx on an interim basis? There was agreement by MinEx to produce an updated business plan that includes the outputs / achievements the meeting identified as important. This work is underway. There was considerable consensus at the review meeting to continue to work together and to support MinEx, as companies and as sectors to strengthen its effectiveness in health and safety. There was also a strong recognition of the importance of higher level / CEO representation around the MinEx board table.
Deputy Chair Jayden Ellis,
Stevensons Construction Materials
Board Members Andrea Cave
Winstone Aggregates
Mike Higgins J Swap
Tony Hunter Blackhead Quarries
George Kelcher Road Metals
Bruce Taylor Fulton Hogan
Brett Swain Southern Screenworks
TECHNICAL ISSUES FOR AQA MEMBERS
Technical Committee
M/4 & Quarry Accreditation
Stacy Goldsworthy
•T he M/4 statistical acceptance and quarry accreditation program has not made much progress in the last couple of months. • The working group are meeting at the end of March to finalise the parameters of M/4 acceptance, the requirements for quarry accreditation and the content of training material. • AQA will provide details to members as soon as they are available. • Opus are working on the training package to be rolled out in 2017.
Chair
Green Vision Recycling
Greg Arnold Road Science
Jayden Ellis Stevensons Construction Materials
Alan Stevens Civil Contractors
Marginal Aggregates
•T he Aggregates Inventory Group have started looking at the cost/benefit of using marginal aggregates on low volume roads. AQA are assisting and will report back to members.
David Morgan
Safer Roads International Conference, Auckland, May 2017
Fulton Hogan
•S tacy Goldsworthy (Chair AQA Technical Committee) and Mike Chilton are presenting to the conference next year • The Safer Roads conference committee are looking for a model crusher display, video or similar to explain the crushing process to delegates as part of the trade display. If you can help, please contact tech@aqa.org.nz
Ethylene Glycol testing
•T he AQA Technical Committee is meeting with NZTA in late March to finalise the test method, work through results and implications so the test can be widely disseminated and proficiency studies can be started. • No results have come through yet on the South Island aggregates that were sampled in October and November. • The finalised test method has not been published yet. NZTA are moving forward with the draft test method.
Alkali-Silica Reaction (ASR)
•C CANZ have just started a new research project looking at detrimental alkali levels of aggregates used in concrete. www.aqa.org.nz April - May 2017 41
GBC Winstone
Clare Dring Cobus van Vuuren GBC Winstone
Aggregate & Quarry Association of NZ PO Box 32 019, Maungaraki, Lower Hutt, 5050 Chief Executive Roger Parton tel 04 568 9123 fax 04 568 2780 email office@aqa.org.nz web www.aqa.org.nz
I N N O V A T I O N S
Sticky feed stock challenger Mimico has recently completed the installation of a scalping screen at Graymont’s Oparure Quarry, near Te Kuiti. The Oparure Quarry is the country’s largest single lime quarry. It sits on a 67-hectare site that is located on top of the rich Waitomo strata and produces exceptionally highgrade limestone for supply to Graymont’s Otorohanga and Te Kuiti plants. The quarries, which were previously owned by McDonald’s Lime and Taylor’s Lime, were purchased by Graymont in 2015 and the two companies united under the Graymont banner. The main driver behind having the screen installed was to help the Oparure operation recover usable product from what was previously waste primary scalp product. A refurbished Svedala VFS screen was supplied, with special design considerations required due to the sticky nature of the limestone feed stock and the confined installation space. A screen bypass option was
designed into the screen structure, to enable rejection of high clay content feed stock. The screen was fitted with Trellex rubber media to help it handle the sticky feed stock. Special non-stick liners were installed in key transfer points and Metso Trellex belt scrapers used to provide superior cleaning of all conveyor
belts. Mimico, the distributor of Metso and Trellex equipment, provided the product expertise and refurbished screen, while the Mimico Engineering division (previously QMI Engineering) designed and fabricated the screen structure, conveyors and all chute work. Q&M
Canvas seat covers A range of seat covers called Tradies, designed especially to protect utes and vans, has been launched here through distributor Griffiths Equipment. “The popularity of utes has sky-rocketed in recent years and many of them are purchased as working vehicles, so we have sourced a range of seat covers that provide maximum protection to withstand the hard life they will be subjected to,” says Tim Paterson, national sales manager for Griffiths Equipment. The Tradies seat covers are manufactured
from hard-wearing, heavy-duty waterproof polyester canvas and are said to be rip and tear resistant, and provide a great barrier against the spills, mud, grease and grime that come with a tough working life, adds Tim. All seat covers are tailor made for front and rear seats (where fitted), and they are guaranteed to suit the vehicle they are purchased for. All Tradies seat covers are sold with a five-year guarantee against faulty materials and workmanship. Further information: www. griffithsequipment.co.nz. Q&M
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PERSPECTIVES 2017
A balance of value and performance
Hitachi ZW-5 wheel loaders hit NZ
Wellington – the resilience question The Water Debate – Malcolm Alexander
Silica mining in focus
INSIDE:
Quarries old and new contributing to concrete
Working together for women – Fulton Hogan steps up Stretching bottlenecks – Auckland’s southern motorway Slip lessons in Northland – a tricky repair underway Killing us softly with H&S – a veteran’s personal view
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Maximising technology use
Latest research into improved pavement maintenance INCORPORATING
Persistence brings rewards
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Meeting customer needs
A new Hyundai R145CR-9 excavator shows off its versatility at Atlas Concrete
Bathurst Resources becomes our coal king
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A state-of-the-art quarry A look inside the re-opened Miners Road Quarry NZ LOCAL GOVERNMENT MAGAZINE PERSPECTIVES 2017
Silica – the new Southland coal Another look at the potential of our vast silica reserves
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Seabed mining round two heats up
VOL 54 • APRIL 2017 • $8.95
Trans-Tasman Resources remains determined Volume 13 - No 6| December 2016 - January 2017 | $8.95
Screening with brute power
TIPPING
The new Sandvik QE441 is Porter Group’s latest addition to its premium range of mobile scalping screens.
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Talking rubbish Council or private collection? p20
BRIBERY & CORRUPTION Recent cases highlight concerns p28
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SHEDDING NEW LIGHT
BUSTING OUT THE MOVES
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
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