Q&M Oct-Nov 2014

NEW ZEALAND QUARRYING & MINING Volume 11 - No 5 | October - November 2014 | $8.95

NEW TRUCK ON THE BLOCK

Waikato Quarries’ upgrade to a new Cat 77OG, has resulted in significant fuel savings

RECYCLING ASPHALT Talking with Canadian expert Susan Tighe

NEW MINING REGULATIONS IN PERSPECTIVE Reviewing health and safety management for extraction

HUGE IRONSANDS EXPANSION Two new projects on Waikato’s remote west coast

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Waikato & Coromandel James West 029 299 8909

Christchurch City Nick Worthington 021 979 826

Rotorua & Bay of Plenty Shayne Kennedy 029 200 7270

Canterbury James Lundy 029 208 0423

Central North Island Shayne Kennedy 029 200 7270

Otago & Southland Brent Duncan 029 222 4682

Taranaki, Manawatu & Wellington Carl Southee 021 981 850

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C O N T E N T S

NEW ZEALAND QUARRYING & MINING Volume 11 - No 5 | October - November 2014 | $8.95

INSIDE UPFRONT

16

2 Editorial 4-10 News, views, comments, and reports from across the quarrying and mining sectors FEATURES

12 Mining – Newmont praises consenting process 16 Quarrying – Hard rock, tricky blasting 20 Profile – Dr Susan Tighe 22 Mining – New mining regulations in perspective 26 Mining – Huge ironsands expansion 28 Machinery – Monster for Huntly coalmine 30 Technology – Crushing big time 32 Wheels in the workplace – Ford Ranger Wildtrak 4WD 34 Health & Safety – Quarry managers must be qualified 38 Politics – Local councils want royalty share

22

COMMENT

36 Netta Burnside – What happened to self-preservation ON THE COVER

14 New truck on the block – Cat 77OG WRAP UP

28

40 Innovations 40 Advertisers’ Index ON THE COVER: After only a couple of months, Waikato Quarries has made significant fuel savings by upgrading to new Cat 770G. See story page 14

30 Q&M October - November 2014 1

NEW ZEALAND QUARRYING & MINING

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

A safer place to live please We are all for health and safety here at Contrafed so please read Netta Burnside’s comment with a grain of salt, as the old folks used to say, or don’t take it too literally.

Netta may have written tongue-in-cheek but many of us share her view that when it comes to health and safety issues we don’t want a remedy (or a new industry) that makes the workplace impossible to function.

I have said this before: our workplace safety issues are really cultural issues and we are not a risk averse culture. You only have to look at ACC stats to see we are, by nature, a reckless lot. It is not going to make us less reckless by just concentrating on the workplace. I personally think there is now a general lack of discipline in our society created through a quixotical pursuit of libertarian rights and political correctness. We are becoming a ‘fool’s paradise’.

Our tolerance of youthful drunkenness and boorish delinquency under the Bill of Rights, for instance, just makes a mockery of expecting the same folks to turn up at work and behave themselves.

On a more industry focus we have two perspectives in this issue on new regulations that came into force in December last year. Les McCracken, CEO of MinEx – the Mining Industry Safety Council, covers mining under those these regulations, while Andy Loader looks at them from a quarrying perspective.

Les also answers a couple of questions I proposed in my last editorial on recorded quarry accidents. As he explains in his piece, his statistics were obtained by the AQA from MBIE in May of 2013.

“I think that the debate around the statistics presented demonstrates that some operators in the mining and quarry sectors need to examine their own commitment to the health and safety of their employees,” he says.

“The take-home message is that we as a sector have work to do to improve our performance in health and safety to meet both New Zealand industry and mining and quarrying industry goals: a reduction of workplace deaths to zero by 2020; and a 25 percent reduction in workplace serious injury rates by 2020.”

Fair enough, and wouldn’t that be a great mission for the country as a whole?

Meantime, if any of you readers would like to contribute a comment piece for this magzine, please don’t hesitate to contact me and talk it over. We are always looking for reflections on our industry.

Keep on digging for a better future.

Alan Titchall, 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: 021411 890 Email: charles@contrafed.co.nz REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS

Hugh de Lacy, Lindsay Clark, Netta Burnside, and Gavin Riley ADMINISTRATION/SUBSCRIPTIONS

Email: admin@contrafed.co.nz DDI: 09 636 5715 PRODUCTION

Design: Tracey Asher, TMA Design Printing: Client Focused Solutions Ltd 027 255 1818 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.

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 ISSN 0110-1382

2 October - November 2014 Q&M

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U P F R O N T

LETTER Congratulations to Higgins I have just read the Q&M August/September issue and I’d like to respond to one article. That article was the Gold for wetlands project – the Mimico Environmental Awards that went to Higgins Baldwin Quarry in the Waikato.

First, on behalf of the National Wetland Trust of NZ, our congratulations to Higgins for their initiatives and great to see acknowledgement for the work done.

Second, it again emphasises the role constructed wetlands can play in treating waters from an industrial site, prior to discharge plus adding character and economic value to a working site.

The Wetland Trust is endeavouring to promote the benefits of wetland conservation throughout NZ and in particular to promote the many environmental and social services wetlands can provide.

One of our key projects is the construction of a National Wetland

The Mimico Environmental Excellence Awards attracted four entries this year with a Gold going to Higgins Baldwin Quarry in the Waikato for its ‘voluntary’ initiative that improved the quality of water discharged from the quarry prior to its release into the Whangamarino Heritage Wetland – one of only six Ramsar (internationally recognised) wetlands in the country. This investment was shared between Baldwin Quarry, which spent $500,000 on the project, and the quarry’s neighbour, Peter Buckley and family, who donated several hectares of pasture and wetland land on their property for the project and spent another $100,000.

Centre on the shores of a much valued peat lake (Lake Rotopiko) in the central Waikato between Hamilton and Te Awamutu, off SH 3. This facility will expose visitors to the many and varied wetland

for water treatment. I’m sure they would also be very interested in

types within New Zealand and will tell the wetland stories around

being involved in the Mimico Environmental Awards.

cultural and recreational use of wetlands, biodiversity and of course wetland function.

There will be walks provided and we have already erected a

We would be keen to talk with any of your readers about participating in the National Wetland Centre project and contributing when we can to your magazine.

predator proof fence around the 14 hectare site, which will enable

Kind regards,

the introduction of species like brown teal, banded rail, even takahe

Tony Roxburgh, Chairman, National Wetland Trust and

and kiwi, all of which frequented wetland zones in earlier times.

Manager Community Facilities Waipa District Council.

Our Trustees are a diverse group including wetland scientists, researchers, planners and general practitioners. These people are available to advise on wetland issues including constructed wetland

• You can contact Tony on: tony.roxburgh@waipadc.govt.nz; ph 07 823 3800 or 027 599 9492.

Review of qualifications In 2016, current extractive National Certificates and Diplomas will be replaced by new qualifications, says MITO, the industry ITO. Over the past year, representatives from the mining and quarrying industry have worked with MITO to develop five proposed extractive certificates and diplomas.

The proposed qualifications have been designed to provide mining

• Diploma in Mining and Quarrying (Supervision) (Level 5) with strands in Surface Mining, Quarrying, Processing and Underground; • Diploma in Mining and Quarrying Management (Level 6).

Since the current qualifications were developed, the way the levels are determined and classified by NZQA has changed. This

and quarrying workers with a clear career and educational pathway,

is why there is no Level 2 qualification proposed, says MITO – the

recognising roles that align with the roles defined within Certificate

current Level 2 qualification requires similar skills to the proposed

of Competence requirements.

Level 3 qualification.

What’s changing?

What this means for current, past and future learners

There are currently 20 extractive National Certificates and

If you already have a National Certificate or Diploma, are

Diplomas. The five proposed NZ Certificates and Diplomas will

currently working towards one, or intend to train this year or

replace 19 of these (with the exception of the Certificate in

next – your qualification will be equally valid to a NZ Certificate or

Underground Mines Rescue, which is currently being reviewed). The

Diploma. From 2016 onwards, all new learners will be enrolled in

proposed qualifications are:

training programmes leading towards NZ Certificate or Diploma

• Certificate in Underground Mining (Operator) (Level 3);

qualifications.

• Certificate in Surface Mining, Quarrying, and Processing Operations (Level 3); • Certificate in Mining and Quarrying (First-line Supervision) (Level 4) with strands in Surface Mining, Quarrying, Processing and Underground; 4 October - November 2014 Q&M

• For more information: Visit MITO’s website at www.mito.org.nz/what-s-new. Consultation on the draft qualifications will be undertaken nationwide, later in the year.

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U P F R O N T

Blow to alluvial gold mining With gold hovering at $1300 per ounce and a consistently high Kiwi dollar, Montego Investments has pulled the plug on its Earnscleugh alluvial gold mine near Alexandra.

Geoff Loudon who is the sole director of Mintago Investments admits there is still gold to be mined at the site but the operation is currently unprofitable.

The closure of the mine is a major blow to the region as the mine employed 35 people in its 24-hour-per-day operation.

Mintago estimates it operations were worth $10 million to the local economy. About $3 million of that was spent in start-up costs.

The project began in 2009 with a planned projection of mining for seven years.

The mining operation was mining about 750 ounces per month and represented one of the largest alluvial gold operations in the country.

While the mine ceased operations last week, Mintago Investments will still be on site for about six months undertaking the task of restoring the 150 hectares it had leased in 2008. This is fulfilling one of the 132 conditions imposed by Otago Regional Council and Central Otago District Council on the resource consents, which required Mintago Investments to restore the land to agricultural grassland.

Ironically, Geoff Loudon says the costs of stripping the overburden at Earnscleugh had been one of the major reasons for closing the mine.

Southland’s silica In 2012 South African based Silicon Metal Industries indicated it was investigating mining silica in Southland at Pebbly Hills.

At that time, the company also estimated it would cost it about $300 million to build a silica smelter. However, it did not take it any further and there is little interest in Southland’s substantial and significant silica deposits. Geological investigation has revealed that Southland has an estimated 350,000450,000 tonnes of high-purity poly-silica. Most of this lies in the hilly country of Pebbly Hills near Hedgehope in Central Southland and the resource is accessible for mining and transport.

Steve Canny, projects manager of Venture Southland believes the Pebbly Hills deposits offer a unique regional opportunity and the poly-silica deposits at the reserve contain no boron or phosphorous, which means the mineral could be used in specialist production.

Canny says the commercial potential is on-going as the “green” energy market expands. By Peter Owens.

He says the mining company had been breaking even when it was processing 0.3 grams of gold per tonne of alluvial gravels.

However, it has become obvious that the mine would have to be excavated much deeper to extract gold, and that the extra costs of

H&S association launched

doing this made further operations uneconomic, given the costs of

The Health and Safety Association of New Zealand

stripping the extra overburden and the low price of gold.

(HASANZ) was launched last month – a new umbrella

The restoration of this land to pasture grade would take about six months and in the meantime, the dredge operated at Earnscleugh in the gold mining operation will be sold.

association for workplace health and safety professions.

Its founders say the Government’s ‘Working Safer’ package of reforms includes a commitment to set up a

Meantime, another of his companies, Nautilus Minerals, is

representative body and businesses need clarity on how

about to be engaged in the operation of seafloor mining in the

to deliver against the new accountabilities for workplace

Pacific. Nautilus is the first company to explore the ocean floor for

health and safety.

polymetallic seafloor massive sulphide deposits and was granted

“As an association of associations, HASANZ is a first

the first mining lease for such deposits at the prospect known as

point of contact for Government on workplace health

Solwara 1, in the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea.

and safety matters and the “go to place” for businesses

It will be the world’s first deep-sea mining project. The deposit

seeking support and advice,” says HASANZ and NZ

is a high grade copper-gold resource and deposits the world’s first

Occupational Hygiene Society representative, Suzanne

seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) resource. The company plans to

Broadbent.

grow its tenement holdings in the exclusive economic zones and

Tony Rigg, another HASANZ representative (and Institute

territorial waters of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, and the Solomon

of Safety Management national manager) says; “A step

Islands, Vanuatu and New Zealand as well as other areas outside the

change in workplace health and safety requires us to work

Western Pacific.

more collaboratively.”

After an arbitration hearing and award, the Papua New Guinea

A priority is improving access to quality advice for

Government has contributed 15 percent of the equity required for

businesses by creating an online register of competent

the Solwara operation. This amounts to $143 million and Nautilus

health and safety professionals, he adds. More information:

has already spent US$400 million on the project.

www.hasanz.org.nz.

6 October - November 2014 Q&M

Inaugural Hunter Coal Festival A new event has been created across the Ditch to bring community and the coal industry together in celebration of the mining sector.

The Hunter Coal Festival 2015, a two-week festival from March 12-29, celebrates the role and contribution of the mining industry to the Hunter Valley community.

Hunter Coal Festival chair Peter Eason says the event will include the inaugural Hunter Mining Show, a street parade, gala concerts, sporting events, school debates, information sessions and workshops, and an industry racing carnival. “We all understand the impacts of mining, but the achievements are often kept in the shade. The festival offers the opportunity for a loud shout out from the community – which is just the shot in the arm the industry needs right now.”

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This year’s guide highlights which mining operations are affected by the regulatory changes, new requirements, the enforcement of these new regulations, and key regulatory amendments.

Other relevant topics include the new requirements for safety critical roles, including site senior executives, managers, and electrical superintendents.

New emergency management requirements, such as an emergency management plan and new inter-agency emergency protocol, are also discussed.

You can obtain copies via: marketing@provisual.com.au or visit www.provisual.com.au.

Minerals environment award CRL Energy won the 2014 Minerals West Coast Environment Award presented at the 2014 Minerals West Coast’s annual conference in Greymouth.

The winning entry, The New Zealand Minerals sector environmental research and mine drainage decision-making framework, was submitted by CRL Energy, Landcare Research, and the Universities of Canterbury and Otago.

The other finalist was from OceanaGold: the Globe Progress mine restoration monitoring programme.

“This work showcases the advances that are being made in

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U P F R O N T

Battle of Saddle Hill continues The site of the earliest coal mine in New Zealand is the subject of an

the Taieri County from its then planning officer, but this cannot now

appeal by Saddle View Estates, which owns a controversial quarry

be found. A number of files were lost when the two local bodies

on Saddle Hill near Dunedin.

amalgamated.

Last year the Environment Court held that the company had no

Saddle Hill is a prominent landmark overlooking the northeastern

resource consent for quarrying the hump of Saddle Hill (known

end of the Taieri Plains in Otago, New Zealand. Within the limits

locally as Jaffray’s Hill) and that the company had never had any

of Dunedin city, it is located 18 kilometres to the west of the city

consent at any time.

centre, between Mosgiel and Green Island, and is clearly visible

This is the latest move in a dispute which has carried on for over

from many of the city’s southern hill suburbs. A lookout on the

50 years between Taieri County (now amalgamated with Dunedin

northern slopes of the hill commands a good view across the plains,

City,) the Dunedin City Council and the quarry owners.

with Lake Waihola visible 25 kilometres to the west in clear weather.

Saddle View Estates claims the Environment Court erred in 16 of

A small coal seam on the hill was exploited by early European

its findings and that it had not given the appropriate consideration of

settlers, and was mined from as early as 1849, the first coal mine

the evidence the company adduced in evidence before the court.

in the country. Jaffray’s Hill (often wrongly called Jeffrey’s Hill, and

It says there is reliable documentary evidence that it does have such a consent. The company is relying heavily on a 1966 letter to

named for the Jaffray family who owned the land from 1849 until 1937), was extensively mined for basalt gravel until the mid-1980s.

NTL closer to mining Talisman Gold Mines New Talisman Gold Mines (NTL) has crushed over 70 tonnes of ore from its Talisman mine with overage grades greater than an ounce (gold and silver) per ton.

Executive Director Matthew Hill says once sampling is complete the company will be in a position to ascertain the value of the first ore from Talisman in decades.

Meantime, NTL filed an application for an Extension of Land

using a cutoff grade of 0.3g/t and 258,419oz Ag. The company has applied for the EOL as a contiguous piece of land to the Talisman MP. This required successfully obtaining consent to overlap a small piece of land held by another mining company.

Rahu is an extension of the Talisman Vein system and NTL has completed some 2492 metres of drilling of the resource proving

(EOL) to incorporate the Rahu exploration permit into the Talisman

that mineralisation and alteration present at Rahu represent the

mining permit (MP51326) following a resource being declared

upper levels of and northern extension of the Talisman epithermal

over Rahu.

gold system. Most of the drilling has intersected broad zones of low

NTL says an independent report it commissioned indicated a resource of 2,394,573 tonnes at 0.54g/t gold for 41,591oz gold 8 October - November 2014 Q&M

medium grade Au and Ag mineralisation with narrower higher grade intervals, says the company.

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U P F R O N T

Future still bleak for Solid Energy Coal miner Solid Energy has suffered a sharp decline in its fortunes over the past two years and it fronted up the AusIMM conference in Hamilton a very changed outfit.

Tony King, Solid Energy’s chief development officer – strategy, planning and projects, describes the shrinking of the company’s staff by more than half in the past 15 months and its dropping of non-core activities as “a fairly radical change”.

King, who has rejoined the company after an earlier time as a Solid Energy executive, explained to the 2014 AusIMM conference that the significant downsizing (from 1700 staff in early 2013 to

(built in 2010) is by far the cheapest coming off the site. The

under 800 staff), followed a sharp drop in the past three years of

productive plant has had actual production 40 percent higher

coking coal export prices – which has been a major source of the

than projected. It has been a key to keeping Stockton open at

company’s income.

the current low prices.

Back in August 2011 the export coking price expressed in Kiwi

Still, Solid Energy was forced to announce just three months

dollars was between $340 and $360 a tonne. In the last six months

ago a significant downsizing of about half a million tonnes a year.

the price has only been around $130 a tonne.

“That is an extraordinary change in the price of what has been the single largest component of our business,” says King.

If just the last 12 months is examined, there has been a continuing decline in the spot price of coking coal from about $180

King says this is all about trying to finesse everything that they do at that site.

“We have to be thoughtful about which sites we work, which products we work, which customers we focus on and what shift rosters we work to maximise productivity.”

a tonne a year ago down to about $130 a tonne for the last six

Looking to coal’s future, King says international coal industry

months– that’s $50 a tonne on a couple of million tonnes of coal

analysts’ consensus of forecasts is for a steadily increasing trend

that Solid Energy has lost.

in coal spot prices to 2018 and 2019.

King says the company has successfully taken a lot of structural cost out of its principal export mine at Stockton.

“We have done a pretty good job of following that decline in price down. But we have really not been able to get ahead of it.”

The coal coming out of the $123 million wash plant at Stockton

But these forecasts would only mean a long-term real price rise of about $30 a tonne.

“The only conclusion we can draw is that the current range of prices is going to continue and we should cut our cloth to live with that.” By Lindsay Clark

Exploration permits granted for Canadian-based Lynx Platinum The Government granted exploration permits for Canadian-based

area, including conservation land as well as private property,”

Lynx Platinum to hold three exploration permits covering 355

he says.

square kilometres near Murchison, and two exploration permits covering 168 square kilometres north of Invercargill.

These permits last for five years and allows the company to explore for metallic minerals, including platinum group metals, gold, silver, copper, and aluminium.

Forest and Bird top of the south field officer Debs Martin reckons platinum mining produces large amounts of waste product and pollutes waterways.

She says the three permits that have been granted covered four key conservation areas and came concerningly close to Nelson

There has been no reaction from southern interests over

Lakes National Park. They include the Glenhope Scenic Reserve and

the Southland exploration permits in the Longwood Range, but

cross the Buller River, as well as an important braided section of the

there have been mixed reactions from local interests in the

Matakitaki River.

Tasman District to the Murchison permits. Tasman Mayor Richard

Meantime, Minister of Energy and Resources Simon Bridges

Kempthorne says, “We would want to make sure the exploration

told the Minerals West Coast forum that it was positive to see

was not adversely impacting on the area or the environment. If there

international companies entering the exploration market here.

is mining, substantial effects could occur, and we would need to

“These permits present an exciting opportunity for the Tasman and

ensure safeguards on how the mining operated.”

Southland regions.” The minerals sector already contributed more

Murchison and Districts Community Council chairman Simon Blakemore says he had been unaware of an exploration permit

than $1 billion to the country’s GDP, he adds.

Lynx says it will spend about $3 million in its first three years,

tender or any discussion in the community on it. “I imagine there will

which could rise to $7.5 million over five years if the first stages

be a bit of an uproar when people hear about it.” It covers a huge

of work were successful. By Peter Owens.

10 October - November 2014 Q&M

M I N I N G

Waihi gold facts (the gold keeps coming) • The two millionth ounce of gold to be extracted from Newmont Waihi’s opencast Martha gold mine in Waihi was poured two months ago.

• Newmont Waihi’s general manager Glen Grindlay told the AusIMM New Zealand Minerals Conference in Hamilton that Newmont is now investigating the possibility of mining the Martha Deeps underneath the pit bottom. Newmont has the consents to drive under the pit, but has not activated them.

• The opencast pit, which opened in the 1980s is due to finish mining by approximately March 2016. The Martha pit goes down 200 metres. But the oldtimers who ended underground mining in 1952, went down to 600 metres below the surface.

• Grindlay said it is not hard to extrapolate that there is another two and a half to three million ounces of gold in the Martha Deeps.

Newmont praises

consenting process

• “We have confidence in the resource. But how do you mine that safely? Safety is the number one issue.”

• Newmont Waihi’s main focus at present is developing its rich and never-before-mined Correnso underground ore body under some homes in Waihi East. The company has won consents to build the mine.

• US parent Newmont reportedly recently approved US$1 billion to fund the Correnso development. The investment attraction is Correnso’s high gold grades estimated in 2011 at 12 grams a tonne.

• The access tunnel to Correnso from the Trio mine, where ore mining will end soon, was driven earlier this year. Work has begun on drilling three Correnso development drives and a spiral decline.

• First ore production at Correnso will begin in mid 2015.

• Correnso is expected to produce approximately 600,000 ounces of gold and 700,000 ounces of silver in about six years to 2020.

12 October - November 2014 Q&M

The man who guided Newmont Gold’s successful environmental consent approval to mine for gold right under some Waihi homes has given “a bit of a ra-ra” for the RMA process at a mineral industry conference. BY LINDSAY CLARK

G

len Grindlay, Newmont Waihi Gold’s general manager, told the AusIMM minerals conference in Hamilton there shouldn’t be a negative perception about the country’s consenting process.

“We think the consenting can be obtained quite well,” he says.

“Consents can be a big elephant if you get it wrong. But any consent that gets knocked back is a blow for the industry.”

Newmont announced its plans to mine the newly discovered Correnso reef, which lies as close as 160 metres below some homes in Waihi East, some 10 months before lodging its application for environmental consents under the Resource Management Act. This, he says, was so the company could listen to what the community had to say. The entire process took just over two years until consents were approved.

“And we budgeted two years. From our experience they all take about two years.”

Newmont also managed to get the Correnso consents without going to the Environment Court.

“We got court assisted mediation for mining under a town. That was

a mighty achievement to get that done.”

Grindlay says the company had good reasons for listening to the public for a good period of time.

“When you put your application in you want to answer most people’s questions. It does make things a lot easier. We announced, then sat back and listened and learned how to communicate with people.

“Even though Newmont has been in Waihi for 25 years, we still did phone polls asking people what they would think if someone was going to mine under their home.”

Though under time pressures, Newmont still did a public hearing. “We feel we get a more binding agreement with the community. After all, we are asking people to mine under their home.

“It’s a good debate. The hearing lasts two or three weeks.

Everyone and their family can come in and listen to all the experts. Then it might continue on to mediation. The whole process took about seven months.”

Newmont also did demographic stuff and brought outside people in to bounce our ideas off.

“You have got to prepare well,” he says. “I feel responsible for the 400 jobs or so that are relying on these applications.”

Grindlay is a fourth generation miner and knows his people.

He was born on the Ohai coalfields in Southland, graduated as a mining engineer from the Otago School of Mines and has worked in metallurgical mines across Australia and the US. He has been in charge of the Waihi operations for eight years developing three underground deposits, Favona, Trio and now Correnso.

“We could have said, let’s go straight to Environment Court. But I felt we would always be worried about acceptance of the decision because the community wasn’t involved.

“I also feel that I am representing the industry,” says Grindlay.

“I feel that if we get a resource application rejected it is a knockback for the industry. So you have to put a lot of prep into these things.”

Newmont was under a lot of time pressure to obtain the consents, he adds.

“We had a mine closing. We had an underground work force of 140 people. It looked as though we might face a four month gap between finishing Trio and starting Correnso.

“At one stage we went to the boys and said you should stop buying boats and having big Christmas holidays because there is going to be a bit of a gap.”

The company had the choice to lodge straight into the Environment Court, thanks to new RMA reforms.

“We could have said, let’s go straight to Environment Court.

But I felt we would always be worried about acceptance of the decision because the community wasn’t involved.

“So I am saying the RMA process is fair. I think that public consultation is absolutely important. People’s understanding during the process goes up and you get a much better result.” Q&M

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Q&M October - November 2014 13

O N

T H E

C O V E R

New truck on the block

After only a couple of months, Waikato Quarries has made significant fuel savings by upgrading to new Cat 770G. By SASKIA SHELTON

T

he new Cat 770G is a purpose-built mining and heavy construction truck and one has been working at the Waingaro Road Quarry, managed by Perry Resources, for about two months, without a hint of taking strain.

“It’s probably the first machine I’ve had delivered in my career that has actually kept going without any problems,” says site manager Allan McDonald.

“We haven’t had to touch it and it’s done over 300 hours already.

I’ve been in mining for 20 odd years and it’s quite unusual that nothing has broken down yet.”

The Cat 770G replaces an earlier Cat 769 model and is just as rugged and dependable and now combined with new technology it’s capable of increasing productivity and decreasing fuel burn, says Gough Cat. The new Cat G Series mining and heavy construction trucks offer great fuel saving strategies, such as the Adaptive Economy Mode.

New for the G series, this feature requires a customer-set baseline for

14 October - November 2014 Q&M

production. As the truck goes through the haul cycle and can hold a steady state, it constantly evaluates opportunities to reduce power and save fuel against your baseline. It’s fully automatic with no special operation required.

The Auto Neutral Idle is another feature that saves fuel.

“When the truck is waiting for the loader or crusher, the transmission will automatically slip into a neutral state and as soon as the operator releases the brake or applies the throttle, the truck shifts instantly back into forward gear,” says Goughs’ national sales manager, Steve Templer.

Allan McDonald is impressed with the fuel savings so far. “After only having the truck for a couple of months we have already made a 20 percent saving on fuel consumption.”

With an updated traction control system, the Cat 770G performs exceptionally well, especially when the ground conditions aren’t perfect. The new system has a faster response time to wheel slip by using the hydraulic service brakes, reducing spin and tyre wear.

“As the truck goes through the haul cycle and can hold a steady state, it constantly evaluates opportunities to reduce power and save fuel against your baseline. It’s fully automatic with no special operation required.”

McDonald says the breaking system is a huge improvement on their previous Cat 769. “It’s easier to operate and a lot better on the tyres,” he says.

Caterpillar has updated some of the Cat 770G key features relating to control and comfort. The Automatic Retarder Control of this truck allows the operator to maintain optimum engine speeds for up to 15 percent faster downhill hauls and slope holding capability on grades up to 17 percent says Goughs. About this feature Perry Resources operations manager Paul Connor comments that, “The 770G’s automatic retarder system works very well and will extend brake life.”

This new Cat G Series truck has a centre cab, as opposed to the left cab of their previous model. Perrys opted to add cameras on the front for extra visibility and safety. McDonald is impressed with the controls in the cab.

“With the push of a button the operator is able to see where his tyres are.”

The comfort of the cab is enhanced with automatic temperature control, a Cat Comfort Series II seat with air suspension and excellent adjustability. There is little effort getting in and out of the cab with ample stand up room. On top of the noise reduction technology this makes for a very comfortable truck.

Perry Resources has its Cat machines on service agreements with the Gough Cat team who carry out all the maintenance and repairs when they are necessary. Along with the Cat 770G, Perrys also uses Cat loaders and excavators and has just acquired a new Cat 349DLME excavator.

The Cat 770G truck replaces a 769 that had done over 23,000 hours.

The fuel saving, improved cycle times and exceptional power have already impressed the Perry Resources’ team. With the service and back up received from Goughs, Perry Resources operations manager Paul Connor highly rates the package Goughs provides.

“Based on our experience over the past few years Gough Cat has ticked all the boxes,” he says. • Q&M October - November 2014 15

Drilling at Bombay and muckpile of a large column shot.

16 October - November 2014 Q&M

Q U A R R Y I N G

HARD ROCK,

tricky blasting A new blasting strategy at its Bombay quarry south of Auckland is paying substantial dividends for quarry operator Holcim. HUGH DE LACY explains.

C

utting blasting costs by 10 percent was just one of the benefits that explosives supplier and contractor Red Bull Powder was able to bring to Swiss multinational Holcim’s Bombay quarry, which supplies the Auckland market with roading and concreting aggregates.

Last year Holcim was having issues with its blasting at Bombay in relation to fly-rock, fragmentation, unfired explosives columns, blast response and vibration.

Red Bull had been talking to Holcim about the latter’s problems for some time before getting the call to come up with a revised blasting strategy.

Over a couple of weeks in August/September last year Red Bull formulated a draft plan, then sat down with Holcim to knock it into a working relationship that was “as much about getting a better result as it was about costs,” Red Bull’s technical manager, Nick Bastow, told Q&M. Commissioned in 1997, Bombay is one of the biggest quarries serving the Auckland market, with production running at around 60,000 tonnes a month and 700,000 tonnes a year.

Its resource consents include strict noise limits, which meant that a complaint by neighbours of low-frequency noise coming from the site’s five crushers required a swift response.

Panels of autoclaved aerated concrete and cement-wood fibre had to be installed as noise barriers, though they were able to be assembled in a way that allows easy removal for maintenance.

Noise and vibration are the particular concerns of neighbours, and they get to communicate them to Holcim by way of a community liaison group the company set up when the quarry first went into operation.

Specific responses to the community’s concerns about noise have included beepers being replaced by flashing lights on reversing machines, the screen into the vibrating feeder of the primary crusher being modified, and over-size rock-breaking technology, such as choke-feeding of the primary crusher, being implemented.

Some metal screens were replaced with plastic or rubber ones, and a loader, rather than a dump truck, is used to load the crusher bins.

Bombay differs from most of the other big Auckland quarries – the likes of Stevenson’s Drury quarry, and Winstone’s Hunua – in being of basalt rather than greywacke.

Basalt requires a higher powder factor in explosive charges than does greywacke, and the 200-hectare Bombay site is further complicated by a mix of columnar, plate and scoriaceous rock and clay within the deposit.

“We have to adjust the blast patterns and powder factors between the two,” Bristow says.

“For this site we took a technical approach to blasting with significant emphasis on blast design, particularly in regards to vibration control.

“At Bombay this involves blast-specific timing plans and identifying the maximum instantaneous charge by the number of holes firing per delay.

“We then relate this to site-specific rock constants that define the vibration response.”

The first signature blasts allowed Red Bull to carry out vibration studies to define the most appropriate timing options and delays, and to optimise fragmentation.

Q&M October - November 2014 17

Q U A R R Y I N G

Red Bull Plant and bulk truck, or Mobile Mixing Unit (MMU) – a 10 tonne delivery capacity and the ability to blend a range of products on the quarry bench.

A strong emphasis on safety ensured that all product was fired with no fly-rock.

Red Bull used face-profiling – laser scanning – for accurate mark-out and hole placement, following it up with video analysis of all blasts to identify any issues.

The explosive used was Red Bull’s high-energy, highperformance RedStar Bulk Emulsion, and electronic detonators ensured greater accuracy of the blast timing options.

This allowed the blasting team to fire bigger shots when space was available, helping to solve the over-size issues, with fewer overlaps and more flexibility in blast timing.

The net result was about a 10 percent reduction in drilling and blasting costs, attributable to an increased blast pattern from Red Bull’s high-energy emulsion and efficient use of the explosives.

“While that was a positive, it was not the main intent of the exercise,” Bastow says.

“Instead, one of the biggest side-benefits of the new blasting strategy has been the estimated 50 percent reduction in over-size rock from the column rock shots.

“This has halved the usual incidence to about 10 percent of the total material blasted.”

This increased the quarry’s production, with less product going to waste, and also increased digability and crusher throughput.

Other benefits are the improved site Relative Effective Efficiency (REE), and also better structure and communication between client and contractor, resulting in more streamlined operations, more emphasis on vibration control and a reduced average vibration rate.

The latter is an important factor in the quarry’s community relations, with the terms of the resource consent setting a 18 October - November 2014 Q&M

maximum vibration (peak particle velocity, or PPV) of 5mm per second for 95 percent of the time.

The current site maximum designed vibration is 3.5mm a second.

To date the average PPV is 1.35mm a second across all monitoring locations for all Red Bull shots on site – well below the consented limits.

With a client base stretching from the Auckland Harbour Bridge to Pokeno, the Bombay quarry, which opened a second pit in 2008-2009, employs about 20 full-time staff to run the five rock-crushers, the Caterpillar 374 that is the main excavator, a couple of 41-tonne Caterpillar 771 dump-trucks, and a range of supplementary equipment.

As an overseas-owned company, Holcim had to apply in 2006 for Overseas Investment Commission approval to add 61 hectares to the Bombay quarry and start the second pit that has since largely replaced the original one.

The commission had no trouble agreeing to the purchase, citing the new job opportunities it would provide, the increased competition in the sector, and the fact that Holcim introduced new capital to the country to acquire and operate it.

Given the notoriety of Auckland’s NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) reaction to quarrying developments – the city’s massive and ongoing aggregate requirements notwithstanding – Bombay’s blasting regime is of direct significance to the continuation of the Holcim operation.

And Bastow and Red Bull are confident their newly entrenched blasting strategy will mitigate rather than inflame the local community’s sensitivities at having a working quarry in its midst. Q&M

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RECYCLING ASPHALT

tomorrow’s answer

Moves to increase recycled asphalt in road surfacing has gained pace in Canada, thanks to research conducted by Dr Susan Tighe and her colleagues. She was in New Zealand recently to share her experiences. By CAMERON OFFICER.

S

usan Tighe recently addressed attendees at the 46th annual combined IoQNZ and AQA conference in Whangarei this year.

In her role as director of the Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology (CPATT), Dr. Tighe presented her team’s findings and predictions on sustainable pavement engineering practices.

A professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Tighe is also the author of over 400 technical publications in pavements and infrastructure and is involved in a number of research projects, both nationally and internationally. In 2006 she was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for her leadership and vision with respect to the Canadian transportation community.

So does she know her stuff? In a word, yes.

Tighe and her research group have been testing recycled materials in Canada in order to ensure the building of “green roads” becomes best practice; a target of 10 to 15 percent

substitution of virgin aggregate for recycled material is something she believes can be adopted by contractors and road agencies in many regions, New Zealand included.

The two key drivers for this research have been ongoing concerns over environmental impact and the increasingly limited access to high quality aggregates in Tighe’s native Toronto area.

“We recognised as early as 1992 that there is a much greater need to handle natural resources in a more sustainable manner,” she told conference goers.

“We need to reduce the impact on the environment by minimising consumption of energy and virgin materials. In our minds, sustainable pavement is a subset of sustainable transport.”

The increased resources required for agencies and operators to source high quality aggregates further afield has also seen an increase in focus on the potential applications of recycled materials in Canada’s roading network.

“New quarrying licences simply aren’t being granted as

“We need to reduce the impact on the environment by minimising consumption of energy and virgin materials.

In our minds, sustainable pavement is a subset of sustainable transport.”

– Dr Susan Tighe

20 October - November 2014 Q&M

readily in the Toronto area anymore, so for transit agencies the choices are, go further afield – and with two-thirds of aggregate costs being their transportation, suffer higher knock-on costs – or investigate ways of sustainably recycling existing pavements,” she says.

“Underlying this are a few simple calculations around the levels of remaining aggregate. Estimates suggest there is approximately 3.4 billion tons of aggregate left in the Greater Toronto area, so in as little as 10 years distinct shortages could be notable.

“Aggregate demand will stay the same, but a gradual increase in the use of recycled materials would benefit operators, transit agencies and urban planners.”

Tighe’s team has been using recycled material in new hot mix asphalt for sub-bases and applying test methods designed to better predict aggregate performance.

“Naturally any recycled material used needs to meet the same technical specifications as what it is being used in conjunction with. In other words, if you’re utilising premium virgin product you need to use premium recycled asphalt pavement too.”

Thanks to CPATT research, Recycled Asphalt Pavement – or RAP – is already being used in higher percentages in lower coarse binder pavement. In a New Zealand context, Tighe suggested that a RAP product might not be suitable for State Highway One, but could be satisfactory for local roads.

She adds that, due to Toronto’s proximity to the Canada-US border, heavy duty pavement is required due to equally heavy traffic flow.

“Ninety percent of goods transferred between Canada and the US are moved by truck.With the Ontario region hosting one of the three busiest border crossings between the US and its neighbouring nations, we need an extremely robust road network to stand up to traffic demands.

“One contractor in the Toronto area is already stockpiling pavement from the Trans-Canada Highway because it was premium product when first laid. It will be interesting to see how that contractor benefits over the next few years as acceptance of recycled material increases.”

Additional to research on what’s going on at ground level, Tighe says CPATT actively supports multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research by second and third tier entities such as road builders and machinery manufacturers.

“We’re very focused on climate change for example, and how warmer temperatures impact on infrastructure. Being able to incorporate sustainable designs into existing road networks is ideal. Using existing roading infrastructure we’re researching the idea of a solar road.This is an idea which we hope will take flight in the near future,” says Tighe.

“For now though, greener roads which divert large quantities of material from overloaded landfills back into the road surface is something that municipalities should be encouraged to engage in.

“We would love to see at some point in the future a transit agency not necessarily opting for the lowest bid price for a contract, but instead awarding the contract to a more expensive bid, but one that contains ‘green’ pavement material.” Q&M

Q&M October - November 2014 21

M I N I N G

NEW MINING REGULATIONS IN PERSPECTIVE

Mining operators covered by the 2013 regulations should by now be well into developing their health and safety management systems. By LES McCRACKEN, CEO of MinEx – the Mining Industry Safety Council.

22 October - November 2014 Q&M

F

irst, take note of the compliance date for the Health and Safety in Employment Mining Operations and Quarrying Operations Regulations 2013 which is January 1, 2015.

A Mining Operation is defined under section 19M of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 and it includes: Mining for coal and minerals; exploring for coal; tourist mines; tunnels; and various activities associated with these operations.

It excludes: exploring for minerals; alluvial mining; sea bed mining; and quarrying operations. While these types of operations are excluded from the definition of Mining Operation, this does not mean that they are excluded from all of the new Regulations. There are some parts of Part 1 - Safety-critical roles and competency requirements that apply to quarry and alluvial operations1.

Exploring for coal is a mining operation I highlight the inclusion of exploration for coal under the definition of mining operations. We have a number of New Zealand and foreign companies whose sole operations are exploring for coal.

These companies may not realise that they are subject to the new Regulations, but by July this year they should have appointed a Senior Site Executive, and by January 2015 they need to have in place a health and safety management system that is compliant with the new Regulations.

The other issue with exploration for coal that may catch out mining operators is the situation where exploration is carried out distant from an existing mining operation. This exploration activity is still subject to the new Regulations, and the activity will require a compliant health and safety management system.

“The other issue with exploration for coal that may catch out mining operators is the situation where exploration is carried out distant from an existing mining operation. ” – Les McCracken

The implications of the new regulatory framework are that such activities will need: • to come under the control of a Senior Site Executive who should have been appointed and advised to WorkSafe by July1 2014; • to be notified to WorkSafe before operations commence; • to have in place a compliant health and safety management system; • to have submitted draft principal hazard management and principal control plans, under the health and safety management system, to WorkSafe; • to have completed a prescribed plan (drawing) of the mining operation and supplied this to WorkSafe; 1

• to be properly supervised, and this means by the appropriate holder of a Certificate of Competency; and • to comply with a number of other matters in the Regulations.

Until January 2015 nothing in Parts 2 to 4, or 6 to 10 of the Regulations applies to an existing mining operation. That means that new mining operations after December 16, 2013 must comply with all of the regulations.

To summarise: For existing operations, apart from the Senior Site Executive appointment, compliance with the other matters listed above must occur from January 2015 onwards. For new mining operations all of the matters above must be complied with from December 16, 2013 onwards.

Some mineral exploration activities will be covered by the new Regulations While the new Regulations specifically exclude exploring for minerals, there are activities carried out by mineral explorers that will result in them having to comply with the new Regulations. For instance, it is quite common to use old mine drives for exploration purposes, and as soon as you do that, you will be deemed to be carrying out mining operations2.

Minerals exploration from old workings will need to go through the same processes summarised above for coal exploration. The likely principal hazard management and principal control plans that such activities will require are: ground control, ventilation, air quality, and worker health. They will require general control plans for all other generic hazards. The actual plans required will depend on the outcome of a risk appraisal process to identify and rank the hazards.

Developing a compliant health and safety management system The first step in the process is completion of a risk appraisal to identify all of the principal, significant and general hazards likely to be encountered by the mining operation. It is recommended that this process is led by a facilitator who has completed a training course in risk management processes. MITO’s unit standard 268563 (Carry out the risk management processes at an extractive site) is the minimum training you will need to run a risk assessment/risk appraisal workshop. The unit is equivalent to the Australian G24 course.

The risk appraisal process must include worker participation, as must the development of controls for each of the hazards. The appraisal process and outcomes must be documented as part of the process of developing the health and safety management system.

Having identified all of the hazards and ranked them via the risk appraisal process, a full risk assessment of each hazard must then be completed to develop controls for each hazard. As with the risk appraisal process, workers must be involved in this process.

The next step in the process is to develop standard operating procedures to support the control plans. These are step-by-step processes that will be used by workers to safely complete the work. Another term for this process is Job Safety Analysis – JSA. The final step in the process entails monitoring, reviewing and

Regulations 14, 16, 21, 23, 24, 25, 34, and 35 and Schedule 1 Regulations 1, 10, 11 and 15 Q&M October - November 2014 23

M I N I N G

auditing performance. The regulations require formal external audits of the system at prescribed intervals and reviews triggered by certain events.

The Senior Site Executive has regulatory responsibility for the development and maintenance of the health and safety management system.

Codes of practice and guidelines Approved codes of practice are statutory codes approved by the Minister of Labour. While the Regulations are what you must do to comply with the law, codes are what you should do to comply with the Regulations, and guidelines are what you could do to comply with the Regulations.

During 2013 two codes were developed for underground mines: Ventilation, and Fire and Explosions.

During 2014 six more codes have been planned for completion: Ground Control, Spontaneous Combustion, Inundation and Inrush, Surveying, Air Quality, and Worker Health. In addition, three further guidelines were planned: Hydro-mining, Management and Administration, and Health and Safety at Surface Mines, Alluvial Mines and Quarries.

WorkSafe recently announced it intends to complete the six codes in two stages. During 2014 the codes would be developed initially as guidelines. Following full industry consultation during 2015 the guidelines would then be converted into codes. This was done to ease the burden on those companies currently working on developing their health and safety management systems for the January 2015 deadline. WorkSafe will still be engaging with industry on the guidelines and a number of review groups have been set up to ensure the guidelines are fit for purpose from an industry perspective.

Surface mine and quarries guidance In May this year WorkSafe released a draft guidance document called Health and Safety at Surface Mines, Alluvial Mines and Quarries. A MinEx review group made substantial recommendations to WorkSafe on improving this document, and we had expected to see the second draft in late July. That second draft has now been delayed to late September.

The last issue of Q&M contained comment by Andy Loader entitled Quarries should brace for change. I note that all of the issues Andy raised were covered in the MinEx submission to WorkSafe, and we are confident that we will end up with fit-forpurpose guidance that does not needlessly constrain operators with prescriptive guidance. MinEx has been working very hard to achieve that aim, and it is clear to all involved and with an interest that this work has been effective.

To elaborate, the legislation is risk-based, as it should be, and prescriptive guidance has only been introduced in situations where there is clearly only one safe method of work. We are not likely to see a return to the old prescriptive requirements on bench heights, and nor will we see prescriptive requirements on pit slope angles, as examples.

Health and safety performance relative to other sectors At the AQA conference this year I presented some comparative statistics on quarry sector performance compared with general industry, and with other sectors of the mining industry. The poorer performance of the quarry sector, and the performance of the mining sector generally, led to some debate amongst conference attendees.

To clarify, the statistics were obtained by the AQA from MBIE in May of 2013 and were tabled at an AQA meeting to discuss Safe Mines: Safe Workers. The basis for the Serious Harm category is the definition under Schedule 1 of the Act which requires reporting of: • amputation; • burns requiring treatment beyond first aid; • loss of consciousness through lack of oxygen; • loss of consciousness or acute illness caused by a substance and requiring treatment by a GP; • harm that results in hospitalisation for 48 hours or more and within 7 days of the harm’s occurrence; or • any of the following conditions that amount to or results in permanent or temporary severe loss of bodily function: respiratory disease, noise-induced hearing loss, neurological disease, cancer, dermatological disease, communicable disease, musculoskeletal disease, illness caused by exposure to infected material, decompression sickness, poisoning, vision impairment, chemical or hot-metal burn of eye, penetrating wound of eye, bone fracture, laceration, crushing.

So, the statistics include accidents and incidents that lead to both adverse health effects as well as injury effects. One important difference between this definition and the normal definition of a lost time injury is the 48-hour hospitalisation criterion, cf. the normal definition, which includes an inability to return to work on the next day. While the serious harm definition includes health effects, it understates the injuries statistics.

The editorial in last month’s edition of Q&M then posed two questions which I have answered below: 1. H ow many quarries did the survey cover? Answer: all quarries in New Zealand.

2. How many of the incidents reported were distinctly quarry activities? Answer: all of them since they were what quarry operators reported as being their responsibility.

I think that the debate around the statistics presented demonstrates that some operators in the mining and quarry sectors need to examine their own commitment to the health and safety of their employees. The take-home message is that we as a sector have work to do to improve our performance in health and safety to meet both New Zealand industry and mining and quarrying industry goals: 1. A reduction of workplace deaths to zero by 2020; and 2. A 25 percent reduction in workplace serious injury rates by 2020.

In conclusion, I invite a discussion on what MinEx can do to support operators in our industry to meet their compliance obligations, and improve the safety statistics. Q&M

lauses (b) (v), (vi) and (vii) of section 19M of the Act (excavation, removal, handling, transport, and storage; construction, operation, maintenance, and removal of plant and C buildings; preparatory, maintenance, and repair activities).

3 http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/framework/explore/domain.do?frameworkId=75571#standards 4 Australian competency unit - RIIRIS 402D 2

24 October - November 2014 Q&M

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M I N I N G

Huge ironsands expansion A major mining expansion is underway on Waikato’s remote west coast with New Zealand Steel to lift ironsands exports. LINDSAY CLARK explains.

T

heo Annandale, project manager for the Taharoa mining expansion, told the AusIMM mining conference in Hamilton that exports of ironsand concentrate will grow from 1.3 million tonnes this year to four million tonnes a year by 2016.

New Zealand Steel, a subsidiary of Australian-based Bluescope Steel, is investing $80 million in new mining equipment and three specially-built bulk ironsand ships to cater for the Taharoa titanomagnetite concentrate mine trade. The first of this fleet is scheduled to arrive in late 2015.

The company’s resource recognition programme carried out in 2010 allowed for a redesign of its Taharoa mining operation just south of Kawhia Harbour. The plan is to optimise the total resource and maximise export volumes as a model for development of any other ironsand deposits by NZ Steel, Annandale says.

Of the three geographical sections of the Taharoa deposit, the southern section was worked out by 2001. The central section is currently being mined by NZ Steel and the northern section towards Kawhia Harbour remains to be mined. Annandale says the first of three development stages to the expansion at Taharoa has now

26 October - November 2014 Q&M

been completed.

The second stage of development at Taharoa will involve redefining the ironsand resource to increase production to 2.7 million tonnes of concentrate a year. In addition to the previous wet mining from a floating dredge, dry mining techniques will be used because of changes in the geology.

The transport of ironsand will still be by slurry concentrate pumped out to moored ore carriers at the “port” of Taharoa, which consists of single buoy mooring three kilometres offshore connected by pipeline to the mine plant onshore. This mooring was moved out a further 500 metres in 2012 to allow a deeper berthing for bigger iron ore ships up to 175,000 dead weight tonnes.

A new dedicated vessel the Taharoa Destiny, the only ship in the world capable of loading and dewatering a slurry cargo according to Bluescope Steel, began operation in May 2012.

The keel for a second ironsand concentrate ship is being laid down now and should arrive at Taharoa about April next year.

Stage three of the Taharoa project will be more complex as about 40 percent of the northern ironsand resource lies below mean sea level

and below the level of Lake Taharoa, which lies inland from the ironsand deposits. A suitable dredge will be required to extract this deposit and resource definition indicates lower grades of titanomagnetite will be encountered.

An Australian perspective Commenting on the expansion, BlueScope’s managing director and CEO, Paul O’Malley, says, “With a low cost of extraction, our ironsands operations are a valuable part of BlueScope’s business portfolio – making an excellent contribution to earnings from exports and providing low cost iron unit feed to New Zealand steelmaking.”

It has only been in the last few years that the Australian company has realised the great economic advantages of having a steel mill outside Auckland that has its ironsand ore resource literally down the road (actually just down the pipeline at Waikato North Heads), and with its coal coming from just a little further away at Huntly.

Titanomagnetite ironsands are common geologically in different parts of the world, but this country has

Aotea ironsands deposit Sinosteel Australia is investigating development of a new onshore ironsand deposit near Aotea Harbour about 40 kilometres west of Hamilton. By LINDSAY CLARK. The Perth-based subsidiary of the Beijing-based iron ore and engineering supplies company Sinosteel Corporation has been exploring the 243 hectare Aotea ironsand project on the North Island west coast since 2007.

James Wood of Perth-based Resource Potentials presented the latest exploration results at the recent AusIMM conference in Hamilton on behalf of Sinosteel Australia.

Wood says the Aotea sands deposit was similar in structure and age to Waikato North Heads deposit mined by New Zealand Steel as ore for the Glenbrook steel mill.

He said the JORC standard resource estimate established to date for Aotea is about 160 million tonnes of ironsand. However, the latest round of one of the world’s largest and easily accessible resources on the North Island west coast.

The Reuters news agency reports that the big ore producers are flooding the world with hundreds of millions of tonnes of cheaply mined ore, driving down prices by almost a third this year to under $90 a tonne. At the same time smaller higher-cost, less competitive suppliers from China, Iran, Australia, Canada and other parts of the world are reported to be in financial trouble.

With higher-cost and less competitive suppliers in trouble, it is predicted by mineral analysts that, by 2015, the biggest iron ore producers will account for over 80 percent of world iron ore trade.

How can ironsands exports from New Zealand survive in this economic climate?

The answer really is our naturally low costs of production and low development costs.

Bluescope says the infrastructure cost of the Taharoa upgrade will be $A30 a tonne and this is less than a fifth of the cost of an equivalent brownfields/greenfields iron ore development in West Australia – between A$150 and A$190 a tonne. Q&M

drilling by Sinosteel being used to update the resource should take the Aotea resource to about 200 million tonnes with an average grade of 14.5 percent titanomagnetite-bearing magnetic concentrate. Wood says there’s scope to further improve both resource size and grade as further drilling is carried out.

Laboratory testing analysis of the titanomagnetite concentrate within the ironsand has yielded iron content of about 58 percent Fe. A light grind of the concentrate was able to lift this up to about 60 percent Fe. Sinosteel has recently completed a high-resolution ground magnetic and aerial photography survey over the whole prospect that enabled it to identify the highgrade zones.

“Our latest drill campaign has tried to target these high grade areas,” Wood adds.

He told the conference that Sinosteel has researched the geotechnical specs for setting up a single-point offshore mooring for exporting ironsand, similar to that of the Taharoa ironsand export mine south of Kawhia Harbour which owners NZ Steel are currently expanding export capacity some four times.

“In future we will upgrade the economic model of the project based on the resource upgrade,” Wood says.

When Sinosteel acquired its original 9450 square kilometre prospecting permit in New Zealand it flew a large regional aeromagnetic survey covering the whole permit area from Manukau Harbour in the north, to the Mokau River in northern Taranaki. At the time this was the largest aeromag dataset acquired in the country and the data has since been made available by NZ Petroleum and Minerals.

In 2009 the company drilled an area of the resource using air-core drilling method which was very cheap and very fast – sometimes 300 metres a day.

“Air-core drilling is a very low impact drilling method in pasture paddocks we were working in. Within a couple of weeks you wouldn’t even know we had been there,” Wood comments.

Sinosteel holds three other mineral exploration permits along the Waikato coast: Marakopa a 10,000 hectare permit a few kilometres south of NZ Steel’s Taharoa mine; Waimea, a 783 hectare permit strung out over 20 kilometres south of the Waikato River mouth; and the 33 hectare Kaipara permit made up of three small “postage stamp” blocks near Kaipara township.

Q&M October - November 2014 27

M A C H I N E R Y

MONSTER

FOR HUNTLY COAL MINE A contract extension at the Rotowaro coal mine has seen Stevenson Mining buy a brand new, 400 tonne Liebherr excavator to provide some serious muscle at the mine. BY MARY BELL.

1

3

A

massive new Liebherr excavator has just arrived in the country and will soon be hard at work digging coal at Rotowaro mine for Stevenson Mining.

There are only a handful of machines of this size in New Zealand, and this one will be the second Stevensons will have working at the mine in Waikato.

However, before a single hour could be logged, the 400 tonne monster had to be transported from Auckland’s port to the mine in Huntly and then be assembled – no small feat for a machine of this size.

Stevensons has had its contract at Rotowaro extended until the end of 2018, enabling the company to justify the multi-million dollar purchase. The brand

28 October - November 2014 Q&M

4

new monster digger had been sitting on the dock in Australia as the deal that got it there from the manufacturer had fallen through. This meant Stevensons was able to get the machine much more quickly than you would normally expect.

The roll-on/roll-off ship carrying the Liebherr arrived in Auckland in late August. The machine was in 20 different pieces and packages, all loaded on Mafi trailers (a cargo trailer the same shape as the base of a container, with a gooseneck and tractor unit). Once off the boat the team from Tranzcarr Heavy Haulage were waiting to load them onto a fleet of transporters to take them to the mine to be assembled.

The key loads, their weights and the

transporters Tranzcarr used were as follows: • the upper carriage, weighing 45 tonnes, transported on four rows of eight; • central girder, 28 tonnes, three rows of eight; • side frames (left and right tracks), 59 tonnes each, loaded onto eightaxle Goldhofer platform trailers with ballasted tractor units (116 tonnes all up per trailer); • counterweight, 25 tonnes, transported on four rows of twin; and • gooseneck boom, 32 tonnes, seven axle trailer; The rest of the overweights – the 20-tonne stick, 23-tonne powerpack, cab and cab elevation, and fuel and hydraulic

2

tanks (which weigh less than 10 tonnes each) –travelled on six of Tranzcarr’s low loader transporters.

In addition to these loads there were multiple packs of between four and eight tonnes.

Tranzcarr loaded everything out of the port using its 200 tonne lift and lock gantry system. Once loaded, the various units took the 105 kilometre journey from the port to Stevenson’s yard at Rotowaro mine.

Tranzcarr’s Mike van Ravenstein says they were given an order of assembly so they knew which pieces needed to get to the mine first, and assembly began as soon as the parts of machine started to arrive.

At the mine Waikato Cranes unloaded the transporters as they arrived and stayed for the week to put the main components together. Q&M was on site to see the biggest lift, the upper carriage with cab lifted onto the undercarriage.

Stevenson Mining’s EHS and workshop manager Scott Tanner told the magazine that assembling the big components would take about a week, however, all the “bits and bobs and pieces you don’t see” will

take another two weeks. “For example, the fire suppression system takes about a week to install.”

Supervising the assembly, and doing a lot of the hard work going by the sheer amount of grease and oil on his high-vis, was Harvey Appleton from Liebherr Australia.

The only piece that is missing is the bucket. The 24 cubic metre unit was still on the boat from Europe when the magazine went to print and is due in the country this month. Once it’s here the monster Liebherr will begin to work.

Scott says it will load half a million BCM per month, filling a 200 tonne dump truck with four bucketfuls, working two 10 hour shifts, five days a week.

Stevenson will train up a number of operators on the 400 tonner but will roster on the most efficient of these.

“We will put the guy in it who can swing it the fastest,” says Scott. “The machine is working from key on to key off so it takes a certain mentality to stay focused that whole time. The operator needs to be consistent throughout the whole day.” Q&M

1 Stevenson Mining’s EHS and workshop manager Scott Tanner says the excavator would take about three weeks to be assembled; “about a week for the big components and another two for all the bits and bobs and pieces you don’t see.”

2 Two cranes were used to lift the upper half of the machine onto the undercarriage.

3 An eight-axle platform trailer is reversed under the gantry to be loaded with one of the Liebherr’s massive tracks, which weighs in at 59 tonnes.

4 At the port in Auckland the excavator’s 25 tonne counterweight is lowered onto a transporter using Transcarr’s lift and lock gantry system.

Q&M October - November 2014 29

T E C H N O L O G Y

CRUSHING BIG TIME A Metso Lokotrack LT160 is the largest mobile crusher being used in the Southern Hemisphere.

B

oral in Australia has implemented an innovative in-pit crushing project at its new Peppertree Quarry in the NSW Southern Tablelands, around 180 kilometres southwest of Sydney.

The new quarry, which became operational this year, will supply the Sydney metropolitan area and greater NSW building and construction industries with up to 3.5 million tons of aggregate products per year.

Construction of these new facilities at Peppertree started in July 2011 after a decade of planning. A risk assessment of the crushing process led to the selection of in-pit crushing as the safest and most efficient option for the new plant. Boral site manager Steve Parsons says that the use of in-pit crushing for quarry applications has been a trend in Europe for some time, but is relatively new in Australia.

“Boral is now looking to optimise its quarrying process and get away from the traditional load and haul operations, where you have a large number of trucks and people moving between the blast site and the fixed crushing plant.”

Research into finding a crusher that could handle the planned production volume led Boral to select Metso’s Lokotrack LT160 together with the company’s patented Lokolink mobile conveyor system.

Weighing in at a whopping 285 tons and measuring 12 metres high by 25 metres in length, this is the largest mobile crusher in the Southern Hemisphere, and extensive design consultation between Boral’s technical staff and Metso’s design team prior to manufacture has, arguably, produced the most sophisticated machine of its kind, with a number of innovations never before seen on a mobile machine.

A major challenge, says Boral, was to customise the LT160 to meet its strict safety requirements, which, it claims, are even more stringent than Australian and European standards. To achieve this, Boral put together a team of designers, engineers, operators and OHS personnel to review the LT160 design and to identify any potential hazards and improvements before accepting the final design.

As a result the LT160 at Peppertree has a number of features that make the machine unique with regard to current safety practices.

Some of the solutions, such as guarding and using stairs 30 October - November 2014 Q&M

rather than ladders for maintenance access, are requirements of Australian standards whereas others are unique.

These include shrouds around the crusher to reduce dust and noise, rubber wear liners on the hopper to reduce noise, a service crane installed for jaw liner changes to eliminate the need for a mobile crane, as well as walkways that extend the full length of the Lokolink conveyors on both sides.

Anatomy of a truckless system In a conventional crushing plant, a drill and blast team blasts the shot and develops a muck pile. A front-end loader at the muck pile loads haul trucks that transport the rock to a fixed primary crusher.

With the in-put crushing solution at Peppertree, an excavator located on the muck pile loads material directly into the Lokotrack crusher’s hopper. The rock moves along a grizzly feeder that passes undersized rock directly onto the machine’s outbound conveyor. Only the large rock that needs to be crushed passes through the jaw crusher, which is capable of processing rocks up to one metre in size. In this way, energy isn’t wasted on passing small material through the crusher.

Crushed rock is then transported to the fixed, in-pit belt conveyor via two mobile Lokolink conveyors. The fixed conveyor carries crushed rock from the Lokotrack to the fixed plant for further processing. A patented swivel mechanism on the Lokolink conveyors ensures crushed material flows freely at all conveyor angles.

The Lokotrack crusher can crush 1150 tons of rock per hour and needs to be relocated every few hours – a process that can be done in minutes by an operator via a remote console worn around the operator’s waist.

When blasting is performed, the crusher and conveyors are moved to a safe distance around 70 metres away. After the blast, a wheel loader cleans the quarry floor and the crusher moves to the new muck pile. Operation resumes with minimal production downtime.

When it’s time to move to a different pit location, the Lokolink conveyors are disconnected from the field hopper using hydraulic actuators. Q&M

W H E E L S

I N

T H E

W O R K P L A C E

REVIEWING

THE BEAST

Ford Ranger Wildtrak 4WD automatic Engine: 3.2-litre Duratorq turbo-diesel Transmission: Six-speed automatic Power: 147kW Torque: 470Nm

Which changed first; the ute or the ute market? With so much on offer to so many, the Ford Ranger Wildtrak 4WD could be the answer to arguments both for and against. By CAMERON OFFICER.

T

alk about a shake-up. No, I don’t mean in the seismic sense, although in the three years since the Canterbury earthquakes, that province more than most has been overrun with well-spec’d utes.

The shake-up I’m referring to more specifically is that which has occurred in the light commercial segment of the new vehicle market.

Part economy-driven, part societal shift, the humble work ute has all of a sudden become the sort of calling card of success that only a German sports sedan could have ably represented a couple of decades ago. The company director of 2014 is more likely to be driving a double cab ute with all the fruit than they are something with ‘RS’ or ‘AMG’ suffixing the nameplate.

As a result, the ute market has expanded dramatically in recent times. Among the large volume distributors, the battle for tradie bums on seats has heated up considerably.

While tried and true stats like power, torque, off-road prowess and towing ability are all still worth crowing about, the real headlines come in the amounts of lavish technology and convenience items even utes at the Billy Basic end of the

32 October - November 2014 Q&M

Fuel Economy: 9.6L/100km Tow rating: 3500kg (braked) 0-100km/h: N/A Max speed: N/A Price: $67,140

spectrum receive as a matter of course these days.

Mitsubishi, Nissan, Mazda and Holden have all expanded model lines and specification offerings for their utes, putting up attractive pricing and ‘car-like’ levels of kit in equal measure. But the really interesting battle has been between light commercial stalwarts Toyota and Ford.

For Toyota it has been an emotional fight at the top of the sales charts. Their iconic Hilux not only helped seal the brand’s reputation for reliability in early-‘80s New Zealand, it effectively invented the private ute market in this country by teaching farmers first, tradies second, that the work ute could offer as much performance on tarmac as it could practicality in the paddock.

Ford? They’ve been building pick-ups for as long as they’ve been building cars. The company continues to make their home market’s best-selling vehicle, the F150, to this day. Here in New Zealand the Courier was a popular 1990s option and many are now finding second lives as lowered boy racer-mobiles; coupes without boots, so to speak.

But with the drawn out decline of the Falcon (and flagging sales of the ute version bottoming out even faster than the sedan

upon which it was based) it became imperative at the start of the decade that a new sort of ute was needed. Enter the Ranger.

One of the FoMoCo’s increasing number of ‘World Cars’ (same platform, same engine, different steering wheel position depending on where it is being sold), the Ranger ticked the boxes right from the start.

Good looks, solid performance figures and no fewer than 16 different versions to choose from in our market; the Ranger hit the ground running and has been tussling with Toyota at the top for sales dominance ever since.

Hop aboard the Double Cab 4WD Wildtrak iteration and you can see why it has proven so popular.

Solid instruments, clear gauges, leather trim, dual zone climate control air conditioning, a five-inch multi-function display screen, standard Bluetooth hands free calling capability, a standard satellite navigation system, cruise control, a centre console replete with a cooler box for your lunchtime fruit juice, exterior roof rails and side steps... the list goes on.

Dimensionally, the Ranger is a big beast.

It boasts a supremely comfortable cabin, with rear seat passengers enjoying decent levels of leg, shoulder and head room. Of course, the other side of the coin is that, with many Rangers also pressed into service as weekend transport for the family, it’ll fill to bursting even the biggest car park in town.

Thank goodness the Wildtrak comes with a standard reversing camera and parking sensors then; with so much sheet metal to see over, the technology is a welcome addition when backing out of a car park, entrance way or between those stationary excavators at the work site.

The wellside tray, framed by standard chrome sports bars on the Wildtrak, features a retractable sliding cover. It’s an elegant-looking addition, although perhaps comes at the compromise of practicality; even a hard tonneau (something which in itself has built-in limitations) would allow slightly taller loads to remain hidden from prying eyes. Still, with a 1549mm long, 1560mm wide (1139mm between wheel arches) and 511mm deep cargo area, there remains a decent amount of space to fill.

The gutsy 3.6-litre turbo diesel is a serious performer, offering 147kW of power for the highway and an all-important torque figure of 470Nm; handy when towing or plugging your way up a metalled access road in 4H. The Wildtrak also features a locking rear differential and a towing capacity of 3.5 ton (braked).

All this stuff does come at a price. Sitting at the very top of the Ranger line-up, the Wildtrak we sampled asks $67,140 of its potential owner. Mind you, that’s on par with top models from many of Ford’s competitor brands in the ute segment; more expensive than a top shelf Volkswagen Amarok or Toyota Hilux, cheaper than the comparative Nissan Navara.

And mind you again; for the owner director looking to stand out a bit in the field, $67,140 will only get you a base level BMW or Audi and won’t even get you in the door with Jaguar or HSV. Sure those are all premium brands, but you wouldn’t take them to a work site. In Ross. In July.

The Ranger would still afford the driver as much comfort and performance in getting there as it would sure-footed ability once you leave the bitumen.

If you’re surveying just how much vehicle you’re getting for the money, the Ranger wins hands down. Q&M

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Q&M October - November 2014 33

H E A L T H

&

S A F E T Y

Quarry managers must be qualified Health and Safety in Employment (Mining Operations and Quarrying Operations) that now regulate the certificates of competency came into effect at the end of last year.

ANDY LOADER reviews the reinforcement of ‘certificates of competency or closure’.

I

f you are operating a quarry then you have a legal obligation to ensure that you have appointed a quarry manager – a person to manage the operation who has a current Certificate of Competency as a Quarry Manager.

Under the Health and Safety in Employment (Mining Operations and Quarrying Operations), “The quarry operator of a quarrying operation must appoint a person to: (a) manage the quarrying operation; and (b) supervise the health and safety aspects of the quarrying operation on every day on which any quarry worker is at work.

This manager must hold a certificate: (1) The mine operator or, as the case may be, the quarry operator or alluvial mine operator, and the manager must ensure that the manager holds a current certificate of competence specified in regulations 17 to 22 for the kind of mining operation or quarrying operation or alluvial mining operation to which the manager is appointed.

The definiton of a quarry Under the new regulations a quarry is: An activity carried out above ground for the purpose of: Extracting or processing any material, other than any coal or any mineral, from the earth and includes any place in which any material is crushed or screened, whether or not the material is to be extracted or processed for commercial gain and whether or not the material is extracted or processed by the use of explosives.

The proposed Guidelines for Quarries give the following description: A quarry includes: a) all the surface extraction workings including preparatory and abandonment works

34 October - November 2014 Q&M

b) tips (even if they are outside the site boundary) c) storage of extracted materials, including stockpiles d) settling ponds (even if they are outside the site boundary) e) areas used for the processing of extracted materials (this includes washing, drying and bagging) where the processing is carried out at the place where the extraction is undertaken f) areas used for crushing or screening extracted or processed materials regardless of whether it is at the place the material was extracted g) the buildings and structures at the quarry that are used for the working of the quarry h) common areas (for example quarry roadways and railways, but not public roads or railways under the control of a rail company).

Currently WorkSafe has appointed new quarry inspectors who are gradually getting around to visiting all operations to check for legislative compliance, and that includes whether the manager of the operation has a current Certificate Of Competence.

The rules in relation to Certificates of Competence haven’t changed; it is just that over the past 22 years since the HSE Act was passed and the Quarries and Tunnels Act was repealed, there has been a gradual reduction in the number of quarry inspections undertaken by OSH, and this has resulted in some members of the industry becoming non-compliant (i.e. not having qualified managers).

If you are operating a quarry (this includes portable crushing and screening plants) then you should have a person appointed to manage the operation and that person should be the holder of an appropriate current Certificate of Competence.

If you don’t have a person with a current certificate then I would suggest that you need to make arrangements to get one. This may

take the form of training up one of your existing staff members to get them certified, but this is not a short-term process, so you should be making arrangements now.

The minimum that I believe that you must be able to show would be that you have appointed a person who is competent to manage the operation (this would need to be supported by evidence of knowledge and experience in quarrying) and that you have arranged to train a person to become certified.

The Health and Safety Reform Bill that is currently before the select committee of parliament contains sections on authorisations that will cover this requirement and that also sets out the possible fines that may be levied for non-compliance.

“...there has been a gradual reduction in the number of quarry inspections undertaken by OSH, and this has resulted in some members of the industry becoming non-compliant.”

– Andy Loader

54 Meaning of authorised In this subpart, authorised means authorised by a licence, permit, registration, consent, certificate, or other authority (however described) as required by regulations.

58 Requirements for prescribed qualifications or experience (1) A person must not carry out work at a workplace if regulations require the work, or class of work, to be carried out— (a) by a person who has prescribed qualifications or experience and the person does not have the prescribed qualifications or experience: (b) under the supervision of a person who has prescribed qualifications or experience and the work is not carried out under the supervision of a person who has the prescribed qualifications or experience.

(2) A PCBU must not direct or allow a worker to carry out work at a workplace if regulations require the work, or class of work, to be carried out: (a) by a worker who has prescribed qualifications or experience and the worker does not have the prescribed qualifications or experience: (b) under the supervision of a person who has prescribed qualifications or experience and the work is not carried out under the supervision of a person who has the prescribed qualifications or experience.

(3) A person who contravenes subsection (1) or (2) commits an offence and is liable on conviction,— (a) for an individual, to a fine not exceeding $20,000: (b) for any other person, to a fine not exceeding $100,000. Q&M

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Q&M October - November 2014 35

C O M M E N T

What happened to self-preservation?

NETTA BURNSIDE of BRAND-X asks what happened to good old commonsense when it comes to

Netta Burnside

workplace safety and how did we end up with what is effectively a self-serving industry?

F

or my relatively young age I am far too cynical, and I could easily hold my own at any gathering of angry 70 somethings, if I ever tried it.

My current list of things that stir my cynicism are related to our health and safety culture in general. It is has become its ‘own’ industry and is growing like a cancerous tumor within all industry sectors.

We all have memories of cool stuff we did as kids growing up in this country. One of my own favourites was going to work with Dad on Saturday mornings to the Patea Dam construction site. My job (which I never actually got paid for) was to turn the lathe on and off, then sweep around it afterwards. And there were strict rules – no wandering off, for instance.

My mum was a farmer and on the farm we also knew the safety rules, including not jumping into the settling pond for a dip.

In short, our parents downloaded, and installed, ‘selfpreservation’ in us from a very young age, as every generation had done beforehand.

In contrast, OH&S is not that old as an industry and was originally designed to keep people safer while still getting the job done. The reality now, however, is it seems to very much fail in the department of ‘getting the job done’, and, in my opinion, rather than keep people safer, is more about cleverly coming up with someone to blame when things go wrong.

Recently a good friend of mine who was the overall project manager on a LNG plant construction project in Australia, walked off the job in utter frustration over health and safety compliance. The project was already 20 percent over budget and has hardly yet started. Its bankers were threatening to pull the pin on the whole job, claiming that the only contractors making any money at all on the project were the OH&S consultants.

So who is to blame for inventing this OH&S industry, we should ask?

I blame women. (I’m glad YOU were the one to say that Netta – Ed) Women started entering the workforce more and more from the 1970s. Into the 80s women were empowered – visions of Springbok protests, Karen Hay’s Radio With Pictures, and armed with massive hair and even bigger shoulder pads we were told we could do anything, and we bloody did.

At a cellular level

36 October - November 2014 Q&M

though, women are still nurturers. It was women, who upon entering the historically male dominated industries, started spotting potential harm, accident threats, and near misses around every water cooler.

This created a nervousness that then led to the very accidents they were trying to avoid. Suddenly, the processes that had worked for decades without too many band-aids were grounds for shutdown notices and massive fines.

Women in industry began to put themselves in the shoes of their co-workers’ wives and mothers. They knew how they would feel if their husband or son were to park their truck on a slope without applying the park brake, or not check that the road was clear before crossing. They wanted hazard warnings, which was fair enough, but it didn’t stop there.

The enforcers of what should have been common sense laws turned into a paper trail of explanations and threats. It was not good enough that a worker would instinctively avoid jumping into a scrap metal grinder while it was live – out of commonsense – they had to be explicitly warned in writing, and then warned again, and a big sign placed on the machine in case they didn’t get the message. Even the dunny doors of site loos now feature a list of instructions for having a safe poo.

I suspect many of our workers have accidents today because they feel they don’t need to look after themselves. They expect to be told of any danger and not have to use their own wits. If the action is not part of a health and safety induction, update, alert, or report, it can’t happen, they think.

When it does happen, all hell breaks loose and it is the nature of the beast that ‘someone’ (other than the victim) needs to be held accountable. That blame is now finding its way to the very top, even if the top is a suit in a head office at the other end of the country.

In the firing line, these directors at the top are having kittens at the word “safety” and agreeing with every H&S recommendation and instruction that may come their way, no matter if it is counter productive.

Some may say there is already too much bureaucratic involvement in the nuts and bolts at the quarry face, and, in my view, new H&S legislation makes the situation worse.

From my privileged position I get to talk with those who are tasked to actually make the numbers that pay the bills and the shareholder’s returns.

I feel their frustration with the endless arse-covering and, mostly, irrelevant reports they must complete to feed a system that has not worked.

And, like my friend in Australia, they are leaving the game, rather than trying to cope with the system. They don’t need it. Q&M

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P O L I T I C S

Local councils want royalty share Local Government New Zealand is lobbying for a cut of the royalties collected by the Government from the extractive industry. BY LINDSAY CLARK

M

ayor John Tregidga told a special Local Government NZ forum in Wellington last month that a ‘local share’ of royalties from the crown’s mining and mineral extraction royalties should return to the community regions where the minerals were extracted.

He argues that sharing royalties with local government happens in most

38 October - November 2014 Q&M

western countries and was part of the wider issue of making rural communities resilient.

Tregidga says when mining business close down or suffer from low prices (such as is happening today with coal prices), the affected communities really take a hard hit. Having a small, but steady, flow of income from royalties would enable

communities to resource new directions for the local economy.

He used a modern gold discovery centre due to open in Waihi this month to attract tourists as the sort of community operation that could be funded by a local share of royalties.

Crown royalties over the past five years from mining amounted to $50 million while petroleum royalties were much larger at $1.69 billion dollars over the same period. Most of the mineral royalties come out of Waikato and the West Coast while petroleum royalties from Taranaki for last year were $381 million.

And when new investment comes into a region, particularly in oil and gas, there could be a need for significant investment in infrastructure like roading and bridges.

Kelvyn Eglinton, Newmont Gold’s external relations manager for Pacific and Asia based in Perth, supported LGNZ’s campaign for a local share of mining royalties.

Eglinton, who is a Kiwi and previously worked at Waihi for Newmont, says royalties are paid to the state government in Western Australia. The huge mineral industry there pays A$5.7 billion a year in royalties, he adds. In 2008 a change was made to distribute about a quarter of those royalties to nine separate regions within the state under its Royalties for Regions programme.

Money collected for these state regions is spent on existing services and infrastructures, such as parks and housing. Eglinton says a key use for the royalties there is to help communities plan for the time when the mining ended.

South Taranaki District Council’s chief executive Craig Stevenson says Taranaki had 2.5 percent of the national population yet produced four percent of national gross domestic product.

“So we believe there’s some room for rebalancing. We’re not after the whole lot … [but] we believe New Zealand would support some reinvestment in the province to allow that [contribution] to continue.” Q&M

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Not only can MIMICO supply you with superior Metso crushing & screening equipment, we can also provide you with expert service and OEM parts on all Metso equipment.

But that’s not all we do.

At MIMICO, we don’t just service everything we sell. We are ready, willing and able to service all makes of crushers and screens, up and down the country, any time you need. This means that no matter what equipment you are using, you can call the MIMICO service team. We will help ensure your operation minimises downtime and will keep you up and running for longer.

Talk to MIMICO. We are the New Zealand distributors for major brand equipment, parts and service. www.mimico.co.nz Freephone 0800 806 464 | E-mail enquiries@mimico.co.nz | Auckland, Matamata, Christchurch Our brands

I N N O V A T I O N S

Light but tough The rising popularity of utes has led to a major boost in the business of helping their owners to carry more stuff and provide protection for those goods from the elements.

Automotive accessory company Best Bars says it has put more resources into developing and producing alloy decks and a range of accessories to keep up with the demand.

While many utes are sold complete with factory-fitted wellsides, there is also a growing trend for specialised trays/decks to be fitted to cab and chassis versions to better suit their owners along with an increase in demand for decks on double cab utes.

This trend brings its challenges. A traditional steel and wood flat deck has a weight penalty that restricts how much can be carried on the back. Best Bars’ answer is a lightweight, yet strong, alloy deck is as “tough as old boots” while not compromising the stability of the vehicle or its fuel consumption. More information: www.bestbars.co.nz.

Rebuilds are cost effective With the mining industry looking to reduce its costs across the board, rebuilding older machines to as-new condition is an attractive option.

An example of this is a seven-year-old Sandvik DD420 development drill which recently underwent a major overhaul at Sandvik’s Kalgoorlie Customer Service Centre in Australia that brought it back to as-new condition, including upgrades to latest-technology components.

“Just a few years ago, a drill rig of this age would probably have been retired and replaced with a new one,” says Jim Tolley, Sandvik Mining’s Region Australia vice president. “Now, with miners looking to better ‘sweat their assets’ and get more out of them as part of an industry-wide drive to reduce costs, options such as rebuilding older machines to as-new OEM-spec condition are becoming increasingly popular.”

Sand washing with Terex Terex Washing Systems has been showcasing recently installed Aggwash sand washing systems in different part of the world.

The Terex Aggwash is a mobile washplant that brings together rinsing, screening, scrubbing and sand washing capabilities on a transportable single chassis. Primarily designed for the processing of construction and demolition waste but equally suited to virgin material applications, the system is capable of producing four grades of aggregate and one or two grades of sand with a capacity in excess of 70 tonnes per hour.

More information: www.terex.com/washing.

Advertisers Index Equip2................................................................................. 7 Fire Suppression Systems.................................................... 35 Chevron New Zealand......................................................... 31 Goughs.............................................................. IFC, 5, 14, 15 Metso............................................................................... OBC Mimico............................................................................... 39 Porter Equipment............................................................... 11 Position Partners................................................................ 13 Real Steel........................................................................... 33

40 October - November 2014 Q&M

REMco................................................................................IBC Rocktec.............................................................................. 21 Ryco Hydraulics.................................................................. 35 Total Oil............................................................................. 19 Transdiesel.......................................................................... 9 West-Trak Equipment........................................................... 3 Wirtgen NZ......................................................................... 37 Whangarei Moxy Hire.......................................................... 25

Just Crush It! Install REMco Rotor Technology in Your VSI and Experience What an Autogenous Rotor Can REALLY Do...

For years New Zealand aggregate producers have been misled about autogenous rotor technology simply because there was no real competitor to challenge the status quo.

Until Crushing and Mining Supplies NZ Limited became an authorized distributor of REMco products in New Zealand.

Producers that use REMco rotor technology are impressed with their results: • Lower horsepower (kw) per ton • Greater throughput with the same motor • Lower circulating load • 75mm feed size capability • Longer tungsten tip life • Longer service interval between rotor changes REMco also builds complete VSI crushers that feature heavy construction, pedestal bearing cartridge, oil lubrication, hydraulic top access and custom chamber configurations, all of which equal high production and the lowest cost per finished ton.

To find out what REMco technology can do for you Contact CMS and REMco

Any Material, Any Tonnage, Anywhere!

Mr. Jon McAllister

263 S Vasco Road • Livermore, CA 94551 • USA Tel: (925) 447-0805 • Fax (925) 447-7038 Email: crush@remcovsi.com Website: www.remcovsi.com

17 Rawhiti Ave Matamata, New Zealand 3400 Tel: 022 543 1234 Email: jon@cms-nz.co.nz

Rock solid screening Whatever you throw at them and wherever you use them, Metso’s stationary screens can take it. Our history, experience and worldclass engineering enable this equipment to handle even the hardest work, so that you get the results you need. With outstanding availability and uptime, you can rely on Metso’s equipment and reputation. They’re both rock solid.

Our distributor Metso www.metso.com/miningandconstruction For more information contact MIMICO. Phone 0800 806 464, www.mimico.co.nz

New Zealand 0800 806 464