NOV12-09

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Volume 6, Wednesday November 11th, 2009

Board

Property

Students

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Pages 9 - 11

Page 12

appointment for Kaye Doyle

Investment Feature

get a fresh taste of working life

Mine maintenance fast tracked

C

ontractors to BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam mine are having conflicting outcomes following the Clarke shaft accident last month. Kym Winter-Dewhirst, Vice President of Government and Community Relations for BHP Billiton told The Monitor, “The temporary closure of the Clark Shaft has had an impact on mine production and schedules. “The company has taken the opportunity of the temporary closure to bring forward significant maintenance work in the smelter and mills,” he said. Repair work to damaged equipment is well ad-

vanced with the removal of the haulage system’s winder, which this week was sent for repairs to Whyalla. Asked if there had been any cutbacks in contractors used at the mine, Mr. Dewhirst said, “Overall there has been no net reduction of contractor numbers at site, although there have been impacts amongst individual contractor companies. “The company has discussed scope changes with contracting companies and those companies have made their own decisions about contractor numbers.” The temporary closure of the Clark Shaft has enabled the company to bring forward significant

maintenance work originally scheduled for the 2010 calendar year, including a major smelter reline. The rescheduled maintenance work is set to begin on 16 November and run until mid-January. While the temporary loss of the Clark Shaft will impact contractor numbers at the site, this will be largely offset by new contractors coming on-site for the smelter maintenance work. One of the major contractors to Olympic Dam, Macmahon Holdings Ltd. said in a statement last week the shaft damage is likely to cut its contract revenue by about $10 million in the current financial year. The statement went on to say the reduced

workload isn’t material to the group’s overall earnings. Repair work to damaged equipment is well advanced with the removal of the haulage system’s winder, which next week will be sent for repairs to Whyalla. In addition, temporary equipment will be commissioned on 18 November that will allow repair work to commence inside the Clark Shaft. Macmahon provides mine development works at Olympic Dam and following the damage to the Clarke shaft it means there will be a temporary reduction in Macmahon’s underground work. “This has necessitated redeployment of some of the workforce.”


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