Protected: It takes a village to raise a mine

The logistics of building a mine is one thing. The logistics of building a mine more than 900kms from the nearest Toyota dealership is another. That’s what Metro Mining has done on Skardon River north of Weipa on the western side of Cape York. A bit more than two years into operation and managers are preparing to ramp up production to six million tonnes a year in 2021. That’s up from an anticipated 3.5 million tonnes mined this calendar year. It has been an exercise of military proportions. The mine has more than 100 different suppliers accounting for an inventory of more than 10,000 items valued in millions of dollars and a fleet of plant ranging from golf carts to Scania prime movers. Metro built Bauxite Hills from scratch with high supplier expectations, said maintenance superintendent Richard Hurst.“Existing suppliers and potential suppliers, service is what it's all about,” Mr Hurst said. “The example is, if I ring you up for a quote, whether you send it within five minutes or you send it within 24 hours or a week. “Generally, if I'm buying something that I don't have on stock it's because something's broken and I need it straight away, and that's where I class service. “We try and carry a large range of critical spares but we don't have everything and if I ring up and I'm chasing a supplier because I need a part for a car, it's just your service and your ability to supply the parts required.” “We've got light vehicles, Toyota cars, couple of Nissans. We've got Scania trucks; Caterpillar dozers, loaders; Komatsu excavators, Volvo dump trucks. So we've got a fair range of fleet, right down to Can-Am buggies and little electric golf carts that run around and do the linen at the camp.”The support shown by staff drawn from local communities had been central to the success of the operation, said Mr Hurst. They were increasingly been relied upon to provide scarce skills and trades and the mine had processes to include the cultural priorities in its day to day operations, he said. “We got trainees for admin, we got trainees for lab assistants and trainees for enviros. Every trainee's from Nggamadi traditional owners.“Out of my four diesel fitters that I have, one of them is Nggamadi, he’s done his apprenticeship in Bamaga. I'm more than happy with him. “We don't have a drama, so as long as we can get them with the right attitude they should be fine.”

Protected: It takes a village to raise a mine

Industry Queensland

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