Quarry Nov 2020

OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF QUARRYING AUSTRALIA

NOVEMBER 2020

To predict the future of mobile plant solutions, we may only need to look to the past

NAVIGATING COVID-19: A MANUFACTURER’S VIEW How has the mobile crushing and screening market performed during COVID-19?

32

LOOKING TO THE PAST AS A GUIDE TO THE FUTURE

24

18

Screening and Crushing Solutions

DUST SUPPRESSION UNIT IMPRESSES IN THE FIELD A fast, effective dust suppression solution goes mobile

IN THIS ISSUE NOVEMBER 2020

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 11

FEATURES 26 MADE TO MOVE How wheeled and tracked mobile conveyors can assist mobile crushing and screening plant.

28 ‘ON THE GROUND’ EFFICIENCY A North American frac sand producer achieves significant savings by turning to mobile, stackable conveyors.

30 MOBILE JAW PROVES METTLE IN VIC QUARRY

18

FROM PAST TO FUTURE To predict the future of mobile plant solutions, we may only need to look to the past.

22

FAMILY ENDORSEMENT A mobile plant distributor keeps the cogs turning at a family company’s quarries.

A contract crushing company’s latest mobile acquisiton has met the demands of a major freeway project.

36 WIPING AWAY DUST EXPOSURE IN QUARRIES How dust prevention solutions in an OEM’s crushing and screening products are protecting workers and the environment.

38 BELT CLEANING: JUST DEAL WITH IT How attentive producers can employ a range of cost-effective belt cleaning solutions that enhance efficiency.

44 SETTING THE BAR HIGHER FOR HANDRAIL SOLUTIONS

24

NAVIGATING COVID-19 How has the mobile crushing and screening market performed during COVID-19?

NOVEMBER 2020

OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF QUARRYING AUSTRALIA

www.quarrymagazine.com

NAVIGATING COVID-19: A MANUFACTURER’S VIEW How has the mobile crushing and screening market performed during COVID-19?

32

24

18

QUARRY

To predict the future of mobile plant solutions, we may only need to look to the past

DUST UNIT IMPRESSES A fast, effective dust suppression solution goes mobile.

46 FROM PITS TO PIT LAKES Academics explain the potential for reviving idle mine sites as vital assets for flood events, water retention and waste management.

NOVEMBER 2020

Screening and Crushing Solutions

LOOKING TO THE PAST AS A GUIDE TO THE FUTURE

32

From the design sheet to the quarry site, this is one ready-to-install handrail system that won’t cut corners.

DUST SUPPRESSION UNIT IMPRESSES IN THE FIELD A fast, effective dust suppression solution goes mobile

COVER ADVERTISER: The Precisionscreen Scorpion Reclaimer 8’ x 4’ has been specially built for the client that needs an efficient and economical screening plant with the features of larger plant.

Turn to page 18 or visit: precisionscreen.com.au

EVERY MONTH 04 FROM THE EDITOR

52 IQA NEWS

06 FROM THE PRESIDENT

53 FROM THE IQA CEO

08 NEWS THIS MONTH

54 GEOLOGY TALK

16 PRODUCT FOCUS

Quarry November 2020 3

EDITORIAL

WHY INNOVATION WILL BE VITAL IN THE POST-COVID-19 RECOVERY

A

fter a challenging, emotional eight months of strict lockdowns, border closures and tightened purse strings, everyone is undoubtedly thinking ahead to a better 2021.

By the time this issue hits desks, the Victorian economy should have reopened for business (after reducing its daily coronavirus case numbers to single figures). However, as Victoria emerges into the light, many countries in the northern hemisphere are being thrust into the dark as coronavirus cases escalate. It’s a stark reminder Australia cannot take the pandemic for granted, and it’s likely to hinder the ways that we live and work into 2021. Australia’s (and the quarrying industry’s) reliance on imported plant and equipment, spare parts and componentry could be hampered in the next 12 months, as the virus re-closes OEM facilities around the world and slows manufacturing processes and product launches.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Australian Government has recognised our manufacturing deficiencies have left the country exposed. Some local companies were co-opted to produce the essential items so craved at the start of the pandemic, eg a quarrying supplier that builds steam and pressure cleaners for use on earthmoving equipment found itself busier than ever as aged care facilities, hospitals and local government ordered its products to sanitise their public and outdoor amenities.

The Federal Government in the October budget unveiled a Modern Manufacturing Strategy (MMS) and additional funding for R&D tax incentives to drive growth, higher value employment and improve supply chain resilience in the postCOVID-19 era. The MMS identified six national manufacturing priorities of strategic importance, including resources technology and critical minerals processing. Under its Supply Chain Resilience Initiative, businesses will be eligible for funding where they can demonstrate a viable solution for 4 Quarry November 2020

addressing a supply chain vulnerability for a critical product. Similarly, under the Manufacturing Modernisation Fund, businesses will be eligible for grants of up to $1 million for initiatives that upgrade manufacturing processes and grow skilled workforces.

Paul Kerr, of Precisionscreen, this month talks about the importance of the global mobile plant solutions supply chain future proofing itself against economic shocks like COVID-19 (see page 18). In comments applicable to the rest of the extractive industry chain, he advocates OEMs and their Australian distributors collaborate so locally manufactured supplies are available in the event of disruption. In turn, Australian intellectual and technical expertise could flow back to the OEMs to enhance their product offerings. Perhaps the extractive industry could take advantage of the Federal Government’s recent Budget initiatives to make Kerr’s vision a reality.

Indeed, Precisionscreen is not the only Australian company punching above its weight. Polo Citrus Australia and Argo Extractive Solutions (page 32) are collaborating on an innovative mobile solution for curbing dust emissions in quarries – and the results are promising for operations struggling with containment. Last month, we profiled Rainstorm Dust Control, which is experimenting with an innovative approach to rock stemming in blasting, in a bid to reduce dust emissions and improve fragmentation.

The upshot of Australian suppliers leading and innovating in the manufacturing space is that there will be positives downstream for quarries, in terms of investment and productivity. As Australia embarks on a post-COVID-19 recovery, the extractive industry and its supply chain should reflect on how they can improve systems and processes, embrace and exploit opportunities, and boost skillsets.

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PRESIDENT’S REPORT

MENTORING YOUNGER PEOPLE IN THE QUARRY INDUSTRY The Institute of Quarrying

I

have been reflecting on the engagement of young people in our industry, the direction of the IQA Young Member Network (YMN) program and the demographic profile of our membership base. It’s clear that the industry needs to do much more to attract and develop younger people.

The IQA YMN has in the past successfully attracted younger people to assemble and participate in learning and professional development events and forums. The pandemic has prevented this from happening, although the development of virtual tours of operations will hopefully encourage our young members to engage with people from across Australia.

This led me to think about the longer-term and what I recommend we do to help mentor younger people in the quarry industry, in a more structured approach to their learning and professional development. The objective of a structured mentoring program is to provide younger, less experienced people with access to trusted and more experienced people who can share knowledge, skills, and life experience and guide them to reach their true potential.

Hopefully, we all have had a good mentor in our lives, either formally or informally. I know I have had mine, mostly informally. They have helped me work through complex situations, develop my knowledge, and whenever I have needed support they are part of my trusted network. I am sure a structured formal mentoring program would have provided even more benefit, as contact with my mentor was used sparingly, whereas in a formal process the mentor and mentee are committed to each other.

6 Quarry November 2020

Australia

The future of our industry rests in the hands of our younger people, whom we wish to attract as career-long IQA members. We want to provide an educational and professional development environment that enables them to reach their true potential.

Therefore, a formal IQA Mentoring Program will be considered after a requirements document is developed and presented to the IQA Board for review and further consideration. The IQA Mentoring Program will require volunteers to be trained in the role of a mentor and be available for young members to contact them. The IQA Mentoring Program will ensure the confidentiality of all parties and their respective employers.

Most industry veterans know just how hard it is to access knowledge and experience and usually go through the “school of hard knocks”. We can do more to give back and help our younger people. They don’t need the stress of learning the hard way and when it comes to safety, we know only too well what can happen if all the holes line up and inexperience is a factor. We owe it to the future of the industry and to the IQA which has provided much in this space of learning and networking.

I would be very interested in your thoughts about the development of the IQA Mentoring Program and encourage you to contribute to the requirements document. Email: president@quarry.com.au On behalf of the IQA Board and administration, I wish you, your family, and friends all the very best of health and happiness.

SHANE BRADDY President Institute of Quarrying Australia

Educating and connecting our extractive industry

quarry.com.au WE CAN DO MORE TO GIVE BACK AND HELP OUR YOUNGER PEOPLE. THEY DON’T NEED THE STRESS OF LEARNING THE HARD WAY

The Institute of Quarrying Australia’s goals are: 1. To provide world class professional development for the extractive industries.

2. To establish an Australasian Academy of Quarrying.

3. To align service offerings with industry needs.

IQA CONTACTS: Chief Executive Officer Kylie Fahey PO Box 1779 Milton BC QLD 4064 Phone: 0477 444 328 ceo@quarry.com.au Company Secretary Rod Lester Phone: 0408 121 788 rgl@rlester.com.au Finance Officer Gemma Thursfield Phone: 0402 431 090 gemma@quarry.com.au Web Maintenance, Graphic Design, ePrograms, IT Support Ryan Spence Phone: 0422 351 831 ryan.spence@quarry.com.au General, membership and financial inquiries should be directed to admin@quarry.com.au or phone 02 9484 0577.

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MAWSONS FLICKS THE SWITCH ON GREENER OPERATIONS ‘WE BELIEVE THIS IS THE RIGHT THING FOR US - AT THE RIGHT TIME’ JOHN MAWSON, MANAGING DIRECTOR, MAWSON BROS

Mawsons’ Pyramid Hill Quarry manager Alan Walsh and weighbridge clerk Linda McGillivray proudly display the 100 per cent renewable electricity sign at the quarry gate.

Regional concrete and quarry producer Mawsons is sourcing 100 per cent of its mains power supply from renewable electricity.

The family-owned extractive business has combined solar, wind and hydro power as part of its sustainability strategy, as it aims to reduce the environmental impact of its 50 sites in regional Victoria and southern New South Wales.

The renewable electricity grid will power plant and equipment in Mawsons’ concrete batch operations, hard rock quarries, gravel and sand pits, workshops, laboratories and administration offices in Victoria and NSW. Mawsons estimates the power across these sites accounts for the “vast majority” of its yearly electricity consumption. About 5200 tonnes

of carbon dioxide emissions will be saved each year through Mawsons’ adoption of renewable electricity.

From September, the company will buy its mains supply electricity through ENGIE, which generates and sells electricity across the globe.

ENGIE’s Australian division owns several of the largest renewable energy facilities in the country.

Mawsons managing director John Mawson said he is proud of his company being the first Australian concrete and quarrying business to switch to 100 per cent renewable electricity.

“We believe that this is the right thing for us to do and that now is the right time to do it,” he said.

“Anything that helps to reduce global warming and lower the chances of drought and bushfires in the future is well worthwhile. We also believe in helping local industries to grow and the renewable power sector is a major investor and employer in regional Australia.”

Andrew Hyland, ENGIE’s executive general manager for energy management, said its agreement with Mawsons was “a tangible example” of what ENGIE does best – “partner with progressive companies looking to access green energy, secured and delivered at competitive longterm prices”. •

BORAL NOMINATES SEVEN GROUP CEO IN BOARD REVAMP Seven Group Holdings’ (SGH) chief executive officer Ryan Stokes has been nominated for a position on the Boral board of non-executive directors.

As part of Boral’s board renewal, Stokes was one of three new non-executive directors nominated to stand for election at Boral’s annual general meeting on 27 October, 2020.

Former CSR managing director and CEO Rob Sindel and former MIM Holdings, Queensland Cotton and Aurizon chief financial officer Deborah O’Toole have also been appointed as independent non-executive directors.

Stokes has been a SGH executive director since February 2010 and CEO

8 Quarry November 2020

since 2015. He is also a chairman of Coates Hire, and a director of WesTrac, Beach Energy and Seven West Media.

SGH now has a 19.9 per cent stake in Boral, which is up nearly 10 per cent since June this year.

Boral directors John Marlay and Eileen Doyle have also announced they will retire from their roles at the company’s annual general meeting.

Seven Group CEO Ryan Stokes is one of three new nominations to Boral’s board of directors.

To ensure leadership stability during the board renewal, Boral chairperson Kathryn Fagg has confirmed she is ready to retire if not re-elected at the AGM.

to shareholder concerns over SGH’s “disproportionate” representation on the board.

SGH has also withdrawn a second board nomination of its chief financial officer Richard Richards after Fagg responded

Before joining SGH, Richards had previously served as deputy chief financial officer at Downer EDI. •

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NEWS

FEDERAL BUDGET DIGS DEEP FOR INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS The Federal Government has announced $14 billion in infrastructure spending as part of the 2020-21 Federal Budget, which it claims will generate 40,000 new jobs.

This will increase Australia’s 10-year infrastructure pipeline to a record $110 billion.

BORAL AGREES TO MARULAN SOUTH ROAD UPGRADE BORAL AIMS TO INCREASE PRODUCTION AT ITS MARULAN SOUTH LIMESTONE MINE TO FOUR MILLION TPA

The Goulburn Mulwaree Council announced it had entered a nonbinding heads of agreement with Boral to upgrade and realign part of Marulan South Road that accesses the mine to improve safety.

In 2018, Boral submitted a DA to the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment for the continuation and expansion of its open cut limestone mining operations.

A total of $7.5 billion of the $14 billion will be dedicated to transport infrastructure, with $2.7 billion in NSW, $1.3 billion in Queensland, $1.1 billion in Victoria, $1.1 billion in Western Australia, $625 million in South Australia, $360 million in Tasmania, $190 million in the Northern Territory and $155 million in the Australian Capital Territory.

The aggregates giant is aiming to increase its production to four million tonnes per annum as part of the mine’s upgrade.

Key infrastructure for the Marulan South Road upgrade includes relocation of a realignment of part of the road for the construction of an overburden placement.

Major projects will be funded across each state and territory, including $560 million for the Singleton Bypass on New England Highway in New South Wales, $750 million for Stage 1 of the Coomera Connector in Queensland, and $528 million for the Shepparton and Warrnambool Rail Line Upgrades in Victoria.

According to council minutes from 15 September 2020, a portion of Marulan South Road will form a “sweeper bend” and will be closed and sold. Boral is required to keep

A $2 billion investment has also been provided in road safety upgrades across the country, and an additional $1 billion will be provided to local councils to upgrade local roads, foothpaths and street lighting.

10 Quarry November 2020

ongoing public access to the adjacent properties.

According to the heads of agreement, Boral will fund and complete the upgrade works within two years of the mining lease being granted, and realignment works after Marulan South Road is closed within four years of the mining lease.

The value of the upgrade works is estimated to cost $4.5 million, while new road works will be $1 million.

Boral’s DA is still awaiting approval from the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. •

Adbri will supply concrete and lime to BHP’s Olympic Dam mine.

Adbri has been handed a fouryear contract extension as a supplier for BHP’s Olympic Dam mine in South Australia.

demonstrates the strength of our integrated cement and lime position as well as our high quality and costcompetitive product offering,” he said.

The $160 million contract involves the supply of cement and lime to BHP’s Olympic Dam mine in South Australia, which holds major copper, gold, silver and uranium deposits.

“We thank BHP for supporting a home-grown manufacturer over an imported product which protects local jobs and benefits the broader South Australian economy.”

The extension will run through to mid-2026 and represents a 20-year supply relationship between Adbri and BHP.

The Prime Minister (left) and Treasurer have announced a $14 billion investment for major infrastructure.

As part of its plan to expand its Marulan South limestone mine, Boral is proposing to upgrade the neighbouring Marulan South Road.

ADBRI RECEIVES BHP CEMENT AND LIME CONTRACT EXTENSION

According to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, the infrastructure investment for shovel-ready projects is based on a “use it or lose it basis”.

“If a state drags its feet, another state will get the money,” he said. •

Boral has agreed to upgrade Marulan South Road once its development application (DA) to expand the Marulan South limestone mine in New South Wales is approved.

The contract extension follows Alcoa’s decision to not extend its lime contract with Adbri after July 2021.

Adbri chief executive officer Nick Miller thanked BHP for continuing to choose local materials over imported alternatives.

The Olympic Dam mine is the largest copper operation in Australia and runs an integrated processing facility from ore to metal.

“We are pleased to extend our long-term relationship with BHP at its Olympic Dam Project which

Adbri recently scored a $29.1 million profit in the first half of 2020, despite the impacts of COVID-19. •

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EMPLOYERS TO RECEIVE WAGE SUBSIDY FOR APPRENTICESHIPS The Federal Government has pledged $1.2 billion to create 100,000 apprenticeships and traineeships across Australia as part of its COVID-19 recovery plan.

Until 30 September next year, businesses that employ a new Australian apprentice will receive a 50 per cent wage subsidy, up to $7000 per quarter.

AUSTRALIAN PCI ENJOYS SEPTEMBER LIFT VICTORIA SANK BELOW 30 POINTS. ANOTHER MONTH OF CONTRACTION IS PREDICTED FOR OCTOBER

Construction activity in Western Australia and South Australia turned positive (above 50 points), and New South Wales and Tasmania recorded a stable 50 points. Queensland’s PCI results improved but were just below the 50-point margin. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Victoria sank below 30 points, with another month of contraction expected in October.

The $1.2 billion adds to the existing $2.8 billion Supporting Apprentices and Trainees wage subsidy and the $1 billion JobTrainer program, taking the total commitments to $5 billion.

Australian Industry Group (Ai Group) head of policy Dr Peter Burn said the construction sector could look forward to growth in 2021 once Victoria’s COVID-19 restrictions were eased.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the apprenticeships would kickstart the careers of young people in industries such as construction and mining.

“While the Australian construction sector continues to contract, there are gathering signs of a tentative

“During this pandemic, the Federal Government has been focused on supporting and creating jobs as well as identifying the skills we need in the economic rebuild,” he said.

12 Quarry November 2020

The Australian PCI rose by 7.3 points to 45.2 in September. Image courtesy of Ai Group.

turnaround,” Burn said. “If hopes for easing of the Victorian restrictions and further fiscal support in the Federal Budget are realised, the construction sector should be in a position to contribute to overall growth into 2021.”

There were contractions in new orders for apartment building (43.3), commercial building (45.8) and engineering activity (29.5) in September, while house building took a positive turn to 56.9. Contraction refers to an index result below 50.

The Australian PCI’s activity index also increased to 42.4 in September, but remained in contraction.

September was the 25th consecutive month of contraction for the PCI. •

MT CARBINE QUARRIES MAKES FIRST DELIVERY TO BAMA

“Already 760,000 jobs that were either lost or reduced to zero hours as the COVID crisis hit have come back into our economy. We want to continue to recover what has been lost and get young people into work.

The Federal Government has announced wage subsidies for employers who hire new apprentices.

The construction industry’s overall performance eased in September, with the Australian PCI seeing a 7.3-point improvement to 45.2 points.

The index found construction activity resumption varied from state to state after the initial impacts of COVID-19 in the second quarter.

Employers of any size or industry in Australia are eligible for the subsidy, with the subsidies rolling out until the 100,000 apprenticeship cap is reached.

“Whether it’s the manufacturing, housing and construction, arts or mining sectors – this new wage subsidy gives businesses certainty to hire and provides a career path to aspiring, young tradies.” •

The Australian Performance of Construction Index (PCI) has bounced back in all states and territories outside of Victoria for September.

Mt Carbine Quarrying will supply roadbase for a FNQ project.

Mt Carbine Quarrying Operations is delivering quarry products to Bama Civil as part of a $4 million road infrastructure project contract in the Cook Shire, Far North Queensland.

Mt Carbine quarry, with the company expecting production costs and profitability to improve with a “further alignment of the ore sorting operations”.

Speciality Metals International Limited (SEI) subsidiary Mt Carbine Quarrying Operations signed the $4 million contract with Bama in July.

SEI chief executive officer Kevin MacNeill said producing ahead of time has allowed the company to enter separate contracts.

The road construction project is part of the Queensland Government’s Peninsula Development Road in the Cook Shire. SEI announced that additional deliveries will take place for the rest of the year.

“It is great to see the delivery of the Bama products get underway,” he said. “We had been producing the initial products in anticipation of the contract delivery dates, so we are well placed and on target.”

An increased crushing capacity has been added to the quarry production output for the project.

This involves modernisation of the

Bama is an 100 per cent indigenous-owned civil construction services company, with a workforce made up of more than 70 per cent Indigenous personnel. •

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NORTHERN TERRITORY USES RECYCLED ASPHALT FOR THE FIRST TIME Two major Darwin roads will be paved with recycled asphalt in a first-ever initiative for the Northern Territory.

A $1.6 million contract to upgrade seven roads was awarded by the City of Darwin to upgrade a selection of its roads with sustainable material.

Two out of the seven roads – East Point Road in Fannie Bay and Marina Boulevard in Cullen Bay – will have their roads surfaced with recycled asphalt.

The environmentally friendly material is made from soft plastics and waste toner from used printer cartridges and oils.

Downer Group will pave the roads with its recycled asphalt, with Downer Group NT surfacing manager Greg Farmilo saying he was proud of the partnership with the City of Darwin.

“Downer has been successfully using sustainable recycled asphalt in major roadway projects across Australia for many years,” he said.

“This is a tried and tested product that has demonstrated its value as a replacement for traditional road surfaces and the benefits of its use as a mechanism to divert waste from landfill are enormous.”

The recycled material will save an estimated 12 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. •

GLOBAL CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT TO INCREASE BY 2030 OXFORD ECONOMICS’ PREDICTIONS ARE RELIANT ON THE INTRODUCTION OF A COVID-19 VACCINE IN 2021

Oxford Economics has forecast that global construction activity will jump to $USD5.8 trillion ($6.9 trillion) by 2030, despite recent impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a new report by the global economic firm, construction activity will rise by $USD1.5 trillion within the next 10 years.

Two-thirds of the growth is expected to occur in China, the United States, India and Indonesia.

The Oxford Economics report also expects total construction output in the US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to reach nearly $USD1.3 trillion by 2030.

The report is based on the proviso a vaccine will be introduced by early 2021, and there is no second wave of COVID-19 cases globally.

BIS Oxford Economics, an Australian subsidiary to Oxford Economics, expects growth in construction work done in Australia to stay negative in the 2021 financial year.

BIS Oxford Economics’ associate director of construction and infrastructure, Adrian Hart, told Quarry that engineering construction activity

14 Quarry November 2020

would cushion the sector in the coming years, due to a spike in work on major infrastructure projects driven by government stimulus packages and the private sector.

He predicted Australia is likely to see a bounce back in non-residential building activity well before the residential market.

“The residential market is going to be quite weak in terms of new construction, even with government subsidies and support,” he said. “With population growth a key driver, it will take time for this sector to recover.” •

CEMENT-FREE CONCRETE TO COMBAT SEWERAGE PROBLEM RMIT University researchers have developed a cement-free concrete that can withstand corrosion and prevent “fatbergs” in sewerage pipes.

The research team created a form of zero cement concrete that can prevent sewerage pipe maintenance by reducing the amount of residual lime that creates fatbergs – congealed piles of mass made up of fat, grease, oil and non-biodegradable waste.

The City of Darwin has partnered with Downer Group to pave roads with recycled xxx aggregates from soft plastics and waste toner. Image courtesy of Downer.

Adrian Hart: Forecasts more infrastructure projects driven by stimulus packages.

By creating a concrete that prevents free lime, a compound that leads to corrosion and fatbergs, the research team has created an alternative to Portland cement concrete that is a blend of by-products including nanosilica, fly ash, slag and hydrated lime.

The RMIT research team’s Dr Rajeev Roychand said the zero cement

A fatberg displayed at Melbourne Museum.

Image courtesy of Museums Victoria/RMIT.

concrete provides an eco-friendly alternative for sewerage pipes.

“Our zero cement concrete achieves multiple benefits: it’s environmentally friendly, reduces concrete corrosion by 96 per cent and totally eliminates residual lime,” Roychand said.

The research team aims to partner with manufacturers and government to use its zero cement concrete. •

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The Precisionscreen Roadmasta was inspired by its forerunner the Ultimate wheeled plant.

GOING MOBILE

MOBILE TRENDS:

LOOKING TO THE PAST AS A GUIDE TO THE FUTURE As we near the end of a turbulent year, what does the future hold for the quarrying industry and the broader mobile crushing and screening solutions segment? Precisionscreen general manager Paul Kerr tells Damian Christie why we need to look back on the past to be inspired for the future.

Y

ou might think that mobile crushing, screening and conveying is a relatively “young” subset of the greater quarrying field. In some respects, it is, in other respects, it isn’t.

Mankind has, throughout its long history, explored and perfected ways and means of making fixed or static plant, equipment and instruments more portable – from siege engines to toilets to the telephone.

Indeed, one of the earliest examples of a portable or mobile crusher today is on display at the Buskerud Vegvesens Museum in Kongsberg, Norway. The Dravn 3B pendulum crusher first came to the Norwegian Public Roads Administration from England in 1900.

The 3.6-tonne crusher, which was mounted on a wagon-style chassis, had a power consumption of 11kW, a jaw opening of 1800mm x 3000mm, and an output of up to 3m3 per hour. Despite its simplicity by modern day standards, the ingenuity behind it inspired Buskerud’s iron foundry to start production of its own crushing plant 15 years later and founded a local manufacturing industry that prospered until the beginning of the Second World War. 18

Quarry November 2020

Paul Kerr, the general manager of national mobile crushing and screening plant manufacturer and distributor Precisionscreen, has a keen interest in the history of mobile crushers and screens. He credits industrialisation and legislative changes around the world – particularly in Ireland, where farmers and landholders opened borrow pits in the late 19th century – for ushering in the first machines and methods that would evolve into today’s mobile crushing and screening market.

“People could move equipment around and avoid restrictions of tariffs,” Paul explained.

“With large places now, you have big royalties and a lot of regulation, but back then, you could find a hole, dig some dirt up and move on. It wasn’t viable to have a fixed plant in the area but it was viable to do what we call campaign crushing now, which was to move a plant around, crush and screen, use internal screens which were the first things that were mobile. Once you found somewhere with a bit of gravel, you’d screen it into sizes and then you’d move on. It meant that one person didn’t have to have all the capital, and lots of smaller players, whether they were farmers

and landholders, could get an extra return on their property.”

He added the story behind the origins of the mobile market continues today. “A huge part of the success of mobile crushers and screens has been the legislative drive which has created easy access to capital.

It’s made it easier to get in, get going and get a production run happening. It means people don’t need to invest for as long a term. A mobile plant allows some people to get a pilot project off the ground or a new site developed without the impost of having to comply with lots of regulation, and that’s always given the mobiles something of an edge. And some people, once they’re in production and making money, then have to decide whether to change that and heavily invest in capital for a static plant. It’s the flexibility of the mobile plant that has kept it advantageous. It’s not so much the technical development but more the flexibility of the capital.”

LUCK OF THE IRISH Paul, who is Irish-Australian, credits Ireland with being the “heart” of the global mobile

crushing and screening segment. Today, County Tyrone in Northern Ireland is a major bastion of mobile crushing and screening plant manufacturing – being home to a range of respected homegrown and international brands, including Finlay, Powerscreen, Evoquip, Tesab, Sandvik, and McCloskey.

“Mobile screening and crushing is a big world market but it’s really a niche in every country,” Paul said. “Ireland was the only country that got ahead far enough in its day to day whole supply stream to manufacture equipment over there.

“For Ireland, and particularly Northern Ireland, mobile crushing and screening is actually a major industry. The technical schools and training institutions are dedicated to creating the systems that allow people to come from that pastoral background and move into sales, distribution, services and support, to a certain extent.”

Paul agrees with the inference that the modern age of mobile crushing and screening began with the inception of the Finlay brand in 1958. That year, John Finlay, a veteran operator of aggregate, sand and gravel operations in County Tyrone, designed and launched the world’s first hydraulic screen, featuring a single-shaft screenbox. Finlay Hydrascreens would eventually be bought by Terex in 1999 – but Terex retained the Finlay brand name, such was its global reputation.

“Finlay was the first to really do it in a production-orientated scenario, that is, get the production line right for the equipment and turn it into a production machine,” Paul said. “Powerscreen [also now owned by Terex] was the one that probably led the way on marketing and made a lot of the growth and in-roads into the overseas markets. It excelled in the distribution and marketing.”

Paul added that while innovations in the mobile crushing and screening market have come out of America and Australia, “no one nowhere else has had that same success” as the Irish.

In turn, Paul said that, much like members of his own family in Australia, Irish-born emigrants have helped to further mobile crushing and screening solutions in overseas markets. “I would say a lot of it is the community grown from Ireland to all around the world. There is a commonality among many people in the supply chain which means the connection between family and friendship groups stays strong, and that makes it easier for people with those connections to get the right information, so it gives them a leg-up. If you know people

The Dravn 3B pendulum crusher on display at the Buskerud Vegvesens Museum in Kongsberg, Norway.

The Roadmasta 48’ x 10’ is a combined crushing and screening unit on a towable tri-axle chassis that is suitable for making roadbase materials.

from four or five factories or manufacturers, and you’ve dealt and worked with them, it gives you more influence in terms of market knowledge. Knowing the right person and the right factories is always important, and coming from that Irish background gives you a leg-up, the advantage of knowing where to get that knowledge.”

Paul added that he sees the merits, based on the Irish experience, of Australia moving back towards manufacturing, and particularly bespoke manufacturing in the light of COVID-19, but that “the supply chain and the value proposition in Ireland is going to be hard to beat for a while.

“For me the biggest part of my business is what we build locally, so it’s important that gets reflected, but the historical knowledge of Ireland, it’s a very strong place to come from.

Again, it’s the knowledge and contacts of a niche mobile industry around the world.”

AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIOUSNESS Precisionscreen itself is an archetype of Australian industriousness. The company was started by Paul’s father Harold, an engineer who spent 11 years working on mobile plant and equipment in Ireland for the likes of Terex, Svedala (now Sandvik) and Tesab before he migrated to Brisbane with his family in the early 1980s to start his own mobile crushing and screening business.

For more than three decades (established in 1986), Precisionscreen has been an influential supplier of plant and equipment to the Australian quarrying, recycling, extractive, mining and bulk materials handling industries.

From an operation of just two people, the company comprises more than 40 personnel today. It manufactures more than 30 crushing, screening and washing plants, and more than 50 ancillary products. Outside of Australia, its equipment can be found in more than 15 countries.

Quarry November 2020 19

GOING MOBILE

Harold Kerr told Quarry that his passion for the mobile market just ran in his blood. “It’s more of a desire to take on a challenge and meet it,” he said. “It’s also trying to look at what the problem is and get the customer what they need to meet it. You do that whether there’s profit there or not.”

Paul said one of his father’s drivers was “machinery that was designed to be easy to work in remote environments. When he came out to Australia in the early 1980s, there were a lot of remote sites and the supply chain wasn’t as reliable or as sturdy as it is now. His impetus from day one was to design machinery that the person on-site can maintain as easily and as reliably as possible, without relying on externalities”.

One of the first machines that Harold Kerr developed for the Australian market was the Scout, a two-metre by one-metre (6’ x 3’) mobile screenbox with a belt feeder.

“The Scout was the first screener built in Australia to fit the smaller operator,” Harold recalled. “It was a bulletproof little machine you could actually start with, and it was well priced at the beginning. We even had cases where people bought them for more than the price they were worth as new.”

Another machine Precisionscreen manufactured was the Ultimate, the first of the larger Australian-manufactured mobile plants.

Harold also described it as “a bulletproof machine, beyond anything else available in the world at the time. At the time we joked that it was the biggest machine in the world”.

“The Ultimate was a wheeled machine that was suitable for pulling on the road around Australia and it was a precursor to the models that became the Roadmasta and the Super Reclaimer,” Paul elaborated. “It was fairly unique at the time in that it was designed in Australia for Australian conditions, and it was designed to be easily transportable. The first tracked machine we built was the Trackmasta and as far as I know, it was the largest tracked mobile machine built for its time. We built it very early in Australia before tracked machines were common around the world.”

Precisionscreen has manufactured and sold numerous tracked and wheeled plant over the past three decades, including homegrown mobile crushers, screens, stockpilers, conveyors, washing plants, pugmills, precoaters, silos and hoppers, and trommels.

These include the Scorpion range of mobile precoaters and pugmills, tracked screens such as the Super Reclaimer and the Pitbull twin-decks and the triple-deck Trackmasta 2053. Its portable crushing units include the Trackcrush vertical shaft impact crusher and the Roadmasta 48” x 10”.

In 2016, the company joined the Australian 20

Quarry November 2020

The portable Scorpion pugmill has been designed to work with various applications for mixing.

Made campaign as a licensee and all of its homegrown products now carry the familiar kangaroo logo. “There is an intimate understanding of the moniker ‘Made in Australia’, and that is very important to us,” Paul said. “Whenever we’re part of a program, the one thing we always want to do is ensure that we know what is homegrown, what is made locally and try to help explain the values of that program both upstream and downstream.”

FUTURE CHALLENGES Over the journey, Precisionscreen has also been a distributor and dry hire rental service for a variety of international brands. It is currently the distributor for Tesab and Trackstack mobile products in all states and territories (bar Western Australia). In turn, the company has benefitted from a large warehouse of spare parts and components, particularly in critical and hydraulic componentry, for its imported and homegrown plant and equipment.

Paul Kerr said that there is a higher awareness of the Tesab brand around Australia now than when Precisionscreen took up the licence. “I think the branding has definitely strengthened, and people are really confident in the brand, particularly in light of the way the world now is with COVID-19,” he said. “Convincing people to put their support behind the brand is a big part of building the strategy. It’s been a very hard year to take on a new brand and try to come up with internal competencies, as we’ve had to put aside plans, in terms of internal staff training.

“The advantage of us manufacturing our own gear is that during COVID-19 we’ve not been relying on factories that were closed down or staff who are unavailable, and technical expertise that we can’t fly in to the country. That is similar for everyone and every brand that’s imported but different from what’s done locally.”

While there has long been the view that Industry 4.0 (aka the Internet of Things) would play a great role in connecting plant and equipment to more efficient processes and systems, Paul believes that with the intervention of COVID-19, there will not be dramatic changes in the Australian mobile market.

“My biggest feeling is that there is going to be a bigger push for local supply, and with the fears and experiences of COVID-19, the biggest change will be that people will want to know that long volume componentry can be manufactured locally,” he said. “Downtime is going to be critical and people can’t afford to wait for weeks. The supply chain is going to take a long time to come back to the same speed.

So I think over the next five to eight years, what the market is going to be demanding is that partnerships strengthen to the point where a larger percentage of the sub-component/ emergency parts are produced locally. That will be a big change and will mean that when people are designing new machines, they will need to take advantage of existing spares, high volume components and redundancies. People will want equipment to have that mixture of reliability and when there is an issue, the ability to support it quickly and timely will become more important. I think the designs will be focused on that over the next few years, rather than dramatic technological changes at this stage.”

The Kerrs – both father and son – do not foresee Australia being able to take on the mantle of Ireland’s niche in mobile crushing and screening manufacturing.

Harold said Precisionscreen’s strength over the decades has been in catering for the Australian market. “The advantage that we have is the difference in the freight costs covers some of the other costs that we would have. However, it’s much cheaper to build in Ireland – for instance,

the wages and all the other factors that add to the cost of employing people are lower.

“In the past, generally what’s come from overseas was the stock. The big strength we’ve always had is that we’ve been able to customise but it’s also our weakness because it costs us. It’s not a take or leave it situation. We do what we always set out to do which is give the customer what they need.”

However, Paul said even if manufacturing cannot take off in Australia, the country has capable technical people and could still be a centre for technical development within the global crushing and screening market. “I think the difference will be in terms of the supply chain, there will be a lot more collaboration between dealers and buyers, and in that context I think Australia will play a very big part. I’m finding that people in Europe or the States, where traditionally we’d have very little collaboration, are reaching out now as they’re struggling to get information from the centralised factories. They’re reaching out to people that might have the expertise on sidelines ways of communication. From that perspective, I think Australia can be a big contributor and obviously

as people realise that knowledge comes from Australia, it will help Australia’s kudos when it comes to machine design. At the very least, machinery may be designed in Australia or field trialled in Australia or Australia becomes a reference point for product suitability innovation for crushing and screening plants around the world.”

In turn, if Australia was to move into technical expertise, then that would have benefits for the domestic quarrying market. “I think it would create better reliability, better stability of products, and definitely some performance increases,” Paul said. “If machines are better designed for the environment and more robust, then you end up with higher reliability and higher production for similar investment costs. If investment costs per tonne are up on the initial investment, the overall outcome is a better return on capital.”

With COVID-19 having in the past year devastated world markets and also impacted on the availability of components and spare parts in the supply chain, Paul Kerr believes observing the history and past successes of mobile screening and crushing, both globally and at

home, plays into the importance of Australian manufacture and support.

“With COVID, I think the historical narrative lays the way for the future, which is that all countries need to be more self-reliant on their own production, their own ability to be managed, to repair and to continue with equipment, no matter where it came from originally,” Paul said.

“I think people are going to want machines with an extended life span, and that means for some of the traditional manufacturers like ourselves, people may want a plant that they can invest in and they know can keep running for an extended period of time. If changes like what’s happened rock us again, you don’t want a machine that you know is going to fail in 18 months, you want something that’s still going to be functional in two years, five years, 10 years – with minimal investment.”

As the Dravn 3B once inspired the Norwegians to manufacture their own crushers, perhaps Australia, spearheaded by local firms like Precisionscreen, can play a significant role in furthering innovations that will make mobile crushing and screening plant even more competitive for quarry producers the world over. •

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GOING MOBILE

A bird’s eye view of the J50 and the C44.

MOBILE PLANT DISTRIBUTOR

RECEIVES FAMILY COMPANY’S TICK OF APPROVAL An Australian-based crushing and screening distributor has kept the cogs turning at a family business’s local quarries for more than a decade. Nickolas Zakharia reports.

R

eceiving reliable, adequate services in a quarry operation can often come down to maintaining a positive business/customer relationship.

In the age of COVID-19, this is often done virtually, but there is still great merit in dealing with local companies – especially those with the heritage to back it.

For more than 30 years, Mobile Screening and Crushing Group (MSC Group) has been a major supplier of mobile screening and crushing equipment solutions in Australia.

The wholly owned Australian company has continued to operate under the Barr family since it was founded in 1986.

Operating out of its Brisbane, Newcastle and Melbourne branches, the company is now one of the country’s leading suppliers of mobile crushing and screening equipment.

The company also offers McCloskey’s range of stackers and washers for quarrying applications.

MSC Group’s market position was elevated when it became a dealer for McCloskey International’s full range of products in 2008.

McCloskey is globally recognised for its mobile screening and crushing equipment that is manufactured in Canada and Northern Ireland, and MSC Group is the sole authorised distributor of its machines for

22

Quarry November 2020

the eastern states of Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. (888 Crushing & Screening Equipment handles orders for Western Australia and the Northern Territory.)

In 2014, MSC Group was awarded the Global Dealer of The Year Award by McCloskey International.

MSC Group’s chief executive officer Kirwan Barr told Quarry one area the company has seen major value in is the ability for customers to hire equipment before they make a purchase.

“We see a real benefit in offering customers the option to rent equipment to decide whether it fits their requirements,” Barr said.

Providing its services under the philosophy of fairness and integrity, MSC Group operates a large rental fleet of late model mobile screening and crushing equipment.

On top of its new and used and hire equipment services, MSC Group also has a well-stocked range of spare parts that are available for not only McCloskey equipment but all makes of mobile crushing and screening equipment.

Barr said many of MSC’s workers had been with the company for well over a decade.

“Something that makes MSC unique is that a lot of the same people who were here when the company started are still working here,”

he added. “Our senior management team has all been with us for at least 10 years.”

Barr also said the company’s direct focus on mobile crushing and screening equipment puts it at a level above competing distributors, who may only include crushing and screening as part of their services.

“We are experts in mobile crushing and screening,” he said. “Being a local company also lets us service our customers quickly and efficiently.”

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK Among MSC’s long-term clients is Mawsons Concrete & Quarries (Mawsons). Mawsons has been utilising MSC’s crushing and screening services for about 10 years.

The McCloskey equipment purchased and hired by Mawsons has helped drive quarry products for infrastructure across the country.

“Mawsons is a quarrying contract company which produces numerous quarry products, including concrete aggregates, road-based materials and other construction products,” Gilbert said.

The company employs a combination of fixed and mobile crushing, scalping, washing and screening plants for its aggregates products, supplying both class A and B stone. Among its other products are crushed

rock and roadbase materials that can be supplied in large and small volumes.

Gilbert said he has hands-on experience with MSC Group, having “been involved in the purchase of seven bits of gear from MSC” that have assisted Mawsons quarries to continue to produce quality materials. “In all, we have about 10 or 11 bits of gear from them over the years,” he said.

According to Gilbert, the McCloskey mobile plant includes a J50 jaw crusher with pre-screen, two J50V2 jaw crushers, two C44 cone crushers, two S190-2 screens, a single S190-3 screen, two 20m (65’) tracked stackers, two wheeled stackers, a single S130-2 screen, and two dewatering screens.

Mawsons has bought and rented MSC Group’s equipment for its applications, with the latter being a huge benefit through MSC Group’s “try before you buy” approach.

According to Gilbert, many of the products Mawsons purchased from MSC Group were first hired to trial the machines.

“We have bought and hired MSC’s crushing and screening equipment,” he said. “By hiring, we are able to test McCloskey’s new crushing and screening equipment and determine if we should make a purchase.

“Generally, the purchases had come from a rental agreement. So we rented a product for a period of time, and then decided to purchase it due to our needs.

“We have also bought more equipment on the back of those original rental agreements, so we have made straight outright purchases as well.”

AFTERMARKET ASSISTANCE Mawsons have also used MSC’s crushing and screening expertise for part of its maintenance and repair work.

The J50 jaw crusher typically produces a larger product stockpile.

Gilbert said a key advantage in MSC being an Australian company is that services and equipment delivery can be conducted quickly and efficiently.

“I haven’t had any issues if something had to be done,” he said. “If it’s urgent, they will drop everything to come and do it, if it’s a job that’s in a week they’ll be there within a week to do it.

“They’ve certainly always been there to help us when we’ve been in trouble.

“If we can’t model our equipment to do jobs that we’re trying to do, they’ll be the first ones to give us advice or come and visit us to achieve the outcome we’re looking for.”

Barr also stated that the locality of MSC’s services plays a significant role in the company’s availability for its customers.

“Being a local company with branches in Brisbane, Newcastle and Laverton allows means we are closer to the sites that use our equipment,” he said.

Due to the long-running experience of MSC’s personnel, advice and solutions can often be provided over the phone from the

company’s service desk.

“We think that’s another good aspect of MSC,” Gilbert said. “We can often get things diagnosed by just calling their service desk.”

Gilbert said that Mawsons uses McCloskey’s crushers and screens due to the value and performance associated with the brand.

“Price is obviously a factor,” he said.

“McCloskey represents competitive equipment that is capable of doing the jobs that we need it to do.”

The locality and value for money that MSC and its products represent is what has seen Mawsons use its services for more than a decade.

“There’s a lot of value there and the gear they sell is very affordable,” Gilbert said.

“I think with MSC being a family-related company, it fits Mawsons’ business model.

We ourselves are a family company that works with businesses locally as best we can to provide a quality service.” •

A mobile circuit of McCloskey mobile plant processes Class 4 materials at Mawson’s Lake Cooper Quarry, 49km northwest of Bendigo.

Quarry November 2020 23

GOING MOBILE

A mobile circuit comprising a J40 mobile crusher, a R155 reclaimer and a S190-2 screen.

NAVIGATING COVID-19: A MANUFACTURER’S PERSPECTIVE

G

lobal disruptors can bring any industry to a stop without warning, whether they are related to health, climate, natural disaster, environment, geopolitics or economics. COVID-19, with its broad spectrum of economic, geopolitical, health and safety and societal repercussions impacted businesses around the world, many of whom are still navigating through difficult operating conditions.

These conditions are fluid, as regions experience fluctuations in identified cases, making forecasting difficult, if not impossible in some cases. Reaction is still the norm for many in light of this. However, according to a recent study by Oxford Economics1, the global Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), which indicates the direction of economic trends in the manufacturing and service sectors, has recovered lost ground. Despite a drop in global GDP, optimism is growing for export yet remains weak in relation to preCOVID levels.

For manufacturing serving industries deemed essential services, the road has been less difficult. Sectors that were deemed essential could maintain operations during the pandemic, particularly those contributing

24

Quarry November 2020

construction and the construction and demolition industries. Resources continued to be mined and processed to maintain the flow of raw materials to these industries. This means that the same production capacity is needed, in spite of the pandemic, and in some countries the demand for crushed stone is even higher than pre-COVID-19.

McCloskey SVP Toni Laaksonen: Producers are turning to mobile solutions in a period of uncertainty.

to infrastructure, construction, minerals and mining. They did not go untouched yet fared better than others.

Despite the global pandemic, most aggregates producers and contractors are continuing their operations as near normal.

The industry is seen as a critical one globally, supporting projects such as road and railway

PIVOT TO PARTS, SERVICE, RENTAL The sector that builds, including construction and infrastructure, has seen a shift in demand due to economic uncertainty.

Some customers have postponed their equipment investment decisions due to the uncertainty caused by the slower economy.

As the average age of the fleet starts to increase, demand is generated for parts and service. Companies choose to work with the equipment they have on hand, rather than invest in new equipment. For the supply chain and equipment manufacturers, this is a boost to their business as they supply and support the components that keep the equipment running, and the productivity for customers humming.

The general economic slowdown and uncertainty have also resulted in a pivot for

some to rental equipment, rather than the commitment to new machines. These shortterm rentals have also had a positive impact, as the plant often has to be refurbished after the rental period. The increase of the rental and the rent-to-own market has contributed to the strength of the aftermarket support and services sector. Most equipment manufacturers require proper preventative maintenance, eg maintenance inspections, frequent wear part and oil changes and condition monitoring during the rental period, conducted both by the end user and the equipment provider. This requirement further increases the need for aftermarket services related to the equipment rental business.

The other trend we are seeing is the increase in global demand for mobile plant.

Stationary plants typically have a longer and more expensive installation, and ultimately are in the same location for the remainder of the product’s life. Instead of investing in static plant configurations, many of the customers are turning to mobile crushing

and screening solutions in this period of uncertainty. They are faster to set up and easier to relocate to new aggregate production sites. This flexibility, continuous quality and reliability improvement of the mobile solutions will secure a positive longterm market development for mobile crushers and screens.

DEMANDS LEADS TO MOBILE NEEDS For our customer base, we are seeing continuous growth related to global crushed stone demand, which is one of the key underlying factors contributing to the strength of the mobile crushing and screening market.

Crushed stone demand has remained comparatively steady, maintaining levels similar to pre-pandemic production.

The general expectation is that this demand will continue to grow immediately after the pandemic, as stimulus spending is launched by governments to recover economies and restore balance. These programs will boost the demand for crushed stone within 12

to 18 months and in tandem increase the mobile crushing and screening market. When considering these facts, our expectation is that in 12 months the crushing and screening market will bounce back approximately to the pre-COVID-19 levels of 2019 and further increase in 2022.

Global disruptors are to be expected in our increasingly interconnected world, yet they can create opportunities for both manufacturers and producers within the industries they serve and allow them to contribute to the recovery. While the end of COVID-19 is not yet in sight, it can be assumed that not only a return to normal will follow but future growth can be anticipated in its aftermath. • Toni Laaksonen is the senior vice president of McCloskey International.

REFERENCE & FURTHER READING 1. Source: Oxford Economics/Haver Analytics/HIS MarkIt. https://ihsmarkit.com/products/pmi.html

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GOING MOBILE

MADE TO MOVE:

CONVEYORS DESIGNED TO SUPPORT MOBILE CRUSHING AND SCREENING SYSTEMS Mobile crushing and screening solutions can be ideal for fast set-up and processing of aggregates. But what about the stockpiling, loading and shipping of the final product?

At a time when the viability of some vehicles in load and haul is up for debate, there are strong arguments for wheeled and tracked mobile conveyors.

A tracked Terex TC75LL Orbital radial stacker feeds a wheeled TC14036W.

W

hen it comes to deciding on which conveyor best meets your production goals, there is a comprehensive range of robust, reliable and efficient bulk material handling and stockpiling solutions through Terex Jaques with the recently launched ProStack brand. Key markets and applications for the tailored conveyor range include aggregates, mining, recycling, agriculture, ports and terminals and other bulk material handling industries.

Today, the range comprises of tracked and wheeled mobile conveyors, high and low level tracked feeders and the recently launched telescopic range and bulk reception feeders.

The portfolio has been designed to include a multitude of options to tailor these machines to meet customer demands.

“We developed these products to meet our customers’ needs, providing a solution for conveying application requirements with the best possible product quality and productivity,” Terex Jaques’ business line director John Flynn explained.

RADIAL TELESCOPIC CONVEYORS The comprehensive range of radial telescopic conveyors are available from 42m up to 58m in length, with capacities up to 1500 tonnes per 26

Quarry November 2020

hour (tph) in standard specification. They come in a wheeled portable format and are further enhanced with on-board hydraulic systems, allowing for quick, efficient site deployment.

Advanced programmable logic controller (PLC) automation and radio remote control of the radial, telescopic and luffing movements allow creation of large precise desegregated stockpiles, loading material carrying vessels, barges and ships or being integrated into existing bulk handling operations.

BULK RECEPTION FEEDERS The bulk reception feeders can receive high volume material feeds, delivering a steady uniform material flow onto secondary material handling systems. These conveyors are purpose-built for loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains and more. The 10-12 feeder has a 1200mm wide belt design that can handle up to 1000 tph and discharge the material at a maximum height of 3.1m. The larger 15-18 feeder has a 1800mm belt and can handle 1500 tph discharging at a height of 3.5m. The bulk reception series can drastically increase the efficiency and productivity of any material handling operation.

With TLC automation, the newest radial telescopic conveyor has a 42m reach and

delivers production rates of up to 600 tph. It can be towed fully assembled or broken down into three 12m (or 40’) HQ shipping containers for easy transport. The powered wheeled radial drive ensures an area of 270 degrees to be reached from a single feed-in point, without moving the equipment. The flexibility and efficiency of this equipment means it can be used in many applications long- and short-term.

TRACKED & WHEELED CONVEYORS Tracked and wheeled conveyors complement mobile crushing and screening equipment and are available from 15m up to 31m, with capacities of up to 600 tph in standard specification. As production moves around the site, conveyors can be easily repositioned alongside mobile and static crushing and screening plants. The introduction of a tracked feeder can provide a secondary controlled feed into materials processing operations and can be utilised across an operation to manage material. Mobile conveyors also offer flexibility when quick turnaround is needed on-site as conveyors can be quickly and easily transported in and set up.

WHY CONVEYORS? For quarry owners, the cost of using wheel

loaders is becoming unsustainable. Choosing a conveyor over a loader to stockpile material allows quarry owners to cope with bigger production levels as well as cutting the cost of diesel and the cost of operators to control them. It equates to less downtime and more efficiency throughout the crushing and screening material processing operation. A conveyor also improves site safety, through the reduction of loader and haulage truck movements. Conveyors can maintain consistent product specification by eliminating double handling and minimising compaction of material.

CONVEYOR SELECTION Selecting the right conveyor for an application can be daunting. Factors to consider include the size and shape of the material, the condition of the material (eg dry, wet, sticky), and the quantity of material being moved as well as the needs of the site. For example, does the material handling solution need to be portable? Is the ground prepared for the use

A Prostack Telson 4-42 works in conjunction with a Prostack Ranger 6-24LS.

of wheels or tracks? Will the conveyor create stockpiles on-site or load the material directly into a container to move out? The wide range of material handling solutions offered by Terex allows the team to customise solutions to the application and site needs.

Terex Jaques has recently commissioned several conveyors out of its Melbourne facility.

The TC80-T tracked conveyor, fitted with the dual power option, was selected by a producer because of its portability, self-deployment and capacity to position itself in different locations on site. The aptitude of this unit to be operated with an electric drive when at a fixed quarry site and to convert to a diesel drive when operating

on a remote site with tracked crushing and screening equipment provides great flexibility.

Two recently delivered TC5032W wheeled conveyors are now working in confined spaces where heavier conveyors are unable to manoeuvre.

The range of mobile conveyors are designed to work in conjunction with the entire range of crushing and screening equipment offered by Terex. Whether an operation is on the move, needs a temporary solution or has a large static operation, the Terex Jaques team can help customise solutions to fit the site’s unique requirements. • Source: Terex Jaques

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GOING MOBILE

STRATEGIC ‘ON THE GROUND’ EFFICIENCY VIA CONVEYORS ASSISTS LEADING FRAC SAND PRODUCER A North American frac sand producer has achieved significant savings in its bulk handling operations by turning to mobile, stackable conveyors over traditional loading and transport systems.

T

he Preferred Sands story is about rapid expansion – into the right markets and with the right mission in mind.

Since its launch in 2007, Preferred Sands has established itself as one of the top silica sand producers in North America. Today, this privately-held, owner-operated company supplies high quality frac sand to nearly every major oil and gas company in every major basin in the United States. Its growth, according to the company’s representatives, is stimulated by solid customer relationships and a commitment to ongoing innovations in process engineering, product development and logistics management. It’s a mission that has taken its first year production volume of 180,000 tonnes to a staggering five million tonnes mark annually in four years.

Preferred Sands LLC was formed by Preferred Unlimited Inc of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of acquiring and overseeing the company’s industrial mineral assets. Following the acquisition of its first silica sand mine in Genoa, Nebraska, Preferred Sands broadened its geographic footprint to include operations in Minnesota

28

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and Arizona. The Genoa plant is a frac sand processing facility that exceeds 1.2 million tonnes annually. The operation extracts raw materials from an 80 million tonne reserve accumulated over 75 years through a dredging operation in the Loup River. It is the largest reserve of its kind in the US, and has an annual replenishment rate of approximately 1.5 million tonnes, which allows the company to respond quickly to large orders. The Preferred Sands Minnesota facility, located within 15 miles of the Twin Cities, has access to more than 10 million tonnes of sought-after Northern White silica sand, while the Arizona site has a total reserve of 130 million tonnes.

Each of these locations is equipped with advanced rail load-out systems and easy access to major rail routes, giving Preferred Sands a logistics advantage to cost-effectively reach any region in North America.

EFFICIENCY ENGINES “Expansion is a critical component for us in meeting market demand for high quality frac sand, and in supplying flexible delivery solutions. As such, we are extremely analytical

The frac sand processing plant at Preferred Sands’ Sanders, Arizona site.

Superior Industries’ automated telescoping conveyors provide up to 30 per cent more stacking capacity over standard radial stackers.

The Preferred Sands site in Sanders, Arizona has a total frac sand reserve of 130 million tonnes.

and efficiency-driven,” TJ Doyle, chief operating officer of Preferred Sands, said.

“Since we focus on on-time delivery and cutting costs for our customers, we absolutely must remain efficient.”

While many busy managers may be in the “getting things done for today” mode, the Preferred Sands management team focuses keenly on “engineering new growth and efficiency engines” in order to create a foundation for long-term value. Consider that at any one time, Doyle said, there are 100 or more “efficiency action items” being applied within the company’s rapid expansion plan.

“We have geologists and mine planners analysing each process at each plant. We break down every aspect of our business to weed out any inefficiencies – as in the manufacturing sector, one’s level of efficiency overwhelmingly determines whether or not a company remains competitive and profitable.”

Among the many efficiency action items in play at Preferred Sands is that of replacing mobile equipment (excavators, haul trucks and loaders) with the right conveyor systems for given material transfer and stockpiling applications. At its Arizona-based plant, Preferred replaced mobile equipment with two Superior Industries TeleStacker conveyors for high volume, low cost stockpiling. At its Nebraska site, the company reduced loader use by accessing Superior Industries’ portable jump conveyors.

“We conducted a cost-benefit analysis on conveyors versus mobile equipment,” Doyle said. “With mine expansion, we examined

how much material (and at what cost) could be moved at a given transport distance with a given loader and bucket size. At increased capacities, and to feed the hopper at the desired rate, one obviously has to insert more mobile equipment. However, considering the cost of fuel and labour, we needed to move more material with less mobile equipment. Even considering the costs of new conveyor systems, the returns are quickly realised,” he said.

A study conducted by Superior Industries engineers at another mining operation revealed some remarkable figures when applied to particular parameters. After replacing haul trucks and loaders with conveyor systems, this operation experienced savings as high as: $USD0.46 per tonne; $USD2800 per day; $USD14,000 per week; $USD60,000 per month; and a whopping $USD700,000 per annum.

LARGE VOLUME STOCKPILING The telescoping conveyor consists of a stinger conveyor mounted inside an outer conveyor of similar length. The stinger conveyor has the ability to move linearly along the length of the outer conveyor, thereby varying the location of the discharge pulley. The height of the discharge pulley is variable as well as the radial position of the conveyor. The three-axis variation of the discharge pulley is essential in making the layered pile that overcomes material segregation.

Importantly, automated telescoping conveyors provide increased stacking capacity over standard radial stackers. Up to 30 per cent more material (depending upon conveyor size) can be stockpiled under a telescoping stacker. The latter is particularly key to the operations at the Preferred Sands of Arizona facility, where two Superior Industries TeleStacker conveyors are amassing what the company refers to as its “work in progress” stockpiles, which contain its most desirable premium coarse silica sand materials that are generated from the first major cut-out of the wash plants. Then Superior Industries’ stationary conveyors (versus the former use

of loaders) transfer materials from the work in progress stockpiles to the drying plants.

Since the wash plants operate for only up to eight months per year, the TeleStacker conveyors are instrumental in creating the larger volume stockpiles required to carry the operation through the winter months, which require no less than the availability of 166,000 tonnes of material each month to be transferred to the drying plants to meet demand for finished product.

IN-PIT FLEXIBILITY At its Nebraska-based mine, Preferred Sands is reducing costly loader use by accessing the Superior Industries portable jump conveyors. These are sometimes referred to as “grasshopper” conveyors because they can be set up to piggyback onto one another in various configurations. Stackable for cost-efficient transport, jump conveyors allow flexibility in the pit as each unit can be removed from the line one at a time as the stockpile grows. The units are also engineered with adjustable height axle systems which allow accurate feed into varying feed heights.

The rising costs of fuel in North America are unlikely to have much effect upon the users of conveyor systems for the bulk of their material transport requirements. But beyond that, conveyor systems have much more to offer operations like Preferred Sands. As efficiency management tools, advanced conveyor systems eliminate the multiple handling of material while preventing compaction and contamination. Conveyors cut labour and training costs, and they are on the job, day after day and year after year, with only minimal maintenance needs.

Remaining efficient requires taking the right action at the right time. For Preferred Sands, proper material handling management is a good fit.

In Australia, Superior Industries’ TeleStacker products are available through 888 Crushing & Screening Equipment and Rivergum Industries. • Source: Superior Industries

Quarry November 2020 29

GOING MOBILE

Mansfield Crushing’s Metso LT120 mobile jaw crusher was put straight to work in a major Melbourne metropolitan quarry to meet the high demands of the Mordialloc freeway project.

MOBILE JAW PROVES ITS METTLE IN VICTORIAN METRO QUARRY PROJECT

M

ansfield Crushing is a family-owned business that specialises in contract crushing, quarrying and earthmoving and has a strong reputation as the “go to” business for safe, reliable and high quality services. The company prides itself in the knowledge that its people and equipment can go on-site to any construction project, mine or quarry in the country and know that it can meet all the relevant legislative and industry requirements for safe operation of the machinery and protection of its employees and other workers.

Mansfield Crushing commenced operations in 1989 under the name of Bells Earthmoving. Specialising in civil contracting works, Bells Earthmoving quickly grew from a one-man operation to employing more than 30 local staff and operating 25 pieces of plant. In 2000, Bells Earthmoving diversified its activities with the purchase of Mansfield Pre-Mix Concrete, which included several quarry sites, and changed its trading name to Mansfield Constructions.

In 2007, there was a major acquisition of more mobile plant, enabling the company to continue its expansion and undertake a more diversified range of contract crushing works. Mansfield Constructions sold the Mansfield quarries in 2013, which saw the 30

Quarry November 2020

primary focus turn further towards mobile contract crushing and quarry services.

In 2014, Mansfield Constructions changed its business name to Mansfield Crushing to better represent the company’s primary focus and maintained Mansfield Constructions for the civil arm of the business. Mansfield Crushing now operates six mobile crushing and screening crews as well as the earthmoving division.

The company has an extensive list of earthmoving equipment and crushing and screening plant, enabling it to provide a wide range of services and produce a diverse range of quarry materials, including gravels, sands, aggregates and other bulk materials.

Mansfield Crushing’s director Ant Bateup recently negotiated a primary crushing project of significant volumes and needed a large jaw crusher that would provide him with the productivity he needed, without transport issues. Bateup made inquiries with Metso’s Australian mobile crushing and screening equipment distributor Tutt Bryant Equipment and Mansfield Crushing subsequently ordered its first Metso machine – a LT120 jaw crusher in November 2019.

The performance of the LT120 exceeded the company’s expectations. In particular, the design benefits could be seen in the

67-tonne jaw crusher running at under 22 litres per hour of fuel. Bateup said the LT120 had “lived up to its reputation in meeting production demands, being user-friendly, a safe design and providing overall reliability”.

Bateup monitors the machine’s operation via the Metso Metrics online portal which helps his team understand and plan their maintenance activities.

The Metso LT120 was put straight to work in a major Melbourne metropolitan quarry to support that operation in meeting the high demands of the Mordialloc freeway project, which is being delivered by Major Road Projects Victoria and requires more than 10,000 tonnes of materials per day. The LT120 has played a crucial role in achieving these numbers while working within a small footprint.

Tutt Bryant Equipment has been pleased to provide technical support to Mansfield Crushing with their ongoing equipment, parts and service needs, as required.

More information on Mansfield Crushing and its range of services can be found at mansfieldcrushing.com.au For more information about the LT120 and the entire Lokotrack range, visit tuttbryant. com.au/tutt-bryant-equipment/metso/ • Source: Tutt Bryant Equipment

GOING MOBILE

FEEDER STACKER BOOSTS EFFICIENT STOCKPILING FOR PROJECTS ON THE MOVE

M

cCloskey International has introduced the SF50, a new feeder stacker which facilitates the handling and stockpiling of materials, including aggregates, construction and demolition waste, and sand and gravel. All can be fed into the hopper with large loaders and excavators, combining the efficiency of a high capacity hopper with a stacking conveyor. Variable speed prevents material from build-up, allowing for more controlled flow of material.

The SF50’s tracked mobility offers versatility.

It can be compacted for transport on a low loader, or loaded in a 12m (40’) cube container, reducing costs and logistics. It has a variety of power options: dual power, diesel/hydraulic, electric/hydraulic, diesel electric and diesel with

gen-set. The SF50’s key features include: •A 15m (50’) long main conveyor with 101cm (40”) wide belt.

•A hydraulic folding heading section for transport, minimising set-up time.

•A hydraulically adjustable discharge height up to 6.5m.

•3 .5m tracks for manoeuvrability and stability.

•F uel-efficient hydraulics system.

•U ser-friendly hydraulic controls.

•A 55kW Caterpillar 2.8 diesel engine.

• An output up to 500 tonnes per hour.

The mobile SF50 feeder stacker can be compacted for transport.

In Australia, McCloskey products are distributed by MSC Group (eastern states) and 888 Crushing & Screening Equipment (Western Australia, Northern Territory).

Source: McCloskey International

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DUST CONTROL

The Polo Citrus mobile dust suppression unit ably complements Onetrak’s mobile crushing and screening fleet.

MOBILE DUST SUPPRESSION UNIT IMPRESSES IN THE FIELD

A fast and effective mobile dust suppression solution for quarrying has emerged from the thoughtful collaboration of two local companies. Nickolas Zakharia reports.

I

f you step into a quarry on a windy day, it can sometimes feel like you have walked into a Saharan Desert dust storm.

While dust storms are just facets of nature, there is a more natural way to mitigate the risk of dust to quarry operations, workers and the surrounding environment.

Jason MacDonald, the crushing and screening product manager for Australian earthmoving and crushing solutions distributor Onetrak, has spent the best part of a decade searching the market for a high quality and cost-effective mobile dust suppression solution.

Working with quarry contractors, MacDonald, who has worked in the extractive industry for more than three decades, required something that would save both time and money, while being easy enough to install and pack up when moving from site to site.

Above all, the solution needed to stop dust in its tracks without using excessive amounts of water – even on windy days.

Australia’s quarries know all about the

32

Quarry November 2020

importance of dust control for both worker health and the surrounding environment. The latter can especially be a nuisance if a quarry is operating near a highly populated area.

It wasn’t until MacDonald came across Polo Citrus Australia that he was able to deliver a mobile dust suppression solution that ticked all the boxes.

According to MacDonald, the Polo Citrus mobile dust suppression system boosts efficiency, is easy to operate and can be set up from the trailer in just 30 minutes.

“Prior to using Polo Citrus, we had tried almost everything else known for dust suppression in a mobile crushing environment,” MacDonald told Quarry.

“When you’re a mobile contractor, you don’t have the screen box houses to control the dust and their extraction units and bag units.

“We tried fog and it was really good until the wind picked up. As soon as the wind picked up, the fog and the dust blew off.

“We tried making some of our own structures on the screens to control it, we tried mixing an additive with water in the tank

to suppress it a bit better. We used all sorts of stuff to try and get it to work.”

REFINEMENT, INNOVATION Polo Citrus is committed to reducing dust emissions and its exposure with a wide range of products have established the company over the past 25 years as a key supplier to the quarrying, extractive and mining industries, both locally and internationally. It offers turnkey products for individual sites, incorporating the tried and tested Polo BDS solution, a biodegradable dust suppression agent that uses foam micro-bubbles which can capture airborne particles after being mixed with water. This dust suppressant is also used in its fixed plant dust suppression units in Australia and internationally.

Working with MacDonald at Onetrak, Polo Citrus has since broadened its offerings to mobile dust suppression units.

These units are available directly from Polo Citrus but are also offered by Argo Extractive Solutions, which supplies the trailers the dust

suppression units are fitted to.

“For us it was about taking our current dust suppression system and making it portable.

That was the ultimate aim,” Polo Citrus’s managing director Brett Aisen told Quarry.

The company worked with MacDonald to deliver a mobile dust suppression unit that fitted his requirements.

Aisen said it wasn’t the first time Polo Citrus had created a portable dust suppression unit, but the vision for an optimal mobile unit wasn’t achieved until he worked with MacDonald.

“For many years, we had the idea of a mobile dust suppression system,” he said.

“We actually had built two different types of dust suppression systems over the last 10 years, both with varying success.

“It was about taking our current dust suppression system and making it portable.

“Jason started talking to us about a mobile dust suppression system, and our ears perked up because we knew we’d done it before but we hadn’t really done it in any way

Argo Extractive Solutions supplies the trailers for the dust suppression units and is also distributing the complete product on behalf of Polo Citrus.

that we really liked.”

Aisen and MacDonald worked together to create a user-friendly mobile dust suppressor that was a truly “on wheels” solution.

The idea involved creating a dust

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suppression system that was capable of saving significant water usage while being transportable from site to site on a trailer.

While designed for mobile usage in mind, Aisen said the unit included was the same as

DUST CONTROL

Polo Citrus’ fixed plant alternative.

“The unit that we put on our fixed plant is the unit we put onto our mobile system,” he said.

“You get the same system and set-up.

But there’s no doubt that the target market is mobile plant because they want to make things easily moveable.

“There’s no reason why someone couldn’t park one of these next to a fixed plant and go for it.”

Each mobile dust suppression unit holds 1000 litres of the Polo BDS solution. The trailer it is built on is fitted with a compressor and has the option of on-board power for a completely self-contained unit.

“On average, we use two to four litres of solution an hour, so we get 500 to 550 hours of use out of one tank in theory,” MacDonald said.

The Polo Citrus unit can also be turned on or off with the included remote control to prevent water and solution wastage.

“It helps reduce that risk of people having to leave the cab and giving that flexibility of turning it on or off as needed,” MacDonald said.

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR MacDonald said the Polo Citrus mobile dust suppression unit solved a number of issues that other dust mitigation solutions could not, including the ability to reduce his reliance on limited water supplies from quarries.

“The biggest issue we used to come across in quarries was a clean water supply and getting water on time, because quite often as a mobile contractor, you’re not working down where the fixed plant is,” he said.

“You’re up on top of the hills somewhere where you’re more exposed to the wind and there’s no water supply. We were always at the mercy of the quarry for whom we were working to supply the water.

“We didn’t have to use 40,000 litres of water a day anymore. If the quarry could supply us with 6000 litres of water a day, we could go all day.”

A reduction in downtime and an increase in production has now been achieved by MacDonald since adopting the Polo Citrus solution.

“Once we switched to using Polo Citrus, all those issues went away,” he said.

“We basically had a dry process where we didn’t have blinded mesh, we weren’t having guys needing to clean screen mesh every few hours, and we weren’t losing production at a lot of the sites.

34

Quarry November 2020

The dust suppression unit can save significant water usage while being portable on a trailer.

“I’m looking at it from the perspective of what it was saving us in downtime and an increase in production.”

An earlier mobile dust suppression unit using Polo Citrus BDS that was previously adopted by MacDonald proved to be quite cumbersome, compared with the new Polo Citrus mobile trailer.

“We used it in a mobile application about 10 years ago at a previous business we had where everything was on skid-mounted units to move around the countryside,” he said.

“It wasn’t easily portable. You needed lifting gear on site to put it on a semi-trailer. This thing was six or seven metres long with a hook lift on it, just a big skid-mounted unit.

“But the new Polo Citrus system can be moved around behind a ute without the inconvenience and expense of having a skidmounted unit.”

Aisen also emphasised that the unit has a significant value proposition beyond its sole purpose of dust prevention.

“We can stop dust but it has a lot of benefits as well apart from just stopping dust,” Aisen said. “There are serious, significant costs from lost production caused by dust.”

On top of increased uptime, the Polo Citrus unit has improved overall site safety for MacDonald, while eradicating excess water issues that he has previously experienced with other types of dust suppression.

“Going to the Polo Citrus unit, the operators were working in a much cleaner and safer environment,” he said.

“It’s knocking down 95 per cent of dust.

So now the loader drivers can see the truck drivers coming into the area and everything

isn’t lost in a haze of dust.

“You’ve got more production, less downtime which means a better bottom line for the operator who’s not going to have to repair a dusted engine or have somebody injured in the middle of a dust storm.”

With a cleaner environment on the cards, the surrounding community and environment has also been less affected.

“We weren’t causing a desert storm across the community and covering trees and plants and everything else in dust, nothing was getting away to the creeks,” MacDonald said.

“On one particular site in southeast Queensland, every day around lunch time, the neighbour – who was a barrister – would ring up and complain every single day about the dust and shut us down.

“Once we put the Polo Citrus solution there, we were able to crush five days a week with no problem – including right next to the M1 Highway doing council concrete.

We didn’t have any more issues after that.”

‘BITTERSWEET’ PRAISE While the Polo Citrus units are designed for mobile use, they can also be set up as a fixed plant alternative if required.

“The unit that we put on our fixed plant is the unit we put onto our mobile system,” Aisen said.

“You get the same system and set-up – but there’s no doubt that the target market is mobile plant because they want to make things easily moveable.

“There’s no reason why someone couldn’t park one of these next to a fixed plant and go for it.”

Through Onetrak, MacDonald has commissioned the Polo Citrus mobile dust suppression units at quarry sites in Melbourne and Wollongong.

MacDonald said it had given some contractors he works with such an advantage that they wished to remain anonymous.

“All I can say is that it’s being used by one of Victoria’s biggest civil contractors,” he said.

They said ‘we don’t want to let the cat out of the bag because it’s given us a massive advantage over the competition and that we don’t want anyone else to know about it’.

“His words to me were ‘this time last year we’d be shut down for weeks at a time and at the moment we’re still crushing while a lot of the competition are shut down during those windy days because they haven’t got their dust under control’.

“It’s bittersweet because it is working really well, but he doesn’t want to be put on paper as a reference point because it is working so well.”

VALUABLE PARTNERSHIP MacDonald’s appreciation of the Polo Citrus dust suppression unit has extended to his wife, Debbie MacDonald, who owns Argo Extractive Solutions.

Argo builds on the decades of experience Debbie and her husband have in the quarrying industry.

The company aims to provide safe and responsible dust management solutions to its customers, avoiding the health risks associated with harmful dust particles such as silica.

Dust management in the resources sector has been a key focus of various state and territory governments in the past 12 months, resulting in a reduction of the Workplace Exposure Standard for silica dust from an exposure rate of 1mg/m³ to 0.05mg/m³.

The Polo Citrus dust suppression unit can better maintain a safer exposure rate, which is part of what led Debbie MacDonald to seek out the product.

“I built Argo up from this dust suppression trailer, that’s what we’re all about,” she told Quarry.

“The reasoning behind Argo is to provide equipment and assistance to the extractive industry, especially in a mobile application.”

As a result, Argo partnered with Polo Citrus to assemble the trailers for the mobile dust suppression units going forward.

Aisen agreed Argo had become vital in assisting its mobile dust suppression solutions.

“We’re good at servicing the needs of our customers worldwide who buy our dust suppressors,” he said. “We’re not so good at building trailers and assembling things and as much as we could resource up for it, the relationship with Argo is a really good strong relationship.

“Debbie is really passionate about mobile crushing and we have the equipment that can help her do that. That’s why we have structured this distribution relationship where Debbie will be our go-to for trailers.” •

DUST CONTROL

WIPING AWAY DUST EXPOSURE IN QUARRIES

S

andvik’s crushing and screening products have a number of dust prevention solutions in place to protect quarry workers and the environment.

Stricter limits to silica dust exposure in mines and quarries have now been introduced across many of Australia’s states and territories.

The Workplace Exposure Standard limit for silica dust has been reduced to 0.05 milligrams per cubic metre (mg/m³) from 1 mg/m³, and 1.5 mg/m³ from 2.5 mg/m³ of respirable coal dust.

These revised limits aim to prevent health complications caused by crystalline silica, which is found in materials including sand, stone, concrete and mortar.

These materials are commonly used to make brick and tile products but the dust particles can easily damage the lungs and result in health complications such as silicosis, which could be fatal.

More than half a million Australians were exposed to silica in 2011, with 5758 of those workers expected to develop lung cancer later in life.

To ensure site equipment meets the revised standards, Sandvik’s dust prevention solutions used by its crushing and screening products include dust suppression, control,

collector and extraction system solutions.

Dust suppression is mostly run in primary applications through solutions such as a water fog system to try to “capture” dust.

The major disadvantage of this process is that the surface tension of the water does not adequately collect the dust. It is therefore necessary to adopt some chemical add-ons, including polymers, some of which may also not be environmentally sustainable.

Dust control solutions are mostly installed on conveyors, including the skirting and discharge points (eg discharge towers or telescopic chutes). Again, the disadvantage of this solution is that conveyors are not very easy to maintain. Dust can accumulate beneath the conveyor at the critical points and proves to be difficult to remove.

Local dust collector solutions are fitted to the top of silos to suck the dust and discharge it back into the silo. The disadvantage of this method is that the fines (dust) are simply collected and discharged back to the system and transport the problem to the next transfer point.

According to Sandvik, it is the fourth method – dust extraction systems – that is the most effective de-dusting solution – as long as the system is configured to the correct

Local dust collector solutions can be fitted to the top of silos to suck the dust and discharge it back into the silo. The disadvantage of this method is that the fines (dust) are simply transported to the next transfer point.

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calculations. The dust extraction system cannot be easily adjusted after installation if the calculations are in error. In turn, the wrong calculations will create unexpected wear and downtime, and repairs would be extremely expensive.

Sandvik senior sales manager for crushing and screening Heiner GĂźnzel told Quarry that the original equipment manufacturer provided the expertise required to deliver a costeffective dust extraction system. “The expertise we provide ensures you have a stable running system,â€? he said. “One major aspect of providing the right calculation is design of the pipes and cables. The second is calculating the airflow to extract the right amount of dust. “You must have a proper calculation and engineering must be done to have a good running system.â€?

GĂźnzel said Sandvik provided special piping systems in its de-dusting solutions to prevent the wear caused by silica, eg pipe installation inside the screen box. On top

Sandvik has provided special piping systems as part of its de-dusting solutions to prevent the wear caused by silica in its fixed plant offerings.

of the pipes is a rock box, with suck holes on the bottom of the pipe to adjust for air volume. As a result, Sandvik’s de-dusting solutions require less maintenance. “With silica, all the piping burns out very quick,� he said. “This makes the system very expensive when it comes to a maintenance point. We have a special design in the piping systems themselves to avoid this kind of wear and extend the lifetime of the pipes.�

Sandvik’s focus on dust control in Australia is a continuation of the company’s success in

Germany, which previously introduced stricter dust limits. “This is the journey of what we had in Germany a couple of years ago where dust limits were reduced,â€? GĂźnzel said. “That is also where these installations come from in basically 90 per cent of quarries today.â€?

Sandvik’s dust extraction systems can be installed in new and existing plants, with its team of experts in Australia ensuring the most cost-effective solution is achieved. •

By Nickolas Zakharia

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Figure 1. Typical build-up of carryback on return roller from insufficient belt cleaning.

BELT CLEANING:

JUST DEAL WITH IT

Why expend any time or effort into cleaning the conveyor belt when it’s only going to become dirty again?

As Bradley Owen of Kinder Australia explains, producers that pay close attention to the belt will be able to employ a range of belt cleaning solutions that are cost-effective and enhance the belt’s efficiency.

T

he root cause of common conveyor issues can often be traced back to ineffective belt cleaning. Spillage from carryback soon becomes a safety hazard if left unchecked and can be costly for maintenance crews to remove. Buildup of bulk material on return rollers has a negative influence on belt tracking. Belt cleaning is fundamental to prolonging the life of a conveyor’s most capital-intensive component – the belt. Given today’s belt cleaning marketplace is filled with an overabundance of belt cleaning solutions to suit every application, there are no excuses for accepting poor belt cleaning performance.

Unfortunately, there is no cleaning solution on the market that can remove 100 per cent of carryback from the belt. The best belt cleaning solutions utilise a combination of different products that have been thoughtfully selected based on the demands of the application. Ultimately, this is a balance of the cost of belt cleaning products and the cost savings due to additional belt and idler life as well as the time savings created for maintenance teams and the reduction of potential downtime.

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Figure 2. Dual primary ceramic cleaners and motorised brush secondary.

PRE-CLEANERS AND CLEANERS The common type of cleaners on the market can be broken down into three categories: pre-cleaners, and primary and secondary

cleaners. Primary cleaners are tasked to remove the majority of carryback material, typically about 60 to 80 per cent of carryback on the belt. The primary cleaner is not

designed to assist with material discharge and should only be removing product that has adhered to the belt.

As the name suggests, pre-cleaners are installed before a primary cleaner and are used to remove extremely cohesive or wet materials. Typically, these do no contact the belt and help extend the life of the primary cleaner. Secondary cleaners are tasked to remove the finer carryback that remains on the belt after passing through the primary cleaner.

Tertiary cleaners are installed further downstream of the head pulley and take the form of brushes, spray systems, beater rollers and self-cleaning return rollers. It is worth noting that in some applications, multiple secondary or tertiary cleaners may be installed. The number of cleaners installed boils down to the properties of the bulk material and level of cleanliness that is desired.

The head pulley diameter dictates the

Figure 3. Heavy-duty tungsten carbide pre-cleaner in application with cohesive and wet product. (Photo provided by Tecnipak)

height of the blade or the length of the suspension arms, depending of the design of the cleaner. Blades that are too small tend to either “flip through” after a certain amount of wear or the free space between the pulley face and blade will fill with the bulk material.

Once the cavity is filled, wear on the blade accelerates, leading to premature failure. A blade that is too large is typically designed for heavier duty environments. This may lead to excessive wear to the belt; a consequence of the extra tension, friction and heat that is

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associated with heavy-duty belt cleaners. This friction introduces additional unnecessary load to the drive unit.

The ideal blade length should match the burden width of the bulk material. It does not take much imagination to understand how a blade that is not wide enough will not deliver the desired results. The reverse is also true in that cleaning performance can diminish quickly over time if the blade length is too long, particularly with softer material blades.

The leading edge of the blade wears at a quicker rate in sections that are removing the abrasive carryback. The outer edge of the blade that is scraping the relatively clean belt edge will wear only minimally. As the centre section wears, blade pressure on the belt reduces and cleaning performance is directly affected as a result. Many types of blades can be trimmed to size after installation to suit the burden width. This can be particularly helpful if the exact burden width is not yet known.

Crowned pulleys require cleaners that specifically allow the blade to conform to the crowning profile while maintaining tension across the width of the belt.

Usually, this is accomplished by using a series of short segmented blades. Single piece polyurethane blades can conform to the taper of the crown but segmented polyurethane is the better option.

Most belt cleaners are designed to clean the belt while operating in one direction only.

Some blades are designed not to damage the belt when operated in reverse. In these situations, two systems can be installed, one at each end of the conveyor. Other blade designs are strictly for one direction of travel and can damage the belt cleaner, belt or splice if operated in reverse.

COMMON BLADE MATERIALS Blade material selection is generally made based on the condition of the belt, splice type, belt speed, material abrasiveness and desired blade life.

Polyurethane has many favourable properties, making it well suited to a large range of belt cleaning applications. Good abrasion resistance, high flexibility and low friction co-efficient translate to good blade life and minimal abrasion wear of the belt.

The high flexibility reduces the chance of belt damage occurring from an incorrectly tensioned cleaner. Both over-tensioning and under-tensioning has its own associated issues but polyurethane has a larger margin of error compared to carbide or ceramic tips.

40

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Figure 4. A polyurethane primary cleaner on an extremely high capacity belt. (Photo provided by Tecnipak)

Figure 5. Notice the least wear on the extreme left edge compared to the burden width. This installation would benefit by using a short length blade.

Figure 6. Typical pressure distribution across a belt cleaner blade.

Tungsten carbide-tipped blades are commonly specified for applications where a higher level of abrasion resistance and thus longer blade life is desired. The lower wear rate translates to a slower loss of tension overtime as the tensioner relaxes to fill the void created by material loss of the blade.

This reduces the frequency of blade changeouts and re-tensioning. The maximum permissible belt speed for a tungstencarbide tipped cleaner is generally higher than that of a polyurethane-tipped cleaner.

However, some formulas of polyurethane work successfully on belt speeds in excess of

seven metres per second (m/s).

An option to tungsten carbide blades are cleaners utilising alumina ceramic chips.

Alumina ceramics are incredibly hard and are used as wear liners in extreme sliding abrasion applications. In belt cleaning applications this means the wearing surface maintains its geometry, providing excellent life with the same benefits as tungsten carbide.

Mechanical belt splices and fasteners such as repair staples are incompatible with carbide and ceramic belt cleaners, due to the relatively low impact resistance of both materials. Hot vulcanised splices are

a necessity when specifying either of these types of cleaners. Polyurethane blades are compatible with hot vulcanised splices and some mechanical fasteners. Edges of belt repair patches are less likely to be lifted as a polyurethane belt cleaner passes over the repaired section compared to a carbide or ceramic cleaner.

MORE TO CLEANING THAN JUST ‘SCRAPERS’ The condition of the conveyor belt covers is commonly overlooked as a selection criterion for belt cleaners. Cuts, gouges and abrasions that accumulate over the life of the belt result in an irregular surface that is difficult to clean. Fugitive material amasses in cavities created by impact damage at transfer points, groove lines from skirting and general uneven wear caused by material abrasion. Carbide and ceramic cleaners are often too stiff and may have little effect on belt cleanliness if the belt surface is uneven.

These cleaners are best suited to brand new

Figure 7. Non-powered brush cleaners can be installed slightly off perpendicular to the belt direction. This demonstrates the need to plan cleaner placement thoughtfully.

or undamaged belts. Polyurethane blades are much softer than carbide or ceramic blades and are much more effective on older belts where the surface has become uneven. As

the blade wears, the polyurethane conforms to the belt surface and maintains its cleaning effectiveness over the life of the blade. Brushtype cleaners provide very good cleaning

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efficiency for heavily damaged or rough top belts. Motorised brush cleaners are most effective but non-powered brushes installed at an angle to the belt direction provide an economical alternative.

Conveyors with chevron belts are more difficult to keep clean as traditional “scraper”type cleaners will damage the belt. Speciality scrapers designed specifically for chevron belts are available. Generally, these utilise very thin segmented blades which have a high degree of lateral flexibility. These thin blades allow the chevron to pass without damage. Brush cleaners with thin flexible nylon bristles are effective on belts with a small chevron height, typically less than 10mm tall. Taller cleats create difficulties cleaning into the corners and can generate too much heat when cleaned by a motorised brush. Return rollers with offset lobes can be employed to vibrate the belt and “shake off” the carryback. Also known as a beater roller, these can also be used on deep pocket belts.

There may arise a situation where it is advantageous to remove carryback further downstream or away from the head pulley. In these cases, polyurethane return rollers with spiral flutes angling towards the centre of the belt act as rotating cleaning blades. Spiral rollers can be installed on V-return systems but the frames should be designed such that the removed material does not build up. Shaker rollers and brush-type cleaners are also viable options in these situations.

Furthermore, these options do not require a vulcanised splice or good belt cover condition to operate effectively.

Figure 8. Rigid cleaner tips are inefficient on severely pitted belts.

Figure 9. Return roller with retrofit “shaker discs” designed to remove material by vibrating the belt.

FINAL THOUGHTS All belt cleaners require frequent inspection and regular maintenance to perform optimally over their lives.

Cleaners should be positioned thoughtfully, ideally so that displaced material is directed back into the product stream or into a bin for easy housekeeping.

Any reputable belt cleaner manufacturer will have numerical and empirical data to make belt cleaning recommendations. They will be able to provide specific technical information about the suitability and installation of their products. Recommendations made by the manufacturer should be followed to maximise the cleaner’s performance.

No matter the application, there is a belt cleaning solution to suit. • Bradley Owen is a qualified mechanical engineer for Kinder Australia.

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Figure 10. Specially designed cleaning idler with beater rollers remove carryback.

Figure 11. Spiral cleaning return roller.

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SAFETY

SETTING THE BAR HIGHER FOR HANDRAIL SOLUTIONS

From the design sheet to the quarry site, Webforge Locker’s Monowills Link range is designed to give customers a high quality ready-to-install handrail system that doesn’t cut corners.

T

he Webforge Locker brand combines two major companies into one unified business, offering a range of grating and handrail solutions, screening media and more across the construction, access, extractive and industrial sectors.

As a major supplier of handrail products for projects in quarries, mining and other spaces, Webforge alone has more than 75 years’ experience as a manufacturer and supplier of Access products.

With Webforge operating a number of its own local and international manufacturing plants, its supply chain can provide highquality product manufacturing in-house within a fast delivery window.

Among the products manufactured by Webforge is the Monowills Link range. It offers a fast and convenient alternative to the traditional welded Monowills safety barrier systems, both of which are synonymous with reaching the required Australian and New Zealand standards.

Rather than simply supplying pipe fittings, Webforge instead offers key expertise in manufacturing and installing a complete and compliant handrail system.

“One of our big differentiators is that we want to sell compliant handrail systems rather than pipe fittings,” Webforge Locker national business development manager Matt Taylor told Quarry.

“Our company designed the Monowills Link range four years ago. We work directly with our casting suppliers to produce high quality Link components for stock, then provide assembly of compliant stanchions, rails and closures from our locations around Australia & New Zealand.”

Taylor, with Webforge Locker extractive screen solutions national estimator/ technical sales support Jason Philippi, delivered a complete Monowills modular Link system to a quarry in Townsville.

“Basically, the customer needed a quick job to get some facilities up to scratch,” Philippi told Quarry.

The client opted to retrofit the handrail

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The stanchions and pipes are prefabricated.

system themselves, which Webforge was able to deliver. Due to it being a retrofit, IFC drawings were not available, and Webforge was able to determine the exact specifications needed through basic dimensioned sketches from the client.

All stanchions and pipe were supplied to the quarry by Webforge in under two weeks. “Usually with fabricating handrail, you’ve got to fabricate the handrail, weld it, galvanise it and get it painted,” Phillipi said.

“Whereas with our Link range, all you need to do is use the components, get them painted and put it together.”

By using grub screws, the Monowills Link range removes the need for any specialty tools or skills to build a handrail system.

And as a result, the quarry was able to construct the handrail themselves by following Webforge’s instructions.

“As no special tools or machinery is required, anyone who can operate a hand drill can put the system together,” Taylor said.

“The client had a basic plan, but was adjusting as he went along on site, so

the flexibility to adapt and adjust during installation is really what the modular handrail system is all about.”

Quarrying customers can also choose, as an additional step, to lock the grub screw in place with a self-driving screw for added anti-vibration protection.

“If you’re in an environment with vibration, and you want the advantages of a modular system, this secondary fixing method and confidence that parts will not loosen over time, is something no one else currently offers in the market, Taylor said. “It’s certainly something we’re leading the industry in, we have the only incorporated anti vibration solution out there.

Monowills’ modular Link system also benefits quarry operations with their ability to be transported at a much lower cost.

“These fabricated safety barriers will typically be supplied as pre-assembled stanchions and pre-cut pipe and closures, and because of that method, it’s about a third of the price of transporting a traditional welded safety barrier,” Taylor said.

Safety rails near the weighbridge at a Townsville quarry.

DELIVERING AN AUSTRALIAN STANDARD Monowills modular handrail systems are available in two sizes: standard 32NB and heavy-duty 40NB, both of which comply with Australian Standard AS1657.

“AS1657 is the dominant handrail standard that a lot of these quarries would need to meet,” Taylor said.

The AS1657 standard, determines the dimensional and functional of requirements of safety barrier used on platforms, walkways and stairways, and the most common standard call upon in heavy industrial environments like quarries.

Webforge has acknowledged that in some cases multiple Australian Standards may be required and referenced simultaneously. As a result, the company’s standard stanchion

The Link range merely requires components to be assembled and painted accordingly.

range are designed to comply with a multitude of Australian Standards, offering a solution that is designed, tested and independently certified by the company.

“If they’re using our standard system, we know that the loading requirement is sorted, we then provide guidance on allowable stanchion spacing and installation” Taylor said.

“Because our stanchions are preassembled, dimensionally we have the rails, closures & kickplate in the correct location to meet the desired standard”.

While the standard items can be constructed in several different configurations, bespoke solutions can also be offered in the Monowills Link range.

With an extensive team of in-house experts,

Webforge is equipped with the expertise to deliver high-quality, one-off projects. The company also aims to turn around made-toorder jobs within six to ten business days.

“Solutions are about leading the customer to a handrail solution that’s compliant,” Taylor said. “It’s one of the things we lean into really hard is that if a customer is wanting to do something bespoke, that we help them meet their safety barrier requirements, but we don’t allow changes that inadvertently undermine specification in the process.

“That’s something that adds a lot of value because with an adjustable modular handrail system, there is the temptation to just make it up as you go along.” •

By Nickolas Zakharia

ENVIRONMENT

FROM PIT TO PIT LAKES:

COULD ABANDONED SITES BE REBORN? It is believed that up to 90,000 extractive sites are located across Australia today. Academics from the Universities of Monash and Melbourne explain the potential for reviving these sites as vital assets for flood events, water retention and waste management.

A

n estimated total of 70,000 abandoned mine sites5 exist across Australia, lying among communities and giving rise to a myriad of social, health and environmental concerns.2 Most of these mines exist from Australia’s prosperous gold mining era, yet the impacts from these mines are still felt by communities today and are well-documented.

Dust pollution and contamination of natural waterways are a few of the serious issues that surrounding communities face. However, options exist where areas can be revitalised while bringing value back to the mine.3 Recent legislation around Australia has focused on the issue of progressive rehabilitation during an existing mine’s life cycle. However, it remains unclear what purpose these mines should serve at the end of their life. More specifically, what can we do with the thousands of abandoned mines and quarries littered across the country?

POST-CLOSURE VALUE OPPORTUNITIES The abandoned mines do not have to be a liability, instead they can become an asset if properly managed. Australia’s national policy for old mines recommends “valuing abandoned mines”. There are several options available for utilising old mines, eg: further mineral extraction via secondary mining such as reprocessing tailings; industrial archaeological heritage conservation and tourism; unique habitats for biodiversity enhancement; collaborative research into innovative solutions to contamination problems which could guide the broader industry; and indigenous and other employment and training opportunities for regional Australia.

The mine data used in this analysis was derived from various states’ databases.

However, for the purpose of this piece, we focused on mine sites located within Victoria.

This research contributes to the ongoing research project at the Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University that aims 46

Quarry November 2020

Figure 1. Map of abandoned mines and quarries ranked from low to high level of suitability for flood retention.

to create a national database for neglected mining occurrences.

Victoria’s rising population6 has led to urban fringe expansion and promotion of growth across regional cities and towns.7 This presents opportunities to repurpose abandoned mines and quarries located within these areas, giving them a second life. Around the world, abandoned mines have been rehabilitated and repurposed to support the local community. Case studies worldwide1 and in Victoria4 have demonstrated it to be entirely possible to repurpose mine sites to bring additional value at their end of operation.

Our research analyses the multi-functional potential of rehabilitating mines and employs a multi-criteria decision analysis to determine feasible locations for alternative end uses, including storage for water supply, flood retention and municipal waste containment.

This method of analysis enabled the ranking of sites based on the distinct weighting of

conflicting criteria, highlighting the most to least feasible locations for rehabilitation for each respective end use. This research solely focused on mines and quarries that are abandoned but we recognise the opportunity to replicate the process across a wider selection of mines to assist the industry in identifying the most appropriate site-specific end uses.

FLOOD RETENTION As populations continue to rise, increasing urbanisation alters the natural hydrologic cycle and we face more incidence of extreme and heavy rainfall events. Many communities in rural areas and along the urban fringes will face increasing flood risk. If an abandoned mine is located nearby, water can potentially be redirected to it, thereby providing storage and attenuation of flood waters, thus reducing the vulnerability of the catchment and affected regions downstream. Retention basins like

these also provide additional benefits, such as increasing biodiversity conservation through the restoration and provision of natural areas.8 Past research on mapping flood vulnerability13 and guidelines for stormwater management14 were used to establish a criterion for the analysis. The criteria included population growth, flood accumulation, soil suitability, biodiversity levels, proximity to wetlands, and areas subject to inundation.

Through spatial analysis, which included hydrologic analysis, a score was calculated for each location and abandoned mine within Victoria, as shown in Figure 1. The score indicates the feasibility of rehabilitating a particular site into a flood retention basin, higher scores indicate a higher level of suitability and vice versa.

The analysis highlights two clusters of abandoned mines most suitable for rehabilitation. One is north of Melbourne’s urban fringe, in Kilmore, and another is in northwestern Victoria. This is largely due to higher levels of population growth expected

in Kilmore, and greater soil suitability in northwestern Victoria. Our analysis defines greater soil suitability as areas with sandy soils due its ability to infiltrate water faster.

WATER SUPPLY STORAGE Another use for abandoned mines is water supply storage. This will improve water security to the local community and provide a form of rehabilitation. Such an effort is currently underway in Atlanta, Georgia, USA where an abandoned granite quarry is currently being rehabilitated for water supply storage. The quarry receives water from a nearby water treatment plant roughly eight kilometres away and will extend Atlanta’s water supply from five days to 30 days. Additionally, the project also creates significant recreational space for the surrounding area, with the quarry being the centrepiece.10 As with the mapping for flood retention, the same methodology was applied on the database of abandoned mines

across Victoria. The criteria considered are the expected population growth, biodiversity levels, the sites’ proximity to historic groundwater pollution, future urban developments and existing water network infrastructure.

Significant weight was applied to restoring damaged ecosystems and to expected population growth. Abandoned mines with higher scores are more desirable for this form of rehabilitation.

Even though the most desirable mine for water supply storage is located southwest of Kilmore, further investigation showed that it was too small to make any significant impact on the water supply, highlighting the importance of also considering site characteristics. The second most desirable mine exists southeast of Mount Eliza. It is located in the Moorooduc nature conservation reserve and has a potential maximum capacity of 665 megalitres (ML). Furthermore, the quarry is also situated 9.7km away from the Mount Martha Water Recycling Plant. This

LONG-TERM LEASE OPPORTUNITY - 50HA SAND QUARRY NEAR TAMBORINE, SOUTHEAST QLD n Key Resource Area (KRA) 143 – (50ha approx) weathered Quartzose Sandstone (Woogaroo Sub-Group). n 2km north of Tamborine Village, 9km South of Yarrabilba, about 40 minutes from Brisbane CBD and Gold Coast. n Ideally located to supply the Logan, Brisbane South, Gold Coast and Scenic Rim regions. n All development and environmental approvals in place from local Council and DES. n Approved annual sales up to 300,000 tonnes per annum (soil, sand, sandstone quarry products).

Local government advises this could be increased.

n Large reserves (>50 years) of weathered/friable sandstone producing washed sand for concrete, drainage, bedding and landscaping uses – plus soil composting and other sandstone quarry products. n Excavate by free-dig and ripping (blasting approval for occasional hard sandstone bands). n Energex mains power line on-site. n Secure supply of water for washing sandstone extraction pit, water and sediment dams, hardstand area for processing plant, bunding and site access infrastructure all in place – the quarry is ready to go, no plant. n KRA 143 (50ha) is located on the Spiddal farm (195ha) which was settled by Michael Yore in 1865.

CONTACT: TOM YORE (OWNER) | Tel: 07 5543 6133 | Email: tjyore@optusnet.com.au

ENVIRONMENT

plant produces Class A recycled water and could potentially provide a stable supply of water to the proposed water supply storage.

The rehabilitation of this quarry would also improve the damaged landform as well as add an aesthetic feature to the nature reserve.

WASTE MANAGEMENT Victoria’s growing population also causes greater demand for waste management facilities. Increasing urban sprawl creates challenging restrictions for the placement of municipal landfill facilities. Particular abandoned quarries and mines could present viable opportunities for additional waste disposal sites. The Victorian Environment Protection Authority’s publication for the “Siting, design, operation and rehabilitation of landfills”9 sets out a best practice for the entire landfill lifecycle. We examined Victoria’s abandoned mines and quarries using this framework to find suitable sites that meet the guidelines’ minimum safety requirements.

Some of these included a minimum of 100 metres from all surface water, 500 metres from any building or structure and two metres separation from the groundwater table.

After establishing the suitable sites, each site was ranked based on forecasted population growth of the local municipality, existing site capacity and location-based strategic biodiversity (see Figure 2).

This analysis showed a particularly high ranking set of sites in the Kilmore region.

These could be strong candidates for future landfill sites to service Greater Melbourne.

As demonstrated in the water supply storage case, additional site-specific analyses would be required to ensure the long-term suitability and safety for landfill facilities, finer-scale data for which would need to be gathered.

MOVING FORWARD These three alternatives provide viable competing uses for abandoned quarries and mines. Not only do they transform debilitated and damaged land, they provide substantial future benefits to local communities.

Notwithstanding, these are just a few of a myriad of potential end uses. Other options for rehabilitation have been undertaken including a research lab to find dark matter11 or luxury hotels12 among the variety of uses.15 Mine site rehabilitation is a growing challenge that all states and territories will need to face in the foreseeable future. The right solution depends not only on the mine itself but also the community and opportunities around it.

Our work has demonstrated a quantitative 48

Quarry November 2020

Figure 2. Map of abandoned mines and quarries ranked from low to high level of suitability for municipal waste management.

approach for how these opportunities can be ranked and compared in order for stakeholders to make better decisions about the rehabilitation of these sites. However, more research is needed to better understand how the potential end uses for these sites can be evaluated and if we can transform these sites into multi-functional spaces that can deliver a greater suite of ecosystem services for the benefit of local communities and the natural environment. Such suitable approaches would also lead to improvements in the current rehabilitation regulatory framework, would greatly reduce the impacts of mining operations and provide further clarity for future rehabilitation requirements and end use planning.

Innovative ideas and partnerships (government-industry-academia) and timely investment can give us the opportunity to create a positive legacy from which the extractive industry, community and government will all benefit. • Melissa Truong, Han Chung Chia, Tom Richards, Mohan Yellishetty and Stuart Walsh are based at Resources Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria. Peter Bach is based at the School of Geography, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria.

REFERENCES & FURTHER READING 1. Drake J. From mine to wine: Creative uses for holes in the ground. The Conversation, 16 September, 2011. theconversation.com/from-mine-to-wine-creative-usesfor-old-holes-in-the-ground-3245 2. Bennett K. Abandoned mines – Environmental, social and economic challenges. In: Fourie AB, Tibbett M (eds). Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Mine Closure, Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Perth; pp. 241-252. papers.acg.uwa.edu.au/p/1608_16_Bennett/ 3. Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications, Parliament of Australia. 20 March, 2019. Rehabilitation of mining and resources projects as it relates to Commonwealth responsibilities. aph.

gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/ Environment_and_Communications/MiningandResources/ Report 4. Harper L, Bennett A, Brewin R. After life of the mine: Lessons in how towns remake challenging sites. The Conversation, 17 December, 2018. theconversation.com/ afterlife-of-the-mine-lessons-in-how-towns-remakechallenging-sites-106073 5. Werner TT, Bach PM, Yellishetty M, Amirpoorsaeed F, Walsh S, Miller A, et al. A geospatial database for effective mine rehabilitation in Australia. Minerals 2020;10, 745. mdpi.com/2075-163X/10/9/745 6. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (Victoria).Victoria in future (Victoria’s future population projections). planning.vic.gov.au/land-use-and-populationresearch/victoria-in-future 7. Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (Victoria). Melbourne 2030 – Planning for sustainable growth. planning.vic.gov.au/policy-and-strategy/planningfor-melbourne/melbournes-strategic-planning-history/ melbourne-2030-planning-for-sustainable-growth 8. Fehér J, Gáspár J, Tamás J, Mosný V, Muller R, Istenič D, Potokar A, Kardel I, Mioduszewski W (ed), Okruszko T (ed). Guidelines: Natural small water retention measures: Combining drought mitigation, flood protection, and biodiversity conservation. Global Water Partnership Central and Eastern Europe/World Meteorological Organization, 2015. preventionweb.net/publications/ view/65085 9. Environment Protection Authority Victoria. 788.3: Siting, design, operation and rehabilitation of landfills. 12 August, 2015. epa.vic.gov.au/about-epa/publications/788-3 10. City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management. https://h2o4atl.com/ 11. Clausen L. Digging for dark matter. SBS Science. sbs. com.au/topics/science/fundamentals/feature/diggingdark-matter 12. The Tianma Pit Hotel, The Shimao Quarry Hotel, is incredible. China Underground, 11 November, 2017. china-underground.com/2017/11/11/shimao-wonderlandintercontinental-deep-pit-hotel/ 13. Feloni E, Mousadis I, Baltos E. Flood vulnerability assessment using a GIS‐based multi‐criteria approach — The case of Attica region. In Journal of Flood Risk Management, Wiley Online Library, 23 August, 2019. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfr3.12563 14. CSIRO Engineering. WSUD Engineering Procedures: Stormwater (e-book). June, 2015. publish.csiro.au/ book/4974/ 15. Pearman G. 101 Things to Do with a Hole in the Ground. Eden Project, 2009, Cornwall, UK.

LOAD & HAUL

TIER 4 FINAL-COMPLIANT LOADER HANDLES WASTE WITH HASTE

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ocated in the Myocum hinterland, close to Mullumbimby, New South Wales, the Byron Shire Council’s Resource Recovery Centre sorts household waste and annually transforms 3000 tonnes of green waste into high quality garden mulch.

Its chief tool of choice in this activity is a new Komatsu WA270-8 wheel loader, which was chosen for its productive capabilities and its stringent Tier 4 Final emission controls.

Although Tier 4 Final emission controls for non-road diesel-engined vehicles are not compulsory in Australia, Byron Shire Council chose to adhere to the standard, said Resource Recovery Centre site manager Ken Moore.

“Council formed a Sustainable Emission Reduction Advisory Committee to evaluate purchases such as this,” Moore said. “We take our environmental reporting seriously and a lot of consideration was given to the emission performance of the Komatsu wheel loader.

“We researched offerings from two other brands in the diligence phase, but we wanted to meet Tier 4 Final emission controls and the Komatsu WA270-8 wheel loader was the only machine under consideration that did so.”

Powered by a new technology Komatsu engine, the WA270-8 features Komatsu’s PZ parallel-lift arm system and hydrostatic drive for excellent versatility and productivity across loading, handling and lifting applications.

The Resource Recovery Centre’s unit had the air conditioning condenser relocated at predelivery, to reduce material build-up when the machine is turning over compost and mulch.

It is also equipped with a cabin pressuriser and high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration to keep the cabin free of dust and fumes. “The HEPA filter and pressurised cabin keeps the operators dust-free when they’re working, which they appreciate,” Moore said.

“The air conditioning is also fantastic. I can hardly get them out of it on hot days. There are waste regulation acts and work health and safety considerations around air quality.”

The WA270-8 spends most of its time performing duties for the Resource Recovery Centre’s compost facility. “It pushes green waste up into a pile to be ready for mulching and loads out commercial quantities of the produced mulch,” Moore said.

“It takes a couple of days to move the mulch piles around and then about a week to

With Tier 4 Final emission controls in mind, Byron Shire Council has purchased a Komatsu WA270-8 wheel loader to help sort household and green waste.

pasteurise it on our aerated matt pad. The rest of the time, the wheel loader is emptying the bins that people drop their rubbish into.”

In addition to the loader’s emission performance and pricing, Moore said Komatsu’s service and support offerings were attractive. “Cost was a factor, and support and serviceability were big selling points.

“We’ve had the Komatsu wheel loader for a year now and the support and service has been fantastic. Their field service technicians are local to our Northern Rivers area and they come out to us within a couple of hours if we need them, including after hours if necessary.

“They rang me the other week and said it’s due for a service when I wasn’t aware of that.

I told them to come ‘early in the morning’ so it didn’t hold us up, and sure enough they arrived first thing and sorted it out.”

Backed by Komatsu’s Australia-wide service and support network, the Komatsu WA270-8 comes standard with the KOMTRAX remote monitoring system, which provides real-time information on a fitted machine’s location, performance and health – helping to maximise machine safety, productivity, uptime and availability.

“It comes with all the bells and whistles such as KOMTRAX,” Moore said, “so you know exactly what the machine is doing.

We don’t even have to keep track of when it

needs a service. Komatsu has eyes on that remotely and come out to us when it’s due. It’s necessary for us to keep the machine on-site because we can’t afford the costs of transport and downtime.”

Moore said the Resource Recovery Centre’s leading hand mechanic is impressed by KOMTRAX’s ability to access codes and diagnostics at the machine without needing licences, laptops or specialised technicians.

“They sent our mechanic up to Brisbane to show him how to read all the diagnostics. He finds them really great to talk to.”

The WA270-8’s other fans include its operators, with Moore relating that he and his staff “like to drive it. It’s a comfortable, easy machine to negotiate, and the always-on reversing camera is fantastic”.

The Resource Recovery Centre has a long history of using Komatsu equipment and is set to make more of it. “We have hired Komatsu wheel loaders in the past and found them to be really good – we’ve had no dramas whatsoever – but this is the first time Council has purchased one outright.”

“Having the single wheel loader is enough for us because we have a backhoe as well,” Moore said, “but the Council Works Department has ordered a new Komatsu grader.” • Source: Komatsu Australia

Quarry November 2020 49

LOAD & HAUL

Top: The John Deere 844L aggregate handler wheel loader is built to be productive and easy to run. Inset: Chase Vickerman, Linwood Mining and Minerals, says he could spend “the majority of my time here in a front-end loader… the John Deere is my favourite”.

L-SERIES MAKES FOR LEAN, MEAN HAULING MACHINES

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apable, comfortable, and in control, John Deere’s production class (PC) L-Series wheel loaders are built to be comfortable and easy to run while increasing productivity.

“Our customers work day in and day out on some of the toughest quarries and jobsites, making reliability and productivity critical for their operations,” John Chesterman, John Deere Construction & Forestry product marketing manager for the PC four-wheel drive loaders, said. “With the new L-Series wheel loaders, we listened to customer feedback and used that information to continue to improve our wheel loader offerings.”.

Boasting a new cab, joystick steering, intuitive controls, and a host of other features that help reduce operator burnout, the PC L-Series loaders are already an integral part of the operation at Linwood Mining and Minerals Corporation. One of the largest limestone mining operations in the United States, the company hauls out approximately 7000 tonnes of limestone from underground every day.

Linwood Mining’s plant superintendent Dave Mueting knows how important comfort is to his operators. “We load the customer trucks, we load a lot of hoppers, and move material back and forth. The comfortability is extremely important to the operator when you’re spending 10 hours a day in a machine.”

The fully redesigned cab in the L-Series wheel loader is more spacious and offers more storage as well as heated/ventilated seats, an updated air conditioning system for all-day cooling, improved visibility and a 178mm (7”) 50

Quarry November 2020

colour display that’s easier to read in bright sunlight and tilts for the best view.

Chase Vickerman, a production operator at Linwood Mining, is enjoying the extra room in the cab. “There’s Bluetooth … I can listen to my music, I can see all around me and pretty much anything that can make that 10 to 12 hours better, the Deere does it for me,” he said.

“Power is extremely important when you’re trying to climb up on a pile to push something up,” Mueting said. “Every loader we have has a use, so we need it be running all the time.”

The new 844L aggregate handler loaders feature increased power (up to a nine per cent increase in power) and seven per cent less fuel burn than their K-Series predecessors, with an improved torque converter and better rimpull capabilities in the pile. Vickerman said he had noticed the difference. “When I’m digging into a heavy pile, the machine doesn’t bog down when I’m hoisting and maintains power through the entire lift,” he said.

Maintenance is made easy with all daily service points, including fuel, grouped on the left side for quick and convenient ground level access.

The factory-fit John Deere auto-lube system enables an 80 per cent reduction in daily maintenance and increases pin and bushing life. The PC L-Series also features an improved hydraulic hose and electrical routing and tyre-pressure monitoring system essential for proper tyre management.

Like the former K-Series, the L-Series features John Deere’s exclusive Quad-Cool system, where coolers are arranged for optimum

cooling, unmatched cleaning access, and visual inspections to all sides of each cooler.

All new adjustable electrohydraulic (EH) controls in the L-Series enable operators to tune and configure controls to their own preferences, while individual attachment settings mean no manual adjustment of controls when switching between attachments. This enables improved controllability and soft stops.

Vickerman is finding the EH controls save him time, energy and frustration in his job. “My favourite thing about the machine is the return to dig setting. Instead of having to worry about getting your bucket in the right place, with this, I can just push a button and I’m straight back where I need to be. The savable settings on the loader let me switch from task to task effortlessly. I don’t have to muscle anything.

The multi-function buttons make me more productive by making it easy for me to switch between different things that I do throughout the regular workday.”

The PC L-Series wheel loaders allow operators to move more material, more profitably and in more comfort. Vickerman sums it up: “If I have my choice between any of the other front end loaders here at the quarry, or this 844L gear, I’m going to choose the L. It’s comfortable. It’s a quality product. It helps me make my job easier and more efficient.”

For more information, visit John Deere’s Australian website: www.JohnDeere.com.au • Source: John Deere Construction & Forestry Equipment

REGULATION

TIER 2 MANAGERS TO MEET NEW CRITERIA: RESOURCES REGULATOR

T

he transitional period for the New South Wales Resources Regulator’s threetiered scheme for quarry managers has now ended, with new applicants to be assessed on new criteria.

Effective from 1 October, 2020, managers of Tier 2 quarries – which are mediumsized operations where the mining hazards represent medium risk – will be required to satisfy the new requirements.

“The NSW Resources Regulator, in consultation with the Mining and Petroleum Competence Board, has adopted a threetiered approach to the administration of the Quarry Manager Practising Certificate (QMPC) scheme,” a NSW Resources Regulator spokesperson stated.

The Resources Regulator requires an application that outlines experience, qualifications and verification prerequisites for Tier 2 applications.

A qualifications and experience assessment is required, including the submission of a complete written application that reaches the prerequisites.

At least two years’ experience is required for Tier 2 quarry managers, with applicants providing detail on the areas of their expertise.

A minimum of six months’ experience in an operation with similar hazards to those listed in Tier 2 quarries is also listed as part of the application competencies, and six months’ supervisory experiences.

The application must be signed and dated by the applicant’s supervising manager or quarry manager.

“If you are unable to have an eligible person to sign off your experience entries, you must still provide their details in the two columns provided and an explanation as to why,” the NSW Resources Regulator stated in the guide for Tier 2 quarries.

The Resources Regulator also outlines that applicants must have one of the following qualifications: •R II40115 Certificate IV in Surface Extraction Operations ssued by a registered training organisation (RTO).

•R II50115 Diploma of Surface Operations issued by a RTO. •R II60115 Advanced Diploma of Metalliferous Mining issues by a RTO.

Tier 2 quarries are deemed to be medium-sized operations.

•B achelor of Mining Engineering issued by an Australian University.

•B achelor of Science issued by an Australian University and a Graduate Diploma in Mining Engineering issued by an Australian University.

•B achelor of Mechanical Engineering issued by an Australian University and evidence of study in mining subjects related to rock mechanics/quarry slope stability and blasting.

•B achelor of Civil Engineering issued by an Australian University and evidence of study in mining subjects related to rock mechanics/quarry slope stability and blasting.

The unit ‘RIIERR401E Apply and monitor emergency preparedness and response systems in surface operations’ is also required for Tier 2 quarrying managers.

“The Resources Regulator no longer issues practising certificates with a restriction to a specific mine or mines after the transition period ends. Individuals can now apply for practising certificate that will allow them to exercise the statutory function at all Tier 2 quarries,” a NSW Resources Regulator spokesperson told Quarry.

“Tier-2 quarries are determined by the Resources Regulator using the risk profiling tool.”

The NSW Resources Regulator’s risk profiling tool is available on its website resourcesregulator.nsw.gov.au - along with the guide to the new competencies for Tier 2 quarries.

WHAT CAN THE IQA OFFER? IQA chief executive officer Kylie Fahey said the

Institute is available to members and sites with any questions relating to the changes in the Tier 2 criteria. It can offer: • IQA events and professional development products which cover the required topic areas as prescribed by the NSW Resource Regulator to meet the requirements of practising certificate professional development hours.

• A detailed logbook where learners can record activity, can track hours and identify if the rules for engaging in professional development are being met annually.

• Guidance on planning learning across the five-year period and essential topics for professional development.

• Access to the mandatory Learning from Disasters Course (for Quarry Managers at Tier 1 and Tier 2 sites). The IQA Approved Training Provider number is 0004206.

• Access to the Quarry Manager Certification System (QMCS) framework to support systematic tracking and recording of professional development.

The IQA is approved by the NSW Resources Regulator to deliver its Learning from Disasters one-day program.

Under the Maintenance of Competence Scheme, developed by the NSW Resources Regulator, for those holding a NSW Practicing Certificate – Quarry Manager (without conditions), a minimum of 90 hours’ professional development is required over five years. This includes completing the Regulator’s approved Learning from Disasters program. •

By Nickolas Zakharia

Quarry November 2020 51

IQA NEWS Ferguson (FUSCS) was the highest bidder.

The IQA is grateful to all the sponsors that supported the Golf Day and to Orica for supporting the North Queensland branch’s annual general meeting. Getting members back together has been very important consideration following COVID-19.

YOUNG MEMBERS NETWORK NEWS The Queensland branch held a Young Member Network (YMN) site visit to Zanows’ Sand and Gravel Quarry, near Toowoomba. Proudly family-owned and operated, Zanows’ commenced extraction of natural sand and gravel in 1997 in this unique geological location. Expanding its product range to crushed aggregates, horse arena sand, gabion, drainage, and rock products, the Transport and Main Roads-approved site is now a significant supplier to the landscape industry in the southeast Queensland region.

The Orica team successfully captured the Nordev trophy for the best net score.

The site tour was hosted by managing director Darren Zanow and quarry manager

Ausrocks managing director Carl Morandy (centre) with Zanows managing director Darren Zanow (right) and quarry manager David Gormley.

IQA BRANCH CONTACTS Team MS were smartly dressed for the Golf Day.

NORTH QUEENSLAND BRANCH NEWS The North Queensland branch successfully hosted its AGM and Golf Day. As the first branch event following COVID-19 restrictions, members were excited to get together and enjoy networking and the chance to reconnect. The Branch combined the 2019 AGM with the golf tournament.

Sixteen teams teed off and enjoyed a fun day of networking. The prized Nordev trophy was won by Orica for the best net score.

The branch arranged to auction a signed North Queensland Cowboys jersey to raise funds for the Cowboys House charity. The auction was hotly contested and Scott

52

Quarry November 2020

IQA NEW MEMBERS GRADE NAME Associate Associate Associate Associate Associate Associate Associate Associate MIQ Associate Associate Associate Associate

Adam Wallace David Adams Michael Yee Peter Horner Mark Taylor Greg Lewis Brett Beveridge Mollie Pearson Phillip Hope Brett Evans Lee Yong Tawnie Herrington Bill Ziogos

BRANCH QLD TAS VIC NSW NSW WA QLD SA WA QLD WA WA QLD

ACT

IQA Admin: 0419 558 595

NSW

IQA Admin: 0419 558 595

Northern

IQA Admin: 0419 558 595

Hunter

IQA Admin: 0419 558 595

Illawarra

IQA Admin: 0419 558 595

Central West

IQA Admin: 0419 558 595

NT

Lisa Stromborg: 0403 291 996

QLD

Lisa Stromborg: 0403 291 996

North QLD

Lisa Stromborg: 0403 291 996

Cairns

Lisa Stromborg: 0403 291 996

SA

Marie Cunningham: 08 8243 2505

Tasmania

Lisa Stromborg: 0403 291 996

Victoria

IQA Admin: 0419 558 595

Vic Sub-branch WA

IQA Admin: 0419 558 595

Catherine Kelly: 0403 940 870

The Institute of Quarrying Australia

RE-THINKING, RE-SOURCING AND RE-ENGAGING THE POSTCOVID-19 WORKFORCE Maintaining skilled and motivated teams is an important challenge that all businesses face.

We have all been impacted by the changes required to work practices as a result of COVID-19, but what of future workforces and motivating teams? The full impact of how COVID-19 will impact future workforce trends is still to emerge but we are starting to see where unemployment rates will land.

The Institute of Quarrying’s International Presidents group met recently and shared what was happening globally across the quarrying industry. One sobering statistic was shared by South Africa where it is experiencing more than 40 per cent unemployment. In August, in Australia, we reported an unemployment rate of 6.8 per cent – a stark contrast. The group discussed the different global challenges the industry faces when training and maintaining workforces to achieve business outcomes.

employers across five different careers – a challenge when we consider retention of staff and maintaining skills in key technical areas.

There is no single strategy or answer to what will motivate and retain talent. But reflecting on what impacts the pandemic has had on people and looking ahead, we may be able to find new ways to attract and retain talent.

The IQA is committed to supporting the careers of young people in the industry.

Some Young Members recently enjoyed a site tour of Zanow’s in Queensland. The IQA will be looking to engage more Young Members in these types of tours, and improving access to digital mediums, as ways to attract, support and retain talent in the industry.

The pre-COVID workforce showed that young people (those under 35) would have a range of different occupations throughout their career. Some studies estimate that on average Australians will make 17 changes in

The 62nd IQA conference is taking shape.

The theme – Re-Think, Re-source, Re-engage – will look at global learnings industry can take from successfully operating during the COVID-19 pandemic and the growth

David Gormley. The Young Members were given an overview of extraction from the main pit, crushing and overall operation of the site which showed quality control processes.

The rehabilitation plans for the site were also shared with the Young Members and the importance of long-term rehabilitation plans being in place.

involved in these events to build their networks and encourage ideas and innovation.

UPCOMING EVENTS

A big thanks is in order to the Queensland YMN sponsor AusRocks for its continued support.

• The WA Annual Golf Day, Joondalup Resort, Perth on Friday, 20 November.

The IQA is committed to supporting the careers of young people in the industry.

Recently the Tasmanian branch appointed Nic Armstrong as the new Young Member Network co-ordinator and NSW branch appointed Shane Andersen in the same role. There will be numerous events scheduled in 2021 to support younger people in the industry. Please encourage young people in the industry to get

opportunities that lie ahead as economic recovery strategies are put in place. Reengaging and managing the human aspects of business with our people, customers, suppliers and community will be a key focus of the conference.

As the industry starts to emerge from restrictions, we are looking ahead to what support is needed. The branches are all planning how to best support local networks to connect and we are looking forward to catching up.

KYLIE FAHEY Chief Executive Officer Institute of Quarrying Australia

The following events are confirmed for the second half of November: • Women In Quarrying Conference, Eight Mile Plains Brisbane, on Thursday, 19 November.

The Queensland Young Members Network visited Zanows’ Sand and Gravel Quarry, near Toowoomba.

• The IQA’s National AGM, to be held via Zoom at 5pm on Tuesday, 24th November.

Papers for the AGM were circulated to all members on 30 October via email.

• Tasmanian Branch Technical and Social Weekend, from Friday 27 to Sunday 29 November.

For more information about these events and to register, visit quarry.com.au

The YMN received an overview of extraction from Zanows’ main pit as well rehabilitation plans for the site.

Quarry November 2020 53

GEOLOGY TALK

COULD COVID-19 MYSTIFY FUTURE GEOLOGISTS?

It is anticipated that discarded face masks over time may be covered by sediment and become fossilised in newly-formed rocks.

COVID-19 is a major global shock that has upturned our lives, but how does it measure up in the grand billion-year scale of Earth history?

A

ccording to academics from the University of Leicester’s Centre for Palaeobiology Research, the pandemic won’t leave a direct record of COVID-19 for geologists of the far future to investigate, as viruses don’t fossilise.

It may also be difficult to pick out a clear fossil record of victims too, as they could be difficult to distinguish among other causes of death. As they wrote in The Conversation: There will be indirect signals such as some specific “technofossils” that are spiking in abundance. For instance, many billions of disposable face masks and gloves are already showing up in litter globally and working their way into the geological cycle. They are plastics-based, durable and so easily fossilised.

Their fossilisation can take different forms. Relatively intact gloves and masks may accumulate in riverbeds or at the bottom of lakes. Over time, they will be covered by more sediment and become fossilised in newly-formed rocks. Other masks and gloves will be carried into the oceans and some will be washed to distant shores, as the rise of PPE found during beach clean-ups is showing.

For our lifetimes, and many generations

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into the future, this will be a huge environmental problem that adds to the millions of kinds of technofossils we already produce. In the far future, it increases the chances of the events of 2020 being picked up in a fossil signal by some sharp-eyed palaeontologist.

Plastic pollution is up, but carbon emissions are currently down. This reduction might be seen in the fossil record of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) in polar ice layers. But, so far this reduction is tiny. A decrease in other greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide (N2O) might help to strengthen this fossil signal. The air has been cleaner, too, and so lake sediments may briefly include fewer fossil smoke particles.

All this evidence of slowdown will be subtle. If there’s an economic rebound, as the International Monetary Fund predicts, this will drown out any such evidence of the temporary reductions.

But the real geological effect will be if the pandemic acts as a catalyst to change society’s planetary impact, such as by decarbonising industry across the world. For former head of the UN climate convention Christiana Figueras, the recovery can be used to reshape industry

and cut emissions. If sustainability policies are implemented then the faint, hopeful geological signals may shift from transient to permanent.

What would these signals look like, once petrified? If greenhouse gas emissions continue to reduce through climatefriendly policies, climate stabilisation would be recorded not just in ice and lake cores but in corals, tree rings and stalagmites worldwide. Investing in ecosystem resilience and restoration projects would be economically beneficial, and also increase the diversity of plants and animals whose bones, shells and pollen end up in sediment layers. Developing the circular economy in response to this economic recession could slow, and eventually halt, the flood of single-use plastic waste, too.

The acid test of that will be in the rock strata that will form from now on – either they will show signs that the accelerating trends of the current geological age carried on, or they will show a deflection away from a potential “Hothouse Earth” and towards some kind of new stability.

The future is not yet set in stone, but in the very long run the rocks will tell the story of which road we collectively take. • This is an abridged version of an article originally published in The Conversation. Visit theconversation.com/what-will-covid-19-look-liketo-geologists-in-the-far-future-143085

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