Reports

	Home
	Diary
	News letters
	About IOQ
	Awards
	Employment
	Photo Galleries
	Links
	Reports Presidents National Local International Award Winners Training Safety Environment Other
	History

	Conferences

Reports

Some reports have been reproduced in full; others are available as uploads in Adobe (.pdf format)

LOCAL reports

Otago / Southland Meeting Feb 09

18 February 2009
This was our first meeting for twelve months, other than a field trip to the Oamaru area April last year.

In saying that it was a very successful meeting hosted by Dwayne McLellan the Territory Manger for Titan Plant Services in Invercargill, a big thanks to Dwayne and our many sponsors who support the IOQ throughout the years.

Twenty six people attended the meeting with the majority of the numbers made up from the Executive members of the IOQ and AQA it’s great to see both boards out talking and listening to those at the sharp end of the aggregates industry.

James Boyce (President AQA) and Jason Lowe (Head of AQA Technical Committee) gave a presentation on AQA business and what they have been working on recently. Jason’s talk on the technical aspect of the aggregates industry was very interesting and again it’s great having someone like Jason talking to our major customers giving them the aggregates industry’s view on life.

Since we had a star-studded audience we also heard from Lex Robb presenting on Conference 2009 to be held in Invercargill 8-10 July 2009. Tony Hunter, AQA gave a Minex update. George Kelcher, President IOQ, gave a brief run down on IOQ business and Kevin Walker CEO of Exito gave an update on Exito business.

If any Otago Southland members have any ideas on future meetings or field trips, I would be more than welcome to here from you, or if you would like to more involved with the running of the local branch give me a call, remember “many hands make light work”.

Once again thanks to Dwayne and his team for sponsoring the night. (Next time Dwayne we can probably order, half the number of pizzas, but the volume of refreshments was probably about right).

Gavin Hartley
Otago Southland Branch
Secretary

Doug Upston's quarry - 2008 Niemac Award winner

Doug Upston is the Quarry Manager for Blackhead Quarries Ltd, Balclutha Quarry. Email Doug
Overview
In February 2004, Blackhead Quarries was significantly expanded with the addition of assets from the two shareholder companies. Palmer & Son Ltd and Fulton Hogan Ltd. Included in these assets were the FH Balclutha quarry operations.
The Balclutha operations included:
* a crushing and screening plant at Balclutha
* a hard rock quarry 5km upstream, and
* the Manuka Island gravel extraction site.
Gravel has also been sourced from other sites on the Clutha River for processing.
The market is concentrated in the Balclutha area for roadbase and maintenance products, extending from Milton in the north to Clinton in the south and Clydevale to the west. High PSV sealing chips are sent further afield and are an important market for the quarry. The other significant customer is Stahlton Engineered Concrete plant beside the processing plant.

Aerial view of the Balclutha crushing plant
showing the Clutha River at the bottom,
Stahlton concrete plant and residential houses to the right, and
farm land to the left.

Plant:


The plant is located on the north bank of the Clutha in Balclutha.	The plant has two main roles. One is to take river gravel from various sites on the Clutha River and process this into concrete aggregate. This accounts for approximately 30 000 tonnes per year. The other is to take shot rock from the company’s greywacke quarry and crush it into aggregates from AP roadbase to high PSV chips and anything in between.

Plant Overview:

The primary crusher is located in a pit on the plant site. Trucks tip into a 50 tonne bin and a feeder feeds a Minyu 40x30 jaw crusher. The rock is conveyed out of the pit and passed over a scalping screen taking out roadbase materials.
The rock then passes through a cone crusher and over a screen. At this screen we can take out high grade roadbase to a specific grading or provide feed for a vertical shaft impact crusher. Any oversize is recirculated through the cone.

Material not required as roadbase is fed into a VSI crusher and circulated over a washing / screening plant to make high quality, high polished stone value sealing chips. A sand classifier is also used to deal with fines.
A feed in bin allows river gravel to be introduced into the screening / washing plant to produce sand and concrete aggregates.

The plant as it was flowed well and was well laid out. The problem was some of the equipment wasn’t well matched i.e. crushers to screens, and breakdowns often interrupted production. It became clear an upgrade was required to achieve our goal of quality products always on hand for our customers.

Plant Upgrade:

Primary crusher:

The actual primary crusher is a 1997 Minyu 40x30 single toggle jaw crusher. This crusher is in good condition and has worked very well for the quarry in the past and remains a reliable crusher.

The feeder on the other hand had some reliability and tidiness issues. This feeder was a Telsmith apron feeder originally used on the Manipouri tailrace project in the 1950’s. This was replaced with a reciprocating plate feeder built by Palmers Mechanical in Dunedin. During the feeder installation a new hopper was built, tidying up the whole area and improving efficiency and safety. One of the main improvements was the huge reduction in spillage from the feeder. With the apron feeder a man was required up to an hour a day to clean up. This was a waste of time, waste of rock and exposed him to a potentially dangerous area of the operation. With new reciprocating plate feeder this has been reduced to 10 minutes per week with a machine.

Secondary Crusher:

The secondary crusher was a Kawasaki G2010 cone mounted on a semi-trailer. This unit was put in place in 1997 and was effectively a stationary plant with all the shortcomings of a mobile plant. There were also some maintenance, productivity and reliability issues with the Kawasaki so a replacement was sought. A Nordberg GP300 cone was purchased and set up as a permanent plant to replace the Kawasaki. The opportunity was taken at this stage to simplify the operation and three conveyors were taken out of the system at the same time the crusher was changed. The new plant is a lot tidier, with ease of access around the plant for cleaning and maintenance making for a more reliable and safer operation.

Screens:

As is common in crushing plants that have been made up and added to over the years, Balclutha plant had a variety of screens, mostly inclined of various ages, sizes and states of repair. These old screens were causing down time and were unable to take the loads the new crushers would place on them.

The plant now runs five Fulton Hogan Engineering screens from the scalping screen to the final chip washing screens. Although they vary between one and two deck screens, they are of different lengths for different applications in the plant, but they are all the same width so screen cloths are interchangeable which means stocks could be reduced

Tertiary Crusher:

The tertiary crusher was a Barmac impactor. This crusher was originally used on the Clyde dam in the 1980’s. It was taken to Balclutha after the dam project and has been used to make sealing chips since. With the inclusion of polished stone values in the sealing chip specification the volumes of sealing chip from the Balclutha greywacke has increased significantly with a PSV value of 62, the highest in the Otago / Southland area.

At 150hp the Barmac was struggling to meet the market for sealing chips. The Clutha River is also running out of material to make concrete aggregates so we will soon be manufacturing these through this plant as well. We have just installed a new 400hp Twister VSI to replace the Barmac. During this process we reduced the number of conveyors and are improving the flow of the plant. This will once again improve tidiness, ease of maintenance and safety. The electrical system has also been upgraded during this crusher change.

Summary:

What we started with was a plant that evolved over a number of years, made up of pieces
What we now have is a simple but flexible plant. It has fewer moving parts and is more reliable than the old bits and pieces.
”Now when we arrive at work in the morning we have confidence we can start the plant and spend the day making quality products safely.”

A few notes about Doug Upston :

* Born September 1945
* Educated at school when there
* Left school as soon as possible and gained employment in the State underground coal mine at Kaitangata.
* In November 1969 an opportunity to join the team at the Fulton Hogan Quarry in Balclutha became available and accepted .
* In 1980 due to the retirement of my father I was promoted to the management role of the Balclutha quarry. This quarry has presently provided employment for 3 generations of the Upston family.
Prior to Fulton Hogan ownership this Quarry was in a very poor condition having been owned by a local trucking company. The rock supply at the plant site was exhausted with the result being my introduction to the Quarry industry was to find and develop a new hard rock Quarry. This Quarry over the years has developed into a very manageable operation with a life expectance of another 100years.

The plant was for many years a dumping ground for second hand machinery that was costly to maintain and production rates that where never going to meet demands. On the positive side this old machinery provided a good training ground for safety, maintenance, repairs, production flows and what was required when the opportunity for a major upgrade was to take place.

With the assistance and encouragement of my employer I gained my B grade Managers certificate August 1972 ., A grade November 1979, Quarry Mangers Diploma July 1989 and have been a member of the institute of quarrying, attending many conferences through out NZ . These opportunities have gained me some very good friends in the Quarry industry and a sound and broad understanding of what is required of a Quarry Manager to provide a safe working environment and results that please the directors.

Promoting awareness, training, and buddy system has resulted in a very proud safety record that has achieved over 6000 days lost time injury free.

I have enjoyed my time in the Quarry industry and certainly did not predict in 1969 that I would still be here 39 yrs later. I believe the challenges and the people in the industry all help to get over the bad days.

Otago/Southland Branch Meeting - Feb 08

Cable Price Invercargill hosted the Otago/Southland Branch IOQ meeting on 20 Feb 2008.

The meeting, chaired by IOQ Otago/Southland Chairman, Craig McCrorie, was well attended by many local quarry folk,with members of the NZ Executive also present. The local branch elected Lex Robb as the Conference 2009 Chairman and it is clear that their strong team will ensure this 2009 conference will be well run

Presentation by Marc Papke:

The highlight of the evening was a fantastic slide-show presentation on the White Hills Windfarm, Mossburn.
Marc Papke, who originally hailed from Dakota, was Works Infrastructure’s Project Engineer overseeing the construction of the project. Marc is now based in Te Anau.

Key aspects of the project:
Overview:
 Construction of 29 Wind Turbines, each generating 2Megawatts, total 58 Megawatts
 A Meridian Energy / Works Infrastructure project
 Contract period – March 06 to February 2007.
 500,000m3 of earthworks over five months
 75,000 tonne of concrete and roading aggregate
 Turbine foundations required 12,000m3 concrete, 3,600 tonne cement, 1000t reinforcing steel.
 90 personnel employed at peak of job
 Road Metals main aggregate supplier

Access:
 2km access road required 35,000m3 excavation and fill
 Existing track widened from 3.5m to 10m in predominantly siltstone / mudstone rock
 Dumpsite created at the project were rehabilitated with dozer, topsoiled, seeded and tussock grass planted.
 40,000 tonne GAP65 used in roads.

Turbine Foundations :

Photo of foundations prior to pouring, showing the
huge quantities of steel reinforcing

 20m octagonal shape (to provide better key than circular or square shaped pad) 2.5m depth, approx 800m3
 Trees within 50m radius of each turbine were cleared
 27 bases were ripped with tine and dug out with conventional excavators
 2 required blasting due to harder rock
 Each ‘Embed Cylinder’ 4.2m diameter, 3m high, 13.2 tonnes, fabricated in Vietnam, and lifted into place with 100 tonne crane and levelled with several adjustable jacks
 Approx 36 tonne of reinforcing steel – 4 chaps took just 3.5 to 4 days to tie the steel
 Two on-site concrete batching plants supplied by Firth Industries capable of 95m3 /hour and 45m3 /hour produced 395 m3 30MPa concrete for the bases.
 Prior to pouring polystyrene sheeting was placed inside the shutters to minimise excessive heat loss through the shutters
 Temperatures in the core reached 52 degrees C when outside ambient temperatures were approx 20 degrees C
 Pour duration approx 7hours per base.

Towers:
 Lower tower 29m height; Upper tower 39m height
 The Gearbox / turbine / Generator / Transformers each weighed 70 tonne and were manufactured in DenMarc by Nacelle.
 These were lifted into place using Verticonn 400 t (Liebherr 1400/2) crawler crane; weight 370 tonne and 9m width.

Installation of Turbine Blades:

 Fibreglass construction, 39 m length, 6.5 tonne each , three blades per turbine, 50 years life
 Wind-speed sensors at end of each blade detect wind speeds - blades feather continuously to maximise power output
 When winds exceed 80kph, blades feather to zero pitch and do not turn
 Utilisation of turbines world-wide is approx 40%
 Comparison to average utilisation in NZ at 65-70%

Each tower height to top of blade is 101 m.

Transmission Cabling:
 Electrix were contracted to install cables in trenches. Some of these works was undertaken with specialist “ditch witch” machine which trenches, feeds and lays cable, then backfills Unfortunately, this was not as reliable as the contractor had hoped, and the majority of trenches were dug using conventional digger bucket.
 Power generated from the White Hills Windfarm is fed to Winton substation

	At the end of the evening a superb supper was served, and the model Hitachi EX1800 Excavator donated by Cable Price was won by IOQNZ President, George Kelcher. Thanks to our Southland/Otago Branch members for being such fine hosts and to Cable Price for sponsoring a great evening in Invercargill.
	George Kelcher, Les Ward and Warwick Leach chat with local identity Mort Crooks (second from left)

Story and photos - Murray Discombe
Windfarm photos by Marc Papke

The other Quarrying Dimension

The words: Blocks, Tables, Chain saw, Wire saw, Horizontal drilling, Air bag, or Kiln Drier are not part of the usual vocabulary of the average NZ Quarryman. In the dimension-stone business, however, these are some of the key words used to describe their processes and tools, so a few of us found out on a recent field trip, at a visit to Hinuera Stone.

Waikato Bay of Plenty IOQ branch simply put on another great field trip (June 2007). Groups coming from Thames, Paeroa, Tauranga, Matamata, Otorohanga, Te Kuiti, and the Auckland branch had an eye-opening day. Special thanks must go to our sponsors, who make these field trips possible: * Mimico and
Hydraulink, Thames sponsored the buses.
* The refreshments were provided by Metso and
Rocktec. Les Ward, with the help of Darcy Maddern our Branch Chairman, did all the fine tuning for the day. A big thank you to the companies allowing us through their sites and making it a most enjoyable day and finishing off at the Rocktec world famous Red Barn.

Here's an overview of the day:
* Winstone Aggregates Whitehall Quarry
* J Swap Taotaotaroa Quarry
* Firth Industries Hinuera Quarry

WINSTONE AGGREGATES WHITEHALL QUARRY

First stop for the two bus loads of quarry enthusiasts was the Whitehall Quarry located approx 10km east of Cambridge off SH1. Their quarrying activities had been frustrated since 1999 when a “greasy-back” on the south face adjacent to the No1 Pit let go, sending 50,000m3 or so of clay, rubble and rock slumping to the floor. In the last 7 years they have opened and methodically worked a second pit adjacent to the slip focusing on winning and processing rock suitable for their main client – Firth Concrete.

“For a quarry with a long-standing reputation for supply of Transit metal and sealing chips to many large contracts this has been hard times for Whitehall” explains Brent Graat, 24 yr old Trainee Production Supervisor. “However there is now light at the end of the tunnel. After the slip came down we created a buttress to prevent further slippage of the face occurring by dumping overburden layers on top of the slip materials. The south wall is now benched and stable. That means that we can now commence processing the material from the buttress and opening up the base of the No 2 pit.

As you can see below us, the No 2 Pit now doubles as a water reservoir for washing processes.”

Brent is now excited with their methodical approach. “A new plant has replaced the old one which will increase production capacity from 250,000 to about 425,000 tonne per year."

"We're also well under way to completing the stream diversion. That idea was first talked about in 1990 by Quarry Manager at that time, Ken Duncalfe and geologist John Ashby. Now 15 years on with all the consenting and environmental issues addressed, we're hopeful in Sept or October this year that the channel and culvert works should be completed. The stream diversion will allow us access to and extraction of a large deposit of very hard blue greywacke. When this occurs Winstone Aggregates will again have a full range of products available to the market”

J SWAP TAOTAOROA QUARRY

Another 8 km away, Lewis Swap explained that although Joe Swap commenced the contracting and cartage business in 1934, J Swap and Sons have operated their Taotaoroa Quarry since 1969. Their first major plant upgrade was designed and installed by Matamata wizard Paul Tidmarsh in 1980.

“We've just recently made a few more upgrades including a second new hopper and primary crusher, and finally we have replaced the 150HP Barmac with a 300HP one. With a total throughput of approx 750,000 tonnes per year, and 450,000 tonne of this being sealing chip and concrete aggregates, the upgrades assures we have sufficient capacity for this. As fast as we make the sealing chips they're gone.”

As can be seen in these photos the quarry pit is expansive with plenty of room on the surrounding land to the west for stockpiling.

On display at Swaps quarry was the new crushing beast on tracks – a Lokotrack LT200HP from Mimico Matamata

HINUERA QUARRY

“Hinuera Stone” has for several generations been synonymous with the high-end market - that special cladding featured for those wanting something other than a bricked home.

For those quarrying folk who have only heard about the dimension-stone industry, the trip to Hinuera Quarry was the highlight of the day. We'll let the pictures do most of the talking.
But there are a quite a few keys points of interest:

* Set in the hills a few km west of Matamata
* Established in 1949
* Three main layers of rock- both the upper and lower layers of this “rock sandwich” comprise a pumice-sandstone material from which the split stone for veneer blocks, fire place surrounds and the like are cut; the middle is a much harder rock from which the premium-grade is cut

* Blocks of stone are cut vertically with a special 55mm wide hydraulically-operated 2.4m long chain saw equipped with special tungsten diamond teeth. In “soft material” the chain saw can manage 20m per day, but in the hard stone accomplishes just 8m per day.
* Small explosive charges are placed into horizontal drill holes to “cut” the base of the slab
* Into the gap created by the chain-saw a 38mm air-bag is placed. When inflated a sideways pressure equivalent of 74 tonne assist moving the block away from the cut face
* Each block when cut weighs approx 8 tonnes
Each is transported to the factory area with a Komatsu 370 loader fitted with log-forks

In the “newer” quarry located just 40m or so north of the first pit, a diamond wire-saw is used to cut the rock. This is a quicker process and less wasteful with sawcut widths of just 10mm wide compared to the 55mm gaps when using the chainsaw
* A crawler crane is used to sling the rock tables to where they can be picked up with the Komatsu loader.

* In the processing area large circular saws are used to cut each block or table into size
* A new Kiln-drying process is used to make a dark-brown coloured Hinuera stone which is proving quite popular in the market
* Hinuera stone employs 25 people and one salesman

To our tour guide - Basil (Bazz) Westlake, Hinuera Stone's Site Manager – we all thank you for your patience and the enthusiastic manner you imparted your knowledge to give those of us in the aggregate game some insight into your dimension-stone business.

And for the relaxing piece-de-resistance – many thanks to Jason and Paul Tidmarsh for arranging the clay skeet shooting at your 'Red Barn'.

Just a great way to unwind after a fabulous lunch and an ale or three supplied by our hosts Les Ward and Jon McAllister of Metso Minerals Matamata.

A great day for networking and learning.

Canterbury Branch Report - March 06

The Canterbury Branch of the Institute of Quarrying NZ (Inc) had a very busy week at the end of February 2006 commencing with a branch meeting on Monday 27th February at the Equestrian Hotel Christchurch, with a strong turn out - 48 members in attendance.

New members received their Institute of Quarrying scrolls as well as several current members receiving their ‘upgrade’ scroll from IOQ President Steve Ellis. Several other notable attendees included Bruce Taylor (President of the Aggregates and Quarrying Association), Brian Bouzaid (past President IOQ) Eric Souchon (past President AQA) and George Kelcher (IOQ Vice President), along with other members of the NZ IOQ Executive.

Luke Mathieson and the team from Wellington based Real Steel Ltd sponsored the evening. The IOQ is grateful to Real Steel who also sponsored Andrew Dronjak (Auckland Branch Chairman and winner of the 2003 Goughs Caterpillar Travel Award at the Queenstown conference) to presented his “Iceland - Land of Light and Darkness” paper at three venues in the South Island. The first presentation was to the Canterbury Branch - an excellent opportunity for members from the southern regions to hear this paper if they hadn’t made it to the 2005 Conference in Waitangi.

From Christchurch Luke took Andrew on a whirl-wind tour of the South Island’s east coast including Macraes Flat then on to Dunedin for an Otago Branch meeting held on Wed 1st March 06. Andrew again presented his paper with Real Steel sponsoring the evening.

Tuesday 28th February, Christchurch hosted the Aggregates and Quarrying Association Executive Council meeting as well as the Institute of Quarrying Executive Council meeting and an Executive Conference Committee meeting, all conducted at the Copthorne Hotel.

On Thursday Lou Ditmer and Ken MacLeod traveled to Nelson to hold an extraordinary Branch meeting for the Nelson/Marlborough members. We gave a quick brief on the July combined conference activities and fielded membership inquiries. Andrew Dronjak met us there and presented his Iceland paper to the Nelson/Marlborough members. Goughs Caterpillar sponsored the evening, and our thanks go to Chris Manson (Goughs Nelson) and Tony Smith (Goughs National Sales Manager) who were present for the evening.

The Nelson meeting was a very beneficial event serving to make contact with our northern members and to pass on information regarding our conference. The branch plan is to continue with these Nelson/Marlborough meetings and encourage more speaking tours.

Report by Ken MACLEOD
Canterbury Acting Branch Chairman

'Mounts Wire' host Auckland Meeting Feb 2006

When Lindsay Cook, General Manager of Mounts Wire Industries describes some of his company's achievements he does so with a quiet passion, and a real sense of pride. After all, not many companies extend back 87 years In 1919 Mounts Wire commenced its operations in Newmarket. In those days two brothers, Robert and Lesley Ross ran the operation as Steel importers. Later on the brothers went their own ways - Robert being involved with what is now known as Steel & Tube; and Lesley Ross moved the woven wire business to East Tamaki.

The same premises hosted our local Auckland Branch Meeting on 7 Feb 2006. Not a big turnout, but 15 or so members enjoyed the opportunity to learn about what's new with the wire business.

Mounts Wire is part of the Pacifica Group and is closely associated with Melwire Australia. In Western Australia supplies the Polyurethane panels screens ; Melbourne specialises in Conveyor belts for the Food Industry along with Architectural products; Brisbane makes both wire woven screens and punched rubber screens.

The New Zealand operation derives approx 50% of its income from the quarrying industry, and products for the food industry another 15-20%. But it is the industrial filter business that our members found interesting.

Mounts Wire designed a purpose built a machine to create filter discs - the filter cloth is sandwiched between two protective sheets of finely woven mesh to process recycled plastic. Filter disc sizes range from 90mm-185mm diameter.

Sales of these products have already reached 15% and climbing. Fine wire ranges from 0.4-10mm diameter. "The fine woven mesh products are an intriguing part of our business" says Lindsay as he holds up a small round powder coated disc "these are the speaker covers, made right here in Auckland for the new Calais Holdens"

Pictured at left are John Ashby with Lindsay Cook in front of the new filter screen manufacturing machine.

Mounts are targetting a new customer base- architects looking for new ways to dress up buildings with woven stainless steel and phosphor bronze. Such as Sky City Casino Watch this space.

Specialist Product Salesman, August Matene (also IOQ Auckland Branch Committee member) has been with Mounts Wire Industries for over 11 years. His passion is still for the quarrying industry and the new 1' x 2' (that's 305mm x 610mm) polyurethane panels made by injection molding process just launched a few months ago at the Annual Conference at Waitangi.

The key here is that they can be retrofitted to existing screens so there is no need to purchase a new deck, just the panels and fitting bars. "During testing at Queensland's CSIRO they were subjected to and withstood forces of 8G! So we're pretty pleased with that!"

The first installation of this product is in a dewatering application at Perry's Sand Plant at Horotiu, near Hamilton. Holcim Aggregates are soon to take delivery of their first polyscreen at Bombay Quarry in a rock environment.

Many thanks as always to our sponsors who provided us with both some good educational stuff, along with a delicious barbeque dinner and refreshments.

TYRESEAL

There was still more to the evening as Hamilton-based company Tyreseal demonstrated their new product for puncture repairs.

More details soon, meanwhile check out the Tyreseal website, or contact Andrew Bradley on 07 853 5973.

**********************

Paykel Shield 2005 presented to Murray Swain

Back in 1990 the Auckland Branch IOQ committee at that time considered that an award should be made available to recognize those who had made an Outstanding Contribution to the Auckland Group during the years. The Award was sponsored by Paykel Engineering and the first recipient was Keith Niederer.

On November 25th 2005, at the Auckland Branch Annual Christmas function, sponsored by Komatsu, Orica and Applied Conveyor and Belting it was time again to honour a man who interestingly enough was a part of the committee that year when the idea for the Paykel shield was first mooted.

He is a colourful chap who has spent almost his entire working life in the extractives industry. His apprenticeship at Puni (a small village in the Franklin District) as a mechanic was to stand him in good stead, as one of his first tasks when he left was to build a device which is still being used today.

His progression through his working life as apprentice, plant foreman to manager is reasonably typical of our industry. What is not so typical is the passion that Murray Swain has shown not just to his work, but towards all aspects of his life.

Motor bikes were a passion - before he turned 20 he gained the NZ record over the standing-quarter-mile racing his bike along Kariotahi Beach. Later as an avid jogger he competed in several marathons. He loved hockey as well and also had a keen eye – that of a marksman - clay bird target shooting. We understand he was introduced by his father-in-law to duck shooting, and every May he still heads off to a mai-mai set up near Port Waikato at the commencement of the duck-shooting season. Passion.

Those who have been in Auckland a while, would recall that JJ Craig was a name synonymous with the quarrying industry – they had a quarry just off Marua Road where PlaceMakers Head office is now located. They quarried, made bricks, and were concrete specialists. Murray Swain was a part of that organisation.

The device still in use today that was built all those years ago was used to harvest small stones out of a watery environment. The device was named the “Raewyn Alice”. And for a number that may still not mean too much. There are two names associated with river operations – Roose was one, Henry the other. The “Raewyn Alice” is a dredge specially designed to suck up and sand from a river bed and it was built for Henry Sands by Murray Swain and his brother.

Armed with his Dredge Master's ticket, he stayed on the Waikato River every day for 10 years winning sand for Mr Henry. After his stint as plant foreman, he was promoted to Manager when Peter Henry retired. This was about 30 years ago in 1975. Henry Sands became part of JJ Craig, which in turn was purchased by Winstone Aggregates, and in due course became part of the Fletcher Building Group.

Murray Swain stayed with the organization for nearly 40 years. Now that’s passion. And he may still have been there if it were not for management changes at that time that made his position redundant, leaving to make yet another sand plant for Ian Wedding's operation at Te Kowhai, just north of Hamilton.

Things changed dramatically over the years and when the Puni Sand Plant (pictured at left)was modernized about 10 years ago, it was Murray's expertise that helped Winstone Aggregates streamline the production to produce a large variety of products – pumice products for drainage and horticulture, gravels for horse arenas and filtration, and sand used for manufacturing concrete, pipes, roofing tiles, and the like. He can indeed be proud of his passion for the sand business.

In the early days things were pretty primitive, and the toilet facilities comprised a spot under a certain willow tree overlooking the Waikato River – a place where a bloke could sit and ponder in peace, as the water flowed by, and the leaves rustled. On one particular occasion when his brother yelled out “You’d better hurry up, someone’s coming” he laughed, ignored the comment and to his embarrassment and was literally caught with his pants down, as some visitors came round the corner.

But that’s not the man we have come to know when we discuss things about the IOQ. He joined in 1989 and has one of the highest attendance records of any IOQ member in the Auckland Group, rarely missing either a branch meeting or a committee meeting. He has served as a committee member for nearly all that time, and was involved on both Committees for the Annual IOQ Conferences held in Auckland in 1995 and in 2001.

Many Auckland branch members will recall that when Advanced Engineering brought their woven wire screens from Christchurch to compete in the Auckland market, a local branch meeting was hosted at the Puni Sand Plant, and Murray Swain was the life and soul of that evening.

He especially supported our IOQ bus trips and we know that the trips to Soljans Wines, Waihi Gold, Huntly East Mine, McDonalds Lime and the Pirongia Pub, Matahina Dam and the Grumpy Mole, will be fondly recalled as great days out.

His input has always been valued as it has been offered as both a measured and considered opinion, rarely flippant. However for those of us who got to know him a little, he certainly does has a wicked sense of humour and memorable smile and laugh.

Maureen's role as a wife and soulmate to Murray over the years cannot be overlooked and for her support to the IOQ we thank her warmly.

Bryan Bartley makes the presentation of the Paykel Shield to Murray Swain, for Outstanding Contribution to the Auckland Group During the years. Well deserved.

CABLE PRICE - proud to be associated with Oceana Gold

McRaes Goldmine. It is by NZ standards – a large open cast gold mine. In order to facilitate moving enormous quantities of material requires the help of some huge machinery. And when it comes to impressive excavators, Cable Price, have such a machine.

When Cable Price was asked to host the local Auckland Branch meeting held 14 Sep 2005, Malcolm Pascoe and his team were quick to take another opportunity of flying their flag. Obviously very proud to have received the nod to help out at McRaes by supplying one of their Hitachi 3600 Mining Excavators. A 348 tonne digger. Manufactured in three locations - Japan, Indonesia and the bucket in Queensland.

While there are 30 or so Hitachi 3600 excavators working in various mines in Australia, this is a first for NZ. The Cable Price presentation portrayed the size of the components and some impressive statistics. It also highlighted the efforts of the logistics people coordinating the manufacture of the machine through its facilities, together with the shipping and transport arrangements to the McRaes Gold Mine north of Dunedin. Once there a committed team of specialists mechanics swooped to ready it for its task.

[+] Enlarge

22 m3 bucket. Weighs 20.6 tonne and is 3.9m wide by 3.45m deep! Fills a dumper in 5 passes. Works 23 hours a day. Machine has 7500 litres fuel tank. Just some of the stats!
Read more. . . on the Cable Price web site.

Now that wasn't the only machine on show. Another video portrayed the assembly of the Hitachi 8000 series excavator – an 800 tonne whopper.

Which brings us to the refreshments – equally impressive – a scrumptious feed for our members of beautifully prepared roast pork, potatoes, salad, helped down with a cleansing ale. And our raffle prizes were also supplemented with some of Cable Price's fine merchandise. An evening to remember.
Thanks Malcolm and team.
Report by Murray D.

CANTERBURY BRANCH REPORT - MAY 05

The most recent branch meeting was held on 30 May 2005 at Hornby Working Men’s Club Christchurch
Branch members and interested parties were welcomed to the meeting by Rob Kennington (standing in for George Mitchell).
George Mitchell tendered his resignation as Canterbury Branch Chairman due to ill health. We would like to thank George for his efforts in getting the branch up and running again and wish him a speedy recovery.
Nominations for a new chairman were called from those present. Ken Macleod from Ashburton Contracting Ltd was nominated and he accepted the chairmanship for the branch.

2006 Conference Update:
David Laing, Andrew Royfee, Gavin Parker, Ken Macleod, Rob Uffindell and Lou Ditmer now comprise the conference committee, and Kelvin Strong will discuss the roles and responsibilities of the committee soon.
Ideas for the conference theme have been received and we thank those who have contributed. However, one theme stood out from the rest and we have decided to use it next year. Tom Reece from EXITO has suggested the theme “The Rise and Fall of the Southern Alps”. This is the title of a book written by Len Coates which explains in layman’s terms how the Southern Alps were formed, the subsequent erosion which formed the Canterbury Plains and provided us with a source of aggregates and materials. EXITO have also offered to sponsor a copy of the book for each conference satchel.

Len Coates is a very good speaker and he has indicated that he would like to present a paper on “The Rise and Fall of the Southern Alps”, tailored to suit our extractive industries at the conference.

Brian Court (Screening & Crushing Systems) asked that the conference field trip include or be, a working display in a quarry so that the South Island equipment manufacturers and suppliers could show off their products to the rest of the country.

This meeting was sponsored by Mounts Wire Industries who provided the after meeting supper and refreshments. We would like to thank Rob Kennington for his assistance.
Raffle Tickets were $5.00 each and we raised $95.00. Prizes were donated by Fulton Hogan, TransDiesel, and Advanced Engineering Group.

Lou Ditmer, Secretary.

NORTHLAND BRANCH REPORT - JUNE 2005

On Wednesday 15 June 2005, 27 people gathered at Winstone Aggregates Otaika Quarry (Whangarei).

The evening consisted of a quick meeting with discussion on the 2005 Conference (GENERATION ROCK). Conference committee gave a report on what’s happening at Waitangi and progress to date.

Andrew Dronjak, Quarry Supervisor Holcim Aggregates Manukau Quarry also the winner of the IOQ Caterpillar Award 2003 gave very entertaining talk on “Iceland- Land of Light and Darkness” and the “real problems with Trolls” Don’t miss this paper at the conference!

The meeting was sponsored by Intertrucks Distributors (North) Ltd - our thanks to Mr Craig de Buisson and team.

Dennis Cochrane, Secretary.

HUNTLY & NGARUAWAHIA FIELD TRIP A BIG SUCCESS

SOLID ENERGY - ROTOWARO, HUNTLY

05/04/30.
On April 23, a bus load of 18-20 hardy souls departed from the north Auckland Branch to meet 35 or so of their southern colleagues from Waikato/Bay of Plenty Branch for a top day out.

It had been several years since the IOQ had held a trip to Solid Energy's Rotowaro Coal Mine in Huntly.

Despite being the Saturday of a 3-day Anzac weekend, many were keen to observe first-hand large equipment working in the open-cast coal operations. None was disappointed.
Henry Walker-Eltin are the operators at Solid Energy and utilise a fleet of diggers and dumpers, some of considerable size!
A Komatsu PC4000 Excavator loads overburden onto Komatsu 730E Hauler

Komatsu PC4000 Excavator stats:
* Made in Germany
* Operating weight - 380 tonne
* Engine - Cummins QSK 60. 16 cylinders in V configuration (60 litre)
* Flywheel HP (SAE) - 1875 (1400kw) / 1800 rpm
* Bucket Capacity Range - 16-28 m3 (This one fitted with 22m3 bucket)
* Hydraulic system - 4 x variable piston pumps
* Max oil flow - 4140 litres/min
* Max oil pressure - 310 kg/cm2 (4495 psi)
* Track shoe width 1500mm
* Fuel tank - 6400 litres
* Hydraulic tank - 3900 litres
* Boom length - 9.75 m
* Stick length - 4.5 m
* Estimated production - 2260 m3/hour

Equally impressive were the 730E Haul Trucks. Several scooting back and forward carting overburden to the dump site approx 800m away.

Komatsu 730E Haul Truck Statistics:
* Made in USA (ex Dresser Haulpak factory)
* Empty Vehicle weight - 138 tonne
* Gross vehicle weight - 324 tonne
* Hauling Capacity - 186 tonne
* Heaped capacity (2:1) - 111 m3
* Engine - Cummins K2000 16 cylinder in V configuration (50.3 litre)
* Gross HP - 2000 (1492kw) / 1900rpm
* Flywheel HP - 1860 (1388kw) / 1900rpm
* Max speed - 55.7 kph
* Turning radius - 14m
* Tyres - 6 x 37.00-R57
Fuel tank - 3217 litres

A similar arrangement operated in another area in the Rotawaro site approx 1km away. A clean loading area is considered important - Note the "small" dozer in the photo below - cleaned up the site as each full dumper left, to minimise risk of punctures.

Further north on the site the pungent smell of smouldering coal filled the air as we stood above a coal extraction area. Yet more dumpers scurried by. Like ants. Busy busy.

The objective of this operation is to sell coal extracted on the site. Our Solid Energy host made sure we understood that, guiding us to the coal-processing, storage and load-out facility, rounding off nicely the Rotowaro site visit.

Each stockpile contains approx 5-6000m3 waiting to be conveyored directly to (or blended with another heap) to a hopper for loading onto rail-wagons.
The coal is discharged from the large hopper (located on the left of this photo). It holds approx 8000 tonne processed coal and one wagon (approx 19 tonne) can be filled every 25-30 seconds.

STEVENSON'S HUNTLY QUARRY

En route from the Solid Energy coal scene it was appropriate to squeeze in a few minutes to take in Stevenson Huntly Quarry.

This whirlwind tour around their Huntly Quarry was conducted by former employee, turned OSH Inspector, again turned quarryman, Pat Wallbank. Wow that was a surprise for a few!

And on a midday Saturday blokes were there working that crusher overtime getting more stones on the ground ready for delivery to the new Hampton Downs prison site. Thanks Pat.

PERRY AGGREGATES WAIPA QUARRY, NGARUAWAHIA

If ever you wanted to see a DEEP quarry, ask Terry Takiari, Quarry Manager Perry Aggregates Waipa Quarry, located just 2km south-west of Ngaruawahia.

Hemmed in by DOC (Department of Conservation) land to the west of the site, and unable to extract to the north - several substantial slips prevent extraction here, Perry Aggregates wait for the resource consents to be finalised so they can develop to the south.

Meanwhile managing extraction from a VERY narrow hole well below sea-level is Perry's Terry's fate. But he no complain. And he and his staff welcomed 50 or so very hungry boys and girls to lunch.

There are a good number of sponsors to thank for the day's outing, one of the main ones being Eagle Equipment, part of the Porter Group of Companies.

In addition to serving mouth-watering BBQ sausages and steak displayed their new Hyundai 770-7 front-end wheel loader for the lads to "ooh" and "aah" at.

When Warwick Leach asked the troops for a group photo, we figured it a good chance to again thank the sponsors for showing off their new Hyundai excavator a bright yellow shiny machine contrasting the hard working f/e loaders of the regular Perry fleet.

Many thanks to all concerned for a GREAT day out.

Report from Murray Discombe.

WALTON PARK SAND PIT - NEW WASH PLANT

April 05. Gavin Hartley sent in these real beaut photos of the wash plant at Walton Park Sand Pit, Fairfield, Dunedin now operated by Blackhead Quarries Ltd.

FILTRATION SYSTEM MEDIA

Information / product required
I manage a commercial water filtration design company, Jonkers Filtration Systems. We specialize in designing large water treatment systems for drinking water purposes.
I require a “west coast beach” type pebble like the type found on Haast beach, to be used in the base of large water filters as a support media. I need a washed, very smooth pebble which will resist the growth of bacteria that tends to grow on the rougher types of aggregates.
Are any of your quarry members able to provide me with the contact details of a quarry/supplier that could possibly provide this type of product?
contact Kurt Jonkers

AUCKLAND BRANCH 2004 - ARDIE RANKIN WINS PAYKEL SHIELD

The 2004 Auckland Branch Christmas function was hosted by Komatsu, Ingersoll Rand, Groenenveld, and Deals on Wheels. Another great success.
	Keith Niederer, one of New Zealand's quarrying legends, aka "Mr Quarry" gave a talk on his experiences in the industry not to mention his experience in his free time. Thank you Keith. Very interesting and very funny.
Brian Bouzaid (President I.O.Q. New Zealand) spoke on what has been achieved during the past year (read Brian's Report) Steve Haines (Regional Sales Manager Komatsu New Zealand) also contributed to the night with their thoughts and wishes on the industry as a whole. Thank you Brian, Steve.


One of the highlights of the evening was the presentation of the Paykel Engineering Shield to Ardie Rankin for “Outstanding Contribution to the Auckland Group During the Years”. Well deserved Ardie – well done.	Other highlights included the upgrade of membership to "Honorary Fellow" on long-serving member John Ashby, pictured here with President Brian Bouzaid.	Also present at the meeting were "retired members" Wally Yelavich and Ivan Swain.

This year we raised $1000 for the Child Cancer Society of New Zealand (Auckland Branch) They were extremely appreciative by this expression of goodwill especially at this time of year.

Thanks again everybody and especially Komatsu for a fantastic venue, food, beverages, and evening.

WELLINGTON BRANCH MEETING - SEP 2004

Wellington Branch met on the 22 Sep 2004 at the Johnsonville RSA. The meeting was well attended by 18 members including past NZ chairman, Gib Stuart and Ken Ludlam, Mr Quarry "Keith Neiderer" and also Past AQA President Malcolm Hunter.

Apologies where received from
Keith Max, who unfortunately went back to hospital again today, Alex Matheison, Lloyd Jones , Mike Silver

The meeting called by Past Chairman Gib Stuart followed a catch up recently with other members who felt concerned that the Wellington Branch was in decline.

Opening the meeting Gib recalled meetings past and the enjoyment he gained from attending, presenting awards but most importantly meeting with old mates regardless of what quarry they worked at.

Gib’s opening remarks where then followed by a report from Brian who opened by acknowledging those present being many of the leaders of both the Institute and Aggregates Association. Brian updated all on the work the new secretary had undertaken, the upgrading of the Institute’s web site by Murray Discombe, the objectives agreed recently by the board and his attendance at the Institute’s Presidents meeting in Chester in October.

Brian also read out two letters received post conference from John Fulton and Bryan Bartley.

Malcolm Hunter (who has recently moved to Wellington) addressed the meeting and voiced his concerns that the Wellington Branch was once very strong. He wanted to help restart it and with Don Webb and their wives have offered to host a combined meeting with the Manawatu Branch at Don’s farm on Saturday the 30th of October. The meeting part may be but there will be plenty of food and camaraderie. A site visit of Don’s quarry operation is also to be included.

Prior to the meeting ending Keith Neiderer and Gib shared several stories with us being;
* Keith recalled the first IOQ conference held on the 6th floor of the Pacific Hotel, Auckland in 1968.
* The conference was attended by around 40 people who once the technical sessions had finished moved to the bar to start crushing rock.
* Keith recalls rock was going everywhere when the barmen advised them that the lifts would be out of action for awhile, Keith just smiled and said fine we will walk down the stockpile.
* Keith even recalled the wives helped crush the rock.
As Keith has attended most conferences he chose to not only sponsor the before-dinner drinks but also the after-dinner ones so that they could continue crushing. It was at one of these production runs that Keith left Gib in charge.

The conference then in Nelson saw Keith leave early so he told Gib to run the happy hour. Gib recalls when Keith called him later on the bill was at three thousand dollars and Keith asked is everyone happy and Gib replied yes, so Keith said great keep going. In the morning the bill for happy hour was six thousand. A lot of rock must have been not only produced but moved!

In closing, any member who wants to attend our next meeting on the 30th please email Tim McGovern on or before the 27th, for catering purposes. If you don’t have email please call Malcolm Hunter on 06-367-5014.

Look forward to seeing you all there.
Regards
Brian Bouzaid


Gib and Elva Stuart, Keith Niederer, Ken Ludlam.	Malcolm Hunter and Bob Wilson	Brian Ashby with Gib Stuart

CENTRAL DISTRICTS REPORT 2004

In 2003 -2004 only two meetings were held. This is mostly due to work pressures and a shortage of time to organise functions. However, the two meetings we have had were great, not from the attendance aspect but from the meeting value aspect.

The first was on February 12th when we held a joint meeting with Wellington to hold the Jim Macdonald Memorial Lecture. The meeting was sponsored by Wellington City Council and Higgins Aggregates Ltd. This was held at the Lindale Lodge which is an excellent venue, but had staffing problems which left us a bit short at the meal.

Ian Rodger of Metso Minerals gave an interesting presentation on the places that the Barmac crusher had taken him (and the company) to, and the people met along the way. It never ceases to amaze me how such a practical invention has spread from New Zealand to cover most areas of mineral processing around the world. About the only area where use of the Barmac is lacking is the lime processing area. Perhaps that will be addressed over the next few years.

During this meeting Brian Bouzaid held an election for a new Chairman for the Wellington Branch. Mike Silver from Winstones Belmont Quarry was duly elected. We expect some interesting meetings in the future.

Site visit- Te Apiti Wind Farm
Central Districts held a meeting in Palmerston North on June 18. This meeting was sponsored by Higgins Aggregates Ltd. The meeting assembled at Higgins’ Te Matai Road Plant at 2.30 pm. We then headed off to the Te Apiti Wind Farm Site, which belongs to Meridian Energy.

We saw nine assembled towers which stand 70m tall with 40m blades on the generator which raise the overall height to 110m. Each unit generates 1.65 megawatts. Each tower is assembled using a 450 tonne capacity crane. The roads have to be especially wide to accommodate this crane, and will be narrowed down to access roads for maintenance after the construction is finished. There will be a total of 50 units in the windfarm. To hold these towers up they have foundations of from 300 to 450 cu m of concrete, for each tower, depending on the footings.

Higgins Concrete Ltd are pouring up to two sets of foundations per day. Higgins have a portable concrete plant on site that is fed their portable crushing plants specially build to supply concrete aggregates for the project. A specially designed mix allowed Higgins aggregates to substantially reduce the raw materials required for processing the project needs.

This project will provide 90 megawatts of power and is the first wind farm to be connected directly into the national grid. Altogether an amazing project and well worth visiting. Our thanks to Cobus and the Higgins project management staff who showed us around.

We returned to the Te Matai Road plant at 5 pm, where the staff who remained behind had set up a barbeque and refreshments. After a meal we held the AGM to elect a new Chairman and a Secretary. There were no nominations for Chairman and Cobus agreed to continue this function. A new secretary/ treasurer was elected. Congratulations to Steve Garwood, who is the current quarry manager of Higgins Aggregates Bulls operations. The meeting attendance was disappointing - only attended by 14 members from 150 invitations sent out.

Future meetings
There were some suggestions for future meetings, including an expedition to the Waiouru training ground to do some 4wd driving and experience the facilities and space at Waiouru. Bruce Dobson from 25 ESS at Linton is to organise this for later in the year, so watch this space.

Andrew Robertson & Cobus van Vuuren

OTAGO BRANCH AGM 2004

Gavin Hartley reports:-
Our Branch held a very successful meeting on 24 June 2004 attended by 35 members and interested parties. The evening was sponsored by Cable Price. Cable Price showed two videos and also had two new Wheeled loaders present that have been purchased by Blackhead Quarries Ltd, an LX130 and 230.
The night also saw Churchill Walls stand down as Branch Chairman. Churchie took over the role as branch chairman fron Tony Hunter in December 1998. The new elected Otago / Southland Branch Chairman is Craig McCrorie who works for Mounts Wire Industries Limited, based in Dunedin.
Contact details: Mounts Wire Industries Ltd PO Box 125 Mosgiel Dunedin
Mobile 021 722 970 Mobile Fax 0212 785 970 work Fax 03 484 7209 Home 03 488 4516 Email: craigmccrorie@mountswire.co.nz

AUCKLAND BRANCH NEWSLETTER - JAN 2004

Komatsu Christmas Function 2003
was held again at the Ellerslie Convention Centre on 5 Dec 2003. Many thanks to our fantastic hosts Komatsu, in conjunction with Groeneveld and Ingersoll Rand. Approx 70 people attended.

One of the highlights of the evening was the presentation of the Paykel Engineering Shield, awarded for “Outstanding Contribution to the Auckland Group During the Years”. This year it was awarded to Ian Wedding. Well done Ian, truly deserved.

A special mention and thank you was made by the members in regards to Murray Discombe’s ongoing contribution to the I.O.Q.

Our members again gave generously for a ticket in the raffle – with the last ticket drawn by Mrs Merle Wedding. She chose to donate the $1300 raised to the SPCA. As a lot of animals are dumped over the Christmas break and some of those end up in our sites looking for a feed, it is a charity that I’m sure we are all aware of and appreciate.

President Brian Bouzaid updated us with what has been happening during 2003. Read report

AUCKLAND BRANCH NEWSLETTER APRIL 04

Health & Safety Review Meeting - April 20th
The annual Health & Safety review Meeting is being sponsored by Rock 2000 and Applied Conveyor and Belting.

Date	Tuesday April 20th
Time	5:30pm
Venue	Fulton Hogan Reliable Way, Ellerslie

Agenda:
* Quarry tour to look over rehabilitation works being undertaken on site.
* Overview of quarry rehabilitation project (Amy Bogalo)
* Health and Safety Review. Session headed by Quarries Inspector John Walrond. These reviews are an important part of the Institute’s calendar as it keeps as informed of the latest Safety requirements and tells us how well the industry is doing as a whole in this regard.
* Supper

Special talk - “How not to spend US$400 million at 4000 metres in the Andes”- an investment in a cement plant in Columbia that went very wrong.
Presentation by Mining / Geotechnical Engineer, John Ashby
* Raffe draw
Jim Macdonald Memorial Lecture tour.
Was hosted by Ian Rodger at the Allenby Park Lodge, Papatoetoe on 5 Feb 04.
The presentation was not only informative but with Bryan Bartley’s added comments it provided a rare and fascinating insight into the Barmac story. Thank you Bryan
The Barmac is now being used in the remotest of locations from Kazakhstan, former USSR, to inside the Artic circle in Northern Sweden. Both these locations being in the extreme cold, crushing Iron Ore to the other end of the temperature scale to the desert in Chile.
Thank you again Ian, very interesting indeed and a fitting tribute to Jim Macdonald.

Canterbury Branch Report - Feb 2004

Filling the shoes of Rob Kennington has not been easy. The Canterbury Branch is pleased to announce the appointment of George Mitchell (Metso Minerals) as its new chairman.

WAIKATO/BAY OF PLENTY REPORT

Feb 04.

Central Districts Report

Dec03

Dunedin Branch Report - Feb 2004

George Kelcher reports strong support for the recent Jim Macdonald Memorial Lecture held in Invercargill.

This was evidenced by some young members who traveled more than 5 hours for the meeting! Now that's commitment.
Lecturer Ian Rodger (Metso) was particularly impressed with the turnout in the deep south.
Feb 2004.

Wellington Branch Reports

New Chairman for IOQ Wellington Branch.

At the February 12th Branch meeting, Mike Silver was appointed Wellington Branch Chairman.
Mike is Quarry Manager for Winstone Aggregates' Belmont Quarry and oversees the cleanfill operations at Dry Creek Quarry.

NORTHLAND BRANCH REPORT - NOV 2003

On Wed 12 November 2003 a meeting of approximately 50 people gathered at Winstone Aggregates Otaika Quarry (Whangarei) in an endeavour to re-activate the Northland Group.

The response was positive. There was strong support from those actively engaged in the various facets of the industry and robust representation from associated suppliers of goods and services.

Messrs Halliday and Linnell acted as Chairman and Secretary.
Election of Revived Group Officers
Chairman: Bob Handley
Vice-Chairman: Jeff Challis
Joint Secretary/Treasurer: Dennis Cochrane /John McQuin

Committee: Craig Robertson /Clive Halliday /Mark Laybourn /Glen Savage

Financial Cheque signing authority was assigned and the group annual subscription was affirmed at $10 per person.

The National Secretary, Mr Andrew Robertson, spoke and encouraged the members of the gathering to apply for formal membership of the Institute, although, if they did not wish so, they would still be welcome as members of the Northland group.

Mr Halliday moved a resolution of thanks to Mr Bob Handley and Winstone Aggregates for providing the meal and refreshments. This was carried with acclamation. The formal part of the evening being completed the gathering was handed over to Mr John Walrond of OSH and Catherine Venrooy from the Extractive Industries Training Organisation (ExITO).

Mr Walrond spoke regarding recognition of the several qualifications required for active participation in the industry. Ms Venrooy (ExITO) spoke of the training available and our need to co-ordinate students and employers together to control costs. She emphasised that Northland people should get together to establish groups of students (trainees) for operational efficiency and to enable ExITO to give full value.

All formal business as per the agenda was completed by approximately 7:40 pm and those attending partook of food and refreshments sponsored by Winstone Aggregates.

Website design by Paris