Tag Archives: Bathurst

WesTrac celebrates 20 years of service and support in New South Wales and the ACT

Leading Cat® dealer WesTrac is marking a major milestone today, celebrating 20 years of providing equipment, service and support across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

More than 16,000 Cat machines have been delivered by WesTrac in the region during that time, supporting customers in the mining and construction industries.

Chief Executive NSW/ACT, Adrian Howard, says: “Over the past two decades, WesTrac has been at the forefront of delivering Cat machines and products to meet rising demand, especially within the construction and mining industries.”

When WesTrac became the official Cat dealer for NSW and the ACT, work immediately began on fitting out the first purpose-built branch in Bathurst. The WesTrac team of 50 rapidly grew to more than 500 in just over two months.

Today, WesTrac NSW/ACT has 18 branches, six Click and Collect lockers and more than 1,500 dedicated team members, providing support and service to more than 6,500 customers each year. WesTrac continues to grow its workforce and develop its people and has nationally trained over 2,400 apprentices through the WesTrac Institute.

Howard says over the past 20 years, customer needs have changed and demands on business operations have increased with the rapid uptake of technology and rise in 24/7 working environments.

“WesTrac is committed to investing in our people and our facilities to continue to deliver world-class service and support to our customers by ensuring owning and operating Cat equipment is safe, easy and profitable,” he said.

“A big part of this commitment is our ongoing investment in our facilities and cutting-edge technologies and, in the last year alone, we have opened the Tomago Technology Experience Centre, installed an AI-powered AutoStore parts warehousing solution and commissioned a world-first automated fluid analysis laboratory.

“We’ve come a long way since 2004 and change is only going to keep occurring faster – our goal is to stay at the forefront of technology and innovation to ensure our customers continue to succeed from owning and operating Cat equipment.”

When discussing what has changed during the period, Howard lists safety, sustainability and diversity of background and thought as three important parts of doing business that have significantly evolved and changed, for the better.

“WesTrac is committed to building a more sustainable future – internally at WesTrac, for our customers and for our local communities,” he said. “We are taking on a collaborative approach to achieve this – one that sets the standard for our industry and strives for meaningful change.

“Thank you to our customers, Caterpillar and our WesTrac team members who through their loyalty and dedication have helped WesTrac to become the world-class business we have today.”

Trevali to test out FLSmidth’s Rapid Oxidative Leach tech on Caribou material

Trevali Mining has announced the commencement of a pilot plant testing program using Caribou run-of-mine and milled material at FLSmidth’s Rapid Oxidative Leach (ROL) process testing facility in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The program expands on previous laboratory test work and is aimed at demonstrating the potential to recover zinc, lead, copper, gold and silver as a precipitate or metal and additional zinc and lead from Caribou ore and mill tailings.

The leach test program is targeting an improvement to zinc, lead, copper, gold and silver metal recoveries, the potential to produce a precipitate or metal on site replacing the current ore concentrate that is produced at Caribou – which, if implemented, would lead to savings on transport costs and offsite treatment costs – and the opportunity to process historic mill tailings, which include gold and copper metals, in addition to run of mine ore. The latter would increase revenues and reduce closure liabilities, Trevali said.

Trevali says the use of FLSmidth’s ROL technology also provides the potential to reduce Trevali’s carbon footprint at Caribou and extend Caribou’s mine life and treat lower-grade deposits in the Bathurst camp of Canada.

FLSmidth says ROL leaches 97-99% of copper directly on-site in six to eight hours, from concentrates as low as 5% Cu. In gold, ROL has the potential to unlock the value of undeveloped refractory gold deposits with less than 3 g/t gold head grade, it says.

Unlike other refractory processing techniques, the ROL process uses the application of mechanical energy coupled with oxidation under atmospheric conditions. The process relies on stirred media reactors to accelerate the oxidation of sulphide minerals. This eliminates the need for ultrafine grinding, high temperatures and high pressure which makes it energy saving and very cost-effective, according to the mining OEM.

Trevali said a successful pilot plant test program using ROL may allow Trevali to replace the existing flotation circuit at Caribou with atmospheric leach vessels and potentially an SX/EW train, introducing the possibility of producing base and precious metals on-site and thereby save transport costs and offsite treatment costs.

Conceptual objectives of the program include:

  • Recovery of metals/minerals that are not recoverable using the current technology at Caribou (precious metals and magnetite); and
  • Improved payables/selectivity of the traditional flotation process using new and emerging technologies.

Ricus Grimbeek, President and Chief Executive Officer of Trevali, said: “FLSmidth’s ROL metallurgical technology has the potential to transform the Caribou mine and the wider Bathurst Mining Camp.

“This next phase of the testing program is an essential step in evaluating the suitability and economic viability of a processing solution with the potential to enhance the value of the in-situ material and tailings at Caribou as well as the surrounding deposits in the Bathurst region. The positive results to date support further study and analysis given the potential implications for the Bathurst Mining Camp in general and Trevali in particular.”

Beyond quantifying the ability to recover additional metal values, the objective for the pilot plant test program is to determine the various kinetic factors, mass and energy balance and engineering data to support future engineering on a preliminary economic assessment for potential processing of the Trevali mill feed and mill tailings and produce metal on site.

Continuous pilot plant trials commenced in June 2021 (Phase 1) to tune the pilot plant and provide material for precious metal leach tests in late July, followed by a test program at the Caribou Mine site that is planned for September 2021 (Phase 2). Leach data and results are expected to verify that batch testing results can be achieved in a continuous operation.