This is exciting news for the South Australian economy and indeed for the entire Nation. Located east of Gawler, there’s a massive, untapped iron-oxide copper-gold deposit. One of Australia’s largest undeveloped copper deposits, it’s soon to become a highly-productive underground mining operation.
With annual production of around 110,000T copper and 117,000oz gold, it will create generational employment opportunities. The estimated mine-life is around 20 years and at least 1,000 jobs are expected to be created over the life of the project.
As the Contractor’s prepare this new site to start extracting ore, the local economy is already benefiting from the contractor’s policy to prioritise sustainable local procurement and to focus on local employment.
Leigh Hunter, the Allight Territory Manager, presented a highly-competitive mine-site lighting solution that was considered by the Contractor to be the most efficient and cost effective.
“At the core of the Allight lighting solution is the supply of four MSLED168K-9 lighting towers. Yet, more than that, it’s also our after-market capabilities that impressed the Contractor” explained Leigh.
“No other local lighting supplier can boast such a range of purpose-built Mine Spec lighting towers and then offer such comprehensive after-sale service and support” he said.
Construction of the accommodation village, airstrip, and the dual access decline is already underway. Aiming for production to start Q4 2019, the construction of all mine-site infrastructure – including the processing plant, tailings storage facility, western access road, power line and installation of the underground materials handling system – is ramping up.
Allight Mine Spec lighting towers are the perfect solution.
To prepare the site and then maintain full production – including the ongoing maintenance of all assets and infrastructure – the facility will need to be operating throughout the day and night. So, effective and efficient mine site lighting is vital.
To extract the copper and gold, they will be using a sub-level (underground) cave mining method, complemented by an onsite processing plant and tailings storage facility.
“As part of the sub-level caving process, the ore deposit is blasted in 25 metre sections and then collected by loaders. From there, the ore is crushed, loaded onto a conveyer belt and transported 500 metres up to the surface. The ore is then processed onsite to produce a copper concentrate containing copper and gold minerals” explained Leigh.
“With all of this activity happening 24/7, not to mention the constant maintenance procedures needed to avoid unnecessary downtime, the mine site needs reliable, powerful and transportable lighting” he said.
Purpose built for the mining industry, the Allight Mine Spec Light Towers feature brilliant illumination capabilities. With 6 x 300W low glare lamps, producing 168,000 Lumens, the robust trailer-mounted design allows the light towers to be easily transported to any place where they are required most.
“The Allight Mine Spec lighting tower is not only famous for its powerful lighting, it’s also highly-regarded around the world for low maintenance requirements” said Leigh.
“Each lamp provides an impressive 50,000 hours of life. In addition, the highly-economical Perkins two-cylinder, water-cooled engine only needs to be refueled every 2 weeks (based on 12hr operation each night.”
“Under normal operating conditions, the recommended service interval is an industry leading 500 hours” said Leigh proudly.
“The customer was also very impressed with extra low voltage (DC) capability, the user-friendly control panel and the highwall overhang capabilities of the AllightStykes Mine Spec lighting towers.”
“Even more, with our advanced LED technology, the lights are bright the instant you turn the on – there’s no warm-up or cool down period required”.
To learn more about Mine Spec lighting towers, contact Leigh Hunter or visit the Allight website.
