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I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.
Congratulations to new parents and mum’s to be! Zhenya David Otto DOB 17.7.2011 Weight 2.4kg Baby of John & Alena Otto.
Larissa Macbeth Jack Hills
Jessica Sloss
In addition, the Integrated Service Agreement (ISA) contracts with Main Roads WA / Downer Mouchel are continuing to grow with works soon to commence in the Midwest Region carrying out upgrade works on the Geraldton – Mt Magnet Road. There are also Metro based works soon to commence on Thomas Road.
Sponsorship of MYDEL African Orphanage Each year, MACA donates to the Mengo Youth Development Link (MYDEL) in order to sponsor the rent of the Youth Centre in Kampala, Uganda.
Perth Office
MYDEL is concerned with reproductive health, women’s empowerment, orphanage care, vocational training and functional adult literacy. It empowers youth and women with practical skills, helping to develop communities and alleviate poverty. MYDEL’s youth programs include a soccer academy, computer program, drama program, craft programs, Nansana Home and Kampala Childrens’ Home.
MACA Civil Well done MACA Civil! Andrew and the team at MACA Civil are on target to meet its first year projections with steady growth expected over the next 12 months. The team is expanding its scope with Main Roads WA on its current Gascoyne Alliance project to include the Onslow Road upgrade on behalf of Chevron valued at $16M, bringing the current project value to $26M.
MYDEL says, “since we received the funding from MACA we have no problems with the office rent or the care of the children. Currently everything is going well and we do really appreciate your support.”
Grant Ingram
INSIDE A Cool
Innovation
Plutonic LTI Free
Amarak
Jimmy
King of the Wild
MACA Civil On Target
Jimmy O’Reilly has recently been awarded the At Heart Award from Crosslands for his knowledge and supervision in the re-handling Area on night shift at the Jack Hills Mine Site. Well Done Jimmy!
Good as Gold The gold price recently reached a new record, showing gold as a safe haven in times of economic instability. Perth-based gold mining, development and exploration company Crescent Gold has been working with MACA for two years on it’s flagship project at Laverton, 250km northeast of Kalgoorlie. Crescent Gold owns tenements in the Laverton region, mining and trucking ore to the mill for refining.
5 Years of Service
Chris Clifton
ue
Leonardo da Vinci
Rodney Duell
Troy Byles
George Carter
Robert Thomas
Mark Lewis
96 Ewing Street, Welshpool WA 6106 PO Box 625, Welshpool DC WA 6986 P: (08) 9351 8488 F: (08) 9351 8477 www.maca.net.au
At the Crescent Gold Laverton site, MACA performs all earthworks including Drill and Blast, Load and Haul and Rehabilitation, providing a professional service, maintaining an impeccable safety record and complying with all client requests in a timely manner. Recent work included some unusual Drill and Blast activity: dropping the crown pillar in the Mary Mac Hill Pit which is situated over large underground workings from many years ago. Along strike and for 300 metres there are large ball rooms 24 metres down.
Westdrill have undertaken the task of drilling with their F9 drills and MACA’s own GD5000. The holes have been drilled in strings of four to six, with the holes being 24 metres in length and of varying angle depth. Some of the angles are upwards which places a lot of pressure on the rod handler. Loading the holes is a major task and absorbs a lot of man hours. The first section of strings has been fired and the outcome was very successful. A warm thank you goes out to MACA’s Project Engineer; Ben Stevenson, the Westdrill drillers, MACA’s shot crew and Orica. MACA’s relationship with Crescent Gold is evolving and improving; both companies are pulling in the same direction.
New Freezer for WAIMR
A Cool Innovation The lack of availability and high price of the Komatsu air conditioner compressor was an issue that Damien Collier was keen to address.
A generous donation by MACA has enabled Western Australian scientists to buy a new freezer so that precious biological samples can be kept for many years. The archive freezer will be used by researchers at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR).
“We very much appreciate MACA’s decision to donate almost $23,000 so that we could make this purchase.”
“The new freezer works like a time capsule,” said WAIMR’s Research Manager, Kathleen Davern. “We’ll use it to store back-up samples of cells, tissues, serum and patient samples for many months or years”.
The freezer is an order of magnitude colder (-86°C) than a domestic freezer and will store biological specimens without any deterioration until they are needed and thawed.
Damien realised that MACA can source the following products itself:
No Seven Year Itch for Sam As Site Manager at the Jack Hills site, Sam Barradeen’s main focus is people and safety. Having been with MACA for seven and a half years, he relishes his role, which involves hitting targets, managing budgets, writing admin rosters and building client relationships.
Plutonic LTI Free
Sam works hard to ensure that all staff remain healthy and uninjured. ‘Staff come with all their body parts and I like to see them leave with all their body parts!’ he jokes.
We call Plutonic the quiet achiever, although only a small project in personnel (23) none the less a very important site. The Safety effort for the site is to be congratulated recently clocking up project to date LTI free (3years). The project rehandles ore using 985-3 Komatsu dump trucks loaded by a WA600-6 loader from the underground portal to the romp pad, where a PC300 excavator removes underground mining tramp steel, plastic pipe etc before being picked up by a WA600 and loaded into the Barrick crushing plant. The site is also responsible for dust suppression and road maintenance grading.
Although Sam definitely does not like flying, when asked what outside interests he has, Sam replied: fishing, motor sports and ‘my wife!’ He enjoys mining, meeting people and working for MACA. Sam’s association with MACA is a personal one as he has known Geoff Baker for years. ‘One of MACA’s greatest strengths is its people,’ he says. ‘I couldn’t imagine working anywhere else!’
• after market Denso clutch assembly • after market Denso compressor This modification can be carried out on any of the machines in the fleet that run these kinds of Denso compressor; it is simply a matter of unpicking. The purchase price of the compressor varies from 10 series to 17 series, but it is not a huge increase. Considering that the purchase price for a genuine Komatsu unit is $1665, Damien’s innovation makes a considerable saving of $991 per unit. Not only that, but the labour content is minimal and could be carried out in less than half an hour. Well done, Damien, on this cool, cost-saving solution.
Lithium Batteries
There have been incidents where Lithium Polymer (LiPo) battery packs have exploded and caused severe personal injury and property damage. In a recent case, an electrical short from an employee’s remote control toy caused a flash fire on a clients’ mine site accommodation. To ensure that likelihood of a fire hazard occurring is reduced, the batteries must be maintained within the manufacturer’s recommendations. Batteries should never be overcharged above their recommended voltage. After use, LiPo batteries should be removed from the remote RC device and stored and charged in fire resistant bags.
MACA take this opportunity to thank all MACA site personnel and our client Barrick for a job well done.
Jack of all Trades
Amarok: King of the Wild
People are the Best Investment With years of experience, Accounts Manager, Marie Tucker has been with MACA in the Perth Office for five and a half years. With 30 years’ experience in the finance industry, and 20 of those years in the mining industry, Marie is a veteran in her field. A keen cook, music lover and ‘rev head’, Marie loves V8 cars, her two dogs and her cat. Whilst the Caribbean is the favourite place she has visited in her travels, she now enjoys getting away in her caravan to more local destinations.
Volkswagen’s newest commercial vehicle, the Amarok, is as agile, uncompromising and tough as its namesake: the arctic wolf, thought to be ‘king of the wild’ by the Eskimo people of Northern Canada and Greenland. It first burst into the automotive world as the official support vehicle of the Dakar Rally in the deserts of South America. Now, MACA will be trialling two Amarok’s at the Garden Wells project as site support vehicles and a quality alternative to the Toyota Hilux. Supplied by the Volkswagen Commercial Centre, the Amarok has a robust ladder frame chassis, powerful and efficient engine, 4MOTION allwheel drive and off-road capabilities. With a five person cabin and the largest load bay dimensions in its segment, the Amarok can carry a big team and a bigger load to any job.
Every day at MACA is different for Marie as she comes across various challenges whilst tackling the diverse aspects of her role. She believes that MACA helps to build its staff’s willingness to work with heart and commitment, supporting a solid, consistent work ethic across the board. ‘I believe that MACA cater for this very well in the staff they pick for their roles; if you invest in your people you get that out of them!’ Loving a challenge and being a selfconfessed ‘very social butterfly’ means that Marie enjoys everything about her job!
Welcome New Starters
Moving very heavy jack stands around the workshop inspired Brad Watkins to invent his own trolley. The existing trolleys had no ground clearance or stability so a jack stand trolley was needed with better ground clearance to allow stands to be moved under the machines. Brad knew that a trolley could have been purchased, but what is available is not suited to the uneven floor conditions. He decided the best solution was to design and manufacture a trolley that would incorporate all the workshop’s specific requirements including adjustability between stand sizes. Brad’s invention has helped with the safe moving of jack stands around the workshop and has had a positive impact on health and safety due to more ground clearance and stopping back injuries. Well done, Brad.
Celia Antonovsky OHSE Advisor
Nicole Biernat Recruitment Consultant
Tim Gooch Mining Manager
Dane King HR Advisor
Kane Mumford Project Manager
