Welcoming Teresa Handicott and Robert Regan to Mineral Technologies

Last month Mineral Technologies welcomed Downer’s Non-executive Director Teresa Handicott and Group General Counsel and Company Secretary Robert Regan to our Australian head office on the Gold Coast.

Showcasing metallurgical expertise

Spending time in our world-class metallurgical testing laboratory, Teresa and Robert had a first-hand view of the wide range of production and laboratory scale testing we conduct from our Carrara headquarters for customers worldwide. We showcased our test rig which houses a wide range of full-scale spiral models running test samples of iron ore, mineral sands, coal and other fine minerals. We also demonstrated mineral separation on our laboratory scale electrostatic and magnetic units.

Pilot scale testing in the magnetic and electrostatic laboratory

Full-scale Test Rig

World-class manufacturing

Our production facility manufactures our renowned spiral technology-powered gravity separation equipment, and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) produced centrifugal, magnetic and electrostatic separation solutions to high ISO9001:2015 quality standards. At the facility, General Manager Alex de Andrade introduced Teresa and Robert to members of the production team including Manufacturing Manager Scott Poile and Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE) Manager Andrew Greenslade who assisted Teresa complete a critical risk assessment of the spiral ‘rise and fall’ production area. This critical operation has several risk factors including suspended loads and clearly identified exclusion zones. “Keeping our workers safe is our number one priority. We are constantly asking the question ‘is there a better way?’ During the visit it was great to work through the process of a daily task and get review and feedback on our work”, said Scott.

Spiral production including the ‘rise and fall’ operation

Conducting a critical risks safety inspection of the ‘rise and fall’ operation

The visit followed Downer CEO Grant Fenn visiting MT in March and the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison late last year. “On behalf of the MT team we were proud to once again showcase our Gold Coast facility which manufactures and exports Australian made separation equipment to customers in mining operations worldwide. Despite the challenges of COVID, our global operations are working at full capacity as we deliver an increasing volume of customer orders for equipment, engineering and metallurgical services”, said Alex.

Innovation

While visiting the facility, Teresa and Robert met with Equipment Development Engineer Pieter van Rensburg to get an understanding of latest work with our new magnet packer technology. Vital to assembling components for our magnetic range of equipment, the new designs developed by the Research and Development team are improving safety, delivery and magnetic separation efficiency.

Showcasing latest technology for shipping magnetic equipment

World-class stores facility

Housing over 5,000 items of inventory and spare parts, our world-class stores facility is organised within a LEAN operating environment. Teresa met Material Requirements Planning (MRP) Supervisor Jo Greaves who leads the Stores and Procurement team.

Jo Greaves joins Teresa Handicott at the Stores Facility