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Earnscleugh lifts production after service work
Ross Louthean — 15 August 2012
Production of gold at the alluvial mining operation at Earnscleugh in Otago lifted significantly in July after some performance issues and a maintenance shutdown a month earlier.
The operation owned by private company L&M Group lifted production in July to 577 ounces, after low production, maintenance and recovery issues the previous two months.
L&M Group’s chairman Geoff Loudon said what is helping improve the performance has been the skills now being shown by the local trainees and he believes the project – which had its opposition from locals concerned about noise and their perceptions about mining – is now welcomed in the region.
Project manager Mark Coleman told NZResources.com that the operation now has grown from having one person on site to a staff of 32 and several machines and sub-contractors on site.
“The local community’s fears have been allayed because we have kept a low profile and have made an effort to employ local people and use local contractors and suppliers thus making a large financial contribution to the local economy,” Coleman said.
Experienced staff have helped train inexperienced local workers who were now among the operation’s best operators.
“This has helped us immensely also as it is very difficult to find people with mining industry experience in the Central Otago region,” he said.
Coleman admitted that L&M has had a fair share of production issues as the operation ramped-up. When the No 8 plant was assembled and commissioned there was a steep but good learning curve for all staff in coming to grips with the new systems installed on the plant.
Several months ago Geoff Loudon told this writer that the back-up from technical suppliers had been disappointing.
However, Coleman said the technical support was improving with key suppliers bringing extra staff into the area to meet requirements.
“Other suppliers are moving up with us as they gain more understanding of the nature of our business. There have been no significant projects in this area for some time and services like freight deliveries are very limited,” he added.
The strength of improved community understanding was reflected in the open day called by the mining operation with the latest event helped by the fact it did not have the inclement weather of the 2011 open day, yet it still attracted 300.
The March open day this year, in fine weather, attracted 1,000.
This, Mark Coleman said, was also a great opportunity for people to gain a good understanding of the project.