HUNDREDS of staff will soon be working in a building the size of two football fields under a massive bid to make Orange the remote control capital of Australia.
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A $30 million development application for the mini-mining city in Leewood Drive has been lodged by Newcrest Mining Limited, the owner of Cadia Valley Operations.
It is one of the biggest private investments in Orange for decades.
“We could build this in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide or elsewhere but the company is adamant it be Orange,” said asset management general manager Tony McPaul.
“Orange has been good to us, we’ve made no secret of that and we think we’ve been good to Orange.
“It’s a huge investment in anyone’s terms.”
When the three stages are completed up to 300 people could work or train in the complex on its busiest day.
Central to the plan is a sophisticated room where operators will remotely monitor and control Newcrest’s national and international mining sites.
That means people in Leewood Drive will be driving mining machinery across the globe 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“The petroleum industry, army and navy are all doing it, the mining industry has been a bit slow to pick up on it but now we’re saying we want to be right into that,” Mr McPaul said.
“We’re talking $30 million just for this building but then we need to enable the sites to communicate and that could cost between $20 and $50 million.”
Construction of the remote control room will start next year.
Stage two, a three storey office block, should be completed by late 2012 while the final stage, the conversion of an existing building on the site into a mineral laboratory and another building into a workshop, is still some time off.
The company has already converted the site’s former tennis centre into a warehouse.
New technology often leads to a reduction in employment but Mr McPaul said that was simplistic.
“In Australia in particularly the ore bodies we find today are a lower grade than the ones we’ve found and mined in the past,” he said.
“So if you don’t get smarter about the way you mine, in other words if you don’t reduce operating costs, they’re not profitable so you don’t mine them.
“So you could take that hard line and say yes it will mean less jobs but I take the opposite view and say if we don’t do things smarter than there’s gunna be no jobs.”
The Leewood Drive complex is part of a strategy to keep Newcrest Mining Limited, the country’s largest gold miner, competitive.
It should immediately pay dividends.
“With the labour shortages we see when the mining boom hits us again, and it will, we think something like this gives us a real advantage,” Mc McPaul said.
“And better communication leads to better productivity.
“Believe it or not, and I’m sure it’s the same in any industry, we have people that are really good at stuff and people that aren’t so good.
“We’re putting them all in the one room and by default we end up with the best of the best.”
The development application has been lodged with Orange City Council but will be determined by the Western Region Joint Planning Panel because its value exceeds $10 million.
bevan.shields@ruralpress.com
STAGE ONE
l Construction of control centre to monitor and control the company’s national and international mines
l Will house 60 staff a day over two separate shifts
l 1473 square metres
l Operate 24/7
STAGE TWO
l Construction of three storey building for reception area, training rooms and offices
l Will house 135 staff during a typical day shift
l Will house up to 200 people a week for training over 11 different sessions
l 4304 square metres
STAGE THREE
l Conversion of an existing building into laboratory and another into a workshop.
l Will house up to 25 staff a day over two separate shifts.
l 1490 square metres
l Operate 24/7
