Sandvik had been operating at Stephen Place, but opened a $5.5 million new factory more than double its size at Strathgrove Way - it will repair and re-build machinery specialising in hard rock mining, including loaders, drills and crushers.

Australia sales area vice-president Jim Tolley said the company decided to invest because Orange had one of the newest mining industries and was a growth area.

“I believe we have access to very good people and good education in Orange - it has a lot of things going for it,” he said.

“We want local people, it’s extremely important for us.

“It’s about having a workforce really engaged, and understand that they can actually achieve something that a couple of years ago was never possible.”

Mr Tolley said it would be a world-class facility, which would focus on building the productivity of its clients.

“The longer a customer’s asset sits in a supplier’s premises, they don’t have access to it, so our ambition is to reduce this to a minimum, which we believe will set a new standard,” he said.

“Leaving equipment sitting in bays just being built is a waste of two things - it’s a waste of our our clients’ money tying up assets that are not working and it’s a waste of our money having real estate that’s a parking lot.”

Mr Tolley anticipated its operations in Orange would grow as the Cadia East underground mine came online and encouraged more female fitters to apply.

An open day will be held from 9am-3pm tomorrow, including a performance from Celia Pavey.