AFTER 33 years the silent Group 6 Metals the historic Dolphin Tungsten Mine, at Grassy is back to life.
Within 15 months, an empty mine site has been turned into a fully operational business where the production of tungsten is now in full swing and King Islanders are invited to tour the mine on Sunday, July 2 and barbecue lunch.
“It’s come a long way,” general manager Chas Murcott said this week.
“January last year we flattened off the top of a sand dune and now less than 15 months later, we’ve made our first concentrate.
“So, it’s been a great journey. It’s been hard work, but we can see concentrate at the end of the process.”
Keeping with their local tradition of naming the big trucks and key milestones the first bag of tungsten produced is labelled 0001.
“That’s our very first bag of concentrate, 58% tungsten trioxide ready for export,” Mr Murcott said.
“The first container is expected to be shipped overseas at the end of this month.
“When the plant commissioning is completed, we should get, two containers sent out a week from this plant.”
The company is satisfied with how the build has developed over the past 15 months.
“When you start something, I don’t think everything goes perfectly to plan. But pretty much the design we had is what we’ve built. There have been some things we had to fix along the way…and there have been challenging times.
“We had the fallout from Covid with transport and costs. Some costs were higher than we expected.
“Finding labour and also getting all the pieces together on this island in Bass Strait has been a challenge.
“But the team has worked hard, and we found ways, and here we are today at the back of the dressing shed where the concentrate is produced.”
G6M chairman Johan Jacobs said when the first sod was turned, the company’s focus was on employing local King Island people and this has not changed.
“We’ve got a lot of local employees, about 20 out of 100.
“We’ve employed as many local people as possible who wanted jobs with the mine and given them a go. Not all have been able to make a career out of it. We’ve certainly got lots of local contractors on site.
“Brett Castle is helping build the main office. Currently, there are the plumbers and Sam Perry doing the main shed.
“It’s great to be able to use people on the island and their skills.
“Unfortunately, we have a bigger fly-in fly-out workforce than we would have liked.
“We’ve had to expand the single-person quarters and rent some extra houses to be able to accommodate these people on the island.
“When the mine closed, it had a huge impact on the town of Grassy. In about 2000 before we started, there were about 80 people living in Grassy. There are now 30 houses in and around town, and at the old Ballarat Clarendon College campus which have people living in them,” Mr Murcott said.
“Families and kids have moved to the island. We have typically about 50 people on campus in the single persons quarters and near the old Ballarat Clarendon squash courts.
“They enjoy the Grassy Club facilities and also go into town to buy provisions, as well as using flights and transport. I think the mine reopening has had a positive impact on Grassy. It’s great to see more life in the town and certainly more life at the Grassy Club.”
Some of the challenges the mine faced were supply chain and freight disruption.
“We still see that the supply chains are not back to the levels they were before Covid, but it’s getting better,” Mr Murcott said.
“We’re very pleased to have received our SDS (security sensitive, dangerous substances) permit. for explosives.
“Now we’ve secured that, we’re working with TasPorts in getting them aligned with what we want to do, as well as finishing the magazines that we’re building.
“We’re looking forward to receiving explosives next month and blasting at the end of next month.
“When we start blasting, we’ll be generating overburdened rock, which we can crush to make road base and to sheet around the plant and we’ll be able to supply the council. We’re only crushing on day shift, to manage the noise in town.”
On, Sunday, July 2 the Dolphin Tungsten Mine will be holding an open day. It is an opportunity to tour the process plant and various sections of the mine that work round the clock and protected from view.
The company said, “We are inviting the King Island community to come and have a look at what we’ve been doing for the last year and tour through the site and plant. We will also have a lunch barbecue at the Grassy Club.”
Bookings for tours call 0439846041 or email adminhr@g6m.com.au Tour times are 10:15, 11:00 12:45 pm and 1:30 pm. Please note sturdy closed-toe shoes are required to be on site.