Latrobe Valley Sands

CHRIS BLACKWOOD, Manager of Latrobe Valley Sands reports on the formation and growth of the business.

LATROBE Valley Sands was formed in August, 2005 when the Company purchased the sand quarry from “Symons Sand Supplies”, in the Latrobe Valley.

Latrobe Valley Sands is a partnership between Robert & Graeme Matt hews and Michael & Chris Blackwood. Robert and Graeme have their own blue-rock quarry and transport systems at Tyers and Michael Blackwood is the Managing Director of “Blackwood’s Ready mixed & Garden Supplies” in Warragul.

Chris Blackwood previously ran his own Harvesting and Haulage company with the logging industry before exiting the industry in 2003 due to Government redundancies.

Chris Blackwood manages Latrobe Valley Sands and said “the partnership between the four of us has worked very well. Between all of us we have extensive experience in quarrying, transport, business and marketing which are great fundamentals to have in any business”.

When Latrobe Valley Sands was started the sand quarry had sales of around 70,000 tonnes per year now the quarry has sales of over 200,000 tonnes per year.

Currently the 40ha site is owned by Australian Paper with a 40 year lease, but Latrobe Valley Sands in 2007 bought the mining rights from Australian Paper. This allowed the company to expand for the long term.

At that time the method of extracting was using water to blast and undermine the face then the sand and water runs down to a 10/8 slurry pump which is delivered up over the wet screen and de-watered via cyclones.

What the company identified early in the piece is that because of the small confined site, building settling dams to handle recycled water was going to be a big issue.

In 2008 the company investigated numerous options on how they could better handle waste material and aft er a trip to Europe to look for further ideas they came up with a plan.

Chris stated “that with all wash plants it becomes an issue on how you treat your dirty water and also after treatment you have to try and turn the slimes from the water into a solid product”.

After our trip to Europe we identified the machine for the job was a M.S. thickener tank for settling the slimes and then pump that across to a Generattie Centrafuse decanter. We chose the centrafuse because we felt the belt press’s had to many wearing parts, so the centrafuse was a bit more simplistic.

The installation was in 2009 and now 4 years of operation has done the job reasonably well with a 55-60% of solid material after treatment, although we would like around 80-90% solid at the end of the process.

This process is now available through a “plate press” method but cost and thru-product is an issue. The centrafuse decanter even at 55-60% solid is still transportable by truck and it doesn’t take long for it to form a cake on top so the rehabilitation process is a lot quicker.

Another innovation we introduced was a Kisa Bucket Wheel for de-watering the finished product. Previously done through cyclones the bucket wheel has a very low maintenance, running costs and de-waters to around 12-15%, where the cyclones were 26-30% so our stockpile turnaround is twice as quick. We have also been able to increase our stockpile area because of the dryness of the sand.

At the moment we are setting up to feed our plant dry and then slurry the sand prior to going onto our wet-deck. This process will give us an increase in production and reduce our water going through the plant by around 65%.

Our current Work Authority has about eight years’ worth of material left, but we have purchased 167ha across the road which has the same material content that we currently have. At the moment that land has plantation timber on it which is leased back to Grand Ridge Plantations.

After drilling the 167ha we estimate we will have 120million tonnes of total resource and around 90million tonnes of sand. This investment will help justify the money we have spent on the current site. The site is a perfect location, it is in close proximity to Australian Paper, Morwell Water Factory, rail network and freeways.

Currently we are going through the process and design to establish a W.A. for this land. It is imperative that this resource is made available for extraction as the washed course sand market is very limited in around Victoria.

This particular narrow belt of sand is called the Haunted Hills sand which was formed after a volcanic disturbance back in the Ice Ages. The formation follows a line from the North of Morwell, which is where we are located through to the north of Warragul.

The sand is high in demand in the Construction industry through the concrete plants and also roof-tile plants. The coarseness of the sand adds great strength in their manufacturing process which helps eliminate some aggregates.

Given our close proximity to the freeway moving sand into the metro-area of Melbourne is very cost effective. With the investments we have made it has put us in a very good position for guarantee of supply to our customers especially with the Multi-national companies.

The chain of responsibility they have to follow to please their shareholders and if they know they can have guaranteed long term supply, it puts us in a good position to secure long term contracts.

Chris comments “Our employees are the back bone of our company, we have six full time and three casuals that help us out in the busy times, but they are very loyal and have a big influence on how we run the operation. I ensure that whatever we maybe proposing in relation to changes that they have the ability to have input. After all they are the ones that have to ensure we maximize production so it’s important that they are comfortable with those changes.”

Latrobe Valley Sands has been a member of the CMPA since 2008, the information shared and support received over the years has been invaluable. We have learnt a lot from the experience of others in the industry.

MISSION STATEMENT

To deliver a quality product to our customers that is produced to a high standard with regard for safety and sustainability

60 SECONDS WITH A VOTING MEMBER…

What is your name?
Chris Blackwood
Who do you work for?
Latrobe Valley Sands
How many years have you worked for this business?
Since it stated 2005
How many years have you been involved in the Industry?
10 years
What is your role at the company?
Manager
What does your job involve?
Looking aft er sales and general managerial duties, driving sales loader and liaising with the production manager.
What is the best part of your job?
Dealing with people and striving to grow the business.

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