Bell Cochrane & Associates – Basil Natoli

CMPA Honorary Voting Member, BASIL NATOLI reports on the growth of his business and its connection to the extractive industry.

MY connection to the extractive industries started with an early interest in geology at secondary school in the mid 1960’s and after matriculating in 1967 I enrolled in the RMIT Associateship Diploma course. Part of this course was the completion of 3 months work experience which I started in late 1969 at the Country Roads Board (CRB). This commenced in the Materials Research Division laboratories under the supervision of Elmer Nyoeger and later in the geology section under Alan Muir.

In early 1970 when the nickel boom was in full swing I decided to get a full time job and complete my diploma part time. I contacted a local geological consulting group E. A. Webb & Associates and, although I had no experience, started the next day as a petrologist. Luckily I was mentored by Elmer Nyoeger who also lectured in petrology at RMIT.

E.A. Webb & Associates was founded by Eric Webb in the mid 1960’s and had established a client base of mineral exploration, mining and quarrying companies. Their office then occupied the ground floor of the Readymix Groups building who were also a major client. I was given the task of processing, identifying and analysing samples from various sites around Australia.

The CRB had recently specified Secondary Mineral Content (SMC) limits for basalts used in their construction works and SMC testing became a significant proportion of the work I undertook. Some of the basalt quarries and sites I was involved in assessing then included Deer Park, Wollert and Pakenham.

In the heady days of the mining boom geologists were in short supply and well paid jobs were always on off er. Eric Webb’s motto then was to make sure you finished your work before going out to lunch because you probably wouldn’t be capable of doing much after lunch.

Towards the end of 1971 the boom was faltering and cut lunches from home were eaten in the office. In early 1972 E.A. Webb started downsizing from around 14 geologists to one, being Geoff Bell, who continued the consulting practice trading as G. Bell & Associates.

Eric Webb had gone on to found publicly listed companies Endeavour Resources and Endeavour Oil.

Employment prospects for geologists then were slim and many went into other areas such as teaching. I was fortunate in that Readymix had just opened up a new basalt quarry at South Morang which contained a signifi cant proportion of high SMC basalt and were looking for someone who could carry out SMC testing. I started at Readymix in early 1972 and was put in charge of a new investigation and testing facility at their Alpha quarry in Epping.

Readymix then was a very progressive company and set up this facility to make sure that the mistakes of the past wouldn’t be repeated. They invested in the equipment to carry out all the CRB source rock tests and a new diamond drilling rig for site investigations. This facility employed 7 people and was set up as a resource to be used by interstate and overseas divisions of Readymix. The laboratory gained NATA registration later in 1972 and I was the NATA signatory and manager. The laboratory relocated to the nearby Readymix Bundoora quarry in 1974.

Readymix then had a lot of very experienced quarry operational people who I was fortunate enough to learn a lot from. These included David Sullivan, Stan O’Connor, Keith Clugston, Alan McKern, Cliff Box and Alec Graham. I also grew up in this industry with quite a few younger operational people at Readymix including Harry Dodd, Dick DeLaRue, Bob Duncan, the Giobbi brothers, the Jones twins, Peter Carr, Murray Murfett and one particularly rough looking character based at South Morang quarry called Ron Kerr who later became very attached to one of the veranda posts outside the South Morang pub.

The work load was hectic and I was involved in investigating and assessing reserves and planning development of many new sites including Werribee quarry, Heatherton sand pit and Oaklands Junction quarry. I was also involved in ongoing assessments and planning of Ready-mix’s Victorian managed quarries and sand pits at Epping, Brooklyn, Bundoora, South Morang, Clayton, Dingley, Yallourn North, Trafalgar, Army Road Pakenham, Smythesdale, Shelbourne East, Charlton, Tyrendarra, Berrigan and Cape Bridgewater.

In the mid 1970’s my responsibilities were extended to cover production quality control of over 4 million tonnes per year from Readmix’s Victorian sites involving five onsite laboratories and one mobile laboratory.

Concurrent with these activities I represented the Crushed Stone Association as a member of a SAA sub-committee involved in preparing Australian Standard test methods and specifications for quarry products. I also represented Readymix on a committee overseeing research into the durability of Victorian basalts. This work was undertaken by CSIRO with oversight from other committee members representing CRB, MMBW, ARRB, Boral and Pioneer. I was later involved in peer reviewing CSIRO papers stemming from this research.

Following a few blasting mishaps in the mid 1970’s I set up blast monitoring systems at Ready-mix’s Melbourne quarries and undertook interstate blast monitoring on special projects.

In the early 1980’s Ready-mix’s owners BMI and CSR split the business Australia wide and I ended up on the BMI side and became responsible for resource assessment and planning of additional quarries at Montacute and Noarlunga near Adelaide and at Launceston and Hobart in Tasmania.

In 1982 Boral took over BMI and despite assurances that no one would lose their job as a result of the takeover, in 1983 I became one of a large number of BMI employees who did. I then set up my own consulting business trading as Sand & Stone Services Pty. Ltd.

In mid 1984 following the sudden and untimely death of Geoff Bell, I acquired his consulting practice which has continued as Bell, Cochrane & Associates Extractive Industries (BCA). This was in effect the consulting group I first worked for in 1970 and which has been supporting the extractive industries since the mid 1960’s.

During the 1980’s the practice gained the services of Ian Widdowson, a very talented cartographer from the resource industries and Richard McCutcheon an ex Victorian Mines Department geologist with extensive experience in sand resource assessment. In the mid 1990’s Cameron Black, a mining engineer, joined the practice aft er 11 years at Readymix involved in quarry operations, management and technical services support.

In 2004 Andrew Marshall a geologist with over 11 years experience in industrial minerals and construction materials assessments and operations at ACI and Unimin joined BCA. His input has added to a combined total of over 100 years of experience in extractive industries resources assessment and development planning currently at BCA.

BCA has an extensive range of clients including all the major public quarrying companies, numerous private quarrying companies, construction companies, government departments and agencies, local government, financial institutions and individuals.

Larger projects BCA have undertaken include:

• Karkarook Park Heatherton – investigation of sand resources and development planning for a sand extraction operation.
• Philippines – selection and evaluation of sand and aggregate sources and establishment of raw material quality control systems for construction of an offshore concrete gravity structure built at Subic Bay.
• Alice Springs – Darwin Railway – investigation, assessment and development planning of a basalt quarry at Katherine for supply of ballast for the northern portion of the project.
• Pakenham Quarry Environmental Effects Statement – Resource investigation and development planning for the extension to a basalt quarry.
• Point Wilson Quarry Environmental Effects Statement – Resource investigation and development planning for the extension to a basalt quarry.
• Marulan, NSW – Resource investigation and development planning for a major new quarry to supply the Sydney region.
• Saudi Arabia North-South Rail Project – Selection and assessment of ballast and sleeper aggregate materials for approx. 900km of rail construction.
• Olympic Dam SA – Resource assessment and development planning of a 4 million tonnes per annum backfill quarry to support underground mining operations.

From the mid 1980’s through the 1990’s the large public quarrying companies diversified into other industries and lost sight of one of the fundamentals that our industry depends upon i.e. access to quality construction materials resources which is best achieved by identifying and protecting strategic extractive resources for future use.

The lack of focus back then led to the situation where our industry’s future was under threat from poorly informed government regulation and policies particularly in the areas of environmental and heritage controls. Further damage resulted through punitive rehabilitation bonds imposed by the department that once used to be the protector of the states extractive resources. The scene was being set where only the wealthiest companies could afford to continue in this industry and all consumers would inevitably end up paying the highest prices for their products.

In the late 1990’s Ron Kerr invited me to a meeting of predominantly family operated quarrying businesses which led to the formation of the CMPA. The association has gone on to provide a unified voice for the independent operators in Victoria, representing over half the industry’s supply capacity. This voice is finally being heard in government but there is still a long way to go in getting our message through.

The CMPA has been instrumental in providing for the ongoing upgrading of the other fundamental resource for our industry which is dedicated, trained and experienced operational people who are the lifeblood of our industry. The input into education, training and the resources developed and provided by the CMPA have been invaluable to all industry members.

The future resource challenges which the CMPA will continue to address will be:

• retaining our good people against increasing demand from the mining sector
• making the community and government understand that extractive resources are State Assets that are essential for ongoing community development and that their value needs to be weighed against competing environmental and heritage values.
• getting government to act in the interests of the whole state by identifying and protecting strategic extractive resources to provide competitive supply of construction materials for future generations.

For further information contact Basil Natoli, Bell Cochrane & Associates 03 9710 1800

60 SECONDS WITH AN ASSOCIATE MEMBER…

What is your name?
Ian Widdowson

Who do you work for?
I work primarily for Bell Cochrane & Associates as a Cartographer Contractor

How many years have you worked for this business?
27 years

How many years have you been involved in the Industry?
27 years

What is your role at the company?
Cartography

What does your job involve?
Mapping, aerial photography, surveying data acquisition. Work on presentations,3D modelling, graphic representation of geological information. Develop site safety plans and work on quarry site information and displays.

What is the best part of your job?
The environment in which I work & the people within the industry I work with.

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