Best ever monthly Plant utilisation November 2015 – 98.5%
Best since 2006 monthly Primary Mill rate December 2015 – 338 tonnes per hour
Best ever monthly Mill throughput for December 2015 – 238, 951 tonnes
Best ever Primary Mill throughput for Q4 2015 – 686, 795 tonnes
Best ever total Mill throughput for Q4 2015 – 754, 465 tonnes

It didn’t happen overnight but thanks to the ongoing hard work and dedication of multiple teams across our operations ERA broke several records in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2015.

Manager Plant Operations Rodney Moore said the achievements were thanks to a holistic approach of good communication and collaboration between work groups as well as key maintenance improvements.

“We saw excellent results throughout Q4 but more importantly we had a very good run in safety during the same period,” he said.

“When we have stability within the production process this tends to have a flow on affect to safety,” Rodney said.

Superintendent Operations Technical Frank Jia said his team has been working closely with Production and Operations to optimise the mill rate.

“When we have low grade going through the plant we need a change of strategy; the throughput becomes ‘king’,” he said.

“There are many people working behind the scenes such as the Metallurgists and Laboratory Technicians who support and guide the Control Room Operators (CROs) to make daily improvements,” Frank said.

Rodney and Frank agreed the efforts of the Maintenance teams were key to achieving the record results.

“Hats off to Maintenance - they managed to break the record for plant utilisation whilst also steaming ahead with various other projects at the same time,” Frank said.

It has certainly been a great team effort and 2016 is on track to be another record breaking year.