Northparkes Mines welcomed the Federal Minister for Industry, Ian Macfarlane on site last week.
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This is the second time the Minister has visited Northparkes - but the previous visit was almost a decade ago.
Mr Macfarlane toured the Block Cave Knowledge Centre and met many of the mine’s 18 apprentices including the Bert Evans scholarship holder – first year apprentice, Kelsie Thompson.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Minister met three of eight Northparkes employees who are this year celebrating 20 years at Northparkes, as well as farmer Geoff McCallum who is about to retire after 18 years of farming.
He also dropped in on the TAFE Frontline Leaders training session, toured the immersion room, spent some time in the simulator and visited SCADA automated operations control room.
“The influence of safety is always prominent wherever I go.
“However, the big change at Northparkes, since I was last here, is automation,” Mr Macfarlane said.
“The challenge for Australia is maintaining our standard of living - technology and innovation, as I’ve seen today at Northparkes, are key to this.”
Loader Haul Dump (LHD) Fleet Automation has been a major innovation strategy at Northparkes Mines since 1999.
Northparkes is the world leader in this technology and just this week became the first mine in the world to have 100% of the production level accessible to autonomous LHDs.
“The training centre at Northparkes, particularly the trades training area which is used for apprentice training, is an extraordinarily impressive facility,” the Minister said.
“The enthusiasm of the apprentices was evident; I could really feel that in all the people I spoke to.
“Everywhere I looked, everything was well maintained and well ordered –this tidiness suggests the obvious pride of the workforce.
“I also know that the local community greatly values Northparkes. The mining industry around Australia has to emulate this.
“It is so important that the community sees value in the mining industry.”
Northparkes Managing Director, Stef Loader, said it was exciting to have the Minister visit Northparkes.
“Especially at the same time we reached a significant milestone in the automation of our underground mining operations,” she added.
“Our apprentices and many others clearly enjoyed having the opportunity to meet him and talk about what we do at Northparkes, particularly in the areas of skills, training and automation, as well as our Zero Harm Operations culture.
“It is a privilege to have a senior member of government visit Northparkes.
“We were delighted to welcome Minister Macfarlane back to Northparkes and now look forward to thinking about what we can achieve before his next visit,” Stef said.
Minister for Industry Ian Macfarlane was also impressed with the Parkes Logistics Hub which he toured with Federal Member for Calare John Cobb and other local business leader during his visit.
The hub is a bustling centre of activity which creates local jobs and enables the efficient movement of products in and out of Parkes as well as around the Central West and beyond, Mr Macfarlane remarked.
The Minister was also pleased to see Parkes benefiting from a strong local business environment of which the Parkes Logistics Hub plays an important part.
Local Federal MP, John Cobb said he enjoyed the visit to the hub after a busy few days in parliament.
“Parkes Council is very proud of the hub and it’s easy to see why.
“It was a hive of activity, creates lots of jobs and is a huge benefit to the entire Parkes region,” Mr Cobb said.
“Mr Macfarlane was pleased to see Parkes thriving, and was impressed with some of council’s ideas for future growth, expansion and innovation.”