Inside Resources

Inland from Greymouth, Brent Whyte and his team at CMR Mining quarry gold with a pair of new Hyundai diggers. 

Brent Whyte has been in the gold mining business for years now. He’s been a shareholder in Whyte Gold for the past 14 years, and his latest venture is CMR Mining.

The firm set to work three years ago at a new site in Notown Valley, one of the feeder valleys into Grey Valley on the gold-rich West Coast.

Here, CMR Mining processes up to 500 cubic yards of material a day in its hunt for gold.

“We’re getting about five grains per yard,” says Brent.

“And with 480 grains in an ounce of gold, that’s about 100 yards for one ounce.”

The first step in the process is to remove the overburden, which is about two metres deep, and expose the pay gravel. This layer is between 10 and 20 metres deep and, once recovered, is loaded onto trucks and taken to the wash plant for processing.

All this digging requires some robust machinery, and Brent has four excavators to tackle the job, plus a couple of 40 tonne articulated dump trucks,

When it comes to diggers, Brent is all about Hyundai. His first machine was a H210 excavator. Twelve years on, it now has 20,000 hours on the clock and is still going strong. Brent says he’s never had any issues with it.

“When I set up CMR Mining I bought a second-hand H450-LC from Porters that had done 9000 hours. Since then it’s clocked up another 11,000 hours with minimal maintenance work required. It’s done well.”

With these stellar performances to go on, Brent had no hesitation in selecting Hyundai again when he recently bought two brand new R480-9 excavators from Porters.

Hyundai says the state-of-the-art machines offer maximum performance, more precision, and proven quality.

The 480LC-9 has a reliable and low noise Cummins Tier 3 engine that is electronically controlled for optimum fuel to air ration and clean, efficient combustion. The new patented hydraulic controls offer improved controllability and smoother operation, as well as an auto boom and swing priority system for optimum speed.

Brent says the operators are loving the new machines: “They’re nice and smooth to operate, but it’s not just performance that is important, cab comfort is a priority too.

“And, I have to say, the heated seat is a real bonus in winter!”

In Hyundai 9 series’ cabs you can easily adjust the seat, console and armrest settings to suit your preferences and maximise your comfort.

“Work is stressful enough. Your work environment should be stress free,” says Hyundai. “Hyundai’s 9 series provides improved cab amenities, additional space and a comfortable seat to minimise stress to the operation.

“A powerful climate control system provides the operator with optimum air temperature. An advanced audio system, with CD player, AM/FM stereo and MP3 capabilities, is perfect for listening to music favourites. Operators can even talk on the phone with the hands-free cell phone feature.”

The quality and performance of the machine are only two parts of the purchase equation however. An investment of this size requires a good relationship with the supplier, and here Brent has high praise for Hyundai distributor – Porter Group.

“I have dealt with quite a few companies over my 20 years in business and Porters comes out on top,” says Brent.

“Not just for its machinery, but sales and finance as well.

“Our local rep, Chris Toase, has been great, and also Porter Finance has looked after us really well. In fact, they’d be my number one recommended finance company!

“I chose to buy gear new to save on repairs and maintenance,” he adds.

“The new machinery includes regular servicing as part of the package, but there’s also less downtime when it comes to servicing a new machine – the old machines can be out for weeks while you’re waiting for a part.”

As part of purchasing the two new excavators, Brent traded an older 450LC excavator and an H780 wheel loader. He also bought a two-year-old Komatsu 375 bulldozer from Porters to help out with the overburden removal and to tackle the site rehabilitation work.

“Porters fitted it with new tracks before supplying it to site,” says Brent.

“It’s a big dozer, ideal for the work we want it to do, and doing it well.”

By Mary Searle Bell.