Mining Support Industry Capabilities on Show

I recently witnessed the strength of Mackay's mining support businesses with a tour of SEW-Eurodrive’s Paget facility, which is currently testing massive six-metre long drive units for export to an overseas copper mine.

Queensland Senator James McGrath was in town for the tour, on which SEW-Eurodrive allowed us to observe the load testing of these huge drive assemblies which weigh close to 30 tonnes; it gave Senator McGrath a true insight into the capabilities of Mackay’s mining support sector.

SEW-Eurodrive’s sales & operations manager for Central and North Queensland Daniel Dallari, who is based here in Mackay, has explained that the facility here will test and analyse these units to ensure all components of the drive assemblies are in peak condition.

These drive assemblies then have to travel by sea for weeks before they reach the mine site in Papua New Guinea where they will be used for a conveyor upgrade project, so it’s critical they ensure the units are free of any defects.

Mr Dallari said SEW-Eurodrive had grown considerably in the past two years.

“SEW-Eurodrive opened in Mackay in 2017 during quieter times, but we’ve grown from two staff to 12 in two years,” Mr Dallari said.

“We areone of the very few facilities which can test these drives to this extent, whichreally demonstrates the importance of the Mackay region as an engineering hub,not only for Australia, but also for export into neighbouring countries.”

SEW-Eurodrive is one of many businesses in the Mackay region, particularly here in Paget, who provide the service capabilities our resource industry needs and they are to be congratulated on their business operation.