The inside scoop on Tanami

Tanami mine is an underground gold mine located 540 kilometers northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. It’s also the second-largest underground gold mining operation in Australia.  

Given we’ve been working at Tanami for a while now, we thought it was about time we got the inside scoop so we caught up with Project Manager, Luke Ryan.  

How long have we been working at Tanami?  

We first mobilised in 2018 on an asset integrity and tank refurbishment contract (Boddington and Tanami combined) we secured with Newmont in late 2017. On the back of our strong performance, we’ve secured three contract extensions and now provide additional team members for shutdowns every four months. 

What type of work do we do there?  

The majority of our work is performed within the processing plant, however our team is also called upon for scaffolding, UHP water jetting underground, strip tank coatings, hydro demolition of concrete for repairs, underground vent fan cleaning to remove the scale build up and, occasionally, emergency underground paste plant pipe blockages that need to be cleaned out.  

Earlier in the year we also picked up an additional projects contract as part of the Tanami underground expansion (TE2) project which included a large amount of fabrication work out of our Kalgoorlie workshop. The project is structural, mechanical and piping installation works within the operating mill in which our maintenance team already performs work. 

Our asset integrity crew started at around 10 people and has slowly grown to 16 people. Our project work has been a growth area for us on site this year. 

Tell us about the team working on site.   

Our maintenance crews consist of supervisors, boilermaker welders, painters, concrete workers, scaffolders and trade assistants. It is a versatile and experienced crew, with a lot of the team also holding UHP water jetting and high-risk work area tickets, which allow the team to perform various tasks. It is not unusual for these trades to have to work together to help the other disciplines achieve common works, depending on the priorities of tasks at hand. 

Our projects crew started at just over 20 people in late April 2023, kicking off the first phase of works requiring shutdown tie ins in July, which was all completed successfully. After the July shutdown, we downsized slightly and have a crew of made up of trades, an engineer, a supervisor and HSE advisor who have continued on site since. We are currently preparing for final tie in works of the project within the upcoming November shutdown where we are expected to commence demobilising the project team in early December. 

What does safety mean to the team?  

We have a great team culture on site, I think our safety performance since arriving on site has been a reflection of this. We do have some turnover of staff due to the harsh conditions of this remote location, however the team on site bring new starters up to the expected standards quickly, and those that want to be involved in the journey stay for the ride. We have had challenges over time, with internal leadership changes on site, however the messaging remains the same. This has enabled us to promote performing members of the team up into leadership positions with minimal impact on safety performance. 

The team has had only one recordable injury since we secured the contract back in late 2017 and is regularly awarded safety champions of the month in the Goldfields monthly leadership meetings for hazard identification and quick rectification. 

They live and breathe our The Safe Way is the Only Way culture, and adhere to our Everyone Behaviours from our Safety Behaviour Framework, which is no doubt a driving factor of their strong safety performance. 

Highlights, milestones or achievements from time there?  

Multiple tank refurbishments, minor projects and shutdowns have been achieved incident free over five years and continuing to deliver to our customer. We are very open & honest with the client and have great relationships on site where our crew feel part of the Tanami team. I think the ongoing work we have been able to secure and the growth of the team is a reflection of the success we have had on site.