News - Dawsons Expanding at GEMCO

• Safety Innovation Award
• She's got her boots on!
• Rob Schroedter named Queensland Apprentice of the Year
• Dawsons hosts PNG Students
• Jobless rate drops after Cairns expo
• Dawsons Expanding at GEMCO
• Dawsons Construction Crew Find Their Pioneering Spirit
• Cannington Contract Win
• No such thing as an impossible cut

November 2008

Dawsons Engineering was recently awarded the balance of the Stage 1 work packages for the Groote Eylandt Expansion Project. The incremental expansion of the Groote Eylandt concentrator is aimed at increasing the processing capacity of the plant, to 4.0 Mt per annum, by removing bottlenecks from the existing layout. Packages awarded to Dawsons cover the demolition of the concentrator floor, installation of the new feed hopper, construction of the new cyclone building, installation of the new drum scrubber, screens and associated conveyors and the installation of two 15 tonne overhead gantry cranes.

"This is an excellent endorsement of Dawsons track record of providing a quality service to GEMCO." says Dawsons Project Manager, Bernie Dalton. "I believe it’s recognition of our both our service to GEMCO to date as much as our proven ability on other projects that has gotten us over the line with this contract." Work on Stage 1 will see Dawsons Expansion workforce peak at around 100 personnel on site, with the bulk of the workforce being sourced from the Cairns district, but from as far away as South East QLD.

Dawsons are working closely with the other contractors involved on the project to deliver a quality result for their client. "It’s essential that we develop good working relationships with the other contractors" says Bernie Dalton. "We have always had a very collaborative working culture at Dawsons, and it’s important to the success of any job in a remote area to be able to cooperate with others to share resources." There’s quite a team on this project, with HATCH the EPCM Contractors, JMS taking care of the Civils and Downer doing the Electrical.

Dawsons have been on site at Groote Eylandt for five years in December and believe that it is their experience with the working conditions on the Eylandt and their intimate knowledge of GEMCO’s site requirements that ensure they deliver to their client’s expectations. "Though we have been working in the mining industry of remote North West Queensland for 20 years now, each site is unique in its requirements and culture" commented Dawsons Sales and Labour Hire Manager, Sharon Dawson "we really try hard to ensure that we develop a thorough understanding of each site so that we can select our workforce accordingly."