Eltirus

Know what’s in the ground, extract it viably and ensure compliance is the core belief that Eltirus maintains.

Understanding the material that is being extracted, in addition to having access to data across all aspects of operations, is core to the success of the quarry industry. Quarry Magazine had the chance to sit down with technical service manager from Eltirus, Jackie Gauntlett, to discuss in detail the services provided by Eltirus and how the ideal of “know what’s in the ground, extract it viably, and ensure compliance”, is put into practice.

What are the main services that Eltirus provides?

Eltirus aims to provide all key technical services that a quarry requires across the development, operational, and closure pipeline – specifically for quarry operations.

This includes resource assessment, such as drilling and geological modelling, survey support through drone topographic data imagery and machine guidance, strategic quarry planning, operational support through short term planning to meet sales and targets, KPI monitoring, and rehabilitation and closure support.

We also provide support with regards to geotechnical assessments, to help ensure that a safe pit design is implemented. This broad array of responsibilities is facilitated through our highly skilled professionals, who are experts in their specific field and give the best solutions and advice to our clients.

What does your role within Eltirus entail?

Primarily, my role is to ensure that clients are happy. As technical services manager, I ensure that we really understand what the client requires and that our outputs are truly valuable.

Our work is often cross-disciplinary, and as such, it requires that all technical functions work seamless towards the same goal to ensure that projects are completed optimally and efficiently.

Why should companies be looking towards sustainable solutions?

Simply put it’s all about risk management. If operations adequately manage all business risks – from economic risk, resource risk, safety risk, social risk and environmental risk – you’re likely to have a sustainable business. Sustainable means success over the long term. It means a safe operation with which stakeholders – including employees, shareholder and the community – are proud to be affiliated with.

This is a tough ask – but an essential one to get right if you truly want to be sustainable.

An active pursuit of sustainability is important, as without long term foresight it becomes very likely that an operation will not remain sustainable. This means truly understanding your resource and how it can be maximised over the long term, understanding and managing your operational risks and managing and maintaining your social and environmental license to operate.

Licence distributors also may prefer to issue licenses to operate to those businesses who can show a track record of undertaking the long-term view to success.

Jackie Gauntlett, technical service manager at Eltirus

What are some of the technologies, products, and solutions that Eltirus utilises to provide in-depth information to stakeholders?

It’s important for us that our clients have access to information to make the best operational and strategic decisions possible. We’ve built our business with this in mind and have worked with or partnered with service providers to ensure we have the best tools available to enable this effective data and information sharing.

We use Stratus to host survey information – such as drone topography and imagery – and the technology is available for a client to use at any time to inform their decision making. Stratus is also a powerful collaboration tool where we can share design data with the client in a 3D space, or review how an operation is progressing through a well-defined plan.

We use Seequent Central to empower clients to have access to their geological data in a 3D environment – to truly understand their resource model and drilling data in spatial context. This drilling and geological data is expensive to obtain and highly valuable – it’s the belief of Eltirus that it should be accessible.

For key clients we host and maintain a secure online portal where all the client’s key documentation can be readily accessed.

We also have recently begun rolling out a tool called Enable, which is able to collate data from a variety of sources and display it in online dashboards for managers and executives to have live insight into their operation.

This data can be tailored to the individual, for example, detailed daily data for quarry managers, or high-level quarterly KPIs for executives.

In your experience are businesses actively looking for opportunities to increase sustainability related outcomes?

We’ve noticed a change in the way businesses approach ESG and long-term quarry sustainability. We’re fortunate in that our business generally appeals to operators who are actively working towards a truly sustainable operation – giving us perhaps a biased view of the industry.

However, there are still some operators with their heads in the sand – hoping that the bare minimum will suffice. These operators are possibly risking leaving their operations without a sustainable long term strategy. Understanding that actively pursuing sustainable opportunities is much more likely to pay off in the long run than not, is something we would be glad to see the wider industry adopt.

The mining industry has generally been much more regulated than the quarry industry and I believe that the same level of best-practice currently practiced within the mining industry will soon be expected in the quarrying industry.

This is a major challenge, and at Eltirus we’ve positioned ourselves to be able to assist the quarry operators who realise this and want to get a head start.

What are some of the biggest concerns or problems currently for the quarrying industry?

Obtaining and maintaining a social and environmental licenses to operate is a major challenge. Having a good, detailed, and realistic long term plan, coupled with interacting and building strong connections with the local areas and communities can help to ensure the longevity of operations.

Additionally, there’s greater regulation with respect to access of capital, such as requiring resource and reserves to be determined in accordance with the JORC code and having a well-defined and detailed long term extraction plan to show viability.

There is a definite trend towards greater regulation with respect to safe geotechnical assessments and realistic rehabilitation and closure plans. These need to be completed by independent and competent third parties who truly understand the industry.

We have also realised that the transition to electric and automated D&B and L&H systems will be challenging, requiring operations to have access to the right technical support throughout the project life.

Accessing additional resource to keep up with demand is also something which can pose difficulties for operators. It is critical to understand when, and how much, to invest in an development opportunity, and this requires a good technical knowledge of the opportunity and its risks.

How does Eltirus help businesses to navigate those concerns?

Accessing additional resource and maintaining social and environmental license to operate is more likely to succeed when regulators are presented with a detailed plan which mitigates against an operation not being sustainable in the long run.

Our professional team consists of registered surveyors, AusIMM chartered professional geologists, and RPEQ certified mining and geotechnical engineers. We are thus positioned to undertake due diligence requirements in resource and geotechnical assessment, extraction planning, and rehabilitation and closure planning.

Eltirus has begun engaging with key stakeholders with regards to the transition to electric and automated operations, as this transition is a key risk for operators and likely to be significantly more challenging than expected.

Eltirus is currently setting up to be positioned to assist with this key sustainability transition when it comes – which is probably sooner than expected.

This article was originally published in Quarry Magazine – click here to view original article.

To find out more, contact Steve Franklin on +61 474 183 939 or steve.franklin@eltirus.com