Murrin Murrin, Western Australia

The contract: Haulage and Materials Handling

Bis provides a range of mining and processing services to Minara Resources’ nickel and cobalt mine and processing facility at Murrin Murrin. Key responsibilities across the full value chain include:

• drilling, blasting, crushing and rehabilitation work
• off-road load and haul of nickel ore and calcrete
• on-road load and haul of bulk goods, chemicals and finished product
• calcrete mining; and maintenance of the haul road and Bis fleet
• loading and unloading of chemicals, reagents and finished product to and from trains
• Calcrete milling and processing

Bis has provided services at Murrin Murrin since mining commenced in 1999.

Key project achievements

The power of DPRTs

The site’s nickel ore haulage operations were originally performed by eight 225-tonne payload road trains travelling 5km to 52km on a private haul road, crossing over one public road.

Bis introduced purpose-built 350-tonne payload Dual-Powered Road Trains (DPRTs) to replace the 225-tonne fleet and performed upgrade works on the public road crossing to allow for the additional payloads.

Payload Pit Hauler

To complement the DPRTs, Bis replaced a standard articulated dump truck with a 140-tonne payload pit hauler. With the calcrete mining locations moving further away from the crushing plant, this vehicle removed the need to relocate Bis’ crushing plant, delivering a significant cost saving.