Mining a rich seam
Local finds niche in controlling dust
BURLEIGH Heads-based dust management company Reynolds Soil Technologies is one local operation to benefit from ongoing rationalisation in the mining sector.
The company, founded by David Handel in 1994, has forged a reputation for keeping flying particles in mine pits and on civil works sites to a minimum.
Its clients include BHP Billiton, Glencore, Anglo American and Downer Group.
But, whereas eight years ago, 60 per cent of its business came from Australia and the remainder from overseas, that figure has now hit 75 per cent.
Mr Handel, whose company had a turnover of $15 million in the past financial year, attributes that partly to rationalisation in the Australian mining sector. “The sector won’t go back to when there were 10 workers for one job,” he said. “It is a lot more streamlined.”
Mr Handel said that represented a big opportunity for RST.
“They need us as a specialist,” DAVID HANDEL
he said. “They do not have the bodies on the ground that they used to. They rely on the specialists to come in and help rather than do it in house.”
The market is worth a whopping $100 Australia alone.
Most of RST’s revenue comes from dust suppression, although it also does erosion control and sediment control.
One of its products – RT4 Superskin – is a solution that is added to water and sprayed on to materials to coat them with a flexible crust that eliminates dust during transportation in rail wagons and trucks.
At the same time as it has expanded its reach in Australia, the company is also broadening overseas.
Mr Handel recently returned from a trip to Mongolia and northern China, where the Australian process of pit to port is reversed.
He said he was comfortable with the size of the business, which also has an operation in Perth, and manufacturing facilities in Colombia and Brazil. million in
THEY (MINING COMPANIES) RELY ON THE SPECIALISTS TO COME IN AND HELP RATHER THAN DO IT IN HOUSE