The road network surrounding Queensland’s Sunshine Coast is rapidly expanding, and to match the increase in tourism and general traffic, the expansive road system is constantly being upgraded.
To meet demand, local Sunny Coast companies like Cordwell Resources, owners of Cordwell’s Quarry, have been sent into overdrive!
For Cordwell, this meant more machinery…machinery that could go the distance.
So, they called upon the help of Porter Group and their huge range of Hyundai loaders, diggers, and Sandvik crushers.
Stories like that of Cordwell Resources are fast becoming a rarity, family-owned since 1965, they provide a variety of services ranging from production, haulage, through to testing.
The recent edition of this quarry, is what they the missing component of their business.
What does that mean?
Well, this is what’s known as a start-up quarry – they’ve got a licence to extract a whopping one-million tonnes per year, but having just kicked off, they’re aiming for about two to three-hundred thousand tonnes this year.
Those numbers are certainly nothing to scoff about, and not something they’d be able to achieve with subpar equipment.
When it came to getting the job done, they needed tough reliable machines – something Porter Group were keen to assist with, offering the latest and greatest in mining equipment.
The star of the show at the quarry? It’s Hyundai’s trick new HL780-9 – 30-tonnes of South Korean steel and boy does it look the part.
In fact, it’s one of the largest wheel loaders Hyundai makes, and despite its size, it’ll still hit a top speed of 36km/h.
That’s actually quicker, believe it or not, than Harry drives its cousin, the Hyundai i30N hot hatch!
It’s powered by an 11-litre Cummins six-cylinder diesel engine, pushing out 348HP and a meaty 1,674Nm of torque.
The dirty big bucket on the front of the HL780-9 is definitely not just for show, and it’ll effortlessly lift 10.5 tonnes!
To process the materials, Cordwell’s Quarry uses a variety of Sandvik crushers, and they’ve got five different ones all doing different things.
Now, the rock being pulled out of the earth has to be processed at the quarry – dusty work made easy with Sandvik’s range of crushers.
They turned to Sandvik for the five machines needed, with a sixth on the way, for a number of reasons, but a real standout was the brand’s My Fleet telematics system.
That means Cordwell’s Quarry can plan maintenance, order parts and do their scheduling with the My Fleet system – how easy is that?!
Those five machines? Well, it’s a mouthful, but they’re made up of the QJ341, QE441, QS331, QA451 and QH332. Try saying that five times quickly?!
While Cordwell’s Quarry might just look like another hole in the side of a hill, it’s an integral part of the development across the ever-growing road network on the Sunshine Coast.
So next time you’re cruising up the Bruce Highway to Noosa in your flamingo pink board shorts, spare a thought for the legends at Cordwell’s Quarry, and Porter Group, for their outstanding effort that they and their mighty machines pull off.