For Western Australian crushing and screening specialist RHT Contracting, a versatile fleet of McCloskey crushers, screens, and stackers offers the mobility needed to operate across the state
McCloskey’s range of crushing, screening, and conveyor equipment, supplied by local dealer 888 Crushing & Screening Equipment (888CSE), is a trusted solution for complex mining operations throughout Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
Over the past seven years, RHT Contracting has established itself as a leading name in mobile crushing and tailings dam construction. Its extensive fleet of McCloskey equipment is operating across Western Australia, including a remote iron ore mining operation on Cockatoo Island, off the north-west coast of Western Australia.
Mike Heddon, director and co-founder of RHT, recalls that his connection with 888CSE began in the early 2000s, when he sourced mobile crushers from it for an earlier venture. After setting up RHT in 2018 alongside Mark Tyler and Joe Riccardo, the team once again turned to 888CSE to expand their fleet.
Today, RHT’s fleet includes McCloskey reclaimer screens, jaw and cone crushers, a rinser screen and several stackers. According to Heddon, the McCloskey machines provide the flexibility required to rapidly mobilise and undertake crushing and screening wherever its needed, backed by reliable support and parts from 888CSE.
“Mines often contract a crushing contractor like us in if they need to crush to a finer size than what their circuits can do, or increase productivity,” he says.
“They might have a stockpile that they want to crush so they can blend it into their mill, or there might be a million-tonne stockpile that they want to put through an ore sorter. So instead of building a plant to do that, we’ll go in and do that for them.
“Production of road base and stemming is popular, because that’s got to be done for the haul roads in the big mining pits where they’re running dump trucks.
“We also build lots of tailings dams, so one small crushing circuit is always making material for rip rap and filter stone to go around the decants on the dams.
“At present, we’re also on Cockatoo Island, crushing iron ore down to minus 10mm to go to China.”
Flexible approach
With RHT undertaking such a wide range of activities across a large state and in remote sites, Heddon says having a reliable mixed fleet of McCloskey models is vital for his business.
“We’re about as far north as you can get, out in the ocean on Cockatoo Island, as well as on sites in the Kimberley, across the Goldfields and even further south than that,” Heddon says.
“We own a lot of machinery so we can mix and match as needed. This means we can get the right product, at the right speed, at the right time, at the right price.
“Reliability and backup are key and 888CSE have the knowledge and parts availability to sort us out.
“We recently had a pump that started failing. We rang them about three o’clock, and a replacement was on the plane that night and flying up north. They understand crushing. They’ve all been in the game for a long time, and they help back us up.”
Challenging location
RHT recently acquired a McCloskey C4 cone crusher to serve as the main crushing unit at its iron ore mining site on Cockatoo Island.
With Cockatoo Island located in the Buccaneer Archipelago off the north coast of WA, Heddon says the C4 was chosen as it was “the largest cone crusher you can get on a truck”.
“We crush the ore down to minus 10mm and then load it into barges,” he says.
“A McCloskey SF80 feeder stacker feeds into an 888CSE-supplied 150ft Superior Industries telestacker and that loads the barges at around 1,000 tonnes an hour.
“We’ve been on site for nine months, and we were looking for a backup for the C44 crusher already on the island, so we didn’t get a bottleneck in production.”
Heddon says the new cone crusher was up and running quickly and his team find McCloskey equipment to be easy to operate.
“I think that the McCloskey jaw and the cone crushers tend to be a bit more user friendly and the electronics seem to be a bit more robust than some of the other brands,” he says.
“In harsh climates like we’re in – when you get one storm, you can get a metre of rain – that tests the electrical circuits and the McCloskeys come through pretty good because they’re sealed well.
“Plus, when we purchase them off 888CSE they bring them up to mine spec, with guards and E-stops, etc. The McCloskey machines are well manufactured and well designed.”
And that isn’t the last McCloskey heading to the island, with more equipment being prepared to be shipped over.
“We just ordered an SF50 feeder stacker that’s getting put together right now to go to the island, and yesterday we ordered an R230 screen,” Heddon says.
The ongoing relationship with 888CSE is a core factor in his choice of machinery purchases, Heddon adds, saying that the team are always on hand to find the right solution.
“It doesn’t matter who picks up the phone at 888CSE – they are all dedicated,” he says.
“They will treat you just as well on Saturday and Sunday as they do during the week. They’ll take the call 24/7, that’s the difference.
“When you pick the phone up and you’re in trouble on a long weekend when something strange happens, you know they’ll go and find you the part and get it on a plane for you.”
For more information on the McCloskey range from 888CSE, visit: 888cse.com.au