A Tokoroa-based mineral extraction company is committing to an $11 million capital investment programme to boost exports of processed perlite and zeolite ore to Asia and Australia.
Blue Pacific Minerals (BPM) will officially open its new multi-million dollar processing plant next week.
The plant is the primary player in the investment programme.
There is a 4500 square metre building expansion to house BPM’s new zeolite processing plant and there is upgraded quarrying equipment and quarry storage facilities, and expansion of other buildings.
BPM is the country’s largest processor of zeolite and perlite ore, captured from its mines.
The company’s new processing plant in the custom-built South Site building is specifically for zeolite.
The North Site will concentrate now entirely on perlite. It has been operating in Tokoroa since 1989.
BPM majority shareholder Paul Tidmarsh says the investment will allow the company to more than quadruple its output.
BPM is anticipating it will expand from producing about 30,000 tonne per annum total of perlite and zeolite combined from its North Site, to 100,000 tonne or more of zeolite and 35,000 tonne of perlite per annum over both sites. The new plant is capable of running 24 hours a day.
Tidmarsh says the natural mineral company was at full capacity spurring the new investment because its North Site couldn’t cope with demand, even running six days a week, 18 hours a day.
Developments were needed, he says, to meet projected demand and to enable BPM to continue to invest in product development and the exploration of new markets.
BPM managing director Dave Hill says the desire to be able to “produce more material, at a more economical rate, and in a more environmentally sound way”, was behind the investment rationale.
The new plant comes with not only the promise of increased production but also: greater fuel efficiency; the ability to improve labour systems through automation; and the introduction of hi-tech dust filtration systems.
It will also include modern screening equipment for sizing, so as to reduce the quantity of fines produced. Some of the new plant items came from The Netherlands the USA and China. Roctec, a Matamata company, previously owned by Tidmarsh, completed the balance of the construction.
BPM has also invested in the additional plant for the North Site perlite operations, to provide for even tighter specification products.
This addition allows BPM to offer a better quality of product into existing markets and allow growth into new markets in both Australia and Asia.
Significant investment has also been made in quarrying machinery to underwrite this increased demand.
