OZ Minerals & ElectraNet to build $300m transmission line to Prominent Hill Gold & Copper Mine

Oz Minerals and South Australian (SA) Energy and Infrastructure company ElectraNet have agreed to a 300 km new transmission line and high voltage infrastructure, to connect the Prominent Hill mine site to the (SA) grid power supply in a $300m construction cost.

Experienced Oz Minerals Project Director of Power Strategy for this project Harvey Fernandez, was laser focused upon bringing all the key players together to ensure the construction of the project was built to the highest standards, on time (a deadline of August 2020) and to be completed safely.

He called Dr Garry Tester, CEO of Australian Corporate Challenge (ACC), to develop a 2 day residential conference to build the desired platform for this project to be successful and meet all the key milestones of Safety & Quality.

To this end, an outstanding conference was delivered by (ACC) where 35 key staff from ElectraNet, UGL (the construction company) and OZ Minerals (the client) came together and developed a PROJECT CHARTER of values and behaviours that all parties will promote and abide by in the construction of this largest piece of energy infrastructure in (SA) history. Below is the Charter all parties signed up to before leaving the conference and now it is a mandatory centre piece in all offices, at all meetings and part of all inductions for the project. Further Dr Tester (ACC) will objectively audit the behaviours of all involved in the project on a regular basis to ensure there is no slippage in any of the 5 key planks to the Charter, over the next 2 years.

Objectives of the conference also included: The must haves from all parties for the project to be 100% successful, the key risks with assigned gate keepers, communication matrix, and most importantly building the right intent by all parties through team building exercises, problem solving and building the collegiate spirit of all.

The objective and narrative feedback reinforced Harvey’s commitment to the importance of getting the fundamental building blocks right before the mobilisation and the construction starts on this massive project in January 2019.

As one participant wrote:

“I now have a clear understanding of the importance of mission first – self interest last, along with a Charter of Behaviours that I feel proud about and will uphold its behaviours with everyone I am involved with. Let the journey begin! “