Mackay’s Elite Plastic Fabrications sets milestone with new water tank for New Caledonia mine

A regional Queensland business has reached a new milestone with after designing one of its biggest projects in history. ‘It shows that a little sugar cane town can mix with the big boys’. Read how they did it.

Elite Plastic Fabrications is making a splash on the global mine site water tank market, with the production of a whopping 40,000L tank.

A nickel mine in New Caledonia requested the tank which is the biggest feat yet for the Mackay Harbour business, and manager Luke Geiger hopes the export will put the family-owned business on the map.

“The nickel mine company contacted us. We had done work for them previously (about three to four years ago) and they asked if we were interested in designing and creating (a similar water tank),” Mr Geiger said.

“In the past 15 years, we’ve built over 100 of these tanks around 15,000L capacity, which go in your standard body truck tippers.

“They aren’t too many people who make these custom fabricated water cartage tanks like we do. We researched the heck out of it, and nobody we can find has built anything of this size.

“It’s pretty cool for us as a business and for the region. It shows that a little sugar cane town can mix with the big boys.

“I think the potential for repeat business here is huge.”

On the warehouse floor, Mr Geiger’s team of eight are busy assembling the first stages of the tank with 33 sheets of 20mm HDPE (3m x 1.5m), and about 40 baffles.

The innovative baffle system design will help stabilise the tank and truck it will be placed into, and decrease the effects of surging water.

“With 40,000L sloshing around on a dump truck, you’ve got to be 100 per cent sure you can control the movement of the water so it doesn’t topple off,” Mr Geiger said.

“We designed and worked out the shapes of the baffles, how many and where to position them. It’s a bit of a strategic mission.”

The “humble little shed” business is owned and run by husband and wife team Justin (the “brains behind the design”) and Lisa Smith.

Elite Plastics manager Luke Geiger hopes the business’s latest project will put Mackay on the map for water cartage tank construction. Picture: Steph Allen

“We haven’t done something on this scale before … it’s a pretty strenuous process just getting it to this,” Mr Geiger said.

“We have learnt what will work and what won’t.

“Compared to previous tanks we’ve made, we used three times the amount of material we usually use.

“(Plastic is) a substitute for steel, and obviously when steel prices are high it becomes cost effective to use plastic.

“Plastic is virtually maintenance-free, it doesn’t rust or corrode … it’s UV-stable and doesn’t need painting or blasting, and the material is good for 100 years.”

Mr Geiger hoped that once the “big companies” realise the long-term cost-saving benefits of using plastic for tanks, it “shouldn’t take long for word to get around”.

The project will be completed with cab controls and will be ready to lift into the back of a truck by the end of the year.