Old shelter turns into soil-testing laboratory

A NEW soil-testing laboratory has opened at Lihir.
The project which took five months to complete was shared by Newcrest and business partner Klohn Crippen Berger which converted a run-down shelter into a new facility.
According to Newcrest, the facility would take geotechnical soil testing at Lihir to another level, and is outfitted with precise calibrated, high-tech equipment.
The company said only a few soils laboratories had the capacity to perform advanced soil tests and it ranked the new Lihir laboratory among the top soil-testing facilities in the world.
The laboratory contained consolidation, triaxial, and direct simple shear testing machines.
Bin Yung, of Klohn Crippen Berger, said a few geotechnical engineering companies used the direct simple shear test.
“It is rarely used in Australia, and probably the only one in Papua New Guinea and in Canada,” he said.
He said the test was used to determine how soil materials would react during an earthquake.
This is very important as many major projects in Lihir must be designed to withstand large magnitude earthquakes.
Acting general manager mining Steven Butt said he was proud that Lihir was an industry leader in projects of this nature.
He said the laboratory was revolutionary for Lihir and would be used in a way to complement the confidence and accuracy of its engineering studies.
He said the laboratory would provide an opportunity for Newcrest employees to gain practical and theoretic soil testing skills by working alongside the experienced Klohn Crippen Berger laboratory personnel.