Hunter Valley Operation’s (HVO) partnership mining trucks are working hard for the mine and for local charities.
The trays of the trucks have been painted in the colours of Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service, Hunter Prostate Cancer Alliance and Hunter Breast Cancer Foundation, Type 1 Foundation and Singleton Family Support. The charities will get an agreed donation for every load the trucks haul, paid annually, plus funds from other events throughout the year.
HVO General Manager Tony Morris said the Hunter-based charities were chosen because they make a positive difference to the health and welfare of HVO employees, their families and the community.
Tony said HVO wanted to extend its charity and community support in a meaningful way. He said better aligning operations and community support is part of HVO’s new pillars and values of thinking sharp, digging in and caring.
“We want to build partnerships with each charity that includes sharing information about their services with our workforce and undertaking other fundraising, and support activities for them throughout the year,” Tony said.
“While some of these partnerships are new, we’ve had a 20 year partnership with Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service. Largely through workplace giving by our generous employees, HVO has provided $1.1 million over that time to help the service to save lives of Hunter people.”
Tony said the new trucks are part of a half a billion dollar investment HVO is making in capital equipment over five years to improve efficiency and provide staff with the right tools to get the job done. He said the new trucks are more fuel efficient, have a larger capacity, are quieter and provide better amenity for operators than the older fleet.
“We’re bringing nine new trucks online in 2022 with five more arriving next year. Six new excavators arrived this year with two more arriving in 2023. We’ll have four new motor graders by the end of the year and 11 new dozers will arrive next year. Over the five years we’re bringing in other new equipment, technology and systems as part of a $2 billion overall investment.”
He said while the machines are important to the business, the investment reflects HVO’s long term commitment to the region, jobs, and local communities.
“Modern equipment reduces our impacts in relation to noise and fuel use, which is good news for the operation, our people, the broader community and the environment.”
HVO will continue to provide community grants twice a year to charities specifically operating in the Singleton and Muswellbrook local government areas and support other charities and community initiatives. It has had moustaches on two trucks during Movember to raise awareness about and funds for men’s health. Coffee carts at HVO events and hard hat sticker campaign recently raised $10,000 for the Mark Hughes Foundation.
