Set For The Challenge
Newcastle Herald
Monday May 22, 2000
COCKLE Creek has dramatically changed in the 30 years since Ken Lane's metallurgical career first brought him to Newcastle.
But when Mr Lane was given the opportunity to return to Boolaroo as Pasminco's general manger, he had no reservations.
A graduate in metallurgy from the University of NSW, Mr Lane was first employed by Alcan Australia and arrived in Newcastle in 1967 as a technical shift supervisor in the ISF and Refinery at Cockle Creek.
He moved to Newcastle with the intentions of a two-year stint at Boolaroo but stayed 13 years.
`My three children were born here and I have done the full circle so it's a bit like coming home,' Mr Lane said.
A keen gardener and fisherman, Mr Lane now lives at Speers Point.
In 1968 he was part of the Refinery commissioning team at Cockle Creek and continued as shift supervisor until he was appointed to the metallurgical department in 1971 to conduct plant metalluragical investigations.
Mr Lane left for Melbourne in 1980 to take up the position of business analyst with Australian Mining and Smelting (the forerunner to Pasminco).
He was appointed manager of site services in 1984 at what is now Pasminco Port Pirie Smelter.
His career took him back to Melbourne with CRA (now Rio Tinto) in 1987 where he worked as a technical consultant at Bougainville and Weipa and then to his last position of manager of Australian Refined Alloys (ARA) in 1989.
ARA is a joint venture owned equally by Pasminco and Simsmetal Ltd which recycles lead materials, mainly lead-acid, at recycling plants in Sydney and Melbourne.
Mr Lane knew the challenges that faced him when he returned to the 103 year-old Cockle Creek site on May 1 but saw them as achieveable.
He had no doubt about the position of the smelter in regard to production, financial viability and the community but he said he was ready to embrace the challenges and create a strong relationship with both nearby residents and Pasminco staff.
Pasminco's Cockle Creek smelter is said to be the closest lead smelter to a residential area anywhere in the world.
Mr Lane said the smelter was in the middle of a $15million environmental upgrading as part of its commitment to reduce sulphur dioxide levels and improve the visual impacts of Pasminco.
Pasminco has spent $7million to install a tail gas scrubber (to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions), $1.4million to commission a new filter wheel and $1.3million to ensure no new slag was stored on site, with it going instead to a Pasminco mine at Cobar.
If the scrubber works as it should, sulphur dioxide emissions will fall to below World Health Organisation standards over the north Lake Macquarie suburbs.
Work began last week on the final stages of a $1.5million nine-metre-high earth mound on the lead and zinc smelter's southern boundary.
It is aimed at shielding the Boolaroo community from plant noise and dust impregnated with lead and other heavy metals.
Mr Lane takes over from Lucien van den Boogaard who has been appointed as general manager of the Pasminco Budel smelter in The Netherlands.
Curriculum
Vitae
Ken Lane
* 1966: Graduated in Metallurgy from University of NSW, Sydney.
* 1967: Accepted position of Technical Shift Supervisor at Cockle Creek in October and assisted with commissioning of the zinc refinery in 1968.
* 1971-1980: Various positions in Production and Metallurgy departments at Cockle Creek and finally involved in technical computing.
* 1980-1984: Business analyst in head office in Melbourne.
* 1984-1987: Manager of site services (engineering trades, transport, supply) at Port Pirie, South Australia.
* 1987-1989: Management consultant with CRA (now Rio Tinto) based in Melbourne with postings in Weipa and Bougainville Island.
* 1989-2000: Manager of Australian Refined Alloys.
* 2000: Returned to Cockle Creek as General Manager.
© 2000 Newcastle Herald
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