A BURLEIGH-based soil technology company that focuses on dust suppression and soil stabilisation has set its sights on the South American and Chinese markets.

Reynolds Soil technologies (RST) has successfully tapped into Australia's natural resources boom and also provides solutions to the civil engineering and agricultural industries. The company develops products and technologies for road maintenance, civil construction, earthworks and agricultural applications.

While the mining boom has helped the economy to flourish, there is a massive spare parts shortage for mining equipment, including tyres that are wearing out on hard-packed and decaying surfaces on haul roads. Tyres for heavy duty mining machinery can cost around $30,000 each.

Director Peter Parkinson says reducing dust on mining sites has become a lucrative business, with RST now servicing mines in West Australia and at Weipa and Mt Isa, in north Queensland. Last year, the company turned over $4 million.

Parkinson says RST is also in negotiations with a mining company in China, following contracts in South America and Malaysia worth about $2 million a year.

Using bio-degradable, water soluble products, RST evaluates each unique circumstance and provides site-specific solutions to environmental issues relating to erosion, dust, soil stabilisation, soil moisture retention and water sedimentation.

"We are currently talking to a mining company in China and we have been working with palm oil plantations in Malaysia, where we are stabilising roads that have been hit with monsoons," says Parkinson.

"The problem they're having is with soil erosion. The farmers need to get the harvest back to the process plant within 24 hours, otherwise the crop is worthless.

"The landscape and roadways there are unstable and very boggy, so we have been treating the roads with a soil stabiliser that allows the delivery of palm oil crops."

RST also supplies and distributes a 'water extender' product to mining sites to suppress dust on haul roads, increasing the area covered by a water cart by up to 40 per cent.

The company has clients in the construction industry, where stock piles of sand or dirt can be blown away by strong winds. It has developed a product that is sprayed on stock piles and forms a protective layer or crust.

"It's our time," says Parkinson.

"We're not just flogging a product. We also offer on-site technical support with an experienced technical team which advises and works alongside site personnel to implement solutions under a controlled management system.

"These solutions, while adhering to environmental management guidelines,
are designed to optimise results in terms of improved site conditions, ongoing soil and water management practices and cost effectiveness."

RST was recently rewarded for its efforts following a win in the June Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards in the manufacturing and construction category.