Australian Mining August 2012

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VOLUME 104/8 – AUGUST 2012

SERVING THE MINING INDUSTRY SINCE 1908

www.miningaustralia.com.au

NO.1 FOR MINING TECHNOLOGY AND EQUIPMENT

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Contract Mining

YOUR SITE SERVICES

From coalface to boardroom P.38

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New South Wales – More than just coal

PARTICLE CONTROL

Australia’s first mining state

NSW M&E

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MINING EVENTS The Hunter Valley Show

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THE LARGEST MINING EXPOSITION IN THE WORLD. WE’RE THERE. A year ago, our acquisition of Bucyrus gave us the broadest product line in the mining industry. But that was just the beginning.

Since then we’ve been leveraging the vast knowledge of our combined teams to make our organization even better equipped to serve the mining industry. We’re breaking ground with innovative new products and technologies to meet our customers’ needs.

And we’re showing the world at MINExpo 2012 in Las Vegas, USA.

WHEREVER THERE’S MINING, WE’RE THERE.

M I N I N G . C AT. C O M

© 2012 Caterpillar All Rights Reserved. CAT, CATERPILLAR, their respective logos, “Caterpillar Yellow,” and the “Power Edge“ trade dress as well as corporate and product identity used herein, are trademarks of Caterpillar and may not be used without permission. Cat and Caterpillar are registered trademarks of Caterpillar Inc., 100 N.E. Adams, Peoria IL 61629.

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COMMENT

Mining Fight for the future Australian

Copyright Reed Business Information Published 12 issues a year by Reed Business Information (ABN 80 132 719 861) Tower 2, 475 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, NSW 2067 Australia Tel: (02) 9422 2999 Fax: (02) 9422 2966

Associate Publisher – Martin Sinclair Email: martin.sinclair@reedbusiness.com.au

Queensland and Fortescue have teamed up to fight the Federal Government, but this goes well beyond the mining tax now.

S

o the mining tax fight is officially on. It has Journalist – Andrew Duffy come as no surprise that Tel: (02) 9422 2884 Fortescue Metals Group has Email: ozmining@reedbusiness.com.au Key Account Manager – Tim Richards kept its promise and is takTel: (02) 9422 2818 Mob: 0420 550 770 ing the Federal Government Email: tim.richards@reedbusiness.com.au QLD and SA Sales Manager – Sharon Amos to the High Court over what Tel: (07) 3261 8857 Fax: (07) 3261 8347 it has called an ‘unconstituMob: 0417 072 625 Email: sharon.amos@reedbusiness.com.au tional tax’.

WA Representative – Jamie Wade Ever since Kevin Rudd’s Mob: 0435 945 868 Email: jamie@wadebusiness.com.au government announced that RBI Manufacturing & Electronics Group: it was unleashing the former Production Co-ordinator – Tracy Engle Tel: (02) 9422 2707 Fax: (02) 9422 2966 Resource Profits Super Tax on Graphic Designer – Dave Ashley the industry FMG has been at South Africa – Bob Stephen the forefront of the fight.

Stephen Marketing PO Box 75, Tarlton, Gauteng 1749, South Africa However, as the tax was Tel: 27(011) 952 1721 Fax: 27(011) 952 1607 watered down by the succesUSA – Jonathan Sismey RBI sive Gillard government and 24th Floor, 125 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Tel: (1) 212 370 7445 Fax: (1) 212 370 7441 negotiated with the three major Email: jsismey@ix.netcom.com miners BHP Billiton, Xstrata, Larry Arthur and Rio Tinto, those opposing RBI Suite 203, 3700 Campus Drive, Newport Beach, the mining tax have slowly but CA 92660 Tel: (1) 949 756 1057 Fax: (1) 949 756 2514 surely fallen by the wayside.

Email: lharthur@ix.netcom.com Even the very vocal BarPrinted by GEON 20 Baker Street, Banksmeadow, NSW 2019 nett-led West Australian govTel: (02) 8333 6555 ernment, which was one of the loudest opponents of the tax and its implications for the states, and had previously said it would back a High All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be Court challenge, has failed to reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher. put its money on the table.

SSN 0004-976X Unsurprisingly the CampReader Services – 1300 360 126 Subscription Rates – bell-led Queensland GovernAustralia (surface mail) $140.00 (incl GST) ment, which is likely to be New Zealand A$148.00 Overseas A$156.00 just as affected as WA by the mining tax, has been the only one to get behind Fortescue and Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s push to fight the tax.

In this issue we’ve invesA D Average _ A MNet K Distribution I N A U G _ 1 2 tigated . p d f the P a g and e progress 1 2 4 / birth Period ending March 2012 of the Mineral Resources 7,996 Editor – Cole Latimer Tel: (02) 9422 2352 Email: ozmining@reedbusiness.com.au

Comment Cole Latimer ozmining@reedbusiness.com.au Rent Tax challenge, and why they are trying to quash it.

One of the most interesting aspects of Fortescue’s challenge is that they are going against it despite the fact that it will not even affect them for the first few years.

According to the miner itself they will not be paying any tax on it any time soon.

The same case most likely also stands for Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, and Xstrata.

So is this tax actually unconstitutional?

Are we likely to see more opposition as we see its true impacts?

Many dismissed the impact of the carbon tax, and even now the Government is still vigorously trying to defend it as the public widely criticises it as nothing more than a cash grab.

What once was welcomed has been turned on and the condemnation from the Australian public is loud and getting louder.

While it is unlikely to

support the High Court challenge against the mining tax, there is a grass roots feeling against this current Government and its constant taxes.

It will be interesting to see the outcome of Fortescue Metals and Queensland’s legal action against the Government, and it will no doubt set a massive precedent for business and industry to take action against Australian governments when they feel they have been unfairly targeted, or imposed upon with little negotiation or choice in the matter.

The eyes of the industry will be on FMG and Newman, and it will be up to the court, and history to judge who was right in this challenge.

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ON the front cover we’ve featured a truck hauling ore at Newcrest’s Cadia gold mine. The Cadia gold is a massive open cut mine located near the town of Orange, in New South Wales’ minerals rich Central West. The mine is currently in a ramping up phase and is set to soon make some massive announcements regarding its future and production.

The Central West is where gold was first discovered in Australia, and it a multi-commodity rich region that hosts zinc, gold, copper, iron ore, tungsten, rare earths, and various other metals. In this edition we look at the State, the latest developments in mining and where it is making leaps and bounds forward, as well as focusing on the mining tax challenge.

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Contents Features NSW SPOTLIGHT A boring issue Latest boring equipment for the Northparkes mine .......................................... p12 All eyes on ANSTO Cutting Chinese grip on rare earths ...... p14-15 Making inroads into deeper mining Safer roadway construction .......................... p16 Getting safer and safer Insuring your workers’ safety ....................... p18 A giant among giants Tinkler and takeovers .................................... p20 Get a start in coal Helping workers get a foot in the door ........ p22 A new way to recover Non-toxic gold recovery.......................... p24-25

Fuming at the thought

Global minerals grab

The classification of diesel fumes as carcinogenic has wide ranging implications….p61

Resources nationalism is now miners’ number one fear….p88

ACCOMMODATION Room at Roy’s Housing developments at Roy Hill ........ p28-30 Getting housing fast Transportable modular accommodation ..... p32

Communication is king Building your communications networks .................................................. p46-47 Total security Network and SCADA security on and off site ............................................................ p48 The fly in fly out bartender More than one way into the industry .......... p51 Don’t fear the FIFOs The FIFO crimewave is unfounded ........ p52-53 Nothing wasted on management Waste management is now vital .................. p55

GEOZOOLOGY Working like a dog Take technology out of exploration ....... p34-36

MINING’S DIGITAL FUTURE Don’t fear the future Benefits of high speed broadband ........... p56-57

CONTRACT MINING ENGINEERING AND SERVICES Consolidate your contracts The birth of a new service group ................ p38 Managing flexibility Impact of national harmonisation .............. p41 It’s US and them U.S. skilled workers filling labour gap ........ p42 A one shop A D stop _ AM KRCJ AN_ 1 0 . p d f Pa ge A new Thiess branch handles site rehab ..... p45

AUSTRALIANS OVERSEAS Working like a Trojan Low cost gold mine in Argentina ........... p58-59

THE MINING TAX CHALLENGE The Final Hurdle FMG and QLD’s minerals tax fight ....... p26-27

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August 2012 issue

DUST AND VENTILATION Dust to dust Purpose built dust suppression .................... p65 Towering above the competition 1Spreading 1 2 / 1your 1 / dust 0 9 ,suppression 9 : 5 4 powers AM further ............................................................ p66

BRANT WEBB Beyond Beaconsfield What has come next for this miner ............. p68 M&E NSW PREVIEW What’s new in the Newcastle show ........ p70-84 MINESITE VEHICLES A higher power Hitachi alternates the way it does business... p86 AIMEX Bigger, better, sooner It is less than a year until AIMEX ................ p90 UNDERSEA MINING A deep sea story China makes inroads into subsea mining ... p93

Regulars NEWS ............................................................... p6 INDUSTRIAL COMMENT ................................ p8 MINING FAMILY MATTERS ........................ p10 PROSPECT AWARDS .................................. p95 JOBS .............................................................. p96 EVENTS ......................................................... p98

www.miningaustralia.com.au

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HEADLINES

Latest mining news Australian Mining presents the latest news affecting you from the boardroom to the mine and everywhere in between. Visit www.miningaustralia.com to keep up to date with what’s happening.

Underground fire traps gold miners An underground fire trapped nearly 30 miners at Newmont’s underground Trio gold mine last month.

According to the company the blaze started after a truck’s engine caught fire.

Workers caught underground were forced into refuge chambers but were rescued several hours later.

Newmont officials said while workers had been retrieved in a “textbook rescue” production on site stopped for a number of days while safety investigations were carried out.

Mining boom is over: Ferguson

launched the Wheatstone Jobs facility in WA to help find workers for the project. They’ve also launched a Perth-based advertising campaign to attract new personnel.

Speaking at the opening of the Australian Minerals Research Centre in Perth Ferguson said the “premium” prices China was paying for coal and iron ore were a thing of the past.

“We’re not going to see iron ore at $US180-$US190 a tonne, we’re not going to see thermal coal at about $US170 [a tonne], coking coal at about $US320 a tonne any more,” he said.

“The only way we will maintain our revenue stream as a country, at a state and federal level, is if we expand capacity.”

5,000 jobs on offer for Chevron and Bechtel

Katter rubbishes foreign worker claims

Australian Mining gets the latest news every day, providing up to the minute information on safety, news and technology for the Australian mining and resources industry.

Chevron and lead contractor Bechtel say they won’t be looking overseas to fill the 5,000 jobs needed on the Resources Minister Martin Ferguson Wheatstone gas project in Western says the era of high commodity agreement and would only do so as Australia. prices is over and to stay strong The companies say they have not Australia must be more productive A D _ A MT R E F E B _ 1 2 . p d f P a g e 1 5 / 0 1a last / 1resort.

2 , 3 : 2 9 PM Instead applied for an enterprise migration 1:15:13 and develop Tread-AustralianHorizontal1-2pg2Page new technology.

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Federal independent MP Bob Katter says the necessity of foreign workers is a lie used by mining companies looking to import cheap labour. Katter told Fairfax Radio Gina Rinehart’s plans to use foreign workers were “absolutely outrageous” and industry-wide claims about the issue were “farcical”. Under the Government’s enterprise migration agreement policy bulk foreign workers brought to Australia for mining projects must be paid Australian wages and receive the same working conditions.

Katter said mining projects were already predominately foreign owned and companies should not use

overseas workers when there were 300,000 Queenslanders looking for work. “If the profits are going to go overseas and now the wages are going to go overseas, well what the hell do Australians get?” he said. ages, we just get a big hole in the ground.”

Australian Olympics tries to pull Anna Meares ad The Australian Olympic Committee has asked Australian Mining – This Is Our Story to pull its current ad campaign with cyclist Anna Meares.

Australian Olympic Committee director of marketing and brand protection Alan Grover told Australian Mining Meares had been put in a difficult position by the campaign.

“By appearing in the ads Meares may possibly be in breach of Olympic Insignia Protection Act and the Olympic Charter, which all the athletes sign prior to competing,” he said.

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HOW CAN YOU INCREASE BOTH SAFETY AND YOUR PRODUCTION RATE? THIS WAY!

If you are in the mining business, you know that an improved safety record means a lot to your employees and your entire company.

This safety mind-set is part of everything we do – from research and product development to on-site service.

Join the movement towards The Future of Mining.

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INDUSTRY COMMENT

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WHAT TO DO when you are all mining the same talent pool With the worldwide skills crisis, sourcing talent in the mining industry is becoming extremely difficult.

ComOps CEO Daniel Sheahan examines the options.

I

f we are to believe what we read in the newspapers, the mining and resources sector has never had it so good. While other Australian industries have suffered as a result of the GFC and the world’s subsequent eco­ nomic hangover, mining com­ panies are living the champagne lifestyle thanks largely to China’s insatiable appetite for growth.

You could almost be forgiven for believing that mining compa­ nies couldn’t fail to make money right now, regardless of the qual­ ity of their assets or management practices. Of course it’s an over­ ly simplistic view; one that fails to capture the complexity of the dilemmas facing the industry.

But it’s a populist line that makes good copy for newspapers and which can always be relied on to spark debate among politicians.

The reality is that mining organisations face a rising cost base. Government taxes and roy­ alties have increased. The costs of services, supplies and essential heavy machinery are on the up.

Mining companies are being hit by the same increases in power and energy costs that are squeez­ ing every other company in Aus­ tralia. And, perhaps even more so than in any other industry, there’s the problem of labour.

You can’t grow without the right people

To achieve the growth required of the sector, Australian min­ ing companies need more skilled people. New projects can’t be undertaken without the addi­ tional talent to staff them. Yet

with a widening skills gap, find­ ing new, suitable staff is becom­ ing harder and harder. The peo­ ple just don’t exist.

The 2011 interim report into the resources sector prepared by Skills Australia highlighted this when it noted shortages in a va­ riety of roles including geologists, mine deputies and surveyors. Of particular concern is the difficulty in filling senior roles where several years experience may be required.

The practice of FIFO is prob­ ably the best known tactic used by companies trying to counteract the shortage. Another tactic be­ ing experimented with is greater automation to reduce the need for labour. While this may help to cut headcount on some sites, it is unlikely to replace the need for skilled employees. Some organisa­ tions even go as far as conducting ‘hiring roadshows’ overseas in order to attract talent.

Be competitive...

Workforce planning is crucial and the first step is to under­ stand what your needs are now and into the future. This re­ quires taking a long­term view beginning with an examination of your existing talent. Map out training and career paths that will help staff develop the addi­ tional skills and gain the experi­ ence that you are going to need in the years ahead. If you haven’t

already done so, talk to key staff who may be nearing retirement.

Try to negotiate flexible, ongoing roles for them with the company so that you can retain their expertise as long as possible. Get them involved in mentoring and encourage them to share their knowledge. At the same time, don’t neglect your pipeline of future talent. Deve­ lop close relationships with edu­ cational institutions, professional associations and industry groups.

Don’t restrict your networking to the mining industry either.

Engineers, for example, can be found in a great many other industries. When competing for highly sought­after talent, it pays to spread a broad net.

...and get creative

One way is to use an executive shortlisting solution. Tertiary enrolments, population statis­ tics and demographic studies all confirm that the global skills shortage will be with us for some time. Companies that don’t want to be constrained need to become more diligent, more creative and more opportunistic about talent spotting.

Keeping a permanent watch­ ful eye on available and upcom­ ing talent, and planning how to nurture and develop that talent might just make all the differ­ ence. www.miningaustralia.com.au

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MINING FAMILY MATTERS

Get a liile Skirt Increased production demands on conveyor belts have increased spillage and dust at the belt load zones.

Spillage can be hazardous to both personnel and the environment, as well as increasing cleanup costs and premature replacement of conveyor components.

We have a look at Mining Family Matters’ new book and what it means for the FIFO families.

ESS 2000 Series Skirting system is; - Available in Heavy duty - Available in a variety of materials to suit any conveyor belt environment - Adjustable seals - High/ Low profiles Easy to install handle and maintain, the ESS 2000 Skirting system is a cost effective solution to spillage issues. With ESS service crews, correct application and maintenance, spillage spilla free conveyor load zones is a reality So if you are committed to reducing and eliminating the risk of hazards around conveyor belts, vist our website or free call 1800 7446 for you local representative

August 2012

AustralianMining

SPOTLIGHT on families

Fitting ESS2000 Series Skirting system can prevent material loss from the conveyor load zone.

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Putting the

H

ere at Australian Mining we regularly have the group Mining Family Matters talking about the fly in fly out (FIFO) lifestyle, and how to make it work.

They go in depth into relationships, the problems many people encounter, and provide strategies for coping or overcoming these issues.

However we are now turning the spotlight back on them following the release of their first book – Mining Families Rock.

One aspect the book definitely has going for it is the fact that it is the only book of its type out there in the market.

It approaches the fly in fly out issue from a variety of angles, looking at how to develop and maintain healthy relationships with a loved one as well as children; some of the problems and perks that a worker will have on site and being FIFO; how to stay healthy in an industry known for its obesity; the unique issues FIFO women face; and it also givers advice for those new to the industry as well as those looking to get in a foot in the door.

What really sets it apart from other works on the fly in fly out lifestyle is that much of the advice comes from those in the industry, and the people who have made it work.

The book also regularly has snippets from readers and other people, such as wives, husbands, and children of workers in the resources industry.

It takes an easy tone and is actually built from the many requests that the group received from miners themselves.

However it is not shy in confronting serious issues that FIFO workers

The group has released the first fly in fly out family focused book.

may have been afraid to ask such as healthy sexual relationships; infidelity; alcohol abuse issues; dealing with depression; and how to build a healthy relationship with your children despite distance and being a single parent.

Mining Families Rock also addressed financial issues, and advises how to live while earning the high wages that the resources industry provides.

One of the interesting aspects of the guide is the fact that it offers additional reading for each section, as well as helplines in the case of depression issues.

This book aims to help those in the industry live and work better, a goal which it achieves, but it is also likely to change the perception of the FIFO lifestyle for those outside of mining. www.miningaustralia.com.au

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NSW SPOTLIGHT

A BORING development

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his time last year cavations we normally do in Australian Mining a conventional underground investigated Rio Tin- metaliferrous mine,” he told to’s advanced operation, the Australian Mining.

Northparkes underground “The rate of horizontal copper mine in New South tunnelling achieved by conWales’ Central West. ventional drill and blast pracSpeaking to the mine’s tices is currently around five managing director Craig to six metres per day. The An innovative new Stegman, he told us that this new tunnel boring system borer is being delivered innovative mine was the first has the potential to signifiin the country to employ the cantly improve conventional to Rio’s Northparkes mine. block mining technique. drill and blast practices by At the time he said that increasing the rate of horiits new tunnel boring tech- zontal tunnelling to as high nology, developed by Aker as 10 to 13 metres per day.”

Wirth, would change how it Now Aker Wirth has fioperates, and has the poten- nally sent this 64 metre long the flexibility of a roadhead- ability to cut – in addition tial to deliver rates double tunnel boring system. er with the robustness of a to circular tunnels – rectanthose of drilling.

In late June the machine tunnel boring machine”. gular or horseshoe shaped “There are tunnel bor- left the German company’s The borer uses under- cross sections of up to six ing machines, which are de- factory bound for North- cutting technology to tun- metres in diameter, which signed for a lot of the civil parkes, and is scheduled to nel through extremely hard eliminates the need to backapplications, but this ma- arrive this month. rock of up to 300MPa. fill the lower section of the chine been this A D has _ AM S P custom E J U L de_ 1 2 . pAccording df P a to g eAker1 Wirth 2 0 / 0 6 Another / 1 2 , feature 3 : 3 0of P M round cross-section. signed to do the kind of ex- the machine itself “combines tunnel boring machine is its The machine can also be

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moved forward with a walking mechanism and backward with a crawler.

During its design engineers used swivel joints to attain a radius of only 30 metres.

It is also equipped with support systems for additional tunnel strengthening.

www.miningaustralia.com.au

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4.22pm Pilbara, WA. Mirandah Pickering is loading a ship with 175,000 tonnes of iron ore.

What will you take on?

Mirandah’s story

225 million tonnes of iron ore produced a year, $47 billion in investment over the past decade… you’ll get used to big numbers when you work at Rio Tinto. With a proposed expansion to 353 million tonnes of ore a year by 2015, we need more operators, engineers, trades, project professionals and specialists who are ready to take on a big challenge.

To go further in your career, go to jobs.riotinto.com.au or call 1300 MINING.

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NSW SPOTLIGHT

All eyes on ANSTO While the global rare earths supply is stretched, a NSW producer is working with the Government to bring a fresh supply to the world, writes Andrew Duffy.

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hile the Australian rare earths story most commonly focuses on Lynas Corporation Alkane Resources is on the cusp of developing one of the world’s largest zirconium deposits in regional NSW. The Dubbo Zirconia project is located 20 kilometres south of Dubbo, and is home to one of the world’s largest reserves of rare earths.

As the company approaches production its main focus has been on developing a pilot processing plant with the help of the Australian National Nuclear Research and Development Organisation (ANSTO).

While more famous for housing the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, ANSTO also works with mining companies to help determine the best way to treat minerals with naturally occurring radioactivity.

300 to 400 jobs during construction and 200 jobs during operation.

Apart from the most technical roles, which will be brought in from other parts of Australia, Alkane says workers for the project would be sourced from the local community.

Alkane has worked hard to bring the community into the fold from early on, and had some farmers in the mine’s region visiting the pilot plant regularly.

The company also runs tours for schools and interested community members to ensure everyone’s well informed.

Chalmers told Australian Mining Alkane’s close relationship with the community had been part of the reason why the company had avoided the difficulties faced by Lynas.

Lynas has faced significant community opposition to its rare earth Local focus processing plant in Malaysia, and On a tour of its ANSTO pilot plant protestors have been the source of Alkane managing director Ian Chalm- ongoing delays, cost blowouts, and The rare earths chemistry in process. ers told Australian Mining the com- multiple court battles. pany was aiming to be producing rare Chalmers said while radiation Pilot plant earths by 2015. levels were virtually non-existent in Whilst working with Alkane on a Chalmers said the Dubbo de- the Dubbo project, he could not rule pilot rare earths processing plant, ANSTO has previously partnered posit was “very homogenous” and out being targeted by protestors. expected to generate revenue of But while the company’s com- with BHP Billiton at the Olympic around $504 million a year. munity and environmental relations Dam mine, Energy Resources AusSubject to approvals construc- are a focus, the research at its ANS- tralia at the Ranger uranium mine, tion is expected to begin in 2013, TO plant is all about the science be- and a number of other AustralianD _ A Msays ABL UG_ 1 . p d f hind P arare g eearths 6 processing.

1 6 / 0 7 / 1 2 , 9 based : 0 9 miners.

AM andA Alkane it A expects to2create

Whilst initially working with uranium companies, ANSTO has since expanded into other minerals that contain natural radioactivity.

The spectrum of these minerals is wide, and can sometimes include the typically humdrum copper and iron ore, but rare earths are more usually the focus.

Sit back and relax

Our remote area buses have canvascovered coach seats with ample leg room. There’s also a radio/CD with speakers in the saloon. Sit back and relax on the way to and from site.

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NSW SPOTLIGHT

At the pilot plant just outside of Sydney ANSTO takes ore mined at the Dubbo facility and simulates the extraction process.

Unlike minerals such as iron ore, rare earths require more complicated treatment, but an ANSTO official told Australian Mining much of the effort went into the first steps.

Sulphuric acid is first combined with the crushed ore and the mixture is then fed into a gas-fired kiln.

“A lot of the effort goes into the roasting process,” an ANSTO official told Australian Mining.

“After that a lot of the reactions have already occurred and it’s just a matter of mixing it with water until it all dissolves.”

While most of the rare earths dissolve in solution the waste rock does not, and it gets filtered out.

After more processing and a number of chemical combinations the valuable rare earths are either separated by gravity (similar to combining oil and water) or precipitated out by changing the pH. While the treatment process in rare earths is similar across the industry adjustments are made to tailor the operation to each mine.

ANSTO told Australian Mining one of the major developments they were working on for not only Alkane but other companies as well was shrinking the size of the operation.

It said an alternative process used

An overview of Alkane’s part of the ANSTO facility in Sydney.

by the uranium industry had a much smaller footprint on site and researchers were hoping to expand it to other sectors, including rare earths.

Final countdown

As Alkane inches closer towards the 2015 production deadline Chalmers told Australian Mining the company was working on juggling developments and research to keep on schedule.

He marked final government ap-

provals as other major hurdles beyond the research with ANSTO. And while so far steering clear of local opposition, the company remains mindful of the importance of keeping those outside the industry on side.

ADespite D _ A Mmore S U Hproducers J U N _ 1 coming 2 . pd online China still controls around 97

per cent of the world’s rare earths, and has imposed quotas on its exports.

Both China and Japan have already marked rare earths as a strategic metal, and developments in the sector, including Alkane’s will f be Pwatched a g e closely 1 3 / from 0 5 /home 1 2 , and1 : 1 9 abroad.

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SUHNER Australia Pty. Ltd. • Phone +61 (02) 9638 6600 • sales@suhner.com.au There is a focus on downscaling the process. www.miningaustralia.com.au

AustralianMining

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AM.AUG12.PG016.pdf

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NSW SPOTLIGHT

Making inroads into deeper mining A new bolting method is making deeper development quicker, easier, and safer.

N

ew South Wales’ coal industry is booming. In the Hunter Valley and the Illawarra’s Southern Coalfields ports can barely keep up with the production rates.

Both these regions are well established, which means that many mines have to dig deeper to access quality coal, moving down to depths of up to 400 metres.

As these miners progress ever further downwards they need to make roadway developments, also known as ‘ground control’, which becomes increasingly difficult as the mines develop.

Ground control itself is the process of building and securing a ‘roadway’ into the coal mine, which stops the rock and coal from falling in as the operation digs deeper.

However as they do so they need increased support to keep these roadways stable.

According to Hilti Australia’s head of mining, Peter Jones, the company’s inJ rib A Dinnovation _ A ML A N U N and _ 1 2roof . p support is allowing these coal miners

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The new cuttable fibre rib bolter is replacing five steps with a single action, speeding up roadway construction times.

to effectively develop roadways and coal. d reach f Pthese a g edeeper 1 bands 1 5 / of 0 5 / 1 2 , “Building roadways is a means

to an end for coal mines; with the ultimate to provide safe and ef3 : 4 8 goal PM fective access for coal extraction,” Jones said.

“Efficient roadway development ensures the mine can advance to production phase and get coal out of the ground faster.

“Moving deeper into the earth allows a significant extension of the life of a mine; however the challenge many mines face as they move to greater depths is increased pressure, which causes traditional anchoring methods to become inefficient and potentially unsafe,” he added.

To aid miners in making their roadways safer Hilti is developing its OneStep cuttable fibre rib bolt, which evolved from its original steel OneStep bolt.

With lengths of up to 2.5 metres, the fibre bolt is a world first for rib support, and essential in overcoming the collapsing holes common in existing bolting methods and will provide better conditions for longwall retreat.

“The introduction of the next innovation in the Hilti OneStep system will provide the world’s fastest bolting system for primary roadway development in Australian coal mines,” Jones said.

As the equipment’s name suggests, the self drilling system enables all five steps of conventional rock anchoring to occur in a single ap-

plication for faster, easier, and safer ground control.

The conventional method of anchoring involves firstly drilling a hole; retracting the drill; inserting resin; inserting the anchor; and then activating the mix to ensure it bonds.

With an average of around four bolts required per metre the process can soon become very time consuming.

Added to this is the increased pressure experienced at depths greater than 250 metres underground, and miners may find they have to repeatedly drill the same hole in the rib again and again as the hole may collapse as soon as the drill is removed.

Jones said that since the original OneStep bolt replaced this conventional method miners have seen reductions in exposure to unsupported rock and in time consuming errors.

With the new OneStep fibre rib bolt it will further increase productivity and safety.

“Replacing tradiational, timeconsuming rob bolt application with the new cuttable OneStep fibre rib bolt will speed up the bolting process by up to 50 per cent, without sacrificing quality or reliability of installation,” Jones said.

“Significant increases in the rate of roadway development will enable miners to get to the core business of coal extraction faster.” www.miningaustralia.com.au

AD_AMEXPJUL_12.pdf

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EFIC DID MORE THAN FINANCE OUR CONTRACT

THEY ENABLED IT. Cory Stevens, Managing Director, Lean Field Developments

When we won the contract to be part of the supply chain to the massive Queensland Curtis LNG project, we were delighted. This was an opportunity to further establish our track record and reputation within the oil and gas industry in Australia.

However, like other suppliers, we were required to provide performance bonds in support of our contractual obligations. We also needed to ensure that we had access to additional working capital for other contracts. Yet, as a company without a long

trading history in Australia, we couldn’t get sufficient bonding or bank finance for our needs.

Luckily we knew in which direction to turn. With the support of EFIC’s export working capital guarantee and bonds, we were able to meet the financial requirements and demonstrate our company’s ability to take on such challenging projects.

Overcoming financial barriers for exporters Visit efic.gov.au/am

AM.AUG12.PG018.pdf

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NSW SPOTLIGHT

Getting safer and safer The improving safety record in the NSW coal sector is driving a whole host of benefits, writes Andrew Duffy.

S

afety is always considered the most important aspect on site.

And with the industry rapidly expanding it’s getting even more important.

As more and more inexperienced workers fill vacant positions there’s a rising fear that the lives of workers will be put at risk.

But in the NSW coal industry that fear has not materialised.

Whilst the amount of people employed in NSW coal mines has almost tripled in the last ten years, from 10,000 to around 27,000, the amount of injuries in the industry has sharply declined.

From one in four people being injured ten years ago, the rate is now seven in 100.

And while that’s good news for workers and companies alike the benefits of a 70 per cent reduction in injuries go beyond the obvious.

Earlier this year Coal Services, the only provider of workers compensation to NSW coal miners, said the reduction rate had spurred a further cut to insurance rates in the industry.

While only a modest drop from 3.5 per cent to 3.2 per cent it represents confidence in the industry’s ability to keep accidents low.

The rate cut won’t directly impact the hip pocket of workers, but it will be a financial break for mining companies, who pay the obligatory workers compensation fees.

NSW Minerals Council CEO Stephen Galilee said injuries across the board had plummeted in recent years.

“Average figures over the last five years show that fatal injuries have fallen by 37.5 per cent; lost time injuries have fallen by 53.9 per cent; and serious bodily injuries have fallen by 48.5 per cent across the mining industry,” he said.

“This is a win-win situation. As safety rates con18

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AustralianMining

The coal industry in NSW has seen an improving safety record over the last ten years

tinue to improve, insurance rates come down, helping the NSW coalmining sector become a more attractive place to invest in a globally completive environment.

“Safety is the number one priority of the NSW minerals industry and it is great to see Coal Services working closely with industry, unions and government to improve health and safety outcomes for our coal sector.”

Coal Services CEO Lucy Flemming told Australian Mining the improving safety record and insurance rate cut proved the NSW industry was competitive with other regions of Australia.

“Every other workers compensation jurisdiction in the country, with the exception of Victoria, either held

their rate or raised it significantly,” she said.

“The fact that we’ve been able to pass on a small reduction over the last couple of years is something we’re very proud of.”

Flemming also said the performance showed the industry’s efforts to improve safety were working.

“It’s a big sign that the industry is working hard to stop people getting injured,” she said.

But more than preventing accidents, Flemming said Coal Services and the industry in general were working to stop people getting injured in the first place.

“Part of what we do is a lot of preventative services,” she said.

“We do a lot of health

monitoring and hazard management training, there’s a whole heap of things we do to stop people getting injured in the first place.

“If it all goes bad and they do need treatment we’re there on the workers compensation side to make sure they get treatment and the right assistance.

“But the real crux of the issue is how to stop them getting injured in the first place.”

At a time when new workers are entering the industry in droves, Flemming said the industry needed to step up its attention to safety and all measurements showed it was doing just that.

“With so many new people coming onto mine sites that haven’t stepped foot on one before there’s a high

risk that they’ll be injured but we’re not seeing that because of all the training we’re doing,” she said.

And Flemming said it wasn’t any one course, or any one organisation that was responsible for the strong NSW record.

“This reduction, like those made in the past, would not be possible without the ongoing commitment of all involved in the NSW coal mining industry to make this industry as safe as possible.

“The results should provide assurance to the workers’ families and their communities that we are all committed to working together to ensure they continue to come home safe and healthy when their work day is over.” www.miningaustralia.com.au

AD_AMANDMAY_12.pdf

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1

12/04/12,

4:23:13

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AM.AUG12.PG020.pdf

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23/07/12,

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NSW SPOTLIGHT

A giant among giants Can Nathan Tinkler seal yet another takeover deal in the NSW coal industry?

I

n recent history some of the biggest movements in the NSW coal industry have involved larger companies swallowing up smaller producers.

And magnate Nathan Tinkler’s Tinkler Group looks set to keep that trend rolling.

A move long expected by most analysts, Tinkler last month made a bid to take full control of NSWfocused Whitehaven Coal.

Whitehaven is one of the country’s last independent coal producers, and Tinkler already owns 21.6 per cent of the company.

If he succeeds in the bid the miner will be taken off the ASX and turned private, though some pundits are already speculating as to whether a potential re-float might be planned.

While Tinkler’s offer came as no surprise the $5.20 a share pricing was halfway between expectations.

Bloomberg previously A D _ A ME L G J A Ntipped _ 1 2 .anp offer above $5 white Foster Stock-

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The consolidation trend in NSW coal shows no signs of stopping.

note Foster anadbroking f P a gtipped e 1 an1 offer / 1 2 north / 1 1 ,of 4 : 2In2 anPinvestor M $5.50.

lysts said the offer was “slightly lower than the sector average” but noted conditions had become tougher since the trend started.

They also said the offer indicated many smaller coal producers were still undervalued.

“The potential takeover highlights the continuation of consolidation within the space at a time where equity markets are weak, but longer-term demand by end users is still apparent,” they said.

Whilst yet to make a firm decision on the offer Whitehaven have already nudged shareholders towards accepting the deal.

Right after the offer was made the company said it was in the “best interests” of shareholders to let Tinkler Group conduct due diligence and develop its proposal, and in the four week timeframe that was allotted it agreed “not to solicit other proposals”.

While some shareholders have cautiously eyed the proposal Tinkler Group said a number of Whitehaven holders had already expressed interest in the deal.

Nevertheless investors outside both companies were skeptical, with shares trading well below the takeover price after the offer was launched.

The weakening coal price and

concern over economic instability have plagued coal stocks and were blamed for the soft response, as was Whitehaven’s poor production figures.

Blaming wet weather for a 400,000 tonne drop in production, Whitehaven said soon after the offer the cost of developing its Maules Creek mine had also blown out by six per cent.

But even with the poor production Whitehaven is forecasting a doubling of coal sales this financial year, and Tinkler has long been known to have a knack for picking good investments.

In 2009 he bought Maules Creek for $480 million and took the mine public a year later under Aston Resources to raise $1.2 billion.

Tinkler retained 32 per cent of the deal and earlier this year he brokered the sale of Aston and some exploration assets to Whitehaven for close to $3 billion.

A company where much can be traced back to Tinkler, the sale of Whitehaven remains uncertain.

But after already making an informal bid earlier this year, Tinkler has been eyeing the company for some time.

And while there may be delays on the horizon, pundits would do well to remember how Tinkler reached his magnate status. www.miningaustralia.com.au

AD_AMAUSAPR_11.pdf

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AM.AUG12.PG022.pdf

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NSW SPOTLIGHT

Get a start in coal The CoalStart program is helping new workers enter the NSW industry, writes Andrew Duffy.

T

he availability of training is a sore point for many job seekers trying to get into the mining industry.

But with so many positions to fill and a rising tide of applicants, new training courses are on the rise.

One new partnership, between contract miner UGM Australia and safety provider Mines Rescue, is helping fill the gap.

Building off Mines Rescue’s existing safety courses, the new CoalStart program is aimed at cleanskins, or workers with no mining experience, but also has the ability to up skill workers from other industries and refresh existing miners.

The ability to refresh existing workers was marked as a key point of expansion for the course, with constantly changing regulations meaning even the most experienced personnel can be caught off-guard.

Mines Rescue general manager Paul Healey told Australian Mining the program added an 11 extra days to the standard safety course offered by Mines Rescue.

He said the full cleanskin program combined virtual reality simulation and hands on experience at a UGM site to prepare workers for the industry.

“Mines rescue has been running safety training for almost 20 years and what we’re doing is that plus some additional training and the additional training is operator training,” he said.

“We’ve grown our normal 4 day course to a 15 day course and between the virtual reality and hands on training we’re able to prepare mine workers to be able to be work safe and work ready so they can go straight into a mining environment.”

Healey said while the course had just started a pilot program and some details were still to be con22

August 2012

AustralianMining

The CoalStart program aims at giving trainees first hand experience on-site

firmed interest in the training had been high.

The program will be aiming to run around 15 to 20 people a month, and while costs change depending on the training required UGM managing director Paul Hartcher set a price under $10,000 for the three week program.

“We see that there’s going to be thousands of people that are potentially able to come into the mining industry through this process,” he said.

In a frank admission on the state of training in Australia Healey said the industry needed to do more to make sure companies had a steady supply of trained workers.

“The reason we have a skills shortage is because there hasn’t been sufficient

investment in skills training,” he said.

“Part of the blame lands on mining companies some lands on government incentives. I think we’ve all got to share in the responsibility for its cause.”

He also said while the shortage in the Pilbara was well publicised it was hurting companies in other parts of Australia as well.

“You don’t have to go to WA to find the shortage you can see that in Queensland you can see that in western NSW,” he said.

“In particular with the trades, there are just not enough electricians in particular to service the mining industry.”

While Healey said the CoalStart program focused on operator training and

providing a general introduction to the industry, individual mining companies could request to focus on particular areas for their workers.

“If a company wants to focus on a particular machine or aspect of the health and safety management system we can incorporate that into the program as well,” he said.

The purpose built facility used for CoalStart program will allow trainees to use real equipment, something Coal Services and UGM said was “not previously seen in this industry”.

While perhaps not seen in NSW, having trainees use real equipment on a purpose built site is not unique to CoalStart, and the method is employed by rival coal trainer Mastermyne in Queensland.

Nevertheless the CoalStart program looks to be a promising new initiative for the skilled starved industry, and has even scored the endorsement of the NSW Government.

In a statement following the program’s launch NSW Minister for Resources and Energy Chris Hartcher said the course was “crucial to supporting the health and safety” of the NSW industry.

But while a crucial new part of training in the NSW industry Healey’s comments on mining’s commitment to training still sound true.

CoalStart will not be the solution to the skills shortage, and if companies and Governments want to see a practical solution, the answer lies in more investment. www.miningaustralia.com.au

AD_AMATLAUG_12.pdf

Page

1 24/07/12,

10:18

AM

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AM.AUG12.PG024.pdf

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20/07/12,

7:22

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NSW SPOTLIGHT

A new way to recover New non-toxic chemcials are improving gold processing, Liz Greenbanks* writes.

W

ith massive op­ erations such as Newcrest Mining’s Cadia pit and gold mines spread throughout the Cen­ tral West, an area known for its agricultural land and many towns, getting the mix between sustainable and cost effective mining and process­ ing is vital.

Especially as gold pro­ cessing techniques often require chemicals with high toxicity levels; so with min­ ers’ proximity to ground­ water, rivers, arable land, and communities it brings this issue into sharp relief.

The CSIRO is now developing a gold recovery process to treat high grade gold concentrates onsite at mines, which will stop the Many outside of the mining industry are surprised at the scale of New South Wales’ gold sector. use of the toxic chemical cyanide and reduce environ­ The process uses a non­ tigating as an alternative to Gold is 19 times heav­ mental damage, as well as toxic chemical called thiosul­ cyanide for recovering gold ier than water and four to A D _ A MMA T F E B _ 1 2 . p d f Pa ge 1 3 1 / 0 1 / 1 2 , 4 : 5 0 PM the risk of theft. fate which CSIRO is inves­ from ores and concentrates. eight times heavier than the

minerals it’s often found within, so when the ore is broken down the gold can in many cases be concen­ trated through separation techniques.

This can only take place if the gold particles are large enough – several microns or more in size.

Today, mechanical proc­ esses to recover and concen­ trate gold particles replicate the traditional methods of panning and washing tables – the heavier gold particles (and minerals containing gold particles) are separated out from the lighter ones using gravity.

The gold content in these concentrates is not high, around two to three per cent maximum, and fur­ ther processing is required before smelting.

CSIRO research leader Dr. Paul Breuer says cya­

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AM.AUG12.PG025.pdf

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20/07/12,

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NSW SPOTLIGHT

A high grade gravity concentrate with gold particles. Picture from the CSIRO.

nide is often used to recover ther cyanide processing the gold from these con- because even though the centrates, but the industry gold content is not high, it wants to move away from is of considerable value and cyanide because of the per- there is a risk of theft durceived environmental risk ing transportation,” Breuer and because it is already explained. banned in some areas where “By recovering the gold gold mining takes place. from these concentrates on“Companies are also site the industry can get an reluctant A D _ _ to 1 0ship . p dthe f gold P a g increased e 1 1 6return / 0 3 /on 1 0their , 3 concentrate offsite for fur- mining.

www.miningaustralia.com.au

Mines such as Newcrest’s Cadia gold operation are located close to communities.

“This is where thiosulfate comes in. Gold can be dissolved using thiosulfate and then recovered from solution onsite to produce gold doré – an impure gold bar, which can then be easily transported using armored guards to minimise the risk of theft.” : 1 CSIRO 4 P Mhas worked with industry to develop this en-

vironmentally sustainable process in the laboratory and piloting is planned for later this year.

“The CSIRO is also developing a thiosulfate based process for the recovery of gold from pyritic ores and for the in-situ or in-place leaching of gold from ores,” Breuer said.

“The in-situ or in-place

leaching offers significant reductions in the environmental impact of mining as the surface is not disturbed, other than for a series of injection and extraction wells.” *Liz Greenbanks works for the CSIRO’s manufacturing, materials, and minerals group.

AustralianMining

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AM.AUG12.PG026.pdf

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THE MINING TAX CHALLENGE

The final HURDLE While the mining tax is now law, its future is still in doubt, writes Andrew Duffy.

S

ince its original conception under Kevin Rudd the mining tax has been one of the industry’s hottest topics.

It’s been the target of condemnation and criticism, and while tentatively agreed upon by the Minerals Council of Australia it’s difficult to find a miner full of praise for the policy.

Nevertheless on 1 July it made its way into law, and the Gillard Government made sure it was there to ram home its importance.

“Australians today begin to get their fair share of the mining boom thanks to Labor’s Minerals Resource Rent Tax,” treasurer Wayne Swan said at the time.

“Our resources are owned by all Australians, so the benefits should flow to all corners of the country, not just to a fortunate few.”

Soon after the tax took effect Fortescue Metals Group, one of its biggest detractors, announced plans to challenge it in court.

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And while Western Australia wasn’t keen to join the party the Queensland Government says it will help FMG in the fight against Canberra.

The angle

In a conference soon after announcing the challenge FMG director of development Peter Burns told Australian Mining the case should come as no surprise.

“In launching this challenge we are simply doing what we said we would do,” he stated.

“We’ve sought legal counsel on the MRRT and as a good corporate citizen we believe that there are reasons for this legislation to be tested.”

The company’s general counsel Peter Huston was equally resolute.

“It is my advice to the board based on our research and planning that we can bring a successful legal challenge to the MRRT on the basis that it is constitutionally invalid.”

Four key areas guide FMG’s argument.

• Discrimination between the states • Depriving state sovereignty • Giving preference to other states • Restricting a state’s ability to encourage mining The first and third points deal with s512 and s99 of the constitution and argue WA and QLD will be unfairly hurt by the tax.

The second and fourth argue that only the states, not Canberra, have the right to set royalties.

FMG argues that restricting this right makes it difficult for states to encourage or detract investment.

“Because royalties are credited back against the MRRT states can’t set rates to encourage or not encourage investment in their regions,” Huston explained.

“A reduction in royalties will be of no purpose because it simply results in a larger amount of MRRT being paid.”

In setting up the case

FMG director of operations Jamie Frankcombe told Australian Mining the challenge was not about dodging tax payments.

Indeed he reconfirmed the company expected to pay little, or nothing, on the legislation.

“This case has nothing to do with whether we will or won’t pay the amount of MRRT we will pay,” he said.

“We haven’t changed our view that our payments in relation to this tax will be negligible in the next few years and we think all other mining companies are in the same boat.

“This is not about trying to reduce our liability it’s about challenging a law we believe is fundamentally against the constitution.”

Mixed messages

While FMG has been challenged on claims it’s not in it for the money the questions haven’t stopped there.

When it first annouced the challenge the company was proud to say it was not

receiving the help of any state government.

At the time all eyes were on WA as a potential backer, but the company said it was not interested in siding with any government.

“We have tried from a legal perspective not to politicise this challenge,” Huston told Australian Mining.

“We have very much wanted to run our own race.

We have taken our own advice, engaged our own council, used our own lawyers.”

While Huston said state governments were free to “make their own decision” on whether to join FMG in the challenge, he made it clear the company was proudly independent.

“We didn’t provide [state governments] with a copy of our grounds before filing, we didn’t have any briefing sessions with them,” he said.

“They really didn’t have the opportunity of reviewing our statement of claim in detail before it became a public document.” www.miningaustralia.com.au

AM.AUG12.PG027.pdf

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THE MINING TAX CHALLENGE

After such a pronouncement some pundits were more than a little surprised when QLD joined the fight.

And despite previously separating from the state governments FMG welcomed QLD to the fold.

“We welcome the involvement of the Queensland Government,” the company said.

The change in position has been one of many for FMG. Outside the courtroom the company previously argued the mining tax would “ruin” the economy and the mining industry.

It now argues the policy won’t have any impact and won’t make enough money for the Federal Government.

From apocalyptic to ineffectual, and from going it alone to joining with QLD, FMG’s claims on the tax have been wide ranging.

Different findings

A large potion of FMG’s challenge centres on the policy’s discrimination between the states. argument ABut D _the AM N O V AisUaGcon_ 1 tentious one, and not readily

In terms of discriminating against different states, the Government says because the MRRT provides companies with a full credit for State royalties it does not discriminate.

Where to now

While FMG says it challenged the mining tax because it was confident of winning, the Government is equally confident of defending it.

That QLD has joined the company, and both are willing to fork out millions on a High Court challenge shows the strength of their arguments.

But the expert advice of The coal mining focused state of Queensland has joined Fortescue in the mining tax fight.

Treasury and the Federal legal team are equally intimiaccepted by the Federal GovIn Government submis- threshold and simplified ob- dating. ernment and parts of the min- sions the MCA has repeated ligations) are designed to Huston told Australian ing industry. the long standing argument lower the overall burden of Mining that while it was up A threat already explored that the tax is fair to all states the tax on smaller miners.” to the High Court to decide by the Government prior and companies, and even In terms of taxing miner- on a timeline, he would exto the tax’s introduction, a supported smaller startups. als that belong to the states pect a hearing to be held latHouse Committee advisory “No provision of the tax the Government’s advice is er this year and a judgment report, as well as the Minerals discriminates against small- that the MRRT taxes com- made three to six months Council of Australia, seem to er, emerging Australian min- pany profits, not state min- later. features therefore 2 think . p d the f tax P aisg constitutione 1 1 8 / 0ers; 7 /indeed, 1 2 , certain 4 : 1A 5 D _P A M M Jerals, S T Aand U Gis_ 1 2 . p d conf P a g e“What 1 happens 1 6 / 0 after 7 / 1that 2 , ally valid. of the MRRT (the low profit stitutionally valid. remains to be seen,” he said.

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Anchorage Systems Tie Rods and waling systems including complete packages of ready to install components. Smart articulation and corrosion solutions.

Specialty Plates Heavy plate, Quench & Tempered plate, wear plates, products that are either unable to be manufactured or are difficult to source locally.

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AustralianMining

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ACCOMMODATION

Room at

ROY’S

G

ina Rinehart’s name is rarely The Roy Hill iron ore mine has out of the media these days. taken another step forward And not just for her media takeover overtures. in development.

The woman also has extensive and well regarded coal and iron projects in WA and Queensland.

One of these, the Roy Hill iron ore mine, has generated a serious amount of controversy of late regarding Rinehart’s plans to import around 1500 foreign workers to fill mining roles such as bulldozer drivers, riggers, and scaffolders.

However this is only a small amount considering the $7 billion mine actually needs around 10 000 workers to get off the ground and running, with 2000 positions to be held for Australians.

“Once we’re in full operation, the intention is to create 2000 highly paid, full-time permanent jobs for Australians by the beginning of 2015, when we put the first ore on actually got to have 8000 construc- Western Australia, a major invest- tract to Brookfield Multiplex Engiship,” a Roy Hill spokesperson said. tion workers.” ment in infrastructure, particularly neering and Infrastructure to design “However, to get there, over a With this extremely high number accommodation, is needed. and build the mine’s accommodathree-year period – that’s how long of workers needed in the relatively Realising this, Roy Hill has MT G 0 0 4 2 _ 1 2 2 x 2 1 0 _ A MM. p d f Pa ge 1 2 0 / 0 7 / 1 2 , 4 : 1 4 : 5 4 PM AEST Continued on page 30 the construction phase goes – we’ve under developed Pilbara region of awarded a large $190 million con-

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www.miningaustralia.com.au

AD_AMOUTAUG_12.pdf

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OUTBACK CAMPS AUSTRALIA A DIVISION OF OUTBACK PLUMBING AUSTRALIA

Specialising in modular building and major construction for mine site personnel accommodation, Outback Camps offer complete turn key solutions to your accommodation needs and will take the time to understand your requirements.

Our transportable buildings service a wide range of industries and we remain on site for the duration of the construction and transport process.

Our buildings: > BCA compliant > Basix Rated - thermal and electrical > All buildings engineered to meet category D2 cyclone ratings > Buildings easily upgraded to category IL-4 > Multi-storey capable > 100mm interior and exterior walls, double insulated with double layered magnesium oxide board to maximise acoustic and thermal qualities while delivering a two hour fire rating > Our modular roofing and decking system design is a cost effective alternative for permanent or temporary camps (100% reusable) > Envirodeck - a fully recycled and reusable WPC material, fire rated, UV resistant, termite proof, non slip > Newly designed and certified piering and tie down system available, negating costly site levelling and compaction > Customised room configuration upon request

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tion village, which will be located around 270 kilometres south of Port Hedland.

According to Brookfield, this is not only a major development for the company, but also for the 55 million tonnes per annum mine.

The award of the accommoda­ tion contract is part of Roy Hill’s wider infrastructure plan which includes processing infrastructure, new shipping facilities at Port Hed­ land, and a 344 kilometre heavy haul railway between the iron ore mine and port.

Two months ago Roy Hill com­ menced the ground breaking stra­ tegy on its remote operations centre and corporate headquarters near Perth Airport.

Its buildings will be a “state of the art central automation hub as well as corporate headquarters for Roy Hill from December 2013”, according to the miner.

Regarding its work camp, “the 15 month construction of the mine accommodation village will create 200 jobs and provide onsite accom­ modation for both construction workers and future operation mine staff,” A D _Brookfield A M M Y Hsays.

AUG_ 1 2 . p d As part of its construction con­

The mine’s village will facilitate around 2000 workers once operations are up and running, Brookfield says.

tract Brookfield will use local Aus­ Hill team,” Brookfield’s regional tralian contractors and businesses as managing director Rainer Rasmus­ well as offering employment to local sen said. indigenous communities.

He went on to say that Rine­ “The Roy Hill iron ore project hart’s mine “represents the new is one of the most significant mining high technology face of mining and in Australia, f projects Pa ge 1 1 9 / and 0 7 /we 1 2look , 9 we : 3will 7 work A M closely with them to forward to working with the Roy design and create a landscaped mine

village which reinforces the unique values and philosophies underpin­ ning the project”.

The camp itself will cater for up to 2000 workers and include a number of facilities such as a sports complex, swimming pool, auditori­ um, and shift change facilities.

Contact us

+61 448 694 888 info@myhutt.com.au www.myhutt.com.au

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www.miningaustralia.com.au

AD_AMBACMAR_12.pdf

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ASKNOW FORTHELATEST BACCATALOGUES ANDOURFREE PLANNI NG SERVI CE

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AM.AUG12.PG032.pdf

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ACCOMMODATION

Getting housing fast New prefab housing is cutting mining camp construction times.

M

ining accommodation is a contentious issue, as where do you house your

workers?

You can have them drive in and out, and live in the nearby community, but not everyone wants to live near a mine.

You can fly them in and out from the site instead, but that requires serious infrastructure near the site, and often generates antagonism from local communities who feel that the benefits of the mine are bypassing their town.

So when the decision is finally made to house them in a mining camp village near the operation you’re faced with the logistical issue of building the infrastructure needed, as well as including construction times of the camp.

While some mines need to build entire towns in the desert, smaller operations only need to construct smaller domiciles on site.

AHowever D _ A M YifEaOcompany A U G _ 1is2 look. pd ing to build more solid housing,

The housing can be set up in around ten minutes, in some cases.

they have the added issue of getting mountable shipping containers, as tradesmen out to the site, which is temporary housing. another accommodation issue on However, not only are these top of this. fairly uncomfortable, no one really Added to the problem is the cost wants to be jammed inside a 2.4 by of the workers as well as trucking in 6 metre steel box. materials.

On top of this dongas, while transPrefabricated seems to be the portable, take a fair amount of transto get them to remote site as f path P amost g e miners 1 9take. / 0 7 / 1 2 , 9 : portation 3 5 AM Many use simply dongas, or de- they have to arrive on site as is.

Now a small Australian company, Chets Professional Services, is looking to change mining and remote accommodation.

According to company owner Chet Cline, the new FAST housing is an easily transportable, prefabricated option for miners.

“FAST buildings can be constructed where labour and materials are plentiful, and can be transported just like a shipping container,” he said.

However, Cline pointed out the difference in the two is size.

While shipping containers are fairly large, FAST housing fits on the back of a ute and are able to expand out to more than three times their width.

And unlike constructed housing or mining dongas, there is no heavy lifting gear needed to set up the houses, which can be built in a single day, Cline said.

He explained that the Rapid Deployment buildings can even be set up in the space of ten minutes.

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AustralianMining

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AD_AMIVRDEC_10.pdf

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AM.AUG12.PG034.pdf

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GEOZOOLOGY

Working like A

DOG

Despite the constant move towards more high tech equipment in mining, some more natural methods of ore discovery are starting to gain momentum. Cole Latimer writes.

D

igging out the ore has never really been the hardest part of mining; it has always been finding the deposits in the first place.

Because you can’t dig it up if you don’t know where it is.

So how do we actually find these deposits?

Nowadays we use magnetic surveys, geo-morphology, historical records of old mines and works, and advanced laboratory techniques to discover just what, if anything, is hiding beneath the soil.

It’s very high tech and requires a lot of skill and training to operate the equipment and know just what you’re looking at.

But now it seems there is another way.

Plants, animals, and insects are now being considered as a first port of call for miners.

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AustralianMining

Geobotany

and books on the subject are Australian natives such Many people within the anything to go by. as Stackhouse tyronii and industry are fairly well Even now it still holds Hybanthus floribundus can versed in geobiology, how some water, and biologi- also be used as lead and nickplants and animals may as- cally makes sense. el indicators according to The sist miners in finding new The technique has been Lead Group and to research deposits. recorded as being used in carried out by CQ UniverA whole branch of sci- China since the 5th century sity professor Nanjappa ence – geobotany – exam- BC, and in fact Sweden’s Ashwatha and Dr. Poonam ines exactly this. former Viscaria copper mine Bhatia.

This field of science in was actually named after In fact “Stackhousia part looks tryonii is a at different serpentineplants and endemic, what plants rare, native may grow Australian well in soils plant and that may is reported have high Exploration technology is set to get simpler for miners. to hyperaclevels of parcumulate ticular minerals or certain the Viscaria aplina flower nickel up to 55,500 mg g-1 heavy metals. which prospectors used to on a dry weight basis,” the This field seemed to take discover the deposit, as the group explained. off in the 1960s and 70s, and flower is known to grow in The CSIRO’s Ravi appeared to be a fairly popu- soils with heavy copper con- Anand has studied geolar branch of mining explo- centrations. botany and mining for some ration potential in Russia Australian miner Avalon time in conjunction with the and the former Soviet Union Minerals is currently oper- University of Adelaide, and during this time as well, if the ating a copper project near explained that his group has number of research papers this very mine. studied eucalyptus trees and

mulgas for mineralisation in their leaves.

The Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME) was actually a group that has used this method of exploration in the Tanami Desert, in conjunction with miner Tanami Gold at its Coyote deposit at its Western Tanami operation.

It found traditional methods more difficult in the regolith dominated region, as exposed bedrock made up less than ten per cent of the region, and was in some cases up to 100 metres thick, which made it difficult to carry out the usual exploration techniques.

Instead it used geobotanical mapping and biogeochemical sampling – testing the mineralisation in leaves – to map the region.

According to CRC LEME it found a geobologiwww.miningaustralia.com.au

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GEOZOOLOGY

cal pattern over the Coyote mineralisation, essentially an abundance of bloodwoods and a significant decline in snappy gums, despite its abundance elsewhere.

Careful biogeochemical testing also yielded results.

“Early results of bio­ geochemical sampling in the Tanami region suggest that biogeochemistry is a promis­ ing method of the detection of mineralisation through cover,” it said.

CRC LEME officially closed in 2008, with its work now done by the CSIRO and Geoscience Australia.

Plants which thrive in heavy metals are even now being used to help rehabili­ tate mine sites, with the 2011 Australian Mining Prospect Awards winners for Envi­ ronmental Excellence, Met­ alloTek, doing exactly that, by using plants that thrive in heavy metal soils and adapt­ ing their biology to grow even better in these condi­ tions.

CQ University’s Poonam Bhatia is also doing similar work using ‘hyper accumu­ lator plants’ from Australia to aid in ‘phytoremediation’ in India.

“Australian soil is natur­ ally contaminated with heavy metal but the Indian soil has got both natural and artificial heavy metal contamination,” Bhatia said.

“Both the countries have native plants that accumu­ late heavy metal. It is pro­ posed that effectiveness of Australian native plants in cleaning Indian soil would be studied and vice versa.”

But it is not just plants that are helping with explo­ ration and to uncover new deposits.

Geozoology

Last month we looked at the world first application of a search and rescue dog for underground coal mine rescues.

This month we are look­ ing at other ways animals, and not just dogs, but also insects, can be used to un­ cover new deposits or find minerals, in what is more commonly known as ‘geo­ zoology’. www.miningaustralia.com.au

Exploration can often be hit and miss, with intensive drilling required to uncover deposits.

And while it may seem absolutely ridiculous, ani­ mals and insects have appar­ ently been used since time immemorial to help hunt for mineral and metal deposits.

As far back as the fifth century BC, Herodotus wrote in The Histories of “furry ants” in northern India and Pakistan, later proved to be marmots, which would often unearth gold while digging their bur­ rows and tunnels while the locals collected the mate­ rial and sifted through their mounds for gold.

Ancient Roman Pliny the Elder also mentioned exam­ ples like this in his Naturalis Historia.

In fact it was fairly com­ mon knowledge at the time.

A report by Robert Brooks in EpisodEs out­ lines how land animals have uncovered metals deposits – albeit unfortunately – by becoming sick with metal poisoning after eating plants and grasses growing over deposits or old, unrecorded mine workings.

“For example, farmland adjacent to Roman lead workings, where several cat­ tle and ponies had died from suspected lead poisoning were found to contain up to 200 µg/g of lead (dry weight) in the grass and pastures of

the area,” he explained.

Brooks went on to ex­ plain how sick animals were discovered to be eating cer­ tain plants that were found to have high levels of sele­ nium, and since selenium is often found with uranium, people were able to deduce where the uranium lay due

to the distribution of the plants.

It was a “chain of four factors: sick animals – plant indicators of selenium – as­ sociation of selenium with uranium – the discovery of uranium,” he said.

While these examples follow the more geobo­

Termite mounds have historically been used as mineral indicators.

tanical route, in Northern Europe they are using ani­ mals, particularly dogs, in an entirely new way.

In Sweden, Russia, Fin­ land, and Norway, some within the mining industry have trained dogs to find ore bodies.

As with geobotany, the field really began to take off during the 1970s, as dogs were used mainly to find nickel sulphides close to the surface to fulfill demand from the region’s burgeon­ ing steel industry.

According to Brooks, some of the best work came out of Finland during this early period, predominately from the Aarno Kahma of the Geological Survey of Finland.

In the mid 60s one trained dog, known as Lari, went head to head with a prospector in a 3 km2 field, and managed to uncover 1330 sulphide bearing boul­ ders at depths of up to 20 centimetres, while the hu­ man only found 270 surface traces.

In the same year as the competition the dog also found a copper orebody that later proved to be fair­ ly significant, resulting in its trainer being rewarded $2000 and the dog receiving four sausages.

Following this dog’s suc­ cess Sweden trained four ore hunting dog, and Canada dipped its toe in the water of the field, but found little success.

However the method soon died out as the steel industry suffered and wilted during the 1980s, and ex­ ploration for new nickel de­ posits ground to a halt.

As such since this time is has been virtually unheard of and an unexplored pros­ pecting avenue.

Only now is the tech­ nique again coming to the fore.

Swedish company Ore­ Dog AB is marketing itself as the world’s first dog ore exploration company.

Speaking to Mining Technology, he told them the dogs are used to uncover Continued on page 36 AustralianMining

August 2012

35

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GEOZOOLOGY

Continued from page 35

a wide range of sulphides as well as oxide ores.

Bergman explained that the dogs are trained to sense the smells coming from different ore samples, and how to locate the ore.

“Right now my dog can sense between 20 and 30 different types of ore, they can discover an orebody that is as deep as 12 metres underground,” he said.

One of the most recent successes the company had was in late May, when a dog “located an orebody of 100 meter width with at least 300 meter length extension,” Bergman said. “We have reason to believe the orebody could be several km long and with extension in depth. We have seen at least 20 meter depth indication of ore. We are now sending in samples for analysis and hope we have an oregrade zinc discovery. Estimates are +5-10 per cent zinc.”

In April a possible discovery or a gold orebody was also made.

While it uses mostly German Shepherds as ore sniffing dogs, it also apparently uses Australian Koolies and Belgian Shepherds.

Originally focused on using dogs in Sweden, the company recently branched out into China.

Lari, the original ore sniffing dog, in action in Finland during the 1960s.

According to Bergman it is also considering opening a branch in Australia.

He told Mining Technology that to date it has been concentrating on Sweden and Scandinavia but has started work in the U.S. and is looking at setting up a company in Australia as well within the next few years.

The company is also developing mobile phone apps to help control field exploration work.

According to Brooks, geozoology and geobotany may also have some crossovers as well.

In Western Australia some native plant species that are hyperaccumulators, such as Hybanthus floribundus have a characteristic smell which some field workers can readily identify; a well trained dog would be able to quickly find these species much faster than a person assisting geobotan-

Swedish company Ore Dog AB is currently the only firm that uses dogs to uncover ore deposits.

36

August 2012

AustralianMining

ists to identify mineral indicator plants, he said.

But it isn’t just four legged animals that are making mining a little easier.

Four legs or more

Insects have also long been used for prospecting, particularly for gold and nickel.

In Africa, ancient African civilisations used termites and their enormous mounds as a starting place for prospecting and uncovering deposits.

As termites continually search for water they can often dig down to depths of more than 70 metres and distances of hundreds of metres.

“Termites are nature’s little drillers,” researcher and University of Adelaide geoscientist Anna Petts explained at the Geological Society of Australia’s Earth Science Showcase.

“Termites conveniently bring subterranean soil samples to ground level to construct or fix their mounds.

“So by simply taking a sample of a termite mound, geologists can gain a good idea as to what minerals and metals can be found in the ground beneath it – making it a much cheaper way to undertake preliminary soil

testing for minerals exploration,” she said.

“More intensive testing can then be undertaken if a site looks promising.”

This method was used to find the Vila Manica copper deposit in Mozambique in 1973, while the massive Jwaneng diamond mine was also reportedly found by termite mound sampling.

A DeBeers geologist is believed to have found a piece of ilmenite – a classic diamond indicator – in a termite mound, which lead to further exploration and the discovery of Jwaneng.

The CSIRO’s Dr. Ravinder Anand explained that “we can often dissect [the mound’s] material and we can send it to the lab for processing and it can provide the clues for mineral deposits that are hidden under sediment”.

It has already worked with entomologists to study how this process can be used, Anand adding that it has also studied the termites themselves, to see the concentration of metals in the insects.

In addition to geobotany, Tanami Gold also looked to termite mounds to provide geological information fpr their projects.

“It really has been a case of assessing whether termites in Australia work in the same way [as in Africa] – that is where our research has come into play and it has proved to be the case.”

Anand went on to say that the CSIRO has also looked at how spiders and ants may demonstrate deposits underground as well.

While we have looked at how these animals have been used for exploration, they have often played an important role in keeping miners safe.

There is always the canary in the coal mine; used as an early warning system for hazardous gases or poor air quality due to their high sensitivity.

While the future of mining is automated and electronic, it seems there will still be a place for animals on site. www.miningaustralia.com.au

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He knows what needs to be done He's driving safety, he’s leading the change He has to move as much material as he can, in the shortest time, at the lowest cost possible.

He needs a high level of assurance that his fatigue risk profile is low. He has to support his operators by ensuring their safety on site.

He realises that if he had access to the latest fatigue technology and training tools, with real time data and predictive capabilities, he’d be a better manager.

He is fully supported by a team of experts in this field and by a technology that is scientifically tested and proven to increase productivity and safety on a mine site.

He is going to MINExpo, Las Vegas Nevada, stand 6884, to learn from and network amongst the leaders in the fatigue management space.

Here, he will join the global Optalert community.

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AM.AUG12.PG038.pdf

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8:25

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CONTRACT MINING, ENGINEERING & SERVICES

Consolidate your

CONTRACTS

Australian Mining maps the birth of a new services group focused on the Queensland industry, Andrew Duffy reports.

QRG’s Waterline Projects focuses on Queensland’s port infrastructure.

W

hile the mining industry is booming so too are the services companies supporting it.

And just like the mining sector there’s plenty of movement and change happening with these services.

One change that’s so far flown under the radar is the consolidation of five Queensland-focused companies under the same roof.

The new entity, QRG, is headed up by Wayne Gerard, who founded each of the companies involved in the new body.

Gerard told Australian Mining the move to place them under the same title was aimed at amplifying their similar strengths.

“QRG is basically a parent brand for the companies that I own,” he said.

“The five companies operate together, share the same client base, and support each other, so it made sense to bring them together and establish a group.”

Making up the conglom38

August 2012

AustralianMining

erate are Waterline Projects, a port and infrastructure engineering company, Applicate, a cloud based software company, and FDG, a business consulting company.

The marketing and online-focused 17 mile studios, and Midg, a project services engineering company, also round out the group.

While covering a diverse range of services each of QRG’s five companies specifically service the mining and energy sectors, and Gerard said grouping them made things easier for mining companies and helped QRG score work.

“Our clients are all trying to consolidate the relationships they have with suppliers,” he said.

“By consolidating under one brand we can offer the services that we have across the various companies to our clients and it makes it very easy for them.

“When we go out and talk to clients we can go and talk about each of the various offerings we have but

we don’t have to hand them five business cards just one.”

While focusing on business in QLD Gerard said QRG’s companies had worked from the top to the bottom of the mining industry.

“We’ve got people on site at Darylmple Coal Terminal, we’ve done work at Hay Point, we’ve done work for Adani Mining and BHP Billiton,” he said.

“We’ve pretty much done work for everyone, the juniors as well, and it’s been a good experience for us.

“We’ve also done a lot of work with the engineering companies.”

A well established name in QLD, Gerard marked expanding to Western Australia as a key growth area for QRG moving forward.

He said the conglomerate had already done plenty of business in the west over the last five years and it “made sense” to expand further in the region.

Staying upbeat about the prospects for the future, Gerard told Australian Min-

ing domestic policies were hampering growth more than developments in China or Europe.

“I think there’s going to be considered but not aggressive development over the next 12 months,” he said.

“We’re all aware that BHP and Rio Tinto are very conscious of the cost of doing business in Australia and that’s certainly going to have an impact on the speed at which the market grows.”

Reflecting the wider consensus highlighted in National Australia Bank’s latest business survey, Gerard said many of the Gillard Government’s policies were creating industry uncertainty and a change of government could bring “clear communication” about Canberra’s objectives for the industry.

“What that will do is move the market from being cautious to being able to capitalise on the opportunities available,” he said.

But regardless of the growth targets he said leveraging and developing

contacts was one of the key strategies for success in the mining industry.

And after years of experience in developing contacts he said fostering these relationships provided platforms to grow new ideas.

“Everyone knows everyone in the mining sector and once you build a good relationship and people know you can deliver the value they’re happy to trust you,” he said.

“We’ve built lots of good relationships over the last ten years and it makes sense to leverage those and help the people we care about, our clients.”

Marking QRG’s inception as a move aimed at better servicing the mining sector, the new conglomerate will no doubt be reaching further into QLD and WA as their industries grow larger.

And if the history of QRG’s five companies is anything to judge by, Gerard may yet have more new offerings for QLD and WA’s industries. www.miningaustralia.com.au

AD_AMBARAUG_12.pdf

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AM.AUG12.PG041.pdf

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CONTRACT MINING, ENGINEERING & SERVICES

Managing flexibility In the wake of national OH&S harmonisation, contractor management is more important than ever.

C

ontractors can pro­ vide one of the most valuable things on a mine site – flexibility.

By using contractors a mining company is able to quickly scale up to get the most out of their site and production and meet the ever changing operational re­ quirements found on mines.

However, as contractors are not part of the wider company there are occasion­ ally problems, as each work­ er is not vetted by the min­ ing company, and the two may not have the same safety standards.

A perfect example of this was at Solid Energy’s Ohai coal mine in New Zealand.

Solid Energy was forced to terminate its work with its contractor after a series of safety incidents, such as a welder using a telehandler to lift a platform he was standing on into the air after which he welded it to a con­ tainer, all the while working not only unsupervised, but also without any safety har­ nesses either.

While many firms carry And on top of these dif­ out initial insurance and cer­ fering standards are the is­ tification checks at the point sues faced with ensuring of employment, a number of contractors have valid certi­ companies find that track­ A D _ A MC P S F E B _ 1 2 . p d f Pa ge 1 3 0 / fications and tickets. ing expiration and renewal

of certification is a difficult task; often failing to follow up on this problem with ef­ fective contractor manage­ ment.

0 1 / 1 2 , 1 1 : 0 3 AM “When a contractor is un­

insured or does not have up to date training or certification firms contracting workers can be left exposed financially and have their reputations sig­ nificantly damaged,” Adrian

Manessis, from safety man­ agement software company myosh, explained.

“Companies have lost large contracts as a result of the mismanagement of con­ tractors.

“To compound the issue, under the new OH&S har­ monisation laws [enacted in January this year], the term ‘employee’ was changed to ‘worker’, making it even clearer contractors and vol­ unteers need to be included in safety plans.”

Manessis went on to say that while contractor ad­ ministration is time consum­ ing, management systems are now available that allow for contractors to maintain their own records while the contracting company stays in control.

“Regardless of the size of the firm, compliance, meeting legislation and demonstrating due diligence will be difficult without the use of safety man­ agement software to auto­ mate the process,” he said.

“Contractor management is just one of the processes safety management software can automate.

“Firms need to act deci­ sively to get these processes bedded in now.”

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AustralianMining

August 2012

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AM.AUG12.PG042.pdf

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CONTRACT MINING, ENGINEERING & SERVICES

It’s US and them Australian Mining gets the low-down on the United States workers helping to solve the skills shortage, Andrew Duffy reports.

W

hile the debate over using foreign labour in the resources industry has turned into cyclical arguments, some labour companies have kept their head down and continued working.

Perth start-up New Latitude, which specalises in sourcing international resources workers, is one such company.

Among a small but growing portion of companies looking to the United States to find new workers, New Latitude was part of the Skills Australia Needs expo in Houston earlier this year and has since moved US workers into empty jobs in Australia.

New Latitude director Josh Dundon A told D _Australian M A N M H Mining Y T M A several Y_ 1 2 US engineers were already en route

Dundon says most recruiters don’t understand the US labour market

to Queensland following the expo.

“We’re in the process of placing three individuals with our client in QLD at the moment, all civil engineers,” he said. . p d“There’s f P a big g e demand 1 2 for / 0civil 4 / en1 2 gineers in Australia and we connect-

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ed with quite a few in Houston.”

Dundon said New Latitude was also working on finding diesel mechanics and workers with fitting experience for a client in Perth. , 9Whilst : 2 6 only A Ma trickle of workers at present, he said Australian companies were crying out for US workers and New Latitude had plans to ramp up its capacity.

“We’re forecasting a steady flow of around three to four placements per month over the next 12 months,” he said.

“Our strategy is to look at much bulkier campaigns where can bring in up to 50 guys at a time.”

Acknowledging foreign talent was still a touchy topic, Dundon said employers had tried and failed to find local workers for the positions New Latitude was filling.

“All the positions we’re working with are already being advertised through local traditional sources,” he said.

“We’re working with clients that are saying they’re not getting the correct level of skill or just not getting any applications at all.”

Using Western Australia as the prime example, Dundon said there were “more jobs than there are people”.

And reflecting on the broader skills issue, he said while there were valid arguments for increasing training it was not the best solution to vacancies that needed to be filled immediately.

“I don’t dismiss the argument about up-skilling and investing in training but that takes time and it’s not

going to fix today’s problem,” he said.

Dundon said part of the labour problem in Australia centred on recruiters sticking to traditional techniques.

“The reason there’s no innovation in the industry is because your average recruiter isn’t about finding the best services for the role,” he said.

“Most recruiters will look at their availability of talent, and that might be underskilled and underqualified, but because they want to make a commission they’re happy to place that person in the role.

“They’ll do this before they even consider any international candidates because they think it’ll take too long or be too difficult.”

If companies and recruiters were serious about filling vacancies Dundon said they needed to look to the US and dismiss old ideas about the availability of its workforce.

“There are some common misunderstandings about the US market in terms of the people, the talent, and the readiness,” he said.

“It’s a rapidly changing economy over there and people have become much more mobile to respond to that changing economy.”

Struggling against changing attitudes towards the US workforce and foreign labour in Australia, New Latitude have some serious obstacles to overcome before they make their mark on skills shortage.

But as one of the few companies looking at new solutions to an important problem, they’ll be one to watch. www.miningaustralia.com.au

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AM.AUG12.PG045.pdf

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CONTRACT MINING, ENGINEERING & SERVICES

A one stop shop A rehabilitation and remediation company is getting swept up in the mining boom.

T

here is more to con­ tract mining than dig­ ging a hole and haul­ ing away ore.

From early geological services through to remediat­ ing said hole in the ground and rehabilitating the site, there is more to resources contracting than first thought.

Thiess has typically been viewed as one of the com­ panies working at the coal face, both figuratively and literally, for some time now.

But not all of its divi­ sions have been in the min­ ing game.

One of them, Thiess Services, is only now taking its first steps in to resources.

Previously the company was focused on the urban sector; working on contami­ nated site remediation, waste management, water manage­ ment, energy distribution, and facilitates and opera­ tions and maintenance, and actually led the remediation of the former nuclear test site at Maralinga in South Australia.

However it is only now that the business is beginning to see its many crossovers with the booming mining industry, a fact that general manager of remediation and infrastructure, Doug Moss, came to realise last year.

“The perfect fit is just by chance I guess, but it’s also a reflection of the breadth of the business and the di­ versity we have in numerous disciplines,” Moss said.

According to Moss the ini­ tial objective is to win projects with sister company Thiess Australian Mining, but longer term it is aiming to offer ser­ vices as a separate company.

The company will “tar­ get much of the fringe work that actually detracts from the core operation for a miner, but which sits at the heart of Thiess Services’ business,” he said.

“I can’t think of any as­ pect of our current opera­ tions that doesn’t have some

www.miningaustralia.com.au

While Thiess Mining has been in resources for years, not all its divisions were working in the sector.

application to mining,” Moss added.

The first job for the re­ mediation and infrastructure division will be working with Thiess at the Collinsville coal mine. The mine has had a chequered past recently as was forced to shut down temporarily after around 25 workers were exposed to high levels of dangerous gases, with fourteen exposed in a single incident.

The hazardous gases are believed to be predomi­ nantly carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide, how­ ever CFMEU district presi­ dent Steve Smyth says there is also hydrogen sulphide at the site, and workers may even be exposed to hydro­ carbons such as benzenes as well.

At the time Thiess’ executive general manager Michael Wright said “the safety of our people is our number one focus, we have been working closely with technical expert government agency SIMTARS, the Mines Inspectorate, independent experts and our people” to solve this problem.

The team will install positive pressure ventilation systems in the cabins of its

mine site vehicles to minimise the potential for gas entry and to increase overall safety.

According to Thiess Services it is “applying its skills acquired in extremely hazardous environments to ensure best practice air qual­ ity monitoring and health and safety practices at Col­ linsville, whilst at the same time maintaining and op­

erating various parts of the mine site infrastructure.”

Moss added that “we’re experienced in dealing with a vast range of hazardous chemicals such as dioxins, hexachlorobenzenes, and as­ bestos to name but a few.

“You can imagine the amount of though and plan­ ning that goes into health and safety practices on

Environmental remediation of mine sites will be a major focus.

such [urban] sites and all that expertise is applicable to mining sites affected by spontaneous combustion and associated gases [such as Collinsville].”

The company says that with the new focus on the resources industry it “cross­ es the line from just a con­ sulting business providing a monitoring capability … to being a provider capable of delivering best practice by way of earthworks, dust control, and spontaneous combustion management”.

Apart from the more ob­ vious mine site rehabilitation and remediation services for operating and abandoned mine sites, Thiess says the company’s skills are also ap­ plicable to water monitoring in mining, which includes flood mapping and water quality monitoring.

“Water treatment is also a core skill and Thiess Serv­ ices has the niche engineering and construction strength to deliver specialist water treat­ ment plants that may fall outside the interest of larger construction companies.”

Power generation, elec­ tricity infrastructure, and net­ works are also another focus under its new mining offering.

“Installation or reloca­ tion of poles and wires and substation construction are core capabilities provided routinely to large electricity network providers.”

The group is now look­ ing to expand its geographic reach to service more major mining areas.

It opened a new office in Newcastle to service the Hunter Valley, and is current­ ly working towards establish­ ing facilities in the Bowen Basin in Queensland, and within the Pilbara in Western Australia.

Moss described the busi­ ness as “at the threshold of a new era”, adding that the plan was to make the com­ pany “a one stop shop for the mining industry”.

AustralianMining

August 2012

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AM.AUG12.PG046.pdf

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CONTRACT MINING, ENGINEERING & SERVICES

Communication is king Implementing communication systems during construction that scale to production, meet security needs and corporate IT standards and are enterprise supportable is the way to go. Jamie Wade writes.

I

f it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well the saying goes. When it comes to communications infrastructure, the truism is particularly applicable. Communication is king at all stages of a project.

System integration providers such as CSC are being approached earlier by mining companies and Engineering Procurement Construction Management (EPCM) construction contractors wishing to plan ahead and get the most from the latest wireless and digital radio systems that can be used from construction to operation.

Both the EPCM construction contractor and the owner-operator want to get it right from day one, says CSC principal communications consultant Murray Wales.

“Many new mines previously had temporary or short term communications technologies, like analogue radio and ad hoc wireless networks,” A D _ A M Wales T O X Atold U G _Australian 1 2 . pd Mining.

There is a trend towards greater reaching, forward looking comms technology.

“None were best practice, se“When they were handed from cure, enterprise supportable or met the EPCM contractor to the mine f thePcorporate a g e 1 standard 1 6 / 0of7 the / 1 mine 2 , 4 operator, : 2 4 Pthey M needed to be upgradoperator. ed or replaced with systems that

met the corporate architecture and standards going forward.”

Workforce management like asset and people tracking and access control systems, says Wales, are being planned and implemented for day one of operations, not an addon down the track when first production is taken care of and work force efficiencies are being sought.

“The key to getting it right is to plan early,” Wales said.

“Implement systems during construction that will scale to production, meet the end operators corporate security requirements, corporate IT standards and are enterprise supportable. This reduces the need to replace these systems when the operator takes over which is not an uncommon event in the Natural Resources sector.

“We have seen the need to replace radio, LAN, WAN, wireless and voice telephony systems that the EPCM contractor has implemented

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AustralianMining

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CONTRACT MINING, ENGINEERING & SERVICES

for construction that are just not fit for purpose for an ongoing best-practice large global mining operator.”

Trends and innovations

All mine sites have a requirement for Push to Talk (PTT) radio for safety, logistics and informational awareness, but these days more than just voice is wanted. New digital radios systems incorporate GPS, text SMS, expandable talk groups and advanced lone worker and safety priority calling. In Vehicle Management Systems (IVMS) for monitoring at-risk driver behaviour such as speeding, impact and heavy breaking can be monitored in real time by a central control room.

Geo Zoning and tracking of hand held radios that form part of an overall asset and work force safety system can be incorporated into a single source or ‘view’ on people and asset location. A training and access management system recently deployed

by CSC at major coal mines includes worker training, induction validity and access rights to enter locations and operate specific equipment.

“These systems are now being required during construction, not only when the mine is operating; This is mainly because work force levels are typically double or triple of that required to operate a mine, and some of the activities during construction are equally hazardous,” Wales said.

Access control

Integrated swipe-card based access management systems are now standard on most mine-sites to protect personnel from hazardous areas and secure commercially sensitive assets.

“Typically we are implementing systems that are fully-integrated to enterprise level systems like SAP, and automatically enforce compliance to training policies and fatigue management standards,” adds CSC senior consultant – mining Jarrod Bassan.

“This means no-one gets onsite unless they have valid inductions and have not exceeded the maximum hours on site fatigue limit.

“Some sites are even extending their swipe-card systems to control access to electrical substations and other hazardous areas – only workers with the necessary electrical qualifications can enter the subs.”

The latest advances are in personnel-awareness technologies which can accurately locate a person in the event of an emergency.

“During an emergency muster, we can not only determine accurately who’s at the muster point, but we can locate the ‘missing’ workers to within a few metres – indoors, outdoors or www.miningaustralia.com.au

underground,” Bassan told Australian Mining.

“These systems can also be turned on to track high-risk personnel like visitors or lone-workers, or to provide more accurate time-recording of contractors.”

Today’s demands

Effective communication infrastructure on site is becoming increasingly important as mine operators dig deeper and further. With some pre-strip and mine infrastructure projects running for years creating extensive open cut pits to reach ore bodies or coal seams, communication infrastructure has had to keep pace.

“The owner operator has an increasing input to ensuring the EPCM works towards best practice with systems to support the ongoing production activities brought on earlier, in this critical phase, to obtain the best possible outcome – on-time production.”

“It also ensures that complex systems like Fleet Management Systems (FMS) and the associated intuitive self-healing wireless mesh communications infrastructure that support these mobile assets are well and truly ‘burnt-in’ before first production.”

Challenges

A remote mine site during early construction lacks pretty much everything: accommodation, communications, workshops, offices, roads and power.

All are needed in the early days of construction. These systems and the supporting communications infrastructure are required to be easy and quick to deploy. Temporary infrastructure like trailer based satellite links back to corporate or Internet LAN access, wireless and digital radio systems are needed prior to fixed infrastructure being constructed – like towers, communication shelters and computer rooms. CSC has developed temporary container and trailer based wireless, communications rooms, radio and wireless mesh systems that can provide these systems early, during construction and even for exploration activities.

“Mines are increasingly being saturated with a multitude of wireless equipment running mission-critical applications – like truck-dispatch, remote telemetry, video monitoring, even autonomous vehicles,” Bassan said. “However, it just takes one contractor to turn on a wireless device that uses the wrong frequency to cause interference and take-down these systems across site. Therefore, managing the radio frequency spectrum is critical. This is best achieved with good standards and good process for governance.”

AustralianMining

August 2012

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CONTRACT MINING, ENGINEERING & SERVICES

Total security Many miners are failing to recognise the importance of network security.

S

ecurity is more than just a bit of a byword on site. Whether it is securing your actual mine from trespassers, activists or potential illegal miners (in the case of South America and Africa), or just trying keep the wrong people out of your computer network, security is key. And with automating processes and getting a single network for all of a business’ operations the goal of many companies right now, ensuring your information is secure is becoming even more important.

But one of the main hurdles in the industry at the moment is the fact that many companies do not recognise or realise the importance of network security and how the wrong people accessing their networks can have long ranging affects, particularly in this age of greater interconnectedness.

Speaking to Sourcefire’s Australian-New Zealand regional director Chris Wood, he explained that companies have to pay attention to who has access to their networks, and how. While it may seem a little unrelated to the mining industry, cyber security is starting to become as vital as ensuring your machinery is operating at full capacity, particularly SCADA networks, which can be more vulnerable.

With more remote capabilities comes the danger of more unauthorised remote access.

“Most of our job now is actually trying to educate the mining companies of this risk,” Wood told Australian Mining. He explained that “there has been an increasing number of mines using SCADA, and their networks are now more IP-centric than before, so the delineation that existed between the corporate and the work networks has now gone”. As more mining companies utilise remote operation control centres, such as

Secure networks stop unauthorised access.

48

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Rio Tinto’s Mine of the Future centre, which is located more than 1000 kilometres away from the mine itself, total control of your remote and SCADA networks becomes more critical.

However “a lot of them don’t realise the security risks of their networks, and that their networks need to be able to detect changes and also users.”

There is currently an evolving threat from cyber attacks and network disruptions right across the digital landscape.

Examples such as the affects of the apparently government sponsored Stuxnet and the havoc it wreaked, particularly as it spies on and subverts industrial systems, and was designed to target SCADA networks and fake industrial process control sensor signals, cause concern for miners. On top of this is Duqu, related to the Stuxnet worm, which enables attackers to steal data from manufacturers of industrial control systems and then use this data to exploit SCADA and PLC systems. “You can shut down

a mining company’s email with malware and it can keep operating, but you can’t keep operating if your trucks or coal loaders have been shut down.”

What makes the issue even more concerning is that “no one says who the bad guys are, who wants to illegally access these networks, but we know they’re out there”, Wood said, “there are vulnerabilities people are exploiting.”

There is also the danger from employees misusing the network. “In a recent

investigation we carried out we found that one worker had actually used a wireless USB with open access on his computer so he could work away from his desk, and work while in the cafeteria.

“As miners’ process control systems come on to the network you want to know who does what and where they are,” Wood said.

However some have recognised the danger.

“There is one company we are working with who are carrying out security scans every few months,” he said.

Wood stated that the company has a few miners as customers as these companies have recognised that they need to know who is doing what, and from where, on their SCADA and process control networks.

“It’s about greater control.

“You need software and hardware that continually monitors your networks and traffic, mapping the traffic, destinations, and lets users know what has changed.”

Wood explained that information security “is about having more information about the workings of your network than the bad guys.

“Because if a miner doesn’t have control over their trains, scheduling, trucks, and processing, how are they going to work?”

SCADA and automated network are under threat. www.miningaustralia.com.au

AD_AMMINAUG_12.pdf

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CONTRACT MINING, ENGINEERING & SERVICES

The fly-in fly-out bartender These days it’s not just direct employees working fly-in fly-out rosters on the mines, writes Andrew Duffy.

F

or most jobseekers looking for work in the resources industry having ‘mining experience’ is the Holy Grail.

But despite a wealth of transferable skills and boundless enthusiasm, without experience most applications won’t go far.

Whilst many recruiters and job experts have long advised inexperienced applicants apply for utility work on the mines, most jobseekers are usually unimpressed with the advice.

Nevertheless starting work as a cleaner, bartender, or other support role can be one of the best ways for inexperienced applicants to get a foot in the door.

Once on the inside, moving around within a company and the industry is much easier.

With more and more work up for offer some jobseekers are taking this advice and scoring work.

One successful applicant Steven Chivers, a qualified baker with no mining experience, told Australian Mining over the internet he’d just scored a job in the industry as a fly-in fly-out bar tender and kitchen hand.

Chivers said while he wasn’t working in the pit, the pay was still great.

“I’m home now from my first swing, four weeks on, one off,” he said.

“It’s crazy money but hard being away from the family. I’m doing it until the house is paid off.”

Chivers said that applying for everything and not being picky about work available was good advice for jobseekers.

But he said the best thing they could do was make themselves readily available to the companies they were applying for.

In Chivers’s case he flew to Perth and started applying for every job he could.

“I went there. They get

www.miningaustralia.com.au

Support crew, including cleaners and bartenders, also work fly-in fly-out rosters.

hundreds of phone calls every day from the east.

They want people to start work the day they ask for it,” he said.

“I flew to Perth and was offered four jobs in a day.

The jobs are there for anyone who wants them.”

Chivers said with these golden rules he’d found it easy to gain work in the industry.

And most importantly, he didn’t have any experience.

“I’m a qualified baker.

The kicker is presenting yourself ready to work, not a flight and a week’s notice away,” he said.

Over the internet Mining Oil and Gas Jobs, one of the industry’s leading jobs advisors, told Austral-

ian Mining making things easy for mining companies was one of the best ways to make yourself an attractive recruit.

“Being ready to work is so important,” they said.

“We talked to thousands of jobseekers in May at our Perth mining jobs expo.

“It was surprising how many people said they wanted to get in but immediately starting putting conditions up about what they would and would not do.”

Mining Oil and Gas Jobs said getting a foot in the door of the mining industry was often the hardest part, but moving around in the industry was much easier.

“We advise jobseekers to take entry-level jobs to get their foot in the door – hos-

pitality, bus driving, landscaping, and other things,” they said.

“Once they’re on a mine site, they can make contacts, discover new opportunities and plot their next move.”

Mining Oil and Gas also said such work was a good test to see if the mining industry was a good fit for the worker.

“The drop-out rate for cleanskins is high, as much as 20 per cent” they said.

“An entry-level job is a low-risk way to decide if it’s something you can do for the long-term without inflicting any real career damage in your chosen profession.”

But while there’s no doubt taking the initiative is a good idea for job seekers,

stories of similar plans ending in failure still abound.

Whether quitting your job and relocating to the other side of Australia is a viable approach has been seriously questioned by job seekers that have already tried and failed.

One worker told Australian Mining they had seen jobseekers move to mining regions only to be more worse off than when they started.

“I had friends who drove to where the mines were and lived in a car for six weeks until they ran out of money,” they said.

“It didn’t help and the costs of living were crippling.

“I think some people just get lucky and raise hopes for the rest.”

AustralianMining

August 2012

51

AM.AUG12.PG052.pdf

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CONTRACT MINING, ENGINEERING & SERVICES

Don’t fear the FIFOs While stories abound about the negative impact of fly-in fly-out workers, the issue isn’t as clear-cut as many think, writes Andrew Duffy.

I

t’s not difficult to find stories blaming fly-in fly-out workers for a rise in crime and disorder in mining communities.

But according to research by Professor John Scott from the University of New England, figuring out whether these reports correspond with reality is much trickier.

After spending time interviewing locals in regional Western Australia Scott and Kerry Carrington from Queensland University of Technology have come to unusual conclusions about the impact of FIFO workers.

According to Scott and Carrington while fear of crime is on the rise in these rapidly expanding communities, quite often actual crime is not.

“Crime isn’t necessarily going up in mining communities despite there being a sense that the crime rate is increasing,” Scott told Australian Mining.

The mining boom is raising fears of increased crime in FIFO mining towns.

he noticed certain parallels between the case. Violence is a communityreports on crime in agricultural com- wide issue and by no means confined munities and mining towns. to one particular group.”

“The typical story you get on crime Scott told Australian Mining in agricultural regions is that it’s largely when researchers picked mining How Aboriginal WA with small indigeA Dit_got A Mstarted M A C J U N _ 1 1 . p d f an P a g e 1problem,” 1 6 / 0he5said. / 1 1 , 9 towns : 4 9 inA M Scott said his FIFO study started after “Statistically we know this isn’t nous populations crime was instead

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projected onto the FIFO workforce.

“Instead of blaming the Indigenous community for crime the locals blamed the FIFOs,” he explained.

In this way Scott said crime was most often viewed in the public’s mind as the fault of the outsider population.

Importantly Scott said research showed fear of crime, an issue outside crime itself, ballooned in communities that saw rapid development.

“Surveys indicate social disorder and unwelcome individuals and groups are associated with crime, which presents as a breakdown of social cohesion, and a loosening of moral standards.

“Studies have argued that people in rural towns are not actually fearful of crime itself, but are concerned with what they perceive as the threat to their rural idyll.”

Just the facts

After setting up the background Scott said checking claims about FIFO

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Fly in fly out workers and the mining industry is putting increased pressure on rural infrastructure and services.

workers against hard data was the key to determining their impact.

And he said the data did not always suggest claims about FIFO workers were accurate.

“There were wild rumours floating around, like ‘one of them killed somebody’,” he said.

“None of this was backed by any evidence.

“In fact, despite a rising population and a decrease in social integration, official crime rates in these areas have remained stable or even dropped.”

Scott said while there was no doubt there were real examples of FIFO workers causing havoc in the community the issue wasn’t always as clear cut as many community members, and parts of the media, saw it.

“We did get reports of conflict between local residents and FIFOs, but it wasn’t always clear the FIFOs were responsible for having caused that conflict,” he said.

But despite the disconnect Scott said there were a number of legitimate concerns brought on by the increased FIFO workforce, including the strain on local infrastructure and services.

But claims of rising crime, so often the focus of community members and the media, usually had little basis in fact.

Scott said usually large increases in population were linked to an increase in crime and while it still remained a theory, there could be an explanation for why crime had not risen significantly in mining communities.

“The reason I think it’s not happening is because one of the things that occurs because of the expanding mining industry and FIFO work is a rise in the cost of living,” he said. www.miningaustralia.com.au

“Criminologists know that crime is linked to social disadvantage, but if your socially disadvantaged people can’t afford to live in the region any more that may be a factor.”

The rumour mill

Scott said rumour and gossip played an important role in the ideas and stories of crime, and some news coverage had also played a role in this construction.

“The media isn’t isolated from the good-guy bad-guy story telling,” he said.

Scott also said gossip played a role in segregating the community and creating the marginalised groups that were blamed for society’s ills.

On one level he said gossip acted as a vehicle for permanent residents to express “shock and horror” at the behaviour of groups that did not conform with the typical idea of community life.

On another level he said previous study showed gossip often reduced intricate events into “stereotypical representations” which marred the complexities they deserved.

“Gossip was a device to distinguish and amplify what were considered to be the worse qualities, real or imagined, among FIFO workers and generalise these to the group as a whole.”

Feeding into the ideas of gossip Scott said jealousy also played a part in stories about the FIFO workforce.

“Resentment and conflict also occur because unskilled and semi-skilled miners often earn more money and occupy better and cheaper housing than professional workers,” he said.

Connecting all of these ideas

is the fact that despite their size, regional communities and locals are highly organised and can be powerful storytellers.

With links to the local media they’re quite often more effective at telling their story than the mining companies and workers.

What results is an unexpected power imbalance where the interests of sections of the community are heard louder than those of large companies.

“There’s this idea that communities are powerless in the fact of a lot of the change that’s going on,” Scott said.

“To a certain extend what we’re seeing isn’t necessarily one group that has all the power and another that has nothing, we’re seeing a bit of a contest going on.”

Life’s good

Some of Scott’s findings, particularly on the role of gossip and jealousy, will prove to be provocative for community members.

Nevertheless he’s confident the data, surveys, and research backs him up.

And beyond critiquing locals Scott’s research tells an encouraging story about our mining communities.

By highlighting the disconnect between claims about FIFO workers and the reality, he proves what many workers and locals already know.

Life in mining towns is not as bad as it’s often portrayed.

Whether in Queensland or WA, these towns are not the disordered places often pictured in the media or public imagination.

While there are serious issues hindering their development, they’re often more tranquil than you’d expect.

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CONTRACT MINING, ENGINEERING & SERVICES

Nothing wasted on management In days gone by waste was just one of the consequences of mining. Today, waste management demands close attention and serious consideration. Jamie Wade writes.

W

aste material is a by-product of most industrial operations and its disposal, processing and treatment is a sensitive issue in the community.

From initial planning to exploration, project conception through to operations and process flows, mine closure, restoration and rehabilitation, waste management is ever present.

Attention and consideration to effective waste management is, therefore, an essential part of any mining operation today.

Mine operators can expect little sympathy and large fines – notwithstanding damage to reputation – from detrimental impacts on the environment from poor waste management.

A policy of inaction or just plain ignorance towards waste and its management is perilous, according to Tox Free Solutions business and technical development manager Chris Tanzer, who says the public and the environment must be protected from the potentially harmful effects of waste.

“Some waste materials particularly mining spoils and tailings dams are normally safe, but can become hazardous if not managed properly,” Tanzer told Australian Mining.

To date much of the progress in waste innovations publicly promoted through the media, says Tanzer, has been in the development of high-value new technologies to treat some of the more common wastes streams. However mine operators waste A D _considering A M R G N Aa U G _ 1manage2 . pd ment strategy can begin by simply

www.miningaustralia.com.au

Ignoring waste management issues can result in hefty fines for negligent miners.

maintaining an emphasis on source “Source separation is much more separation of materials to minimise effective in conserving resources than contamination which leads to the relying solely on highly complex, exmost efficient reprocessing of that pensive end-of-pipe technologies for material. managing a broad array of hetero“There is strong evidence to geneous waste products. suggest that there are many relative “That said, there is a need for simple forms of innovation in waste continuing research into improving management approaches that are at recovery and reprocessing technoloa less unit cost,” Tanzer said. gies,” he said.

“These include education on efThe key challenge, he explained, fective waste prevention and mini- is improving accessibility to these misation strategies, source separation emerging technologies. to eliminate cross contamination, “This is more likely to be achieved f andP specific a g e technologies 1 2 0 / 0 for 7 / treating 1 2 , 3 by : 0providing 5 P M incentives to more effiparticular waste streams. ciently collect and transport materials

to strategic locations for reprocessing, develop local and export markets for collected product and encourage industries and the community to embrace these schemes,” he said.

“Innovation is especially needed as economic and regulatory drivers seek to overcome disincentives to establishing advanced technologies close to populated centres that are producing the larger volumes of wastes.”

Also important for resource conservation are enforceable waste targets and green product design standards that enhance the recyclability of discarded items, according to Tanzer.

“In mining today, the key focus is on waste minimisation coupled with efficient and safe operations, environmental compliance and optimising recycling and beneficial reuses where practical.”

Some of the common waste management services in mining today include: recycling; landfill operations; education; industrial and chemical waste clean-up and disposal; plant maintenance and high pressure cleaning; sludge removal; hydrocarbon waste management and contaminated soil management.

Additional services include: soil sampling and tailings dam analysis; treatment and disposal of contaminated soil or contaminated waters; treatment of sludge and bi-products; Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) waste tracking; site waste audits; waste and environmental reporting; and future waste management modelling and planning.

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MINING’S DIGITAL FUTURE

Don’t fear

THE FUTURE

High speed broadband is set to change the nation, but mining needs to ensure it is part of this future. Cole Latimer writes.

A

ustralia is going dig- a low public debt level and ital and mining is set prudent banking sector, has to be the big win- buffered Australia’s econoner as it integrates this new my from challenging global technology. marco-economics conditions.

At IBM and IBISWorld’s “Consequently, it is easy recent launch of the “Snap- to overlook the need to adshot of Australia’s Digital Fu- dress the nation’s sustained ture to 2050” report, it out- productivity decline and the lined the country’s increased importance of securing longuse of broadband, how this er-term prosperity.” will affect Australian indusStevens went on to add tries, and the dawning of that it will be “astonishing what it dubbed the ‘Infotron- the impact that broadband ics Age’. will have on the developThe report had some ment of Australia”. major predictions for the By 2050 the report statcountry’s future up to 2050, ed that ICT will generate and described just how in- around $1 trillion in reveformation and communica- nues for the country, and Despite a massive mining boom, productivity has been increasingly sluggish in the sector. tions technology (ICT) is importantly mining will be going to change the country. amongst the five industries The technology is also be] our lowest productivity Australia thus far from the To date “the investment to benefit from this develop- being seen through the growth industries today, in- downturn, but added that this was a unique occurrence in broadband has been frus- ment. greater automation of every cluding mining. trated by a lack of vision We have already seen day processes as well as the “High speed broadband as “it was more a pricing in its future use,” Andrew broadband and ICT making more visible massive trucks is essential for Australia’s boom than a product boom” and went on to highlight Stevens, managing director inroads into mining, particu- and machinery. economic growth.” the inefficiencies currently of IBM Australia and New larly with developments such According to the report Zealand, explained at the as Rio Tinto’s Mine of the “by 2020 Australia will re- Mining’s place and future plaguing the industry.

Mining “desperately needs report’s launch.

Future and its Remote Op- turn to a productivity growth At the event, IBISWorld’s He explained that “the erations Centre, a feat that of 1.7 per cent due in part to chairman Phil Ruthven sin- transformation as it is one of unprecedented natural re- Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill ICT … some of the biggest gled out mining as one of the the most inefficient industries A D _ A MS E I J U N _ 1 2 . p d f Pa ge 1 8 / 5 / 1 2 , 1 1 : 0 4 AM sources boom, together with iron ore is hoping to emulate. industry beneficiaries [will industries that has protected right now”.

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MINING’S DIGITAL FUTURE

function in logistics, virtual operations (including robotics), ore grade use optimisation, and exploration analyses. “This will become much more important as mineral prices pause and fall after the current cycle peaks in the 2020s, if not earlier.�

It also pointed to the proliferation of remote control centres and tele-operations. “Teleworking will continue as a key trend, with possibly one in four people in the workforce working at least partially from home if not full time by the middle of the century.�

This also address some of the major fly in fly out issues currently plaguing the industry, as “skilled workers will be able to live anywhere if they so choose�.

Mining will see major benefits from the ICT revolution.

“The export of tourism alone could match the 2012 mineral exports, totalRuthven explained that pected to gain 12.1 per cent ling around $175 billion by mining’s productivity has in revenues from increased 2030.� dropped over the last ten broadband availability and Stevens stated that years, and seen “a 9.8 per use. “businesses and government cent dip in productivity from must decide how best to levThe snapshot report 2001 through to 2011�. erage our increasingly ubiqstates that “smart sensors and However, he went on to machine to machine commu- Not all bright uitous digital infrastructure; say that in the report, it out- nications will reap produc- However, one downside for and how to help Australia lines that after retail trade tivity benefits for mining by the mining industry is the pre- shift from a natural resourcand the public administra- taking out labour costs and dicted shift “from a natural es dependent economy to a resources to a developed re- more diverse ‘developed retion and safety industries, increasing efficiency. mining is set to be the bigger “Superfast broadband A D _ A MS O U A U G _ 1 2 . p d f P a g e 1 1 1 / 0sources 7 / 1 economy�

2 , 1 1 by : 1around 2 A M sources oriented economy’. winner from ICT, as it ex- will play a very important 2030.

He went on to say that AusMining will increase productivity, but not output in coming years.

tralia currently sits well behind the rest of Asia for high speed broadband, and our standard of living is at risk if we do not take advantage of this technology. “Now is the time for Australian industries to start adapting their businesses to leverage the digital future this report envisages; industries that do not embrace this new utility are likely to see the demise of their business,� Stevens said. “Don’t fear the future.�

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AUSTRALIANS OVERSEAS

Working like a TROJAN An Aussie miner is making the most of a low cost gold mine in South America’s Andean mountains.

Cole Latimer writes.

H

igh in the Andes an Australian company is becoming a major gold miner.

In these snow capped mountains, gold miner Troy Resources is working the very prospective, low cost mine dubbed Casposo (which is Spanish for Dandruff, and refers to the snow flecked hills around the project).

Catching up with Troy’s CEO Paul Benson, he explained to Australian Mining what the miner is doing to produce such low cost gold, and where the future lies for Troy.

Benson said the main focus has been on developing its Casposo project – its crown jewel mine, from which it carried out its first gold pour back in 2010.

This mine “will be the lowest cost gold mine on the entire ASX,” he told Australian Mining.

Located in Argentina’s San Juan province, the gold and silver mine sits around 2400 metres above sea level and just south of Barrick Gold’s massive Pascua Lama mine which has around 18 million ounces of gold, and its Veladero mine which has around 10.6 million ounces of gold.

The Casposo project is currently made up of the Kamila open pit, and a number of high value targets, in particular the Inca SE Deeps target, which has around 15 grams of gold equivalent per tonne.

Benson said what separates it from many mines is that fact that it is

such as low cost operator, recording operating costs of around US$ 407 per ounce in the March quarter.

Working in Argentina Troy has faced a number of difficulties that don’t plague Australia based operators, however while the high altitudes haven’t been an issue, the weather, local communities, and infrastructure pose the same problems as in Australia. Once “the site got down to minus 28 degrees Celsius,” Benson said, “and this affected the dry tailings”.

However he added that the site “now has sheds that cover the equipment, we’re prepared for another cold winter”.

Unlike many miners in remote or mountainous regions, Casposo is ac-

tually located near a sealed highway that connects directly to the city.

“We have a private road that runs from the site to highway,” Benson said.

This also enables the miner to bus its workers directly to the mine.

The mine itself is also located “next to a tiny town, so with the community that near we’ve sought ways to have a positive effect for the town and the mine, so one of the first ways we did this was by bringing grid power to the region, rather than relying on generators for power; we’ve also provided greater access to water, as well as supplying the local school with the internet.” Inflation is also an issue for operators in Argentina, however it

The mine is dubbed Casposo, which is Spanish for dandruff and refers to the snow covered hills surrounding the project.

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Cost per ounce has been as low as US$ 373 per ounce of gold, Benson said.

hasn’t affected the miner too badly.

Although Troy is hamstrung to a de­ gree by the fact that its processing is carried out in Canada, so there is a six week lead time on profits due to the minerals transportation and processing times.

However while it has been ramp­ ing up Casposo, the miner expects to drop production in 2013 through to 2014 as “we will be proving up ad­ ditional higher grade ore through the Kamila pit moving underground and into Inca Deeps,” Benson said.

However this drop is from a high point of more than 90 000 ounces down to only 44 000 ounces of gold, and doesn’t take into account silver in gold equivalent which actually pushes Troy upwards from just under 120 000 ounces in 2013 to just short of 140 000 ounces in 2014 and 2015.

As of 2012 it had gold equivalent reserves of about 574 600 ounces at Casposo.

As of February it had grades of 4.8 grams of gold per tonne, and 236.1 grams of silver per tonne.

Benson added that for the future the miner is “more focused on getting the resource out of the pit than ex­ tending the exploration area of Inca”.

Its Mercado pit is located just north of the main Kamila pit, while the Julieta target lays north west again of both pits, along the same re­ gional structural corridor.

Within the same province, it also has the Don David joint venture.

Troy also operates the Andorin­ has gold mine in nearby Brazil, which was its first operation outside of Aus­ tralia.

It expects to produce 50 000 ounces this year, with the cost price dropping steeply from just below www.miningaustralia.com.au

US$ 600 per ounce to less than US$ 500 in June.

The miner expects to continue operations at the Brazilian mine un­ til around 2015, although “there is the potential to add to Androhinas,” Benson said.

Operating in South America since 2002 and only closing its Australian Sandstone gold mine in 2010, the miner has been focusing on growing its footprint on the continent.

Troy is tightly controlled with fewer than 90 million shares floating around the market (with more than 70 per cent Australian owned) de­ spite a market cap of just over $350 million; the miner also recently en­ tered the ASX top 200 and unlike a lot of miners “we have paid 12 fully franked cash dividends to our share­ holders over the last 12 years,” Ben­ son told Australian Mining.

However, it did declare that it would not pay a dividend for the first half of 2012.

Despite this it saw a growth rate of 17 per cent last year, which Benson predicts will double this year, while at the same time it saw a 25 per cent reduction in costs.

In the December quarter alone it saw a 39 per cent increase in gold production and a 36 per cent reduc­ tion in cash costs to around US$ 373 per ounce.

As of March it had around $15 million net in cash, and $17 million in debt “but we expect to pay this off by next year,” Benson said.

“We’ve got a big working capi­ tal,” he added.

In the mean time it will continue to look at potential mergers or ac­ quisition opportunities, Benson told Australian Mining.

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DUST & VENTILATION

FUMING

at the thought The labelling of diesel exhaust fumes and particulate matter as carcinogenic will have wide ranging implications for mining. Cole Latimer reports.

I

t is official. Everything on the mine site will now definitely kill you.

The World Health Organization has now officially classified diesel fumes as ‘carcinogenic’, meaning that breathing the air daily on site will heighten your risk of lung cancer.

This ruling came in June after a week long meeting by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

It was a step up for diesel fumes, which were originally labelled as ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’ in 1988, after which a reevaluation of its status was set for 1998.

However the resulting follow up has only now been carried out, and was www.miningaustralia.com.au

most likely motivated by of the International Agency tional groups were followed the publication of a large for Research on Cancer, with positive findings for US National Cancer Insti- said diesel fumes are now the general population”. tute and National Institute “on the same order of magOn top of this a refor Occupational Safety and nitude as passive smoking. port released in 2008 by Health study of occupation“This could be another the Australian Coal Assoal exposure to diesel fumes big push for countries to ciation Research Program and diesel particulate mat- clean up exhaust from diesel (ACARP) stated that “the ter in underground miners, engines.” significant introduction of which showed an diesel engines in increased risk of underground minAmong heavily exposed workers the death from lung ing plant since the risk of dying from lung cancer was cancer in exposed 1960s has created approximately three times greater. workers. a hazard in terms The IARC exof suspended dieplained that “there has been He explained that “the sel particulates”. a mounting concern about main studies that led to this It seems that it was only the cancer causing potential conclusion were in highly a matter of time before dieof diesel exhaust, particular- exposed workers [such as sel fumes’ risk levels were ly based on recent findings miners]. However we have upgraded. in epidemiological studies learned from other carcinofor workers exposed in vari- gens, such as radon, that The report ous settings”. initial studies showing a risk The majority of this ruling Kurt Straif, the director in heavily exposed occupa- was based on the U.S. study,

but what exactly did the research find?

According to the report “most previous studies have found a modest association between the risk of lung cancer and exposure to diesel exhaust. However to our knowledge these studies typically have inferred diesel exhaust exposure from job title in the absence of quantitative data on historical exposure, and no study has had the data on historical data coupled with adequate sample size to evaluate the exposure – response relationship between diesel exhaust and lung cancer”.

In the research they had a nested case-control study Continued on page 62 AustralianMining

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DUST & VENTILATION

Continued from page 61

in a cohort of 12 315 workers in eight non metal mining facilities (potash, trona, limestone, and salt) as well as mining facilities.

It also took into account health, the miners’ family history of cancer, whether they were a smoker, age, and race.

“The results showed a strong and consistent relationship between exposure to diesel exhaust and increased risk of dying from lung cancer.

“Among heavily exposed workers the risk of dying from lung cancer was approximately three times greater than that among workers in the lower quartile of exposure.”

The report stated that a statistically significant risk of lung cancer was observed for workers employed at least ten years in occupations at high risk for lung cancer.

Although the research did find that at a certain point there was a decline in risk amongst the most heavily exposed workers.

Diesel fumes have negatively affected one Austra­ lian Mining reader.

Lynette Mather explained “I have big log trucks idling

Underground workers with ten years of diesel exhaust exposure showed a massive increase in the risk of contracting lung cancer.

out front a lot as they leave their rigs running when they go next door to the roadhouse.

“I struggle to breathe and everything in my house gets a fine coating of greasy

diesel dust,” she told Aus­ tralian Mining.

Not all bad

While the findings were overwhelmingly in favour of diesel exhaust’s new status

Diesel fumes and diesel particulate matter is now classified as carcinogenic as passive smoking.

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as carcinogenic, one discovery showed that two wrong may make a right.

Smoking may actually lessen the effects of diesel exposure and vice versa.

“We observed an attenuation of the effect of cigarette smoking among study subjects who were exposed to high levels of diesel exhaust,” the report said.

It also found that diesel particulate matter has been shown to reduce the initiation of skin tumours in mice … possibly through inhibition of enzymes that carry out its metabolic activation.

“We also observed a weakening of the diesel exhaust effect amongst heavy smokers (i.e. smokers of at least two packs per day), which is necessarily implied by the observation of a weakening of the effect of smoking at least two packs per day among workers heavily exposed to diesel exhaust.”

The report added that “it has been previously reported that coal dust burden in the lungs of coal miners

is reduced among smokers, which may be attributable to increase coal dust clearance, and it is possible that diesel exhaust particulate deposition may be reduced in the lungs of smokers by a similar process”.

However it noted that “little experimental evidence is available to date to support and explain effect modification of diesel exposure by smoking”.

No word as of yet on the effect of beer drinking and diesel exhaust attenuation.

Fuming over the results

While this study focused on a wide time period, some claim that in the ruling these studies did not take into account the new lower emission diesel engines and the filters currently in place.

The diesel fuel industry rejected the study’s findings, stating that it wasn’t accurate as researchers had unreliable data on early exposure levels.

Diesel engine technology has recently focused heavily on cutting particle matter www.miningaustralia.com.au

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DUST & VENTILATION

and fumes from the engines, as US and European stand­ ards increase and filtration technology improves.

“We don’t have enough evidence to say these new engines are zero risk, but they are certainly lower risk than before,” the US EPA stated.

Additionally, filters on many underground plant and machinery as well as higher performing, lower emission engines has dramatically cut fume and diesel particulate matter in the air.

Sandvik, a manufacturer of much underground diesel plant equipment, says it is working towards counter­ ing diesel particulate matter challenges on site.

It has focused on greater emissions standards for its new underground trucks as well as filters.

Sandvik Mining’s pro­ duct line manager for under­ ground hard rock mining, Scott Rowe, explained its new TH550 and TH540 mining trucks are available With advances in filter and emissions technology, mine air is almost as clean as an average city or urban area. with a clean engine option.

“These trucks can pro­ developing its new under­ told Australian Mining and we get informed if we The last word vide a healthier environment ground truck range, the “mines will only allow a have exceeded the Austra­ The chairman of the IARC for all personnel working company paid attention to certain amount of diesel ve­ lian standard for exposure.” working group, Christopher underground,” Rowe said. environmental, health, and hicles into each part of the Continuing on Rowe’s Portier, was unambiguous “For example if these safety issues, as well as the mine based on the amount statements on city air, the about diesel exhaust and par­ engines were running in the inevitable productivity and of ventilation to that par­ study also found that “our ticulate matter’s affects.

“The scientific evidence centre of a large city then reliability factors. ticular area,” adding that results suggest that the high the exhaust fumes coming Australian mines also “every month or so we have air concentrations of el­ was compelling and the work­ out of the engines would ac­ differ from American by a few blokes wear noise/dust emental carbon reported in ing group’s conclusion was tually be cleaner than the air way of standards. & diesel particulate moni­ some urban areas may con­ unanimous: diesel engine ex­ they were taking in.” Rowe Michael Davies, who tors for their full shift. The fer increased risk of lung haust causes lung cancer in A D _ A MS N O A U G _ 1 2 . p d f ge 1 2 3 / 0 7 / 1 2 , 2 : 2 1 PM humans.” added that in designing and works as Pa aminer in QLD results get sent for analysis cancer”.

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DUST & VENTILATION

Dust to dust A purpose-built dust suppression system makes fast work of minimising dust particles emitted in to the atmosphere from this iron ore transportation system. Sarah Falson writes.

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ny contractor working in the mining industry knows that environmental and worker safety issues are just as important as project uptime and product turnover.

So, when the VDM Group teamed-up with design consultancy Norman Disney & Young (NDY) in 2010 to build a transportation system for a fledgling iron ore project at Port Hedland, Western Australia, the duo was wellversed in the importance of ‘dust suppression’.

The ‘Utah Point Berth The Utah Point project faced serious dust issues.

Project’ – which is now a fullyfunctioning, multi-user berth 120,000 tonnes capacity “The dust suppression in the Pilbara – was com- each. Only one ship can be system utilises a series of missioned for use by second loaded at a time, however the water cannons and sprinkltier miners, allowing them to wharf has a state-of-the-art ers throughout the materishare infrastructure costs. The mooring system which has als handling process that project team was required to the ability to dock and re- maintains dust extinction deliver a conveyor system ca- lease ships in minutes. It also moisture levels and prevents pable of carrying 7500 tonnes has the capacity to hold ships windborne dust from affectof iron ore per hour, 24-hours- in place during the 7.5m ing nearby towns,” Murdoch a-day – which equates to 18 tide,” VDM Utah project told Australian Mining. million tonnes per annum – manager, Jean-Claude Sulon, “The completed system from 13 stockpiles of product told Australian Mining. is fully-automated via rewith a combined capacity of According to NDY Utah mote weather sensors, prox910 000 tonnes. Paramount principal engineer, Rob Mur- imity sensors and solenoid to the conveyor set-up was a doch, the multi-tier project actuated valves. The control purpose-built dust suppres- involved: the design of an was integrated into the site sion system to minimise dust automated stockpile and control system.” particles emitted in to the air dump point dust suppression According to Sulon, the when the iron ore, magnetite system; the water supply for ‘dust issue’ needed to be and chromite was transport- conveyor transfer stations; ‘designed out’ of the sysed from the stockpiling facil- conveyor wash boxes; mo- tem to meet the customer’s ity for export. bile reclaim hoppers; stack- requirements. “When mateA“The D _ Awharf M Q Uwas I Adesigned U G _ 1 2 ers; . pd f the P ashiploader g e 1 dust 2 0 / 0rial 7 /is 1transferred 2 , 1 2 :from 2 0 one PM and for small cape vessels with suppression system. element to another dust is

www.miningaustralia.com.au

Dust suppression was focused on transfer points and stockpiles.

a natural outcome, so at every point, from in-load at delivery of product into the hoppers into stockpile, to out load where product was deposited by WA600 front end-loaders into mobile hoppers onto conveyor belts and through several transfer points, and eventually onto a shipload and into the vessel, dust suppression was used,” he said.

“The stockpiles were also under suppression and an automated system which monitored the weather; wind, temp and evaporation, would then automatically spray the stockpiles in a self-determined routine.”

In addition, all excess dust suppression water was captured via an integrated

drainage system and recycled, he said.

“The excess water was pumped back to primary settling pond, which in-turn fed a secondary and tertiary pond, and then into holding tanks, thus conserving water.” NDY also integrated the pipework for the fire hydrant and dust suppression system pipework, eliminating the need for separate pipework and storage tanks.

“Due to the scale of the site, this reduction of pipework had a significant impact upon capital expenditure for the project,” Murdoch explained.

“We believe that these two systems have not previously been combined in a similar application.”

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DUST & VENTILATION

Towering above the competition Water cannons attached to towers are pushing dust suppression further.

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Reliability in the most extreme conditions.

More machine uptime.

Tough sensor solutions. ifm design and test our products in environments far exceeding your application environment.

Position sensors Fluid sensors Control systems

ot every mine site is the same.

Each site suffers from dust issues differently, depending on their location and their material.

A coal mine won’t have the same dust problems as an iron ore or gold mine might.

Because of this, dust suppression has to be tailored to suit the site.

Dust Control Technology has released a range of tower mounts for its atomising misting equipment to give miners great control over their dust suppression.

The new towers extend droplet hang time and range, while providing more precise aiming ability.

According to the company they are able to deliver “millions of 50 to 200 micron droplets per minute” and were designed “specifically to address ongoing operations that generate dust in fixed locations”.

DCT general manager Laura Stiverson explained that “the tower mounts can deliver a focused mist to the areas where dust is created; this allows the DustBoss units to concentrate virtually their entire output directly to the source of the problem”.

These towers have been designed to withstand wind loads of around 160 kilometres per hour, and are constructed from carbon steel pipe which is hot dip galvanised to withstand corrosion.

The fans themselves can be modified to address specific particle size, matching the water droplet size to the dust particle size.

“The most effective suppression takes place when the dust and droplets are roughly the same size,” Stiverson added.

These towers are available in three sizes.

A 150 mm base tube is for towers of under four metres, while in the mid range 200 mm diameter tower tube are used.

The largest, and most heavy duty of the range, is the 250 mm diameter flange-mounted towers, which are secured directly into concrete and available in heights of up to six metres.

The flange mounted units feature programmable oscillation, with a settable range of between zero and 359°, according to DCT. Automation is also an option, and “automated units can be operated from a single radio controlled, hand held remote to conserve resources and avoid over saturation,” she said.

In fully automated systems they have sensors that track wind and weather, as well as PLCs. It features “intelligent” systems that can be “programmed to manage start/stop cycles based on dust monitor readings, motion sensors, or weather input,” Stiverson added.

Robust control system ecomatmobile is the perfect solution of mobile applications.

1300 365 088 sales.au@ifm.com www.ifm.com

efector The towers allow miners to suppress dust across a much greater area.

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Pneumatics and Automation solutions

AD_AMSMCAUG_12.pdf

Custom Solutions for Harsh Environments We have been providing pneumatic and automation solutions to the mining and resource sectors for over 40 years. The experience of our Australian and global design teams allows us to create components to withstand some of the most aggressive environments known to man.

Our solutions include electro-pneumatic control systems for floatation cells, coal wagon dump doors, cyclone actuation and dart valves as well as heavy duty pneumatic valves and actuators with bore sizes of up to 500mm for train loads outs, conveyor diverter gates and crusher systems.

In fact, thanks to our in-house design and production teams, we can provide you with customised solutions that perfectly suit your needs.

Contact us now to see how we can help you withstand the rigours of your operating environment.

1800 763 862 Australia wide enquiries@smcaus.com.au www.smcaus.com.au

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BRANT WEBB

BEYOND Beaconsfield Following the recent closure of the Beaconsfield mine, Australian Mining talks safety and the future with survivor Brant Webb.

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he 2006 Beaconsfield mine collapse killed miner Larry Knight and trapped Brant Webb and Todd Russell for two weeks.

But despite the ordeal Webb harbours no bad feelings toward the site or its management.

Reflecting on owner BCD Resources’ decision to close the site, Webb said the mine’s loss was a “huge disappointment” for the Beaconsfield community.

“It’s one of the major employers up here,” he said.

From workers finding new jobs and relocating their families, to other businesses suffering from the drop in population, Webb said the Beaconsfield’s closure sounded a somber note for the Tasmanian town.

“It’s a disappointment for the economic position that the community is going to be put into because we’ll lose all our volunteers,” he said, adding that “there are a lot 68

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of big knock-on effects” for the region.

Having lived through the infamous accident and continued in the industry as business development manager for BLH Solutions, Webb said the once in a lifetime experience at Beaconsfield had informed his future in the industry.

He said touching base with rescuers and safety personnel after the accident had given him valuable insight into the safety industry and guided his move into the sector.

“The Beaconsfield collapse was a big thing in my life,” he explained.

“We’ve made a lot of good friends with the people that rescued us, because they’re our heroes, they united us with our families.

“I’ve got the utmost admiration and respect for the guys that got us out.”

Despite living through the ordeal Webb retains a hint of mordancy when recounting the collapse and

his eventual rescue, explaining that “not many people live under a hundred tonnes of rock, so that made us a little bit special.

“The survival instinct kicked in and we lied to each other, that’s what you do.

“At the end of the day we didn’t have much in common, we were like chalk and cheese, so it was pretty tough work at times to make a conversation.

“But having that relationship saved our lives.”

One of the most evocative stories of the entire ordeal is the picture of how Webb and Russell discovered their air supply whilst trapped underground.

“When I pulled the lighter from my pocket the flame bent to where the air was going,” he said.

“When I followed it down there was a gap around 55mm wide where the air was coming in. That was the only gap we had.

“Without that gap we would’ve had about 45 minutres of air before we were on our oxygen boxes, and then probably 25 to 30 minutes with them.

“At best we would have had about an hour of air.”

Webb said his experience at Beaconsfield had driven home the importance of safety and spurred his move to help guide developments at BHL. “I lost a good mate of mine that I worked with,” he said.

“I worked with Larry every shift for nearly seven years, and when you lose a really good acquaintance like that it changes your perception.

“Because of that I was really happy to be asked to be the face of safety for BLH.” At BLH Webb has helped the development of the Stop Drop Barricade, designed to protect workers from being hit by falling objects.

In the [financial year before last] falling objects were

the most common cause of work-related fatalities in Australian industries, and Webb said he was proud to help develop the product.

Whilst just emerging from development and testing, he said local and international interest had been high and the product was starting to make its way to some Australian mines.

“We’ve got quite a few trial pieces going into different mine sites and BHP Billiton have also taken us on at Olympic Dam,” he said.

“There are people all over the world wanting it, in Chile, Candada, and even the oil and gas industry is starting to look at it.”

An approach he’s felt the impact of first hand, Webb said even a single missed accident would mean a big return on investment.

“We’ll be the happiest company alive if it saves even one person. We’ll be ecstatic,” he said. www.miningaustralia.com.au

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The new NEWCASTLE event – M&E NSW A move from Muswellbrook to Newcastle is reinvigorating the Hunter Valley event.

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oal has been king for a long time in the Hunter Valley and in such a well established market it’s hard to get a foot in the door.

One event, which has been held for more than twenty years, has been helping highlight new players and the different services available to the industry in the region – M&E NSW. Since its first exhibition back in 1991 it was held in Muswellbrook every four years.

However, for the first time the event has made a major change.

With increased demand and continuing growth driving interest in the region, the exhibition organiser, Reed Mining Events, has been forced to move it to the nearby city of Newcastle.A“Since 1991, D_ AM S T Aprevious A U G _ 1editions 2 . pd of M&E NSW have been held eve-

ry four years in the Upper Hunter, with the last one in Muswellbrook in 2009,” Reed Mining Events exhibition director Paul Baker explained.

“However, this year we have decided to move it to Newcastle for a number of reasons.

“Newcastle is recognised as the industry hub for the NSW Hunter Coalfields, with a large proportion of the sector’s mining engineering services and support based in and around the city,” he said.

“In addition, a significant portion of the workforce and mine management are based around Newcastle and the surrounding region, including Lake Macquarie and Port Stephens – so the Newcastle Entertainment Centre is a central location to attract key visitors.”

These f P a g key e visitors 1 1 8 include / 0 7 / front1 2 , line workers such as operators, su-

pervisors, miners, and maintenance crews from around the Hunter, as well as those in management.

“Frontline mine personnel are key players in running successful mining operations – they play a vital role in selecting equipment, because they operate, maintain and work with it on a daily basis, and their insights and opinions are of critical interest, not only to senior mine management, but also to suppliers and service providers.

“For that reason, we are actively encouraging frontline personnel – whether they are operators, supervisors, maintenance personnel, foremen or pit or shift managers – to come along and be a part of M&E NSW 2012,” he said.

Reed will also be running career and networking 4 : presentations 1 4 PM events at the exhibition.

Monitor both AC and DC current and solve low-level VFD earth-faults

NEW

EL731 Sensitive AC/DC Earth-Leakage Relay

Startco For more information on Littelfuse Protection Relay products in Australia, please contact Startco Pty.

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Only from Littelfuse Startco—EL731 Sensitive AC/DC Earth-Leakage Relay Littelfuse introduces the EL731 AC/DC Sensitive Earth-Leakage Relay - a revolutionary new product that finally solves common ground-fault detection problems associated with variable frequency drives and is equally applicable to AC, DC, and mixed AC/DC systems.

To learn more about the EL731 visit www.littelfuse.com/ACDC or call Startco Pty 0754 56 4554.

Startco Pty 1/15 Page Street, Kunda Park, Qld 4556 Ph: 0754 56 4554 Email: sales@startco.com.au

www.miningaustralia.com.au

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// B E C A U S E Y O U D O N ’ T D O T H I N G S B Y H A LV E S

Hitachi AC Drive dump trucks. Built to match Hitachi excavators.

Our trucks and excavators are brothers. They’re designed by the same engineers, assembled in the same factories, and built to the same quality. If you’re running a Hitachi excavator, then you’ve already experienced half of the Hitachi advantage.

Now it’s time to see what a fleet can do.

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Eco mining Pro-Air Solutions will feature equipment designed to help mining and construction companies reduce their environmental impact on Stand 2034 from August 28-30.

The company’s V series atomised water cannons, E12 evaporator and newly developed larger V22 were specifically developed to respectively reduce dust and manage excess water at mining sites, Reducing environmental impacts. with Pro-Air confident they are the most costeffective available. The New V22 at 1200 litres per minute delivers some real volume as only the mining industry demands and commands.

The costs of these state-of-the-art dust suppression and water management systems are relatively low in comparison to many methods currently employed and more importantly achieve the desired results.

Manufactured by italian snow-making systems manufacturer, TechnoAlpin, the V series has shown in recent European tests to suppress more than 80% of dust. The V series’ dust suppression capability is attributed to a hydro jet canon that creates a very fine and efficient water mist that covers a large area without soaking the environment.

According to the company the patented nozzle technology manages droplet size and water use, and directs the flow more accurately as the head is centred on the fan.

“High performance fans produce a linear water ejection pattern for pinpoint accuracy while the latest valve technology regulates water flow and droplet size,” it added.

The systems can be fully automated with weather station.

• Pro-Air Solutions Thomas Peintner 07 3348 9570 thomas@proairsolutions.com.au www.proairsolutions.com.au A D _ A MH U MA U G _ 1 2 . p d f Pa ge 1 1 9 / 0 7 / 1 2 ,

The New Performance Edge

Rise of the Conscious Organisation 14TH AUSTRALIAN CONFERENCE ON CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP

4 September

SYDNEY

11 September

MELBOURNE

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This is a complimentary event. For attendance please register at www.human-synergistics.com.au/ccl.aspx or scan the QR-code with your phone.

Presented by

Changing the World—One Organisation at a Time®

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Excavator piston pumps

9 : 4 1

TidAl Fluid Power will feature a new piston pump for excavators on Stand 5050 during the 2012 Mining & EngineeringNSW Exhibition from August 28-30.

Pressure of 280 Bar. The company says its TPV33 pump features SAE or metric mounting flanges with two case drain connections and operates at a continuous pressure of 280 bar (4000 psi). it also has a swash plate design with right and left hand rotation and splined and keyed shafts with 18-140 lit/min displacements available.

The pump is manufactured in iSo 9001 certified factories.

Tidal Fluid Power will also feature its Sunfab bent axis piston motor for truck applications at M&E. These motors feature fixed displacement, small dimensions and a high starting torque with spherical pistons. They are also available with displacements ranging from 12-108cc/ rev and have SAE B, C and d mountings.

Brisbane-based Tidal Fluid Power offers a wide range of solutions for hydraulic piston pumps, supported by availability, service, quality and price.

“We have wide industry experience in systems design, manufacture, installation and repair of hydraulic pumps, motors, valves and cylinders,” Tidal Fluid Power’s Tania Howard said.

• Tidal Fluid Power 07 3889 4591 sales@tidalfluidpower.com.au A www.tidalfluidpower.com.au M

Water treatment NEWCASTlE-based deltawater Solutions will showcase technology for treating mine site water problems such as corrosion, scale and salinity on Stand 2042 during M&E NSW. delta’s technology is designed to treat problems that high mineral levels can cause with mining equipment that impact on the efficiency and maintenance needs of mine sites.

The company says its technology can prevent scale build-up in pipes, thereby reducing friction loss and decreasing pumping costs; the blockage of spray bars on belting systems; scale build-up on solenoid values, thus eradicate jamming and sticking; scale build-up in pumps, hence prevent pump failure; and scale build-up in motor cooling jackets and cooling towers. deltawater Solutions founders Alex and dianne Panov said the recent installation of a delta conditioner on the groundwater supply at the Xstrata McArthur river zinc mine in the Northern Territory had resulted in immediate benefits.

“The supply, which is rich in minerals such as calcium and magnesium, was to the wheel wash - a crucial part of the mine’s operation with up to 200 vehicles, from light utes to heavy trucks, using the facility every day,” Alex Panov said. “due to corrosion problems, maintenance staff had to change jets fortnightly, or more at certain times of the year.

“The delta conditioner made an immediate difference and paid for itself quickly.

“The mine now doesn’t have to do maintenance or touch the wheel wash infrastructure for between three to six months.” delta technology is also suited to amenities blocks, laundries and kitchens where it can help prevent scale build-up in pumps, pipes, hot water systems and water-using appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines. it also softened the water, leading to the improved performance of soaps, shampoos, detergents and cleaning products, he said.

With headquarters in Newcastle, NSW, delta has supplied products to tackle water-associated problems in mining, industry, agriculture and households for more than 20 years.

• Deltawater Solutions Dianne Panov 1800 283 600 info@deltawater.com.au www.deltawater.com.au www.miningaustralia.com.au

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Accommodation security Vintech Systems will promote the latest developments for its Saflok electronic security system for accommodation facilities on Stand 7015. the company claims to be a world leader in robust and technically sophisticated room security systems, featuring on-line battery operated locks using Real time security control.

Messenger bi-directional wireless communication networks operating on the ZigBee high Security Prostack protocol. “importantly, this includes the Messenger LenS (Lock event notification System) component that relays information in real-time as it occurs at the lock,” Sajid Jehangir, Vintech Systems’ business development manager, explained. “LenS also enables properties to customise job-specific profiles, stipulate the type of notification for these and specify a notification delivery method such as email or SMS,” he said. the result was a system with many levels of integration and interoperability, both in a smart room context with other room devices and with immediate event notifications, Jehangir said. And with the ZigBee platform, entering a guestroom was a custom experience, he said. “For example, when a guest presents a key card or other credential to a lock, the lights adjust to the appropriate level, the appropriate television channel turns on and the temperature adjusts to the guest’s liking.” the system also provides hotel and other accommodation providers with real-time alerts when battery levels are low or doors are ajar for more than 30 seconds. As well, audit information can show if a lock has been accessed from within or outside a room and use of staff keys. the system also features remote lock audits; security that allows an existing guest card to work only on the new room lock if a room move is required; the removal from the system within minutes of lost or cancelled staff cards; custom message communications such as advice that a room has been cleaned or a minibar replenished; integration with energy management and smart room devices; and remote lock access that allows technical support staff to dial directly into a lock, saving on onsite visits by hotel staff.

• Vintech Systems www.vintech.com.au

Specialist bearings cooPer Split Bearings and Kaydon Bearings will offer an increased range of specialist bearings on Stand 7001 during M&e nSW. the two companies, which have joined forces in Australia, have a combined 176 years of experience in bearing design and production.

Both are members of the US-based Kaydon corporation. cooper’s Stuart Goates said the cooper brand was synonymous with proven cost savings and extended bearing life in the mining industry. “either on the surface or operating underground, cooper’s products continue to perform in the most hostile and challenging environments,” he said.

Key applications include material handling conveyors, ventilation shaft and air movement fans, crushing and milling, hauling and winding, stockpile and surge pile management, screening, sizing and washing. “cooper Split Bearings are the global leader in split-to-shaft bearing technology, which is designed to save massive amounts of time and money by reducing downtime and increasing productivity,” Goates said. “the split feature means maintenance and replacement is cut to a minimum while the superior sealing promotes longer bearing life.

“As a result, business profitability is increased.”

Goates said Kaydon Bearings had been a leading US manufacturer of slew ring bearings for more than 60 years, with its slew ring bearings ranging in size from 10 cm to more than 6 m in diameter.

Kaydon specialises in mining and heavy machinery applications such as mining shovels, excavators, reclaimers, stackers, port ship loader cranes, forestry equipment and aerial platforms.

• Cooper Bearings Group Stuart Goates 08 9397 9990 sgoates@kaydon.com www.cooperbearings.com A D _ A M B U R Jwww.kaydonbearings.com UL _ 1 2 . p d f Pa ge 1 1 3 / 0 6 / 1 2 ,

Magnetic solutions internAtionAL Magnetic Solutions will promote magnetic innovations for mining and industrial applications on Stand 5049 during the 2012 Mining & engineering (M&e) nSW exhibition at the newcastle entertainment centre from August 28-30. the newcastle company’s technology includes a magnetic roof mesh locator and retainer magnet system designed support the cantilever weight of mesh grating as it sits in place in readiness to be bolted to a mine roof. “the system is designed to apply a substantial holding to mesh, making installation easier, faster and safer,” Victor cassar, international Magnetic Solutions’ managing director, said. named the ABM 25 Miner Magnetic Mesh Locator, the system was commended at the nSW Minerals council ohS innovations Awards in 2009 following successful trials at centennial coal mines in the hunter Valley and Mandalong. components are encased in mining grade yellow urethane and structurally reinforced with steel. international Magnetic Solutions will also show its Scale Busta Magnetic Scale eliminator at M&e. the eliminator, designed to remove scale from pipes in underground mines, focuses an intense magnetic field through a pipe wall into the water to be treated. cassar said this softened and removed concrete-hard scale from pipes with the scale simply washing out with the water. “Water and time do the removal work.” the Australian-made Scale Busta did not require chemicals and it also prevented further scale build-up and kept new installations free from scale, cassar said. the company will also show a purpose-built diagnostic procedure for determining if magnetic wet drum separators are faulty. cassar said that when, for example, a plant was known to be wasting magnetite, the diagnostic tool could help to identify irregularities such as magnets moving within a drum assembly, magnetite ingress or magnet damage. “the iMS test results will confirm if the condition of the magnets in the wet drum separators is a contributing factor and that information can be used to decide whether they simply need to be adjusted or if it’s necessary to go to the significant expense of pulling them out of service for repairs,” he said.

• International Magnetic Solutions Victor Cassar 02 4987 3912 victor@magneticsolutions.com.au www.imsolution.com.au www.miningaustralia.com.au

• • • • • • •

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EXHIBITOR LIST

Organisational improvement OPIC will demonstrate how it can help organisations to achieve sustainable, high-performance results from employees on Stand 6071 during the M&E NSW Exhibition.

The company says it has assisted several large Australian mining companies identify and harness the capabilities of their people in order to improve performance.

“The crucial products and services for the mining industry are our talent assessment, learning and development, and leadership services,” OPIC consultant Andrea Montalto said.

She said OPIC offered unique products and services that answered crucial questions for its clients and provided a pathway to sustained success.

“Our 17 years of specialist capability in organisational psychology, business consulting and research, means we can help create the insight needed to make a sustained impact on employees, teams, organisational capability and performance,” Montalto said.

It was imperative, she said, that employee capability was identified at the point of recruitment, especially in the mining industry where there was daily competition for talent and retention.

“OPIC identifies the critical capabilities for a role and the broader organisation through its assessment offering at all levels,” Montalto said.

For example, its Executive Capabilities Framework (ECF) is continually used to identify the key capabilities for success in leadership roles and what candidates need to be successful in such roles.

“And we believe ‘influencing’ is the most important capability in terms of predicting long-term organisational success so we provide a program to develop it,” she said.

“This includes stakeholder management planning, influencing profiles, a fundamentals-of-influencing training program, influencing coaching for managers and leaders and, at a higher level, a two-day Influencing for Leaders program.

OPIC also offers a Coach@Work program to enable established and upcoming organisational leaders to progress their people to the next level.

“Opic Coach@Work provides an integrated coaching system for managers and supervisors that develops coaching skills, identifies coaching capability gaps of subordinates, provides coaching tools and accreditation for managers,” Montalto said.

• OPIC Group Andrea Montalto 03 9529 5855 belden.pdf 1 12-6-8 下午1:28 andream@opic.com.au www.opic.com.au A D _ A MB E L A U G _ 1 2 . p d f Pa ge 1 1 9 / 0 7 / 1 2 , 9 : 1 4 AM

Diesel filtration LIquIP International will unveil a new portable diesel filtration skid system on Stand 9040.

“Designed for handling any diesel filtration application, this system can be easily put into service with little more than upstream and downstream connections being made,” Liquip representative Robert McLellan said.

Liquip International’s new Liquip Fuelling Solutions division will also showcase filtration products and elements at M&E. “Liquip Fuelling Solutions specialises in all aspects of fuel filtration and engineering solutions and is well positioned to serve the mining and industrial sectors,” McLellan said.

The division is the exclusive distributor of Velcon filter product offerings, holds the exclusive manufacturing rights for Velcon’s range of filter vessels, and its specialist team had almost 120 years of combined experience in filtration and design engineering with an in-depth knowledge of aviation filtration (API/EI 1581, 1582, 1583 and 1590); diesel filtration (ISO 4406 requirements); pressure vessel design; high pressure strainers; additive injection systems; floating suctions; fuel transfer skids; and associated fuelling equipment.

Servicing Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, the division’s filtration range includes monitors, microfilters and filter water separators for both fixed and mobile applications, which are designed in accordance with AS1210 and are registered and certified locally.

Liquip International is the global leader in quality products and solutions for specialist fluid transfer applications and has built its reputation for excellence over 40 years supplying equipment for the bulk liquid handling and storage industry.

• Liquip International Robert McLellan 03 9645 6134 rmclellan@liquip-vic.com.au www.liquip.com

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australia.sales@belden.com www.beldensolutions.com

T: hotline - 1800 500 775

www.miningaustralia.com.au

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Going to greater depths.

Productivity is often the first thing that draws mining industry professionals to Shurjoint ring joint piping systems. Our couplings and fittings join pipe 3 to 4 times faster than welded or flanged joints. Shurjoint products are ideal for applications requiring: • Thick-wall, large-diameter piping • More security than standard roll or cut-groove piping • Fast, easy assembly/disassembly, service and system expansion In the long run, it’s depth of service, supply and support that keep the relationship between Tyco and the industry so strong.

Explore Shurjoint Products today.

For more information visit www.shurjoint.com.

AM.AUG12.PG076.pdf

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PREVIEW

Welding tables

Cable marking systems

Leussink engineering will feature new Demmeler welding tables on stand 8036. The unanderra, nsW, company says the eco range “is an economical way of entering the Demmeler world” with its modular designs suited to expansion according to all budgets.

Leussink says Demmeler fixturing tables are a flexible jigging system suited to many applications in the mining, general engineering, agriculture, aerospace and automotive industries. “They provide accuracy in fabrication and assembly with up to 50% faster Modular tables. jigging times over conventional methods,” Leussink account manager/sales executive Russell Brinkworth, said. Demmeler work tables were made of high tensile, high strength steel, machined to very tight tolerances to ensure stability and flatness, Brinkworth said. “And they are designed to be used alone or bolted together to accommodate larger work pieces.” each table has 28mm diameter mounting holes spaced on a 100mm grid pattern across its top face and four sides. specialised positioning and clamping bolts were mounted through the holes and, combined with a comprehensive set of accessories, give users a highly versatile system, Brinkworth said.

• Leussink Engineering Russell Brinkworth 02 4260 7777 russell@leussink.com.au www.leussink.com.au

Fibre optic innovations AFC Group will feature two recent additions to its fibre optic products range on stand 9080. The Melbourne-based company will display Australian designed and manufactured fibre optic splice cassettes and Din rail mount fibre enclosures for harsh environments and industrial applications at the exhibition. The fibre optic splice cassettes have several new, patented features, including quick-grip spring-loaded fibre clamps, fibre storage and redirection spools, and special hinges. “These features will A D _easier A M and K Afaster R J installation U L _ 1 2times,” . p dAFC’s f senior P a product ge 1 ensure

manager Michael Gauci, said. in addition, AFC has released two new versions of its Din rail mount fibre enclosures. The mini version, for housing pre-terminated cables or for splicing loose tube cables, can accommodate 12sC connections in the one enclosure or 24sC connections when two enclosures are fitted together.

• AFC Group glen.johnston.afcgroupcom.au 2 0 / 0 6 / 1 2 , 9 : 3 2 AM www.afcgroup.com.au

sunLeC international will feature its wire marking and cable identification equipment and services on stand 3063. The company offers marking systems ranging from Grafoplast manual wire marking kits to automated marking printers as well as associated consumables. Bulk marking is a breeze – customers can purchase their own automated printer, including mobile units, or have sunlec international print the markers. sunlec internationals in-house marking service works from the supplied numbers and sends back the completed tags free into store. At M&e sunlec will display the Grafoprint G117 Mobile Marking kit which is described as suitable for workshop and on-site use, automatically printing and pre-cutting to selected tag length; the Grafoplast s12k Thermal Printer which can produce about 5500 tags an hour on a diverse range of materials such as PVC, polyester, ABs and polycarbonate; Grafoplast Trasp manual wire marking system for small-scale projects where speed and easy amendments are needed; sunlec nylon Cable ties; and sunlec stainless steel Cable Markers Tags and cable ties.

• Sunlec Internationa 08 9434 1933 sales@sunlec.com.au www.sunlec.com.au

SOLUTIONS IN VERTICAL STORAGE WHY • • • • • • •

Small Unit Footprint High Speed Operation Dedicated Inventory Control Minimise Manual Handling with ‘Goods to User’ Store 500kg per Tray Clean Stock, Reduced Shrinkage Great ROI, Local Service and Support

USES • • • • •

Small Item Distribution 3rd Party Logistics and Inhouse Facilities Work in Progress and Buffer Storage Maintenance Spares Tool Storage www.kardex.com.au Contact: 1300 555 101 Kardex VCA Pty Ltd, Wodonga VIC 3690

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By experts for experts

e640 Shade 10-11

e650 Shade 9-13 + grinding mode

Maximum comfort and performance Optrel® Expert Series The Optrel Expert Series provides the highest level of safety combined with maximum comfort and performance.

e670 Shade 9-13 + grinding mode + auto shade select

e680 Shade 5-13 + grinding mode

Designed by welders for welders, the expert series shell provides exceptional strength and durability with a high impact rating as standard.

The contoured shape and heat reflective paint* deflects fumes while decreasing the interior temperature for day-long comfort. Large field of view and

For more details call 1300 139 166 or visit www.honeywellsafety.com © 2012 Honeywell Safety Products Australia Pty Ltd

e1100 with Optrel® e680 dark blue

maximum U.V. and I.R. protection at any shade level ensures a safe, clear view of the work at hand.

The e1100 PAPR provides additional ventilation by supplying clean air through a fine filter for increased comfort in demanding environments. *not available on e640.

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PREVIEW

Electrical equipment

Women’s safety wear

CCG Cable Terminations will present cable glands designed to support Ex certification standards for electrical equipment in hazardous areas on stand 7032.

The company says its Captive Component Glands are the solution to various issues that can compromise hazardous area equipment certification.

These problems can include a wrongly specified or badly fitted cable gland which can mean the attached apparatus will not pass Ex equipment certification; and misplaced, dropped or wrongly aligned components such as cones, cone rings and seals which can mean the gland will either not hold, earth or seal the cable to the apparatus to which it is attached.

However, CCG says its cable glands have built-in safety features centered on the fact there are no loose components.

Rather, all components are held captive so there is no possibility of a component being left out or the wrong item being fitted, according to CCG. This concept also meant all parts could be correctly fitted with the simplest of instructions, the company said.

According to CCG, other features and benefits include suitability for indoor and outdoor use; two-piece handling; a freely rotating captive cone and cone ring to provide an armour clamp and earth bond without twisting the armouring; patented disconnect armoured clamp system for ease of inspection; outer sheath cable sealing to iP66.

Junction boxes for industrial and hazardous areas, and reducers and adapters for Ex d, Ex e and Ex td industrial and hazardous areas are among other CCG products. us-headquartered CCG began producing its Captive Component Gland in 1972, employing just 10 people. Today the company employs more than 200 staff worldwide.

Mining and process industry clients are said to include Alcoa, Anglo American, Ashanti, BHP-Billiton, CsBP Wesfarmers, De Beers, korean Zinc, Minara Resources, Newmount, Mt isa Mines, Pasminco, Rio Tinto, uk Coal and Western Mining.

• CCG Cable Terminations Michael Payne 0403 090 010 michael@ccgq.com.au www.ccgcableglands.com.au A D _ A MT R A U G _ 1 2 . p d f Pa ge 1 2 0 / 0 7 / 1 2 ,

Huski will launch a new range of high-visibility jackets for women on stand 7080. Designed by women for women, the new hi-vis jackets are available in sizes 8 to 20 and include the Nimbus, a lightweight jacket that can be packed into a front pocket and is fully waterproof with all seams sealed; the Opal, a fleece lined, long-line jacket in waterproof and breathable Breathetec fabric; and the kimberly, a soft shell jacket with zip-off sleeves for extra versatility. Huski has been supplying Australian-designed clothing since 1965 and says it offers men’s and women’s safety wear ranges to cover all mining industry requirements. “We have always had an extensive and trusted range of waterproof jackets and pants and our offering now ranges from high-visibility polos to technically top-of-the-line waterproof, breathable, multi-function garments,” Huski representative Mark kessel said. “We are industry leaders in our development of technical specialty safety wear, including waterproof and breathable soft-shell, anti-static, flame retardant and ARC-rated jackets. We are constantly developing and improving our fabrics, including making them more durable, more waterproof and more breathable,” he said.

• Huski Mark Kessel 0418 379 227 palazzi@palazzi.com.au www.huski.net

NEED INFORMED INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS? With almost 40 years in the industry, TechRentals has the expertise to resolve your issues.

The intrinsically safe Beamex MC5-IS Multifunction Calibrator is used for pressure, temperature, electrical and frequency measurement and calibration.

Features: • Built-in memory and calibrating software • Pressure (1 year uncertainty): from 0.025 % rdg + 0.01 % FS • Temperature (1 year uncertainty): from 0.06°C (RTD measurement) • Temperature (1 year uncertainty): from 0.10°C (TC measurement) • Electrical (1 year uncertainty): typically 0.02 % rdg + small adder

DROP IN AT STAND 2036 TO LEARN MORE!

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Ventilation fabrics DAviD Moss Corporation will showcase its next generation ventilation fabric, vENTPRO, at stand 4064. Developed especially for underground mines, vENTPRO has been formulated to 2 : 4combine 0 P strength M and durability with flexibility, enabling it to withstand the extreme conditions found in Australian mines from coast to coast. “vENTPRO is the latest evolution in ventilation ducting, offering premium performance,” David Moss representative Darren Coleman said, “and it has a coating that protects the fabric from uv radiation and the chemical effects of light”. He added that vENTPRO is available in a range of tubes and fittings that caters for all site requirements. it can also be produced in specialty sizes as required, and both installation and maintenance are prompt and uncomplicated. David Moss Corporation will also exhibit their full product range at the exhibition. incorporated in 1960, the company manufactures PE and PvC pipe and fittings and underground ventilation systems for the Australian and international markets, including the mining, industrial, civil utilities, government and agricultural sectors.

• David Moss Corporation darrencoleman@davidmoss.com.au www.davidmoss.com.au

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Call one of our applications experts today to discuss the Beamex MC5 Multifunction Calibrator or another item from our range of test and measurement products.

Hi-vis jackets.

HPL Group will promote its specialist Fuel Tax Credits services on stand 5080 during the 2012 Mining & Engineering (M&E) NsW Exhibition at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre from August 28-30. The HPL Group offers assistance with Fuel tax credits across all industries, and notes there have been “nine major changes to fuel tax/energy grants schemes in the past 12 years”, with the major new legislative changes – the Carbon Tax – applying from 1 July 2012. it also aids in back claims, for companies seeking refunds which may not have been claimed but which are still available within ATO time limit guidelines, which are “usually four years but in some cases longer periods are available”. HPL Group works on a “no refund – no fee” basis and its consultants travel Australia-wide. “No accommodation or travel costs are charged and there is no hourly rate for ancillary staff,” HPL’s Odette Yen said. HPL Group has offices in Camden and Mudgee, NsW, and consults to companies, local government, government departments and sole traders.

• HPL Group Odette Yen 02 4655 5565 odette.yen@hpl-group.com.au www.fueltaxcredits.com.au www.miningaustralia.com.au

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Schenck decks out Australia’s best screens with our very own Screenex modular systems

weighing

feeding

screening

automation

Schenck Process Australia Pty Ltd Ground Floor 65 Epping Road North Ryde NSW 2113, Australia T 1300 551 645 Australia wide T + 61 2 9886 6800 outside of Australia sales@schenckprocess.com.au www.schenckprocess.com.au

Do you prefer Australian made screens, decking or both?

With Screenex now firmly embedded in the Schenck Process range of quality products, the partnership between vibrating screens and screening media has never been better. Manufactured to suit your requirements in our Melbourne and Perth factories, we know that our screens and media will stand tall in Australia’s demanding environments - it’s where we live and work too.

Craig (pictured above) and our Screenex team have a combined 47 years experience in the Australian mining market.

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Oil cleaners The company’s design covers both single and double girder overhead cranes.

Heavy lifting NQ Cranes will mark its 25th year of operation and promote its recently opened Newcastle sales and service facility on Stand 7050 during the 2012 Mining & Engineering (M&E) NSW Exhibition at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre. The Mackay-based company supplies and services overhead cranes and hoists, offering crane design, manufacture and quality inspections by qualified and experienced staff. “Our crane service experience covers the design and manufacture of both single and double girder overhead travelling cranes, specially designed, unique overhead travelling cranes, crane rail systems and jib cranes,” Gary Russell, NQ Cranes’ business development manager, said. Established in 1987, NQ Cranes is said to be the largest overhead crane and hoist service and product supplier in Queensland and is now seeing high demand for its services in NSW’s Hunter Valley. “All systems produced by NQ Cranes conform to Australian standards, ensuring a safe, reliable and cost-effective product,” Russell said.

“We offer a personal and down-to-earth approach to business and, with our 25 years of experience, we’ve encountered every type of scenario. “We understand that no job is too big or too small and that every customer is important,” he added. The company has offices and workshops in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Emerald, Rockhampton and Gladstone as well as Newcastle.

• NQ Cranes Gary Russell 07 4952 5488 garyrussell@nqcranes.com.au A D _ A MP U MA U G _ 1 2 . p d f Pa ge 1 1 0 / 0 7 / 1 2 , www.nqcranes.com.au

PIA is proud to present

Pumping Equipment for the Resources Sector This seminar will examine the developments in pumping and related systems technology to support Australia’s booming resources sector.

The program will include papers from Australia’s leading pump and ancillary equipment suppliers for Water Resources, Mining and Oil & Gas applications.

Date: Venue:

Wednesday 29th August 2012 Chifley Hotel 66 – 76 QUEEN STREET, BRISBANE QLD 4000 Location: The Queen Room on level 5 Time: 9.00am – 5.00pm (Register from 8.30am) Registration fee: $200.00 for PIA members and Industry participants Please visit the PIA website www.pumps.asn.au for registration.

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DMH Australia will showcase new centrifugal oil cleaners on Stand 7043 during M&E NSW. The Shin Heung Precision cleaners were highly efficient bypass filtration devices, DMH representative Sean Lee said. “They extend the period of oil replenishment and replacement significantly, creating substantial cost savings on equipment and maintenance,” he said.

DMH will also feature Shin Heung’s starting motors at M&E. “These are capable of operating in extreme conditions and environments and are cost-saving, safe, reliable, environmentally friendly and efficient,” Lee said. South Korean company Shin Heung Precision, which specialises in the production of engine parts and peripherals, is represented in Australia by Sydney-based DMH. Lee said the primary goal of both companies was to supply reliable products of exemplary quality with an emphasis on competitive pricing, rapid delivery and remarkable after-sales service. “We test our equipment under conditions that are as similar as possible to real-life conditions and applications and we stand apart from our competitors through our relentless efforts for each product,” he said. “Our aim is to be a small but powerful world-class company.”

• DMH Australia Sean Lee 02 9746 8448 sean.lee@ccsworld.com.au www.atlastech.co.kr

Industrial cleaners KERRiCK industrial Equipment will unveil six new industrial vacuum cleaners and highpressure water blasting machines on Stand 4070 during the 2012 Mining & Engineering (M&E) NSW Exhibition. The new releases include the Kerrick FD1500 fine dust industrial vacuum cleaner, a 240 volt unit designed to continuously vacuum large amounts of fine dust such as cement, coal and plasterboard; the Gardner Denver 225-20HC-D skid mounted multi blaster (20,000 psi at 60 lit/min), powered by a 168 kW Perkins diesel engine driving a Partek TY1 1375 : 0 A Kerrick’s M HC4pump; H Class Pulsar 515 and 429 hazardous materials vacuum cleaners, designed to pick up asbestos, lead, silica and other hazardous dusts; both are tested and certified as conforming to current standards; and the Kerrick KH3030D and KH5020D (both powered by 16 kW Kohler diesels) mobile cold water pressure cleaners, built at Kerrick’s Silverwater, NSW, factory, which offer 3000psi at 30 lit/min and 5000psi at 20 lit/min respectively. Kerrick will also unveil the Sumner GH2T-3 3 m, 2 tonne gantry at M&E NSW. “Aluminium construction means the GH2T-3 is much lighter than steel gantries and it can be assembled in minutes by two people with two wrenches,” Kerrick representative Terry Gibbons said.

• Kerrick Industrial Equipment Terry Gibbons 02 9737 9797 sales@kerrick.com.au www.kerrick.com.au

Eye safety OPSM will showcase mobile eye testing services and prescription safety glasses for mining and industry workplaces on Stand 9060 during the 2012 Mining & Engineering (M&E) NSW Exhibition at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre from August 28-30. OPSM has mobile optometry units that undertake on-site workplace eye testing and aid dispensing at no cost to employers or employees when a valid Medicare card is used. “This ensures employees’ eye health is cared for,” Tammy Baber, OPSM’s business development manager said. “OPSM’s mobile service is distinguished by our expertise in eye care, the latest technology and a great range of world-leading brands. “Prescription safety glasses from OPSM feature a wide range of high-quality safety frames that comply with all current Australian safety standards, and qualified optical dispensers ensure a frame and lens selection based on the employee’s prescription requirements and working environment,” Baber said. The retailer also has 450 locations across Australia that offer a prescription safety glass service.

• OPSM Tammy Baber 0418 830 228 tammy.baber@luxottica.com.au www.opsm.com.au www.miningaustralia.com.au

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Your perfect partner in mining

With years of experience in water supply and water treatment, Grundfos can provide you with a wide range of quality, value for money pumping solutions for mining applications.

Grundfos NBG/NKG End Suction pumps are the perfect fit for water supply in mining operations and mineral processing. There is a wide range of NBG/NKG pumps to suit your particular application, so visit www.grundfos.com/mining to seek out a perfect fit.

Backed by a National Service Support Network, Grundfos is your perfect partner in mining.

HSC

www.grundfos.com

CR

Hydro

SP

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PREVIEW

Mine specific shock absorbers Pedders suspension will release a new Designed for Toyota landcruisers on site. mine-specific shock absorber for the Toyota Landcruiser VdJ76-79 on stand 5064 during the 2012 Mining & engineering (M&e) NsW exhibition.

The shock absorber was designed for mine use and features a 40 mm bore, twin tube design, 16 mm piston rod, mine-specific internal valving and a durable plastic dirt shield to combat corrosion, Pedders’ manager of mining projects, Peter Mayon said.

“Our new shock absorber was developed in response to Pedders’ increasing its mining industry market share and gaining experience working with the preparation of mining and military vehicles, both in Australia and overseas,” he said. “This experience has allowed Pedders to fully appreciate what is required of mine vehicle and severe off-road vehicle suspension systems.”

Mayon said the company was mindful of being technically correct with the design of its product range, optimising safety and sustainability of light commercial vehicles and 4Wds – with the ultimate goal being to reduce vehicle accidents on mine sites and enhance the personal safety of drivers and mine workers.

“Pedders are suspension solutions experts and offer fleet and business owners qualified advice and solutions on the correct set-up of light commercial and 4Wd suspensions for load-and-carry, mine spec, severe conditions and reliability.”

• Pedders Suspension Peter Mayon 03 9706 3500 pmayon@bigpond.com www.pedders.com.au A D _ A MA L L A U G _ 1 2 . p d f Pa ge 1 2 0 / 0 7 / 1 2 ,

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Industrial gearboxes

1 2 : 2 5

suMiTOMO-Hansen will display its complete range of industrial gearbox products on stand 4010. The company says that one of the highlights of its display will be an engineered drive gearbox for conveyor applications for both above and underground situations.

“Based on customer requirements, this design is based on a special gear case that is handable to be mounted and flipped to run in any direction” explained ian Grant, the northern NsW area manager for Hansen industrial Transmissions, a division of sumitomo Heavy industries.

“As it can be used in multiple conveyor drive handling applications, it is capable of reducing costs for critical spares, amongst other applications and special features” he said. sumitomo-Hansen products on show at M&e will include Hansen P4 gear units in 19 standard sizes, from 6kNm to 1100kNm drives for conveyor, pump, mixing and cooling tower applications; Paramax PX9 gear units in 26 standard sizes, from 2.6kNm to 552kNm for conveyor, feeder, breaker, crusher, pump, mixing and cooling tower applications; and seisa gearboxes, bucket wheel drives, mill drives and gear coupling applications An engineered drive unit using products from the above three ranges also enables sumitomo-Hansen to offer a “complete drive package solution,” he said.

“This includes base plate, all input and output couplings, fluid coupling, oil cooler systems, braking systems, conditioning monitoring equipment, motor, torque arm accessories and all guarding.

“This also includes all the engineering calculation requirements to achieve your ‘Complete drive Package’.” sumitomo-Hansen’s range of Cyclodrive and associated products, including the Buddybox, will also be on show at M&e.

• Sumitomo-Hansen Ian Grant 02 4365 7500 or 0433 407 062 igrant@sumitomo-drive.com.au P M www.sumitomo-drive.com.au

www.miningaustralia.com.au

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EXHIBITORS LIST Gearmotors \ Industrial Gear Units \ Drive Electronics \ Services

Company

Stand

n Aireng Pty Ltd n Allight Pty Ltd n Ampcontrol Pty Ltd n Ashdown-Ingram n Australian Coal Chain Partners n Australian Portable Buildings n BAC Systems Pty Ltd n Blue Stream n Bosbox Pty Ltd n Brown & Watson International Pty Ltd n CCCME (China Chamber of Commerce for I/E of Machinery & Electronic Products n CCG Cable Terminations n Control Devices Australia Pty Ltd n Coolon LED Lighting n Cooper/Kaydon Bearings n Cooper Industries Australia n Delta Water Pty Ltd n DyMark ( Aust ) Pty Ltd n Ebsray Pumps Pty Ltd n Ego Pharmaceuticals n Electcables n Emona Instruments n ESS Engineering Services & Supplies Pty Ltd n Fogmaker Australia Pty Ltd n Fuelfix Pty Ltd n Global Synthetics n Hard Metal Industries Pty Ltd n Hatch n HPL Group n Hunter Institute of TAFE n Hunter Valley Seat Specialists n Kemet Australia Pty Ltd n Linkforce Engineering n Mato Australia Pty Ltd n Mobile Energy Australia n Mono Pumps (Australia) Pty Ltd n North Queensland Crane Services Pty Ltd n Oliver Footwear Pty Ltd n Pro Air Solutions n Prospectors Pty Ltd n Quinnenco Pty Ltd n Redstar Equipment Pty Ltd n Samson Controls Pty Ltd n SBA Amalgamated Pty Ltd n Spraying Systems Co Pty Ltd n Stateside Distributors Pty Ltd n Sumitomo-Drive Technologies n Sundrive n Sunlec International n Teco Australia Pty Ltd n Ultraspin Technology Pty Ltd n Workplace Access & Safety Pty Ltd

4034 3020 3034 4030 2046 3060 4061 7060 7040 8020 4040 7032 8051 7041 3041 4031 2042 7062 7030 2044 4080 3044 9030 6043 3065 8061 2024 7024 5080 6083 5072 6080 1121 7042 7052 3040 7050 3080 2034 7070 8043 4020 8041 2030 6041 2032 4010 7072 3063 7020 8031 3030

SEW-EURODRIVE celebrates 30 years in Australia

For over eighty years SEW-EURODRIVE has been delivering quality German engineered drive technology worldwide. 2012 marks thirty years of driving Australian industry. That’s thirty years of quality. Thirty years of reliability. Thirty years of innovation.

Thirty years of leadership. Today we are known for all of those things and more. SEW now supplies a range of products including gearmotors, frequency inverters, servo technology, decentralised systems and heavy industrial gear units. All engineered in Germany to provide our trademark quality stamp. All assembled locally to provide our trademark timeliness. Thirty years of drive technology in Australia- A piece of cake!

www.sew-eurodrive.com.au 1300 SEW AUS Melbourne (HQ) I Sydney I Adelaide I Perth I Brisbane I Townsville AustralianMining

www.miningaustralia.com.au sew am 8.12 1_2p vert cake 30th.indd 1

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FLOORPLAN

A D _ A MS P R A U G _ 1 2 . p d f Pa ge 1 gold 90x130 copy 17/7/12 9:48 AM Page 1

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Correct at time of printing

STOP DUST EVERYWHERE! Talk to the experts in spray technology for dust control in mining operations.

Spraying Systems Co.

7 Sara Grove, Tottenham 3012 Victoria Ph: (03) 9318 0511 Fax: (03) 9315 3223

www.spray.com.au

PTY LTD

From mine to railcar, to stockpile, Spraying Systems has the range and expertise to reduce dust.

• Longwall mining, coal shearers, crushers • Methane pocket spraying • Rollback dust suppression • Roof support water spray • Vibrator feed • Stockpiles • Loading and dumping

CALL TODAY FOR FREE EXPERT DUST MANAGEMENT ADVICE AND INFORMATIVE BROCHURES 84

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www.miningaustralia.com.au

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Glass Crusher - Turn Waste Bottles into Sand for Remote Locations Glass Crusher

Glass Sand

The Oppressor GLS is a compact glass bottle crusher that reduces bottles in volume by 10:1 to a safe to handle sand like product. The machine is best suited for remote facilities and areas with inefficient or non existent glass recycling systems. The simplicity, safety & quietness of the Oppressor GLS are astounding features. The operator simply ensures the bucket is not full and is inserted correctly, switches the machine on and feeds individual bottles through the rubber safety flap on the chute.

The precision cut oppressors each individually balanced take care of the rest, reducing glass bottles from their full state to a fine sand or grit in 3-5 seconds per bottle & with a 90% volume reduction.

The 20litre waste container capacity is 160 x small bottles or 60 x large bottles.

On premise crushing of glass bottles to sand is not only a waste management cost and space saving initiative but it also carries significant environmental impact benefits. If you have no use for the sand you will at the very least, greatly reduce the volume of glass you send to landfill and the recycled sand will aid the aeration and filtration of the soil.

Power Supply: 240v 10 amp supply Dimensions: 1346 x 584mm H x W. 508mm deep (when lever is up) 762mm deep (when lever is down) Code GLS

The GLS glass crusher is supplied on a mobile base

FROM BOTTLE

TO SAND

Diesel Ute Packs DieselmasterTM Ute Packs

DTP2000 1900mmL x 1450mmW x 1100mmH

Our DieselmasterTM Ute Packs have been extensively tested and approved to the UN Specification for the Transport of Dangerous Goods. These models will suit all ute trays, are free standing, lightweight, compact & DTP400 move diesel quickly. They are extremely robust and durable & are ideal for a wide 1620mmL x 750mmW range of industries. Fitted with a high x 665mmH quality pump and auto nozzle, these are the best units Australia offers.

Special Features: • 100, 200 & 400litre models approved to the IBC code and by Worksafe • Diesel grade approved material • 4metres of hose and leads • Steel filling plate and cap for access • Fully enclosed lockable lid • Standard with auto nozzle • Lockable cap & auto nozzles • Baffled tanks, swivel fittings DTP200 12v 45 litres/min PUMP KITS 1000mmL x Code Description 750mmW DTP100 Diesel Tank with Pump 100litre x 605mmH DTP200 Diesel Tank with Pump 200litre DTP400 Diesel Tank with Pump 400litre DTP600 Diesel Tank with Pump 600litre Pump options: DTP800 Diesel Tank with Pump 800litre A – 12/24volt with 35/75 litres/min DTP1200 Diesel Tank with Pump 1200litre B – 12volt 85 litres/min high flow DTP2000 Diesel Tank with Pump 2000litre

DTP1200 1450mmL x 1200mmW x 1000mmH

AM1208MH

DTP800 WITH OPTIONAL DMDT METER 1450mmL x 1200mmW x 740mmH

DTP100 770mmL x 540mmW x 500mmH

DTP600 1200mmL x 1050mmW x 715mmH

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MINESITE VEHICLES

A higher

POWER

W

Hitachi is looking at what is driving its dump trucks

hile it’s typically the goal of dump truck manufacturers to go bigger and go harder, with each truck able to carry more, sometimes it’s the little changes that count.

Sometimes it is about what is driving the truck, rather than what the truck is driving.

Hitachi has unveiled their latest development to their mining dump truck range, the EH3500ACII and the EH4000ACII. These new trucks have followed in the trail blazed by the company’s hydraulic excavator range, while still maintaining its proven design.

According to the company these two new dumps trucks both feature the latest developments, in particular AC Drive system technology.

“Designed and manufactured in the same factory as the EX Series hydraulic excavators, the EH3500II and EH4000II dump trucks incorporate the latest advancements in innovative engineering to enhance production capabilities,” A D _ A MB A U A U G _ 1 Hitachi 2 . pd said.

BAUER Equipment Australia Pty Ltd. 39 Chapman Rd Vineyard, NSW 2765 PO Box 644, Windsor, NSW 2756 Tel. +61 (0)2 9838 3151 info@bauerequipment.com.au www.bauerequipment.com.au www.bauer.de

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The two trucks use this new AC ated superior hauling capabilities,” Drive capability, which was devel- the company added. oped by Hitachi, and which proA high powered Cummins envides greater performance as well as gine drives the latest dump trucks, higher truck availability, improved with the EH3500II featuring a Cumgradeability, and increased travel mins QSKTA50-CE engine with speeds on top of reduced mainten- 1491kW and the larger EH4000IIs QSKTA60-CE enf ance P aand g eoperating 1 1 6costs. / 0 7 / 1 2 , 1 using 0 : 0a0Cummins AM “This technology has also cre- gine with around 1864kW of power.

While Hitachi did not outline payload capabilities, they are unlikely to be changed from the previous, non-AC Drive versions.

However what has changed is fuel usage.

“These engines deliver exceptional reliability and reduced fuel consumption for maximum performance.”

YOUR RELIABLE PARTNER FROM EXPLORATION TO PROCESSING Suppliers of equipment for: Bored piles Bulk sampling

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AD_AMVERAPR_11.pdf

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THIS IS WHERE THE NAME ON THE MACHINE MATTERS MOST.

ALTERNATIVE TO DRILLING AND BLASTING PRIMARY CRUSH NOT REQUIRED CUT SQUARE CORNERS AND VERTICAL WALLS SELECTIVE MINING AND BETTER GRADE CONTROL INCREASE PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE NEED FOR PERMANENT INFRASTRUCTURE QUICK START UP IN GREENFIELD PROJECTS SUITABLE FOR SITE PREPARATION AND ACCESS ROADS PATENTED TECHNOLOGY THE IDEAL IDEAAL SO SOLUTION OLUTTION FFOR OR SSURFACE URFACE M MINING INING AAND ND M MORE. ORE. We know the cconditions ondiitions yyou ou fface ace ar are re ddemanding emanding - tthat’s hat’ss wh why hy w wee m make akke su sure ure oour ur Whether equipment q p is upp to the ttask. ask. W hethher yyou’re ou’rre ffacing acing tthe he hhassles asslles ooff bblasting lastingg oorr hhammering, ammering, g solution which helps you get Vermeer has the nneighbourhood-friendly eighbourrhood-fri i end d l y s o l u t i o n w h i ch h help p s y o u g e t more value from yyour ouur mine. A Vermeer Terrain Terraain Leveler® su surface urface eexcavation xcavation machine cuts bback ack tthe he ooperating pperatingg hours, investment support equipment. whilst reducingg your y investm ment iinn ccostly ostlyy sup pppport eq quipment. SSoo when it’s tough g ggoingg out there, look to Vermeer - the trusted name for pproven equipment q p and reliable support. For more information, please contact your nearest Vermeer Dealership.

QLD/NSW/VIC/SA QLD/ D/NSW/VIC/SA 1800 620 720 www.vermeer.com.au w ww.vermeer.com.au WA/NT 1800 195 558 www.vermeerwa.com.au

AM.AUG12.PG088.pdf

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NATIONALISM

GLOBAL

minerals grab

M

iners should pay their fair share. But there comes a point when it goes beyond paying a fair share and it becomes a takeover. The growing global threat of resource nationalism has been rated as the number one fear for miners in a new Ernst & Young report.

In its report entitled Business risks facing mining and metals 2012-2013, global mining and metals leader for Ernst & Young, Mike Elliot, said “resource nationalism retains the number one risk ranking as governments seek to transfer even more value from the mining and metals sector”. Elliot said that resource nationalism is now more of a challenge than it was a year ago, as Australia brings in its mining tax, and South American nations such as Colombia, Argentina, and Bolivia nationalise a number of foreign owned mining operations and African countries make increased indigenisation pushes.

“Many governments around the world have now gone beyond taxation in seeking a great from AD _ A MC O N Atake UG_ 1 2 the . p sector, with a wave of requirements

A new report from Ernst & Young highlights the looming threat of resource nationalism and its effect on the industry.

Cole Latimer reports.

introduced such as mandated beneficiation, export levies, and limits on foreign ownerships.” There has over dbeen f Pa ahuge g e rise 1 in1 the 9 / factor 0 7 / 1 2 , the last five years; it is only one of

five risks that have remained in the list during since the last one in 2008.

The grab 1 0 Global : 4 5 minerals AM

The study came only weeks after

the Australian government released the Mineral Resources Rent Tax (MRRT), a move which has already seen it dragged into the High Court by both the Queensland State Gov-

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August 2012

AustralianMining

FLOW MONITORS

African mining operators are seeing enormous threats from national governments. www.miningaustralia.com.au

AM.AUG12.PG089.pdf

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NATIONALISM

ernment and mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest; as South America and Southern Africa continue to look at nationalising resources and mining operations, while Zimbabwe gets tough on foreign miners and takes more than 51% of operations while still demanding a greater share.

However, AngloGold Ashanti’s CEO Mark Cutifani recently stated at a Sydney Mining Club luncheon that rising resource nationalism in Africa was still less worrying than Australia’s mining tax.

Ernst & Young’s Elliot said while the MRRT is now better understood than before, the industry is still concerned about the potential for additional government take, which has been seen through states such as New South Wales and Western Australia raising their minerals royalty rates.

Even in Mongolia opposition to foreign miners is becoming stronger in its government.

looms large for an industry already grappling with the risks normally associated with exploration and extraction,” the company stated in its report Facing an uncertain future: Government intervention threatens the global Threat upon threat mining sector.

Australian Mining has previously Rio Tinto chief Tom Albanese has spoken to Grant Thornton on this also spoken out against nationalisaissue of rising resources nationalism tion, encouraging governments to look and indigenisation. towards royalty schemes instead.

At the time they explained that He said there is a massive debate “increasing and unpredictable govern- on whether it is best for governments ment intervention across the globe is to gain their revenues via taxation and adding further complexity to a sector royalties, through partial operational that is already heavily laden with risk. ownership, or a combination of both.

“The shadow of higher taxes, reon/ the A D _ A M T R E 2 F E B _ 1 2 . p d His f comments P a g e 1came 1 0 0 1back / 1 2of, strictive regulation and indigenisation 1/5/12 increased pushes from South AfEmulsionPlant122x210Ad.pdf 8:26:42 PM

rica’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), to bring in legislation forcing miners to give more than half of their operations to the state; echoing the recent legislation changes in Zimbabwe. Grant Thornton stated that “nationalisation is arguably the number one issue affecting the mining industry in South Africa”, which is causing serious concern amongst miners and investors. “With the ruling ANC party debating state participation, analysts agree that reform of some sort is needed, but most argue that full-blown nationalisation will be detrimental.”

1 1In: 5Zimbabwe 1 A M the country has just run wholesale over foreign min-

ers, and not only taken the majority share of their operations (with Rio Tinto forced to hand over a controlling share of its Murowa diamonds operations), but has also increased licence costs by up to 5000% in some cases, while also declaring that no foreign miners will be granted new licences to operate.

Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has stated that foreigners were “exploiting Zimbabwe’s mineral wealth”, adding that the government will even increase its hold over foreign mining operations as “this 49 per cent [these miners hold] is a whole lot of money”.

There has also been a sharp rise in the number of mining projects being nationalised in South America, although in some cases it is simply renationalising previously privatised operations.

The aftermath

According to Ernst & Young’s Mike Elliot “there is no doubt projects around the world have been deferred and delayed, and in some cases investment withdrawn altogether, because of the degraded risk/reward equation.

“The uncertainty and destruction of value caused by sudden changes in policy by the governments of resourcerich nations cannot be understated.”

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BRISBANE OFFICE: TREAD Australia Andre Fouche Business Manager – Australia & Asia afouche@TREADcorp.com

WORLD HEADQUARTERS: TREAD Corporation 176 EastPark Drive Roanoke, VA 24019 USA 540-982-6881 AustralianMining

August 2012

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AIMEX

Better, larger,

SOONER

The announcement that AIMEX will be held every two years is likely to shake up the industry.

R

eed Mining Events hibition to be held on a twohave announced that year cycle,” Baker said.

Australia’s largest “These include the curmining exhibition – AIMEX rent high levels of growth in – will be held next year. the mining industry – with The company stated the need for mining compathat due to ‘overwhelming nies to keep fully up-to-date demand’ from the industry, with the latest trends and the event will be held next developments in equipment. year instead of the previ“There is also the fastously scheduled 2015. changing nature of the Reed Mining exhibition industry and technology, director Paul Baker explained along with large numbers the decision to move AIMEX of newcomers to the industo a two year cycle followed in try who find an event such depth surveys of visitors and as AIMEX an ideal way to exhibitors “which revealed learn a lot about the indusoverwhelming demand for a try in a concentrated time more frequent show. and location.

“According to suppliBaker went on to say ers and senior managers in that other leading mining Australia’s mining industry, exhibitions in the southern there A Dare _ Acompelling M D M F D reasons E C _ 1 1 hemisphere . pdf P a–are g e also 1 held 4 / 1 for this industry-leading ex- on a two-yearly basis, such

as Electra Mining Africa, and Chile’s Expomin.

“Both these events will have their current editions in 2012, putting AIMEX 2013 and beyond in perfect creat1sync / 1 with 1 , them, 3 : 3 and 2 P M ing ideal opportunities for

international visitors and exhibitors.”

Last year’s AIMEX event broke all previous records, with 17 382 visitors and 638 exhibitors over four days.

Exhibition sales for the more frequent event have

already started.

This announcement follows on from Reed Mining’s unveiling of a new exhibition – Mining and Engineering Indonesia, which will be held for the first time in early October this year.

HIGH SPEED DOORS . . . DUST AND TEMPERATURE CONTROL

High speed roll doors, and PVC doors, designed for the mining and waste management industries.

For over 40 years, DMF has been providing solutions to control busy doorways from temperature loss, dust entry, and draft.

There is an increasing need in the mining industry for this control, in workshops, critical spares warehouses, and in some underground applications.

DMF’s high speed roll doors operate at 2m/sec, and are designed for large openings, high wind capacity, and high frequency of use. And, we will custom manufacture to suit your needs.

Increase your EOHS profile, and reduce your carbon footprint.

Contact DMF today.

WA enquiries ASA Flexible Doors P/L ph 08 9248 1055 fax 08 9248 1135

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Opening speeds of 2.0m/sec Sizes over 7m H and 10m W High wind capacity

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www.miningaustralia.com.au

AD_AMWIRAUG_12.pdf

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SURFACE MINING AND CRUSHING – TECHNOLOGY AND RELIABILITY

Wirtgen Surface Mining: • World leader in surface mining technology • Ove r 30 years of experience • Range of materials: coal, gypsum, salt, limestone, bauxite, granite, iron ore • New 4200 SM: annual mining capacity of 12 million t in soft rock (e.g. coal)

Kleemann Crushing: • Combining process knowledge, technology, high quality and product support • Wide range of crushing and screening equipment for quarrying and recycling • Range of materials: limestone, standstone, shale, granite, basalt, diorite, concrete, asphalt, building rubble

ROAD AND MINERAL TECHNOLOGIES

WIRTGEN AUSTRALIA 2-12 Sommerville Circuit · Emu Plains NSW 2750 PO Box 21 Penrith NSW 2751 · Tel.: +61 2 4735 2699 A_NL_Mining/Crushing_AUST.indd 1

The market-leading brands Wirtgen, Vögele, Hamm and Kleemann offer strong technologies for road construction and for the mining and processing of mineral raw materials. Wirtgen Australia provides best-in-class, professional consulting and customer services. Clear philosophy, clear benefits for you. www.wirtgen-aust.com.au

Queensland Yatala, Brisbane / Gold Coast Tel.: 07 3382 7593

Victoria & Tasmania Knoxfield, Melbourne Tel.: 03-9800 5268

Western Australia & South Australia Wangara, Perth Tel.: 08 9309 9666

New Zealand Wellington Tel.: 64 2744 26555

18.03.10 16:06

AD_AMHELAUG_12.pdf

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SEE PROFIT OPPORTUNITIES IN A NEW LIGHT. HELLA Mining’s AS 5000LED, more a brilliant mining resource than a work light.

PERFORMANCE THROUGH VISION

HELLA / AS5000LED_0812_R_AusMin297x235-R1/M

At around $2,000 an hour in downtime costs for a $5 million haul truck, and up to $250,000 an hour for specialised plant, innovative HELLA Mining lighting solutions are making a big dent on maintenance costs by significantly reducing the time needed for repairs.

Ask us for actual case studies where comparatively modest investments routinely deliver cost advantages of hundreds of thousands of dollars on an ongoing basis.

“Performance through vision” is a very real core value to us... discover how partnering with HELLA Mining as a resource rather than just a supplier can open up new profit opportunities.

HELLA Australia Pty Ltd HELLA Customer Service: 1800 061 729 Email: mining@ha.hella.com Web: www.hellamining.com

FEATURES: 5 Year Mining Warranty. 24 high performance LEDs, perform above 50000 3V Lumens. Available in 9-33 V DC and 9-33V am am DC Dimmable. Close and long range beam models available. DRACO® suspension.

Multi-adjustable stainless steel bracket, oy upright and pendant mounting. Cast alloy case, rugged non-stick Teflon® coating. ct Colour temperature 5700°K. High impact K9K Grilamid® lens. 200G shock tested. IP6K9K W. protection. -40° to +50°C operation. 60W. Easy beam identification on the lens.

CERTIFIED: CE, C-Tick, CISPR25, ISO 13766-2006 for earthmoving machinery.

APPLICATIONS: Mining, chemical plants, oil refineries, manufacturing, heavy machinery.

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SUBSEA MINING

A deep SEA story C

hina’s always done things on a massive scale. But its plans for deep sea mining are off the charts.

According to reports in local media last month, a Chinese company has plans to build a nuclear powered deep-sea station under the Pacific.

The project would house 33 crew for two months, and its huge propellers would allow it to travel to different parts of the seabed looking for minerals.

It will allegedly be looking for copper, zinc, lead, gold, and oil, proving that while growth is flattening in the Asian powerhouse, it’s still got a huge appetite for key commodities and raw materials.

The company behind the move, China’s Tongling Non-ferrous Metals Group, also has interests in Nautilus Minerals’ seabed projects near Papua New Guinea.

Nautilus’s main focus is the Solwara 1 project, over one and a half kilometres beneath the ocean, which is targeting copper and gold.

Environmentalists have strongly opposed the Nautilus project, and former Greens leader Bob Brown has called on the development to be the focus of a Senate Inquiry on seabed mining.

The Papua New Guinea Government has also proved to be a hurdle for the company, and China’s plans to strike out on its own venture might be a sign of it attempting to distance itself from the turmoil.

The China Ship Scientific Research Centre has already begun test diving and developing manned vehicles in preparation for the underwater venture, with its Jiaolong prototype reaching a depth of over several kilometres in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean.

The Centre has also funded the development of new diving technology, vehicles, and autonomous robots, the last of which also feature in Nautilus’s plans.

According to Nautilus the robots will dislodge minerals from sulphide deposits on the sea floor, and send the material back to the main ship via pipes.

The copper deposits targeted by such schemes can sit at grades as high as seven per cent, compared to the 0.5 per cent sometimes mined on land projects. www.miningaustralia.com.au

China has ambitious new plans for seabed mining, aiming to build a nuclear powered vessel for use under the Pacific Ocean.

Such grades represent big opportunities for miners, and would mean the developments would have a comparatively lower operating cost compared with land-based solutions.

These positives mean some of the huge cash outlays made by China and other companies developing the technology are unlikely to be wasted.

The money for these ventures is coming directly from the Chinese Government, or more specifically the 863 Program, which has been established to help support the development of new technology.

While Nautilus had aimed to be launching operations near PNG as early as 2013, the Chinese company is decidedly more reserved.

And with Natuilus facing a raft of hurdles before winning approval, China’s aim at full operation by 2030 seems conservative and realistic.

But while the full project is decades away, the South China Sea Post reports a smaller prototype might be operational by 2015.

Holding 12 crew for as long as 18 days underwater, the 60-metrelong machine will weigh in at 2,600 tonnes.

It’s a far cry from the nuclear reactor powered 33 man ship, which aims to hold workers for up to two months, but nevertheless it’s an excit-

ing prospect for the mining industry.

AWhether D _ A M Hit’s A Z Nautilus’s A U G _ 1 2plans . pd north of Australia, or China’s plans

in the western Pacific, the develop-

f ments P a in g eseabed 1 mining 2 3 / 0 will 7 / be 1 2one , 4 : 0 0

to keep abreast of.

International Power - GDF SUEZ is a leading international energy company with electricity generation assets, retail and fuel positions in Australia, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and the USA. In Australia, the company owns and operates 3,723MW (gross) of renewable, gas-fired and brown coal-fired plants in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

IPR - GDFSUEZ Hazelwood - Expression of Interest Delivery of power station and mine maintenance IPR-GDF SUEZ Hazelwood is reviewing options for the provision of routine, defect and breakdown maintenance at the Hazelwood Mine and Power Station for the next five years. IPR-GDF SUEZ Hazelwood is situated in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley and comprises a 1760MW power station supplied by an adjacent open cut brown coal mine via a continuous mining operation incorporating bucket wheel dredgers and a series of conveyers.

Interested parties are required to consider options to undertake the following activities: • • •

Power Station – boiler cleans, maintenance and breakdown outages, routine and defect maintenance.

Mine – coal system outages, overburden system outages, routine and defect maintenance, including belting and idlers.

Provision of mobile plant and operational earthworks

Interested parties with the financial, technical capabilities and experience are invited to express an interest in the delivery of power station and/or mine maintenance at IPR-GDF SUEZ Hazelwood.

Expressions of interest can be submitted by contacting Neil Betts, Shared Services Director at hazelwood.contracts@hazelwoodpower.com by no later than 24th August 2012.

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AM2502_July_FP_UPDA.pdf

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NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN For close to ten years the Australian Mining Prospect Awards has recognised and celebrated innovation and performance in the industry. Last year close to 400 of the industry’s best gathered to highlight an industry that is excelling amidst a global down turn. And now it plans to gather again to showcase all that mining in Australia can do, and those that are making a difference. Are you?

2012 NOMINATION DEADLINE 7 SEPTEMBER 2012 CATEGORIES • Mine of the Year • Hardrock Mine of the Year • Coal Mine of the Year • Explorer of the Year • Mine Manager of the Year • Contract Miner of the Year • Minerals Processing Plant of the Year • Contribution to Mining

• Employer of Choice • Mining’s Woman of the Year • Young Achiever • Community Interaction • Innovative Mining Solutions • Excellence in Mine OH&S • Excellence in Environmental Management • People’s Choice NEW

DON’T MISS MINING’S NIGHT OF NIGHTS

BE A PART OF IT! Download the nomination kit at www.miningaustralia.com.au/awards

For further information, please contact (02) 9422 2759 or email awards@miningaustralia.com.au

SPONSORED BY:

The logo on the right is shown at the minimum reproduction size allowable.

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9th Annual Australian Mining Prospect Awards In this issue we have a brief word from some of the sponsors about their companies and why they choose to sponsor the Prospect Awards.

SEW-Eurodrive

MMD

SEW-Eurodrive is proud to be sponsoring the Coal Mine of the year award at the 2012 Australian Mining Prospect Awards.

As a key supplier to the coal mining industry, we believe in quality and efficiency when it comes to drive technology.

Supplying a range of industrial gear units, motors and drives in sizes in excess of 1MW, we deliver more than just products to heavy industry.

A team of talented engineers develop effective and timely solutions based on customers’ motion requirements, which are backed by aftersales commissioning and product support that is second to none.

We also understand that time is money, so units are delivered within a matter of weeks from our local assembly plants, rather than waiting months for items to be shipped from overseas.

The coal mining industry is one of Australia’s strongest assets – as the world’s greatest exporter of coal, we can be thankful for an industry that has given us global recognition.

SEW-Eurodrive takes great pride in sponsoring the coal mine of the year award, which we hope in turn, encourages the organization in and industry which has greatly supported our company over time.

We hope that this award goes to a fitting recipient to provide them with the acknowledgment they deserve for making such a strong contribution to Australian industry.

SEW-Eurodrive looks forward to further ongoing partnerships with all forms of mining, now and into the future.

Mining Machinery Developments (MMD) designs and manufactures mineral sizing (crushing) equipment and services to the mining, metallurgical, industrial minerals, alumina and other industries.

The core products; Mineral Sizers (crushers) and Feeders offer a solution to problems such as variable ore properties, product requirements, site conditions and environmental issues.

Founded in 1978, to design and manufacture equipment for the UK underground coal mining industry, today MMD size over 60 different minerals world wide, in many varied process industries.

MMD Sizing equipment is available for surface or underground installations, stationary or mobile, and for climatic conditions ranging from arctic to tropical.

The MMD Sizer range now includes, primary, secondary and tertiary Sizers for wet and dry processing of metallic and non-metallic minerals for mining, industrial minerals and quarrying industries.

To complement the robust Twin Shaft Mineral Sizer, MMD has designed and developed a range of heavy duty Apron Plate Feeders, which convey unbroken material to the crushing plant.

Standard widths available are 1500, 2000, 3000 and 4000mm on D4, D7, D9 and D11 Caterpillar sealed and lubricated tractor chain.

The mobile and semi-mobile sizer systems developed by MMD are both high in capacity and compact in size when compared to the traditional technology in this field.

The latest range of MMD Mobile Sizers have the ability to offer mine operators unprecedented levels of productivity, and therefore very low operating costs per tonne.

These energy efficient electrically driven “Green Mining Solutions” are all designed to assist mining companies to achieve the double bottom line of being both economic and environmentally friendly.

MMD is proud to be the long running sponsor of the Australian Mine of the Year award.

Schenck Process Schenck Process is a global market leader in measuring and process technologies.

Through our world-wide network of operating companies we provide our customers with unrivalled industrial weighing, feeding, screening and automation solutions. Sponsoring the ‘Minerals Processing Plant of the Year’ category in Australian Mining’s Prospect Awards for the third year running is one of the ways that we contribute to and celebrate the success of an industry that is critically important to the economy of our country and of course to our business. The mining and mineral processing industry is responsible for around 48% of Australia’s exports and represents 8% of the country’s total GDP. This industry is one of the reasons that, as a nation, we have been able to weather the recent global financial crisis and emerge in much better shape than many other developed nations. Together with our clients in the mining and mineral processing industry, we are always challenging current practices and breaking new ground by combining cutting edge technology with world class engineering know-how. Yet the men and women that work so hard to make Australia’s mineral processing plants and mining operations amongst the most technically advanced and efficient in the world often remain unrecognised. At Schenck Process, we consider that the Prospect Awards are a great way of identifying and recognising the talented professionals that make this possible.

www.miningaustralia.com.au

Be a leader in Australia’s mining industry and nominate today

AustralianMining

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MINING JOBS

To advertise a new job contact Hussein Azzan at 02 9422 2851

To see the latest jobs available visit www.miningaustralia.com.au, which is updated daily.

Senior Planner ComPany: mmG loCation: KatanGa ConGo, the DemoCratiC rePubliC of the Description: Kinsevere is 30 km north of Lubumbashi’s International Airport within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). There are over 1000 people working at Kinsevere, including 50 expatriates. Kinsevere’s process plant was commissioned in 2011 has been built to international standards, with a nameplate production rate of 60,000 tonnes of copper cathode per annum.

Reporting to the Maintenance Superintendent the purpose of this role is to provide supervision to the Congolese personnel onsite within the maintenance planning team. The role is responsible for the planning within the Copper processing plant, mobile equipment and infrastructure, as well as developing strategies to ensure compliance.

For this permanent position, MMG Kinsevere is offering a competitive commute roster of 6:3 with fully subsidised return flights to your permanent place of residence. Features of Kinsevere’s village facilities include fully serviced air-conditioned rooms, laundry service, wet mess, sporting facilities (gym, tennis, volleyball, squash, basketball and pool tables) and WiFi access. Remuneration includes attractive base salary and yearly performance based incentive payment. www.miningaustralia.com.au/jobs teChniCal aDviSor – meChaniCal ComPany: mmG loCation: laoS Description: The Sepon Copper operation in Laos produces approximately 80,000 tonnes of Copper and approximately 70,000oz of Gold annually.

Reporting to the Maintenance Services Superintendent the purpose of this role is to ensure the maintenance of the process plant is carried out safely and timely to ensure plant availability, process targets, budgets and corporate objectives are reached on a daily basis.

Located near the gateway to South East Asia, this position allows for exploration of this fascinating region whilst on R&R. The attractive 24/18 roster provides travel to and from your home base. Onsite accommodation facilities are provided, including a gym and sporting facilities. to apply for this role, please visit www.miningaustralia.com.au/jobs SuPerintenDent mine enGineerinG & Survey ComPany: mmG loCation: laoS Description: The Sepon Copper operation in Laos produces approximately 80,000 tonnes of Copper and approximately 70,000oz of Gold annually.

Reporting to the Manager of Mine Technical Services the purpose of this role is to lead a team of mining engineers and Surveyors to oversee and coordinate all the mine planning and related technical services activities.

Located near the gateway to South East Asia, this position allows for exploration of this fascinating region whilst on R&R. The attractive 24/18 roster provides travel to and from your home base. Onsite accommodation facilities are provided, including a gym and sporting facilities. to apply for this role, please visit www.miningaustralia.com.au/jobs SuPerintenDent Community & StaKeholDer PartnerShiPS (StrateGiC) ComPany: mmG loCation: Century mine Description: MMG’s Century Mine comprises two sites located in the lower Gulf region of North-west Queensland.

Century comprises of an open pit mine, a milling operation (feed, grind, floatation) and a port operation (de-watering, stockpiling and ship loading). Due to further growth within

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our Community & Stakeholder Partnerships department we are currently seeking an experienced & dynamic Superintendent Community & Stakeholder Partnerships (Strategic) to join our team based at Lawn Hill.

With the expected ceasing of zinc production scheduled for 2016, and the completion of the Gulf Communities Agreement around the same time, this role will play a significant part in the mine closure process and strategic deliverables outlined in the Gulf Communities Agreement. As a member of the Community & Stakeholder Partnerships leadership team reporting to the Community & Stakeholder Partnerships Manager, you will be responsible for scoping, developing and resourcing community and stakeholder strategic initiatives. You will be operating with a long term view, supporting the manager and CSP team in meeting set objectives and outcomes aligned with MMG Century Mine Business plans and the legacy investments to meet the spirit and intent of the Gulf Communities Agreement. to apply for this role, please visit www.miningaustralia.com.au/jobs Chair of mine GeoteChniCal enGineerinG ComPany: the univerSity of new South waleS loCation: SyDney Description: You will provide academic leadership and will drive geotechnical engineering innovation across the full spectrum of teaching, research, professional practice and industry engagement relevant to the underground hard rock mining industry with a particular focus on block cave mining. With the full support of Rio Tinto, you will work in close collaboration with their established Australian block caving operations, Northparkes Mines, Australia’s first block cave mine.

This is a unique opportunity to join the academic staff of one of Australia’s leading universities, with the full support of one of the world’s leading resource houses.

You will have a PhD in Mining Engineering or a related Engineering/Geoscience discipline with a specialist underground hard rock geotechnical focus. Whilst block cave mining experience will be highly regarded, a key consideration will be your track record in underground hard rock mining generally, and your proven research experience or demonstrated potential. Prior experience in an academic posting is not a necessary pre-requisite for this role, an industry background with the relevant experience will also be viewed very positively. written enquiries and formal applications are to be directed to davidp@gpandp.com.au quoting ref no: 5632.

Shaft anD unDerGrounD ConStruCtion SuPerviSor ComPany: newmont auStralia limiteD loCation: northern territory Description: As the Shaft and Underground Construction Supervisor you are responsible to monitor the Contractors Safety and Contract performance and to ensure the works are executed safely, on or better than schedule, within budget and the Quality Assurance guidelines.

You will directly supervise all activities associated with the drilling and blasting of shaft support infrastructure underground and will assist the EPCM Contractor to supervise the Strip and Line shaft contractor by providing expertise and knowledge on shaft sinking.

Reporting to the Lead Mining Engineer, The Shaft and Underground Construction Supervisor role is of key importance and functionality within the Tanami Shaft Project team as the primary contact with the Development Contractor’s personnel.

Successful candidates will have demonstrated experience in drilling and blasting of underground development, managing safety in the underground environment. to apply for this role, please visit www.miningaustralia.com.au/jobs www.miningaustralia.com.au

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Servicing the Mining Industry for 30 years All Products and Services exceed MDG41 requirements Mining dedicated Service and Supply Centres with pressure testing facilities Specialists in Open Cut and Underground applications for all soft and hard rock mining All Service and Supply Centres ISO9001:2008 accredited RTO Registered by VETAB Project Management for machine overhauls and hose refurbishment NATA certified hose testing facility Experience across all OEM mining equipment manufacturers National fleet of mining specific mobile service units

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EVENTS

Conferences, seminars & workshops Event submissions can be emailed to ozmining@reedbusiness.com.au 7th International Conference on Mine Closure

The events provide industry professionals committed to responsible and sustainable mining with a unique opportunity to interact 25-27 September 2012 with their counterparts from different Brisbane, QLD countries, and share ideas and Mine Closure 2012 will bring experiences on innovations related together multi-disciplinary industry to mine closure design, planning and specialists to share information operation. about innovative mine closure • Australian Centre for techniques, strategies, processes Geomechanics and products with the goal of Ph: 3300 A D _ A M D E L F E B _ 1 2 . p (+61 d f 8) 6488 Pa g e 2 2 3 / 0 1 / 1 2 , 9 : 0 6 AM minimising environmental and social Fax: (+61 8) 6488 1130 impacts. optimising wall damage adjacent to E-mail: info-acg@uwa.edu.au the blast.

Web: www.acg.uwa.edu.au • Australian Centre for GreaseMax Geomechanics Blasting for Stable automatic lubrication Ph: +61 8 6488 3300 Slopes Fax: +61 8 6488 1130 5-7 November 2012 E-mail: info-acg@uwa.edu.au Perth, WA Web: www.acg.uwa.edu.au This course will examine the

and natural wonders, through an exciting range of pre and post Congress field trips.

The Congress will be staged at the highly acclaimed Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, a world class venue that has hosted numerous large and very successful international meetings. Brisbane offers great August weather, value for money and proximity to geotourist features such as the Great Barrier Reef.

• Ron Adams The Australian Institute of Geoscientists 36 Brisbane Street Perth, Western Australia, Australia 6000 Mailing address: PO Box 8463, Perth Business Centre, WA 6849, Australia Phone: 08 9427 0820 Fax: 08 9427 0821 E-mail: aig@aig.asn.au

mechanisms and possible extent International Geological of damage to the rock structure Congress behind the face from blasting and Brisbane, QLD the influence that has on the stability Under the theme “Unearthing of pit walls. The course includes Singleton Mining our Past and Future” the IGC will consideration of the mechanisms of OH&S Expo showcase the Oceania region’s rock breakage that operate within A D _ A MD L I A U G _ 1 2 . p d f Pa ge 1 2 0 / 0 7 / 1 2 , 1 2 : 2 8 PM geoscience strengths, innovations a blast and considers means of Singleton, NSW

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Over 200 companies will not miss the opportunity to showcase the latest in products and services, to the powerhouse of mining and industry that is the Hunter Valley and greater New South Wales.

The Singleton Mining & OH&S Expo provides a unique and extraordinary opportunity to share in billions of dollars worth of investment made by thousands of companies throughout this entire industry base.

We will put the spotlight on Singleton nationally and internationally with a massive media campaign that will continue to grow in intensity as we get closer to this remarkable event.

• Dani Moyle Marketing & Event Logistics Coordinator Australian Industry & Lifestyle Exhibitions Level 3, 1111 Hay Street Perth, Western Australia, Australia 6005 Phone: +61 8 9429 3020 Fax: +61 8 9429 3023 E-mail: info@aiexpos.com

www.miningaustralia.com.au

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AT THE COALFACE OF MINING INNOVATION

Register to Visit

miningandengineeringnsw.com.au

Source innovative solutions from over 160 local and international suppliers to improve productivity

Stay ahead of industry trends by viewing over 95 product categories and increase efficiency

See, touch, feel and experience working machinery

Conduct your business face-to-face: question, challenge and debate

Build your connections and network with industry peers

28 – 30 August 2012 Newcastle Entertainment Centre NEW SOUTH WALES MINING & ENGINEERING

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