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SCOPING THE NEXT OPPORTUNITIES BEN CREAGH

Ben.Creagh@primecreative.com.au

WHAT ARE THE KEY PROSPECTS AND ISSUES THAT WILL SHAPE 2019 IN THE AUSTRALIAN MINING INDUSTRY?

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t the start of every year it’s tempting to look into the proverbial crystal ball for signs of what’s coming next for the volatile world of mining.

In an industry like mining, every analyst or commentator has an opinion or forecast. And many of these predictions filter across the desk of the mining media by early in the new year to cause debate.

It’s fair to say that the token ‘new year, new me’ carry on is mostly in the past for mining this time.

The industry has taken a hard, long look at itself in recent years and has matured to understand that those January 1 resolutions are a waste of time.

For mining, 2019 shapes as a year where the industry will continue to put its words into action. In 2019’s opening edition of Australian Mining, we see how this attitude is prevailing.

From our perspective, technology remains an integral part of this maturity as mining companies navigate their own unique path towards introducing a digital environment.

We find mining equipment and operating systems evolving at a rapid pace to complement this move, an ongoing theme in our coverage.

Project development, meanwhile, has returned to Australia’s major mining regions, whether it be the Pilbara in Western Australia or the Bowen Basin in Queensland.

Mining services companies and suppliers

MANAGING DIRECTOR JOHN MURPHY MANAGING EDITOR BEN CREAGH Tel: (03) 9690 8766 Email: ben.creagh@primecreative.com.au JOURNALISTS EWEN HOSIE Tel: (03) 9690 8766 Email: ewen.hosie@primecreative.com.au VANESSA ZHOU Tel: (03) 9690 8766 Email: vanessa.zhou@primecreative.com.au CLIENT SUCCESS MANAGER JANINE CLEMENTS Tel: (02) 9439 7227 Email: janine.clements@primecreative.com.au

are finding opportunities they haven’t had since the mining boom, albeit on a lesser, yet still welcome scale. Optimism is rising in the METS sector off the back of these projects.

Elsewhere, Australia’s place in the battery metals supply chain is set to remain under the microscope as production of lithium moves towards its potential and expansions emerge.

What was once considered a fad became a reality in 2018 as a series of new projects became commercial.

Finally, the image of mining will again be on the agenda as activity ramps up and skills shortages intensify.

Plenty of work and analysis of the industry to understand why mining has fallen in the outlook of the general public has taken place over the past year.

In 2019, we are bound to see many new initiatives put into action to rectify this flagging situation and help mining attract its next generation of workers.

Ben Creagh Editor

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FEBRUARY 2019

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FRONT COVER

In this edition of Australian Mining, we investigate the path to a digital transformation in mining through the eyes of a Sandvik specialist in the area.

This issue looks at the image of mining and how it has been portrayed by modern cinema.

Mining’s introduction of autonomous equipment is examined, this time with Komatsu’s release of a new dozer that has been developed to benefit mining companies in this way.

This issue also reviews the mid-tier sector of mining companies, which has become increasingly dominated

by Australia’s emerging lithium producers.

And as usual, we review the latest mining equipment and technology in our regular products spread.

Cover image: National Group.

CONTENTS EFFICIENCY

DIGITAL MINING A SUCCESSFUL TRANSFORMATION Sandvik’s digital pathway for equipment

SCANNING MATERIALS Loadscan’s conveyor volume scanner

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10-11

IMAGE OF MINING

MINING EQUIPMENT SCANIA TESTS XT TRUCK New generation vehicle arrives in Australia

MINING’S ROCKY RECEPTION How can mining change its perception in film?

12-14

38-39

COMMUNICATIONS

TECHNOLOGY

AUTOMATION DRIVES DECISIONS MST Global’s communications breakthrough

THE DOZER PUSH Komatsu’s next autonomous mission

16-17

40 SOFTWARE

MINING EQUIPMENT

AMBITION IN THE AMERICAS Software company targets next wave of growth

ULTRA CLASS RISES National Group’s machinery demand

18-19

EXPLORATION

41 AUTOMATION

20-22

A SEISMIC SHIFT A rapidly emerging exploration method

A CONNECTED FUTURE Rockwell Automation is at the digital forefront

42

FUTURE OF MINING

MAINTENANCE MINING SERVICES EXPERTS WEIGH IN Tips and techniques for efficient maintenance

MID-TIER STANDOUTS Lithium sets the scene for mining’s future

24-25

MINING SERVICES

44-46 PRODUCTIVITY

26-27

TAKING ON THE WORLD McLanahan’s stacked 2019 schedule

SWEATING THE ASSETS Aveva’s guide to asset performance management

47 INDUSTRY COMMENT

INTERNATIONAL

28-29

THE LURE OF GRAPHITE African graphite attracts Australian companies

MESSAGES FROM MINING GROUPS The latest at AusIMM and METS Ignited

48-49

CONTRACT MINING

PRODUCT FOCUS

32

DANGERS FOR SUBCONTRACTORS How they have been met with a recent challenge

THE GOLD STANDARD Greengold’s hopes for the ReCYN process

51

COLLABORATION

SPECIAL FEATURE

52-55

DASSAULT SYSTÈMES TARGETS METS Joining forces with emerging METS companies

QUARRYING, CRUSHING & SCREENING Profiles of service providers in these areas

34-36 REGULARS

NEWS 6-8

PRODUCTS 56-57

AUSTRALIANMINING

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EVENTS 58

FEBRUARY 2019

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NEWS

THE LATEST MINING AND SAFETY NEWS AUSTRALIAN MINING AND SAFE TO WORK PRESENT THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE BOARDROOM TO THE MINE AND EVERYWHERE IN BETWEEN. VISIT WWW.AUSTRALIANMINING.COM.AU AND WWW.SAFETOWORK.COM.AU TO KEEP UP TO DATE WITH WHAT IS HAPPENING. FITZROY TARGETS INEXPERIENCED WORKERS FOR IRONBARK NO. 1 MINE

AUSTRALIAN MINING GETS THE LATEST NEWS EVERY DAY, PROVIDING MINING PROFESSIONALS WITH UP TO THE MINUTE INFORMATION ON SAFETY, NEWS AND TECHNOLOGY FOR THE AUSTRALIAN MINING AND RESOURCES INDUSTRY.

THE UNDERGROUND MINE WILL REQUIRE 350 WORKERS.

Fitzroy Australia Resources plans to fill half of the jobs it is creating at the Ironbark No. 1 coal project in Queensland with workers who are new to the mining industry.

The company will require more than 350 workers at the coking coal operation near Moranbah and has earmarked 50 per cent of the roles for mining rookies.

Fitzroy has formed a partnership with SES Labour Services for the training, development and recruitment solutions it requires.

SES will deliver the cultural assessment, training requirements

and recruitment activities needed for the development.

Ironbark No. 1 will become the first new development from a group of assets Fitzroy acquired from Brazilian miner Vale in November 2016.

Fitzroy also acquired the Carborough Downs mine, Broadlea project, and a portfolio of development and exploration projects.

Ironbark No. 1, which is scheduled to reach production in first quarter 2020, will be an underground longwall, and bord and pillar site operated by its owner. It will share major infrastructure with Carborough Downs.

Fitzroy chief executive officer Grant Polwarth said the partnership was important in de-risking the development of Ironbark No.1.

“Employing some 350 new Fitzroy personnel is very exciting for our business and the region, and it comes with both great opportunity and challenge,” Polwarth said.

“Partnering with SES Labour Solutions to not only help recruit and train our new workforce, but further enhance our culture and vision of being a people business that mines coal is another way of challenging industry norms.”

Recruitment for the underground mining roles is expected to begin in fourth quarter 2019.

SES executive general manager Nathan Sharpe said Fitzroy’s innovative practices and peoplecentric approach made the partnership a logical alignment.

“Fitzroy are a future market leader in the mining industry, always looking to push the boundaries on traditional mining methodology,” Sharpe said.

“What Fitzroy have achieved at Carborough Downs in such a short space of time is a remarkable result already. Their focus on people, and in particular, their desire to drive performance at individual and team levels, is second to none within the industry.”

CIMIC COMPANIES WIN QUEENSLAND COAL CONTRACTS CIMIC has moved into 2019 with a strengthened order book of work in the Australian coal mining industry.

The contractor’s companies finished off last year by winning two significant mining services contracts in Queensland.

First, Pembroke Resources awarded Sedgman and CPB Contractors a $184 million coal processing contract at the Olive Downs greenfield coking coal project in Central Queensland.

CIMIC company UGL then secured

a multi-year $180 million contract for maintenance and shutdown support services across BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) coal mines in the Bowen Basin.

The Olive Downs contract is for design, procurement, construction and commissioning of the coal handling and preparation plant (CHPP).

Sedgman and CPB will work together to deliver the end-to-end solution.

Work commenced immediately

AUSTRALIANMINING

after the contract was awarded in December and is expected to be completed in 2020.

CIMIC chief executive officer Michael Wright commented: “The unique combination of Sedgman’s mineral processing experience and CPB Contractors’ construction expertise provides CIMIC Group clients with the certainty of a proven track record in developing coal mines and an integrated solution from design to commissioning.”

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UGL, meanwhile, will deliver CHPP maintenance and scheduled plant outage maintenance services; and infrastructure maintenance services, including field equipment, remote fuel farms, sewerage and water treatment plants for BMA. “This contract award signifies UGL’s position as a market leader in the delivery of maintenance and shutdown services and the strength of our capability in the Australian mining and services sectors,” Wright said.

NEWS

RIO TINTO ROLLS OUT PILBARA AUTONOMOUS TRAINS

Copyright © 2018 Rio Tinto

THE DEPLOYMENT OF AUTONOMOUS TRAINS HAS FINALLY ARRIVED FOR RIO TINTO.

Rio Tinto has completed the roll out of the AutoHaul autonomous freight train system across its iron ore operations in Western Australia.

The company completed its first successful run of the trains in the Pilbara region in July last year. The system averaged 34 trains a day by October last year and had travelled over one million kilometres by its completion.

The AutoHaul program cost Rio Tinto around $US940 million ($1.2 billion) and is the latest element in the company’s autonomy-focused Mine of the Future program, which launched in 2008.

In the past decade, the program has expanded to incorporate drills, trains and even smaller vehicles such as light trucks.

Rio Tinto Iron Ore managing director

for rail, port and core services Ivan Vella said AutoHaul’s early results indicated “significant potential” to improve productivity and reduce bottlenecks.

He added the system would co-exist with the company’s current train staff.

“Over the coming months (from December) we will continue to refine our autonomous operations to ensure we are able to maximise

value,” he said.

“We continue to work closely with drivers during this period and do not expect to make any redundancies in 2019 as a result of the deployment of AutoHaul.”

In August 2018, Scania launched a trial of its autonomous XT tipper truck system at Dampier Salt in Western Australia, Rio Tinto’s latest venture into automation.

TROPICANA GOLD MINE SHOWS UNDERGROUND POTENTIAL

MACH ENERGY LAUNCHES COAL PRODUCTION AT MOUNT PLEASANT

Joint venture partners AngloGold Ashanti and Independence Group (IGO) have confirmed that underground mining is technically and financially viable at the Tropicana gold mine in Western Australia.

The partners have released a pre-feasibility study (PFS) into the development of an underground mine beneath Tropicana’s Boston Shaker pits.

Tropicana has the potential to be developed into an underground mine producing around 100,000 ounces a year over a mine life of approximately seven years, according to the study.

The project would cost an estimated $95 million to develop. It would be aligned with the open pit design and schedule, capitalising on process plant improvements delivered at the site through the commissioning of a second ball mill.

IGO managing director Peter Bradford said the study demonstrated the potential viability of underground mining beneath the Boston Shaker open pits that integrated with the existing open pit life of mine.

“Delivery of Boston Shaker underground will result in an improved grade and gold production rate from Tropicana in financial year 2021,” Bradford said.

“The pre-feasibility study is one of a number of work programs implemented at Tropicana to add value. The results are encouraging, and we look forward to completing the feasibility study and potentially starting another exciting chapter at Tropicana.”

The partners expect to complete the feasibility study and make a financial commitment to the development in the second half of the 2019 financial year.

Tropicana is 70 per cent owned by AngloGold, with IGO holding the remaining stake.

Mach Energy has entered 2019 as Australia’s newest coal producer after reaching production at the Mount Pleasant project in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales in late December.

The company had almost completed construction of the thermal coal project in January and has started using the majority of mine infrastructure at the site.

It expects to complete further construction works on the coal handling preparation plant by the middle of this year.

Mach Energy managing director Ferdian Purnamasidi confirmed construction of the initial bypass stage of the processing facility was complete.

“Our first coal will be supplied locally for domestic use and we expect export sales to commence early in the New Year,” Purnamasidi said in December.

Mach Energy started railing coal at the mine in the final week of December.

The milestone comes around two years after the company started construction at the site in late 2016.

The company, which was established to acquire the project from Rio Tinto, plans to develop Mount Pleasant into one of the leading thermal coal mines in Australia.

Mount Pleasant hosts resources of 1.1 billion tonnes of coal and 667 million tonnes of recoverable reserves.

The operation is being developed to reach a targeted production rate of 10.5 million tonnes per annum of run-of-mine (ROM) coal, according to Mach.

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DIGITAL MINING

THE PATH TO A SUCCESSFUL DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION MOST MINING COMPANIES HAVE STARTED ON THEIR DIGITAL JOURNEY, WHILE OTHERS ARE STILL GRAPPLING WITH THE IDEA. BEN CREAGH DISCUSSES SANDVIK’S STEPS FOR INTRODUCING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES.

T

ransforming into a digital organisation has been a challenge for many mining companies since technologies like automation and data management systems have emerged.

For a lot of companies introducing digital technology has meant stepping into the unknown, particularly in underground environments.

These companies have been unsure of where to start or which systems and equipment they need.

Other companies have been reluctant to make investments out of fear of the impact a technology like automation would have on employees and their jobs.

For companies that have wanted to introduce new technologies, many simply couldn’t afford the innovations due to the mining downturn.

This outlook has, however, changed, according to Sandvik APAC digitalisation business line

manager Ville Svensberg, who believes mining companies are now more actively exploring the roll out of digital systems.

He points to the growing acceptance of automation, even in underground environments, as an example of the switch in attitude.

“I think there’s a lot more information about automation now; what the technologies are able to do and how to develop new types of competences in your workforce. It doesn’t always mean that you lose people,” Svensberg says.

“The roles of people will change, but people may also be more motivated and have a new role or new career.”

Sandvik has worked closely with two standout examples of mines that have introduced underground load and haul automation – Northparkes Mines in New South Wales, Australia and Resolute Mining’s Syama gold project in Mali, West Africa.

Northparkes hosts the world’s first 100 per cent underground mining AUSTRALIANMINING

production loading automation system, which delivers up to 25 per cent more out of an automated loader than a manual version.

The loaders also provide lower maintenance costs and a safer environment by separating machines and people.

Resolute has developed the world’s first fully integrated underground mining automation system at Syama, with various Sandvik equipment and its OptiMine solution for mine-wide operations management.

Syama will also have the world’s largest underground loader and truck fleet automation system, including more than a dozen pieces of Sandvik AutoMine equipment.

Northparkes and Syama have become world-leading minesite models that have introduced comprehensive underground automation systems.

Svensberg does, however, stress that these complete autonomous systems are not what most underground operations should aim

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for as they get started.

“I think it is encouraging that many Australian miners now realise that the mines can be fully automated,” Svensberg says. “It may be fast-tracking the digital change, but it still requires a lot from the mine and the workforce.

“I don’t think that many technology providers or mines are ready for this scale yet because it is more related to the mine design, mining method and how the mines are operated than the technology itself. It is a big step.”

Sandvik urges mining companies to understand that a digital transformation is more likely to involve a series of small steps instead of moving head-first in like Northparkes or Syama have.

First of all, mining companies need to be aware of the various benefits that are delivered by digital technologies, including improvements to health and safety, reducing costs, and increasing production.

DIGITAL MINING

Sandvik works with mining companies to help them develop a path towards a digital transformation that is best suited to their organisation and operations.

The OEM will initially focus on assisting them to identify the improvements that a digital project could deliver for them, such as continuous operations, less downtime, consistent output, highspeed production, tracking and reporting, and more.

Svensberg says a variety of digital tools have developed and are available for mining companies to start realising these benefits.

“It’s about having the mindset to take the new tools and put them into use – that’s the first step,” he says.

“Then you need to connect your equipment to enable a connectivity through networks. When you connect everything you have uncovered the first layer to enable the digital transformation.”

Sandvik’s tools include My Sandvik, OptiMine and AutoMine – the backbone of the company’s three pillars for a digital transformation.

My Sandvik is a digital platform designed for mining companies to access and manage the information generated by a Sandvik fleet.

OptiMine is a modular information management solution that offers a real-time view of underground operations.

AutoMine, which is available in four versions, is Sandvik’s automation product family for both surface and underground operations.

When presenting these products to mining companies, Svensberg says the basic message is to enable the technology and then start building.

“It is really flexible. Companies can pick and choose the right

THE OPTIMINE PLATFORM DELIVERS VALUABLE ANALYTICS TO MINERS.

modules that fit their purposes, starting from the very little and then growing as they go,” Svensberg says.

“There is no need to buy the full package and automate everything at once.”

Sandvik’s AutoMine load and haul product family demonstrates how this approach works. AutoMine’s entry-level option – Tele-Remote –

MY SANDVIK ACCESSES AND MANAGES INFORMATION GENERATED BY A SANDVIK FLEET.

AUSTRALIANMINING

IT’S ABOUT HAVING THE MINDSET TO TAKE THE NEW TOOLS AND PUT THEM INTO USE – THAT’S THE FIRST STEP.” provides a mining company with a single-machine, smart teleoperation.

It is a platform that can be upgraded to next level later on with a software update.

Mining companies can also opt for, or scale up to AutoMine’s full onboard automation packages – Lite (single-machine automation), MultiLite (multi-machine automation), and Fleet (multi-machine automation with automatic fleet traffic control).

Despite digital technology rapidly developing, Svensberg reminds mining companies that it won’t benefit their operations without the right organisational culture.

Sandvik urges companies to focus on developing its ‘people, processes, and preparedness’ to drive this cultural change.

In this regard, Svensberg believes there has been a shift in the mindset at mining companies that want to execute a digital transformation, especially from an

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automation perspective.

“The culture change is getting better all the time. I think automation has now become a standard part of the industry,” Svensberg says.

“I don’t expect that we will have many of these fully digital mines where there is nobody underground in the short term. We may already have one, Northparkes, but it is a really special case because of the early adopters and a mining method.

“The longer-term view is that we will get more and more, and maybe at some point it will really start to compete against conventional manual operations. I think first we still need to develop in many, many areas.”

As Svensberg suggests, the digital journey in an underground environment involves a series of small steps. And, while there is a long way to go, the industry has progressed along this path. AM

IMAGE OF MINING

RE-SHOOTING MINING’S ROCKY RECEPTION AT THE MOVIES EWEN HOSIE TALKS WITH MINING EXPERTS AND FILM CRITICS TO DISCUSS HOW THE INDUSTRY CAN CHANGE ITS NEGATIVE PERCEPTION AT THE MOVIES. Image: SHUTTERSTOCK

T

he science-fiction adventure film Avatar broke box office records when it released in December 2009, eventually becoming the highest grossing film of all time with $US2.8 billion ($4 billion).

Canadian director James Cameron is currently working on four sequels, renewing interest in the franchise.

But what has this got to do with mining? Both Cameron and Avatar are well known for their strong ecological bent and the record-breaking film is perhaps the highest-profile example of Hollywood’s contentious relationship with the mining industry.

“While we appreciate that film directors and producers need to deliver results at the box office, we urge them to also focus on the obligation to be accurate and responsible in their portrayals of the modern Australian mining industry, its world-class workforce and the regional communities in which we operate,” Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) chief executive officer Tania Constable tells Australian Mining.

“The mining sector is a global leader in driving innovation and sustainable practices which are rarely, if ever, recognised in the cinema.”

In Avatar, an NGO called the Resources Development Administration (RDA) leads a mining operation on the fictional moon of Pandora. The RDA clashes with the Indigenous Na’vi, eventually displacing them from their lands by force in an obvious parallel to historical mistreatment of Indigenous peoples by miners and industrialists across the world.

Rio Tinto chief executive JeanSebastien Jacques has been critical of Cameron’s on-the-nose metaphor, highlighting its effects on the perception of the mining industry at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Melbourne last October.

“Our industry is one of the least trusted on the planet. Unfortunately it’s a mainstream idea,” Jacques says.

“You only have to look at how mining is portrayed in the Avatar

AVATAR FILM DIRECTOR JAMES CAMERON SPEAKS IN LOS ANGELES IN 2009.

THE PROBLEM IS THE PERCEPTION OF THE MINING INDUSTRY HAS NOT MOVED WITH THE TIMES AND DOES NOT REFLECT THE MANY CHANGES AND INNOVATIONS THAT HAVE OCCURRED IN THE MODERN MINING INDUSTRY.” movie. What the heck? It makes me sad — or, depending on the day, pretty mad.”

Jacques suggests the image projected by mining online in particular is important, and that the industry could perhaps take a leaf from Silicon Valley’s book in order to reinvent its technocratic image.

Fairfax Media film critic Paul Byrnes believes representations of the mining industry, such as those in Avatar, have an element of truth to them.

“It’s hard to call it a cliché if it is true,” he tells Australian Mining.

“Movies tend to portray mining as AUSTRALIANMINING

a dirty and irresponsible industry because for most of the past century or more, it has been that.

“It may be worth a lot of money to Australia’s economy but movies are not in the business of nation building.

I would say in films like Red Dog, Australian miners got off pretty lightly.”

Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) CEO Warren Pearce is less convinced that movies have much of an impact on the perception of the mining industry, stating that TV news, newspapers, as well as online news and commentary are bigger catalysts.

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“Our industry is continuously trying to change perceptions and better inform the community,” he tells Australian Mining.

“The problem is the perception of the mining industry has not moved with the times and does not reflect the many changes and innovations that have occurred in the modern mining industry.”

Typically, Hollywood’s portrayal of mining falls into one of two camps: dramatisations of real-life mining controversies, or fantastical and science-fiction interpretations.

Movies such as North Country (2005), Blood Diamond (2006) and Gold (2016) fit comfortably into the former category, while science-fiction films such as Avatar (2009), Moon (2009) and Blade Runner (1982) make up the latter.

Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner implies that replicants — androids visibly indistinguishable from human beings that are manufactured en masse by the Tyrell

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Corporation — are being used as slave labour in off-world mining colonies.

The film refers to this in a subtle, throwaway fashion; the mines are not seen in the film, but are simply used as audience shorthand for Tyrell’s moral bankruptcy.

Avatar is more blatant than most, however, in its anti-mining message.

The RDA strip mines Pandora’s land for the highly valuable superconductive fictional mineral unobtanium (named after the realworld hypothetical engineering concept, ‘unobtainium’), posited in the film’s future world as a solution to a desperate energy crisis on Earth.

Such science fiction narratives are often held up as a mirror for society, with ‘space mining’ reflective of a utopian ideal, according to Byrnes.

“There is a lot of mining in science fiction, especially in outer space exploration, but that partly reflects an idea that we have run out of things to mine on earth — and that’s hardly flattering to the mining industry either,” he says.

“There is also a sort of utopian idea that we can find what we need out there, rather than taking care of what we have down here.”

Actor Giovanni Ribisi, who

in Avatar plays the greedy RDA administrator in charge of Pandora’s mining operations, comes from a long-established stock type in Cameron’s films. “[James Cameron] is a big environmentalist,” explains Ben O’Shea, film critic and editor of The West Australian’s Inside Cover.

“Often these films reflect the personal interests of the people who are writing the films and making the films, and I think you’ll tend to find that people in artistic fields of endeavour probably lean a little bit more to the left in terms of environmental conservation.

“It’s just not sexy in that industry to be pro-mining, pro-big business, or pro-government, so you see a lot of negative depictions of all three.”

These parallels were not lost on journalists; a Newsweek article written by Melinda Liu shortly after the film’s release compared the RDA’s actions in Avatar to the tree felling and forced displacements in Tibet perpetrated by the Chinese Government.

Cameron’s script makes sure to show the corporation’s contempt for the local inhabitants. Ribisi’s character refers to the Na’vi as “savages” and mocks what he

considers their backwards sentiment for the land.

It is a perception that the mining industry had taken great strides to escape in recent years, particularly in countries such as Australia, where the industry’s relationship with the Indigenous custodians of the land is a sensitive topic that is taken seriously.

“Avatar does not represent how modern mining is conducted in Australia,” says Constable. “As a fantasy film, it relies on an outdated portrayal of mining which ignores the innovative practices and environmentally responsible approach of the modern mining industry here and across the world.

“The Australian mining sector is a global leader and continues to make significant progress on sustainable mining practices, especially environmental performance, community engagement and Indigenous employment and economic empowerment.”

The rise of Indigenous Land Use Agreements in Australia in the last decade has seen a surge in Aboriginal participation in the mining workforce, which doubled from 2006–2011.

From the mid 1990s to 2011, the number of Indigenous people in the Australian mining workforce

rose from a few hundred to over 7000 people. Several mining majors have also introduced significant diversification programs such as Rio Tinto’s Indigenous Scholarship program and Fortescue’s Jawun program.

Rio Tinto now stands as one of the largest employers of Indigenous Australians in the country, employing over 1500 people.

Like Constable, O’Shea suggests that mining’s presentation in the movies does not reflect modern scenarios, but “out-of-date stereotypes”.

“The mining industry would benefit from paying attention to what is shown on the silver screen and seeing how they could perhaps work with Hollywood and other film producers in the future to improve its reputation,” he says.

Byrnes, on the other hand, believes the mining industry would do better to look inward.

“Most of those films are not about the future but about the present in that sense. I can’t think of too many films where mining is looked at in a positive light,” he says.

“The best thing you could say about it is that they’re probably not as badly portrayed as Wall Street.” AM

MOVIES OFTEN FAIL TO HIGHLIGHT MINING’S COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTION.

Image: Copyright © 2018 Rio Tinto

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TECHNOLOGY

THE DOZER PUSH: KOMATSU UNVEILS NEXT PHASE OF AUTONOMOUS MISSION KOMATSU IS BRINGING THE COMPANY CLOSER TO THE DREAM OF FULLY AUTONOMOUS DOZING WITH ITS LATEST RELEASE. AUSTRALIAN MINING SPEAKS TO KOMATSU MINING PRODUCT MANAGER MICHAEL HALL TO FIND OUT HOW.

T

ertiary enrolments for mining engineering students have been in decline for six years as the industry has struggled to attract young talent, according to the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA).

The current crop of around 300 mining engineers that graduated from Australian universities is expected to fall to just 50 by 2022.

Warnings of an impending skills shortage in the mining and resources industries have prompted a response from suppliers who are rising to meet the challenge.

One way to deal with this

potential problem is through the democratisation of skill sets through ever-improving technology.

Komatsu’s latest dozer, the D375Ai-8, provides a way to fill a skills gap for operators in this regard. The company celebrated the 72.9-tonne dozer’s Australian launch at an event in Brisbane last November, and has big plans for the machine in 2019.

“It’s all part of the progress towards fully autonomous dozers and I think the timing is extremely fortuitous,” Komatsu Australia mining product manager Michael Hall tells Australian Mining.

“There is an expectation that technology can fill a lot of the skills

gap so it won’t bite as hard as it did last time around.”

The Ai-8 boasts a SAA6D170E-7 Tier 4 diesel engine, which incorporates features to substantially reduce particulate matter and other emissions compared with previous generation engines.

It also reduces fuel consumption through a heavy duty EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) system, a hydraulically driven radiator cooling fan and Komatsu’s auto idle stop system.

It is rated at 455 kilowatts in forward and 558 kilowatts in reverse, a capacity that helps to reduce cycle times and bank cubic metre costs during downhill dozing runs,

considered the most efficient method of bulk dozing.

Compared to its predecessor, the D375A-6, engine power has also been increased by 20 per cent when reversing, resulting in an 18 per cent boost to downhill dozing production.

Fuel consumption has also been reduced by up to 10 per cent due to the inclusion of an automatic gearshift transmission that selects the optimal gear range to meet the needs of the machine.

“Komatsu dozers have long been recognised for their high performance pushing and ripping capability, with Dash 1 generation dozers still in service, in Australia, New Zealand and around the world,”

THE AI-8 VARIANT BOASTS A FULLY AUTONOMOUS DOZER BLADE.

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TECHNOLOGY

Hall says.

“With this latest Dash 8 model, key frame improvements offer superior levels of durability and reliability for many years of service in challenging working environments.”

While it shares the same engine under the hood as the A-8, the Ai-8 builds on that model’s success with an increased focus on ease of use and efficiency through the incorporation of several automated systems, including a fully automated dozer blade.

This blade is designed to be able to cut to within 300 millimetres of final design surface, at which point the machine automatically switches to fine blade control to whittle the surface down to within 50 millimetres over or under the surface.

This allows the operator to concentrate on directional movement without becoming overloaded by the controls. This also includes auto blade pitch and auto ripper stow, as well as carrying over the automatic transmission and lockup torque conversion of the A-6 series.

Real-time operational analysis is available from the operator’s dash and can be sent to the site office via standard 3G and 4G communication networks in order to check progress against plans and allow for near-realtime adjustments as required.

This includes Komtrax Plus

integration for equipment monitoring. A report can be delivered remotely based on a machine’s operating data, which further boosts productivity and lowers fuel consumption.

“The ‘Ai’ can also be referred to as intelligent machine control (iMC).

It’s all about accuracy, mining to plan, and getting the feedback so you can see what’s happening on a near real-time basis,” Hall explains.

“It results in better productivity from the whole fleet because the machine controls the blade, which means that operators who perhaps aren’t as highly skilled or as experienced as the best operators onsite will be getting very similar levels of production from the dozer.”

These quality-of-life improvements extend to the design of the cabin itself, which offers improved visibility over previous models. The A-8/Ai-8 allows operators to see the tip of the ripper, which means they can see where it is put in the ground.

The corner tips of the blade are also visible from the operator’s seat.

Cabin glass has been made longer and engine cowling narrower to further improve visibility.

“The skills shortage is what iMC is targeted at; it’s about being able to have the technology on the machine so that you don’t need those highly

KOMATSU LAUNCHED THE DOZER AT A BRISBANE EVENT LAST NOVEMBER.

skilled 20-year veterans to get the kind of production that you require,” Hall adds.

This is particularly handy for applications such as coal mining when cutting the final layer of overburden as it allows operators to see if they are cutting into an interburden seam, waste material or the coal itself.

This also helps during mine rehabilitation works, where the accuracy of profile dozing is of the utmost importance.

Already noted in the mining

industry for its expertise with driverless haul trucks through its autonomous haulage system (AHS), the Ai-8 represents Komatsu’s largest step yet towards its ambitious realisation of the fully autonomous dozer.

“Komatsu has been making haul trucks move autonomously for over 20 years, and the mining products we’re seeing being released now are a culmination of the development of other products and a true stepping stone towards fully autonomous machines,” Hall concludes. AM

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MINING EQUIPMENT

THE RISE OF THE ULTRA CLASS NATIONAL GROUP’S DELIVERY OF SEVERAL TIER 1 ULTRA-CLASS PROJECTS IN 2018 WAS EMBLEMATIC OF MINING’S RETURNING FORTUNES. EWEN HOSIE SPEAKS TO COMPANY FOUNDER MARK ACKROYD ABOUT WHAT’S NEXT.

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ining’s upswing in the past couple of years has been good news for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and equipment suppliers.

Across the 2016-17 year (the latest full year figures available at the time of writing), the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recorded a 38.2 per cent growth in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the mining industry to $83.6 billion.

The Queensland resources industry delivered record royalties for the state in 2018. This helped to keep Queensland’s budget in the black, with returns from coal royalty taxes in particular up to a record $4.26 billion.

Coal also returned the largest increase in export value for 22 straight months from December 2016.

National Group is a mining supplier that has risen to meet the increased demands of the industry’s recovery in the past year.

Taking a port-to-pit approach, National Group ships equipment components through in-house company

International Global Logistics before it is hauled to mine sites via National Heavy Haulage.

Finally, the delivered equipment — and the staff to support it — are managed through National Plant and Equipment (NPE) and National Mining Services (NMS).

National Group founder and chief executive officer Mark Ackroyd says the upswing has created more certainty across the whole sector.

“In the downturn, all the OEMs and manufacturers saw their new equipment stock deteriorate as they didn’t have as much new stock coming through,” he says.

“So now the upswing has come back in, new equipment lead times — even if it’s a smaller machine such as a D10 bulldozer, D11 dozer or grader — can still take 12 months or more because coming out of the OEM factories can take some time. It really depends on the type of equipment.”

In particular, the Australian coal sector, which was thought to have flatlined just a few years ago, has enjoyed a major comeback with acrossthe-board growth.

“I think it’s going to be quite

NATIONAL GROUP CAPPED OFF 2018 WITH THE DELIVERY OF FIVE LIEBHERR TRUCKS TO BHP.

stable for quite some years to come,” says Ackroyd.

“There’s some new operations starting and others kicked back into gear once the market got a bit more positive. The whole mining market is in a much better position than what it was 12 months ago.

“It’s been a focus of ours to spread out to a lot of different commodities.

Our work is spread across Australia and

A LIEBHERR T 282 C ON THE ROAD TO BHP’S PEAK DOWNS MINE.

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there’s gold, iron ore, coal, magnesium, battery metals — we do a bit of everything, including a lot of work in the coal sector.”

National Group built significant momentum in the latter half of 2018 with the delivery of several highprofile ultra-class haul trucks, defined as trucks capable of hauling payloads of 290 tonnes or more.

Though miners do sometimes buy

MINING EQUIPMENT

THE LIEBHERR T 282 C IS ONE OF THE LARGEST CAPACITY MINING TRUCKS IN THE WORLD.

these trucks outright, rental is an attractive option for companies — even Tier 1 operators — as it provides them with additional flexibility to meet project needs without running the risk of underusing assets.

“Capex is still a big concern for any major mining house at the present so sometimes it’s better to lease or hire the equipment as opposed to owning the equipment as lead times for new equipment are quite long,” Ackroyd explains.

The company completed two major truck deliveries, one for Anglo American and the other for Idemitsu, in August last year.

NPE delivered 12 new Komatsu 830E dump trucks for Anglo American’s Capcoal operation, and an additional four machines down the line for 16 trucks in total.

The first batch of 12 trucks was assembled at NPE’s Yatala site in Queensland over two months in late 2017. Ackroyd says lengthy lead times are common for ultra-class deliveries.

“Larger equipment can take up to 18 months from date of order to receiving it in the country,” he says.

Even large trucks that fall outside the ultra-class bracket, such as 190-tonne capacity models, can take up to nine months in the current market.

NPE then delivered three Komatsu 930E trucks (the world’s best-selling ultra-class mine truck) and a Liebherr R 9800 excavator to Idemitsu’s Boggabri coal mine.

The company later secured five rental Liebherr T 282 C haul trucks for BHP’s Peak Downs coal mine in the Bowen Basin region of Queensland in November.

Liebherr’s T 282 C is considered to have the second largest payload capacity among mine trucks globally with a payload of 363 tonnes, or 400 short tons.

National Heavy Haulage organised delivery of the trucks from Mackay

to Peak Downs via heavy-duty prime movers in five separate trips across September and October.

The journeys required police escorts and road closures to accommodate the immense size of the vehicle components, particularly the chassis and attached wheels.

“It’s a fairly big task to organise transport, get them assembled, get them on site — it takes a lot of planning and procedures to do so,” says Ackroyd.

The trucks were the last of their type to be delivered to Australia prior to Liebherr’s release of its T 284 successor model.

National Group went a step further in December by delivering a Hitachi 5600 excavator to Peak Downs to complement the trucks and a Liebherr R996B excavator to BHP’s sister mine, Poitrel.

While 2018 was a year of literal and metaphorical big things for National Group, it isn’t resting on its laurels.

Big things are, after all, not known for their agility.

National Group plans to keep pace with mining’s ever-expanding automation push with a pivot towards new technologies and innovations in 2019.

“That’s a big focus of ours going forward,” says National Group marketing executive Kain Ford.

“We want to position ourselves in the market going into technology and innovation.”

The company has taken recent strides into the automation arena with an upcoming contractor acquisition, which offers a variety of dozer push, excavation and rehabilitation services in Queensland and New South Wales.

“Adding this contractor to the National Group will allow us to deliver additional services in autonomous operations, so it was a logical choice for us,” Ackroyd says.

“That direction is where we want to go in the future as well.” AM AUSTRALIANMINING

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EXPLORATION JERRY GIANNAKIS WORKS WITH HISEIS EQUIPMENT.

A SEISMIC SHIFT FOR MINERAL EXPLORATION EXPLORATION COMPANIES ARE SEARCHING FOR NEW METHODS TO UNLOCK THE NEXT WAVE OF MINERAL DEPOSITS. A TECHNOLOGY PROVING VALUABLE IN THIS PURSUIT IS 3D SEISMIC SURVEYING. BEN CREAGH WRITES.

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xploration activity is increasing across the hard rock mining sector.

At the same time, reserves are becoming increasingly difficult to unlock as deposits change.

With the mining industry settling into a more vibrant environment, many companies have responded by expanding their exploration budgets.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures reflect these moves, showing a 4 per cent rise in exploration in the September 2018 quarter to push spending to its highest level in five years.

Western Australia’s hard rock miners guided this growth as spending in the gold sector surged.

Exploration for gold is on track to grow even further this year after several leading companies declared larger budgets. Northern Star Resources, for example, increased its exploration budget by a third to $60 million in the 2019 financial year.

Evolution Mining has also boosted its planned exploration spend from $32

million to up to $55 million.

The increase in spending is a welcome sign for the mining industry, but it doesn’t remove the challenge of declining grades, resource depletion and deposits becoming deeper.

To overcome this, mining companies are considering different methods, including seismic surveying, a technique that has emerged in hard rock exploration over the past decade.

Western Australian-focused hard rock companies, in particular, have embraced 3D seismic surveying to unlock deeper reserves and for exploration under cover.

Perth-based HiSeis, a company created by Curtin University professors Anton Kepic and Milovan Urosevic in 2009, remains the only commercial provider of the technology for mining.

The HiSeis team has overcome sceptics of seismic surveying who criticised the technology as a tool that is only effective for exploration in the oil and gas industry.

Curtin University developed tools and techniques that enabled the application of the technology AUSTRALIANMINING

for hard rock exploration, removing the limitations linked with deeper resources and exploration under cover.

Seismic surveying’s reputation in mining has strengthened in recent years following exploration campaigns by the likes of Northern Star and Evolution, as well as nickel-focused Independence Group (IGO).

HiSeis’ technique has been deployed by each of these companies to better define and interpret the geological features of their sites.

Chief executive officer Joe Dwyer, who joined HiSeis in 2013, says there has been a shift in the mining industry’s attitude towards seismic surveying for exploration off the back of these campaigns.

“I have seen a step change over the last couple of years in that the technique is at least getting some credibility,” Dwyer tells Australian Mining.

“Some of the detractors in the early days would talk of myths that seismic can’t image deep structures, or can’t image thin or steep structures.

Typically, these are the origin of

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gold deposits that are hosted within thin vein systems.

“The success we’ve had recently firstly shows that you can image deep structures, and secondly we have learnt something with the alteration associated with the gold mineralisation.

We can image that and that is really useful for gold mining.”

Dwyer says long-time users of 3D seismic surveying, such as Northern Star, Evolution and IGO, have been rewarded by taking risks with a new technique.

Northern Star, for example, made the Zodiac discovery at the Jundee mine in 2017 by drilling targets taken from a 3D survey after believing in the technology for many years.

“Typically the companies that have senior management or a culture of being innovative are the ones more willing to accept a new idea, and seismic in mining is a new idea,” Dwyer says.

“That is a common thread I find; it’s the miners that have a leader, MD or chairman who is prepared to do something different and not just keep

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with the paradigm.

“Northern Star took a chance and we have done half a dozen projects for them in different gold mines.”

IGO was another early adopter of seismic, as far back as the days before HiSeis with Curtin University.

HiSeis acquired a 3D seismic survey of the Nova nickel-copper-cobalt operation for IGO in early 2017.

Initially, IGO wanted to establish a better understanding of how useful it would be for the company to acquire 3D seismic data.

The companies finished up performing the largest-ever 3D hard rock seismic survey at Nova, which HiSeis delivered to IGO in July 2018 six months after starting work on it.

IGO exploration project manager Paul Polito says the company considers Nova a strong candidate for seismic surveying because its mineralisation is not limited to the near surface.

“It’s mostly under cover and therefore we needed the latest technology available to go deep,” Polito says.

“We believe we can mine Novalike mineralisation to at least two kilometres depth underground and there is no other technology more superior at the moment than HiSeis 3D seismic surveying that allows us to target hard rock mineralisation at those sorts of depths.”

IGO has also acquired 3D seismic data for its Tropicana gold joint venture (with Anglo Gold Ashanti) and the Long nickel operation.

The company is confident the success of the 3D surveys at Tropicana and Long bodes well for its development plans at Nova and around the overall mining lease.

“The more we drill the better we understand that data set,” Polito says.

“What makes it appealing is the level of geological detail that we can obtain at considerable depths. That kind of information cannot currently be obtained using any other method.”

IGO has emerged as one of the trailblazers of 3D seismic surveying since experimenting with a Curtin University prototype at the Long project 10 years ago.

Polito says the seismic surveys have also proven to be good value for money given the geological and structural information it has provided in a 3D environment.

“This information to collect through conventional drilling would be cost prohibitive. We are confident that this technology and applying the scientific approach in a scientific way will lead to additional Nova-like deposit discoveries,” Polito says.

“Traditionally, many explorers believed using seismic for hard rock would be too complicated, but we believe that as we increase our

IGO GRADUATE EXPLORATION GEOLOGIST MATILDA O’CONNOR WITH A DRILL RIG IN THE FRASER RANGE.

understanding of using 3D seismic and increase our confidence in how we use the data, then it will become more commonly used in brownfields exploration.”

HiSeis has managed to capture the attention of the mining industry with these breakthroughs.

A group of industry executives, mining services company Ausdrill and other professional investors joined forces to buy a majority

ownership in the company last year.

The change in ownership reflected HiSeis’ growth plans. It has helped support the company’s international expansion and consolidate its position as a hard rock seismic provider.

These investors are hoping to push HiSeis to the next level, as the company wants to do with the exploration sector using its technology. AM

THE HISEIS MACHINES LINE UP FOR WORK ON SITE.

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FUTURE OF MINING

THE MT50 MID-TIER MINERS CONTINUE TO OUTPERFORM AUSTRALIA’S TOP 200 COMPANIES.

LAYING THE PATH FOR MID-TIER WINNERS TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENT HAS A PENCHANT FOR SPARKING NEW GLOBAL COMMODITY DEMAND IN THE MINING WORLD, WITH LITHIUM LAST YEAR’S NOTABLE MOVER. PWC MINING LEADER CHRIS DODD SPEAKS TO VANESSA ZHOU ABOUT THE COMING CHALLENGES.

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ustralia has a strong standing in where the lithium market is heading. Despite the scarce mention of this battery mineral among the Australian Securities Exchange’s (ASX) 50 largest mining companies, seven lithium-related companies have slipped into the MT50 group of companies.

There has been visible rise in market capitalisation for the seven companies, despite that they are only in the early days of production.

Investors could already sniff the

direction of Australian mining in the future. The surging trend of battery technology and electric vehicles has lithium crowned as the second biggest contributor to growth in terms of dollar value in the MT50’s total market capitalisation.

But Australian lithium production has barely scratched the surface of its potential.

Lithium miners Kidman Resources and Altura Mining, for example, have doubled their market capitalisation within just a year.

“This new boom is the fruit of the fourth industrial revolution,” PwC AUSTRALIANMINING

national mining leader Chris Dodd tells Australian Mining. “[It] has brought with it rising demand for modern conveniences like smartphones, electric vehicles, lightweight engines and next-gen batteries.”

In PwC’s 12th ‘Aussie Mine’ report, each of the MT50 companies is recorded with an average market capitalisation of nearly $1.2 billion.

In another significant development, all but three MT50 miners experienced an increase in value, pushing the MT50’s market capitalisation up a whopping 28 per

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cent to $58.7 billion.

“One of the things about looking at historic information is, when you bring it all together, and you think seven of the 50 mid-tier miners in Australia are all lithium producers, that’s more than enough to make people stop and think about it,” Dodd continues.

This was achieved when there was only a small supply of lithium that had been produced – an amount that can be counted in the thousands of tonnes against the millions of tonnes of reserves and resources that lay unyielded in Australia.

Dodd is confident there will be a

FUTURE OF MINING

much bigger supply of lithium coming on board.

“In fact, it’s going to be really, really significant. It has all to do with which deposits are owned by who, now.

And that’s all part of the Australian story,” he says.

Challenges and anticipation

This does not mean that lithium producers don’t face the risks that all other miners grapple with.

The ‘Aussie Mine’ report shows that operating costs in the midtier sector increased by 10 per cent in 2018, despite productivity initiatives introduced by companies two or three years prior.

Global forces including oil prices and the US dollar exchange rate have gone against producers in the last 12 months, significantly affecting miners’ cost base.

“Perhaps companies took a little too much credit when costs were dropping, because falling costs were equally non-controllable then,” Dodd says. “But we might have called them productivity benefits.

“Now that costs are going up, all the conversation talks about the uncontrollability of costs like exchange rates and oil prices.”

And while operating costs all rose for mid-tier coal, copper and gold producers, this wasn’t necessarily tied to an upswing in production.

“The reality is that mining is an

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RATHER THAN JUST A STORY OF WHAT THE PRODUCTION OF LITHIUM, FOR EXAMPLE, IS GOING TO BE, YOU’RE NOW GOING TO LOOK INTO SOME OF THE ACTUAL CHALLENGES IN THE PRODUCTION. AND THERE WILL PROBABLY BE SOME WINNERS AND LOSERS IN THAT PROCESS.”

uncertain business,” Dodd says. “You face a number of risks and you have to navigate those risks as you go through production.”

In the absence of a provable benefit of productivity improvement, Dodd highlights the uptake of technology as particularly (and relatively) slow in the mid-tier sector.

The benefit of mine digitisation is not immediately reflected in financial terms when looking at technology’s impact on a company’s financial performance, rather than the actual physical investment in the new technology.

“This is because you’re not being offered the whole saving in technology,” Dodd says. “Some of that is accrued to the technology creator.

“That’s what’s happening anywhere else in the world where tech models are being disrupted. So rather than just a story of what the production of lithium, for example, is going to be, you’re now going to look into

some of the actual challenges in the production. And there will probably be some winners and losers in that process.”

Next, mid-tier miners are facing a challenge in attracting new talent, particularly those skilled in artificial intelligence (AI), data analysis and mechatronics in the face of a newer age and digitally aligned workforce.

Most graduates are being attracted to technology companies and start-ups rather than traditional industries like mining, Dodd says.

Mid-tier miners, while unable to buy talent like their global peers, need to align their organisational culture more closely with the values of graduating millennials and develop mentoring programs that foster high performance and loyalty.

“The MT50 are healthy and steaming ahead, but they now need to focus on becoming ‘future fit’ to position themselves for long-term positive growth,” Dodd continues.

Technological changes have triggered a new boom in lithium demand in line with the rising wave of smart phones, battery technology and the Internet of Things (IoT). But the same can’t be said about gold.

Being a contributor of more than half of the MT50’s revenue in 2018, only a small portion of the overall gold production was accounted to technological changes.

To Dodd, the primary property that undoubtedly drives gold is its use as a storer of wealth. This moves favourably during times of global uncertainty.

“It would appear that’s absolutely what’s happening at the moment.

There is a level of uncertainty with the US–China relation, and some of this global nervousness is affecting gold prices in a positive direction,” Dodd points out.

Meanwhile, changing technology has also started to cause rising global demand in graphite and rare earths.

“Whilst we haven’t seen a drop in demand for iron ore, coal, copper and gold, we can definitely see an increase in the demand for what was considered some of the more niche products, and you have to think that will continue,” Dodd says.

“This is the first time we’ve ever had four companies graduate out of the MT50. And that’s a good sign for the mid-tier industry.” AM

GOLD IS A MAJOR INFLUENCER IN THE AUSTRALIAN MID-TIER MINING SECTOR.

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MINING SERVICES

MCLANAHAN TAKES ON THE WORLD BATTERY BOOMS AND COAL COMEBACKS ARE KEEPING MCLANAHAN’S SLATE FULL WELL INTO 2019. AUSTRALIAN MINING REPORTS.

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ngineering services provider McLanahan experienced a pivotal year in 2018.

The company achieved several highprofile mining project deliveries while continuing to expand with the launch of its 18,000-square-metre flagship site in Cameron Park, New South Wales.

The facility, which opened in August, has allowed the company to accelerate its project scheduling and rotable upgrade capabilities.

It also allows McLanahan to run new build projects in parallel to upgrade and refurbishment projects at the same location.

Even company chairman Mike McLanahan and chief executive officer Sean McLanahan got in on the action when they flew in from the company’s United States headquarters to attend a launch celebration last November.

The McLanahan heads, in a display of the company’s long-term commitment to Australia, stood alongside delegates of Austrade, the NSW Minerals Council, the Department of Industry, and several clients and suppliers to recognise the site.

McLanahan APAC sales and marketing director Chris Knowles says the site has made “an immediate difference” to efficiency.

“We can manage inventory much more efficiently with greater parts holdings and the ability to cross

A ROTARY COAL BREAKER AFTER FACTORY ACCEPTANCE TESTING AT THE NEWCASTLE FACILITY.

utilise resources,” he tells Australian Mining. “The location also reduces delivery times both inbound and outbound. We can get out to the freeway within minutes.”

Recent completed works by the company — originally founded in the US in 1835 and launched in Australia in 2003 — include back-toback projects for a BHP Mitsubishi

A 3D MODEL OF A MCLANAHAN ROTARY BREAKER.

AUSTRALIANMINING

Alliance (BMA) site in North Queensland, as well as work with Sedgman at the Byerwen coal mine in central Queensland.

“They’re large projects and they require a lot of resources,” Knowles says. “They helped us establish the baseline of our business and build momentum for 2018. Last year we replaced a number of rotary coal breakers in the field that had reached the end of their operating life after 15 to 20 years.”

The company’s ambitious Lake Vermont coal handling and preparation plant (CHPP) feeder breaker project with Thiess was also a highlight, netting the company a nomination for its time saving prowess at the Queensland Mining Awards last July.

It also took home the Manufacturer of the Year award at the 2018 Hunter Manufacturing Awards in October.

The company has already marked 2019 by completing three major projects in January, including the delivery of the final of four rotary coal breakers into North Queensland, as well as a triple roll crusher at a pit crushing operation

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and rotary ore scrubber in South Australia.

“We have a very solid pipeline of business for 2019 and have strategic plans to grow some of our capability in Western Australia,” Knowles explains.

“We’ve already made an offer for a new engineer in our Perth office and have recruited a new project manager at Newcastle with experience on the mineral sands side. We’ve also recruited two more workers for our coal projects — one in customer service and a divisional filtration specialist on the east coast.”

Though McLanahan has taken significant strides to expand its Western Australian and New South Wales presence, the company’s strong showing in Queensland last year was no coincidence.

With coal expected to replace iron ore as Australia’s most valuable export with a value of $67 billion in the 2019 financial year, according to the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science’s latest available Resources and Energy Quarterly, McLanahan is well placed to take advantage of an invigorated market.

MINING SERVICES

“I would say McLanahan has achieved more work this year than in the peak of 2010 and it’s around a strength in the coal industry,” Knowles says.

The company has picked up a recent contract in the coal-rich Hunter Valley region of New South Wales to help a mine site improve the availability of its run-of-mine (ROM) crushing station.

The aim, says Knowles, is to bring to bear a combination of local engineering design delivering innovative crushing technology, and a high level of onsite service, remote management and support to facilitate the project’s completion.

“McLanahan is proud to be a Hunter manufacturer and we really appreciate opportunities to support local coal mines,” Knowles says.

“Being so close to site in question allows us to work very closely with the operations and maintenance staff to ensure we are providing the type of integrated solution that will allow them to meet their supply KPIs.” McLanahan’s growth in 2018 was not limited to Australia, either. Asia took on an increased prominence for the company, with close to 40 per cent of its spare parts and services sales coming from the continent, with China, Indonesia and Mongolia the three key markets.

“It’s great for diversification and exporting regionally manufactured equipment and Australian manufactured equipment,” Knowles explains.

Beyond coal, McLanahan has made strides into support for the burgeoning battery metals sector, which has exploded as global demand for electric vehicles (as well as the improving affordability of modern technology in the

developing world) continues to increase.

An electric car uses on average four times as much copper in its battery as an equivalent petrol car for example, while a Tesla S battery pack is 80 per cent nickel, 15 per cent cobalt and contains roughly 63 kilograms of lithium.

McLanahan identified battery minerals as a focus area around two years ago, when it developed its Mini DDC Sizer for the crushing of spodumene.

To this end, McLanahan has embarked on a commission related to the phase two expansion of a prominent regional nickel mine project.

The company will introduce customised tailings thickeners to help improve the site’s environmental efficiency. The 30week project has been undergoing an extensive design phase, and McLanahan expects to begin manufacture in the first quarter of 2019.

“As most people in the minerals industry are aware, battery minerals such as copper, nickel and lithium are still in growth phases which may indeed continue to grow for the next decade,” says Knowles.

“We have worked with two customers and installed equipment at two lithium mines in Australia and are actively seeking new opportunities both locally and through our office in Chile, a prominent battery metal producer, to grow the business and take advantage of areas that are driving a paradigm shift in transport technology.”

From Australia to Chile to China and beyond, 2019 looks set to be one of McLanahan’s busiest years yet. AM

MCLANAHAN MD (APAC) NEIL HUNT HOLDS A HUNTER MANUFACTURING AWARD.

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AFRICA ATTRACTS AUSTRALIANS FOR RISING METAL MANY METALS PUNDITS HAVE PREDICTED GRAPHITE TO BE THE NEXT BIG THING ON THE COMMODITIES MARKET. AUSTRALIAN MINING SPEAKS TO A GRAPHITE COMPANY DEVELOPING A PROJECT IN TANZANIA TO FIND OUT WHY.

G

raphite has emerged as one of the strongest performers on the metals market.

Prices for flake graphite have added significant value since 2017 as supply has tightened and demand has been forecasted to rise significantly in the coming years.

The turnaround for graphite has been largely driven by China, the world’s key supplier of the commodity.

China instigated the tightening market for the metal as it moved to become a more environmentallyfriendly jurisdiction by closing several of its graphite operations that were questioned for their lack of sustainability.

The demand side, meanwhile, is building for two key reasons.

Firstly, fine flake graphite is a key component of lithium-ion batteries,

used in electric vehicles. Some electric vehicles require up to 40 kilograms of graphite.

Electric vehicles, however, do not entirely steal the limelight for graphite, like they regularly do with lithium and cobalt.

Graphite may often be called a battery metal because of the lithiumion link, but the coarse flake variety is also in growing demand as a fire depressant in building materials.

This type of graphite, known as expandable graphite, is usually pressed into sheets by using the coarser flake, which is then applied to building materials.

While many Australian-based companies are targeting the battery market with graphite projects in Africa, others are interested in the coarse flake sector, including Graphex Mining at the Chilalo project in Tanzania.

Managing director Phil Hoskins AUSTRALIANMINING

says the appeal of coarse flake graphite for companies like Graphex has risen significantly in recent years.

“Back in 2016, the Chinese Government said all future construction needed flame retardant building materials and expandable graphite is now replacing all the old building materials,” Hoskins tells Australian Mining.

“It has been said that they will need 2 million tonnes of coarse graphite just for this use and the whole market is currently at around 800,000 tonnes a year.”

Graphex took a major step towards becoming a significant supplier of premium, coarse flake graphite by securing up to $US85 million ($119.8 million) in funding from investment firm Castlelake last October to develop Chilalo.

The proposed funding, the largest for an ASX-listed company focused on graphite, would guide the Chilalo

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A CLOSE UP OF A DRILL CORE FROM CHILALO.

INTERNATIONAL

project through to production, covering development, construction and ramp-up of the operation.

United States-based Castlelake immediately provided $US5 million to Graphex as part of the agreement.

Graphex also signed a term sheet with Castlelake for a funding package that includes up to $US40 million of senior secured notes, and up to $US40 million of equity.

The company is using the initial $5 million to satisfy conditions set

by Castlelake to secure the entire funding package, including the delivery of a bankable feasibility study (BFS).

Graphex must also resolve issues relating to changes the Tanzanian Government made to its mining legislation in 2017.

These changes have caused uncertainty for all mining and exploration companies operating in the country, leaving market capitalisations in freefall and financing arrangements in doubt.

Hoskins believes the changes were primarily designed to address the export of precious metals and metal concentrates from existing operations.

However, he says Graphex has been working to clarify a couple of specific changes in the past 18 months, and more recently to secure the funding.

The changes include that the government will have at least a 16 per cent free-carried interest in local miners, and also that it is entitled to acquire up to 50 per cent of the shares in mining companies.

Graphex has provided a detailed submission to the country’s government to clarify these points.

Hoskins says Graphex is progressing the BFS and resolving

the concerns with the Tanzanian Government at the same time.

“We are trying to line it up so that when Tanzania is resolved we are doing the BFS as well. It will probably all be done by the end of the second quarter (of 2019) but we are trying not to commit to any timelines,” he says.

The remaining conditions include the execution of material contracts, including offtake agreements, the mining contractor and the EPC contractor; completion of transaction documents; and securing final approvals.

Hoskins says the company has taken great confidence from the commitment of Castlelake in the Chilalo project.

“We believe this transaction affirms the quality of the Chilalo project, the premium product it will produce, the graphite market opportunity identified by the company and confidence in the company’s ability to reach a satisfactory resolution in Tanzania,” Hoskins says.

“We can now proceed with completion of the BFS with a view to Graphex becoming a leading supplier of premium, coarse flake graphite.”

Graphex released an updated prefeasibility study (PFS) for Chilalo last September. The updated PFS confirmed Graphex’s belief that Chilalo is a high quality, high margin graphite project.

The PFS proposes a two-stage development, with the first part to deliver annual production of 58,000 tonnes over two years, followed by a second phase averaging 108,000 tonnes a year for 4.3 years.

Graphex forecast stage one to cost $US43.6 million and stage two $US32.5 million. AM

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CONTRACT MINING THE BROKEN HILL SOLAR PLANT WAS ONE OF THE PROJECTS RCR WAS INVOLVED WITH PRIOR TO ITS ADMINISTRATION.

RCR TOMLINSON FAILURE HIGHLIGHTS DANGERS FOR SUBCONTRACTORS THE ENGINEERING COMPANY’S MOVE INTO ADMINISTRATION AT THE END OF 2018 RAISED FEARS FOR WHAT BAD NEWS SUCH AS THIS MEANS FOR SUBCONTRACTORS. EWEN HOSIE REPORTS.

R

CR Tomlinson is well known in the mining world having celebrated its 120th anniversary last year.

When the company announced last November that it appointed voluntary administrators from McGrathNicol to commence an immediate sale of the RCR Group’s constituent companies, it therefore came as something of a shock to the industry.

While the company’s share price had fallen dramatically from $2.12 at the end of July 2018 to 87 cents before the administration was announced, prompting investor concerns, the company had also raised $84.4 million from investors in August and possessed an order book that appeared to be in relative health.

RCR boasted a $1.1 billion order book and $2 billion in revenues in November 2018, up 58 per cent on the previous year.

Despite this, the company revealed debts of up to $630 million, including millions in unpaid subcontractor wages at various operations across the country.

The company’s ordeal highlighted the risks associated with subcontracting payment terms, which have been known to extend to 60 or even 90 days in the mining sector.

Around the same time as RCR’s administration came to light, the Morrison Government expressed support for implementing improved payment terms for small businesses.

Specifically, the Prime Minister

stated that businesses with a turnover of more than $100 million should pay small contractors with government contracts within a 20-day window.

Large mining companies such as Anglo American and BHP, also cogent of the recent attention drawn to the mining industry’s lengthy payments, both announced commitments to 30-day payment terms for small-tomedium enterprises (SMEs) and local businesses last November.

Rio Tinto announced a similar move in May 2017, announcing 30day payment windows for smaller businesses. The company received criticism a year earlier (particularly from politicians in Western Australia) for changing its payment terms from 45 to 90 days from receipt of invoice.

McGrathNicol refused to answer questions regarding the details of RCR Tomlinson’s administration and contract issues for this article.

However, Australian Subcontractors Association (ASA) spokesperson Louise Stewart explained that RCR subcontractors complained that the company delayed payments for as long as 12 months to prop up its cash flow.

The [state] governments are very aware that current subcontracting practices in Australia are under pressure,” Stewart tells Australian Mining. “We know in the mining sector payment terms can blow out to 90 days or more. That’s a very difficult environment for a small business to operate in.

“They’re in the position where they are a small business [and] they feel they don’t have the negotiating power AUSTRALIANMINING

in contracts; they don’t want to risk the potential of losing future work and end up accepting conditions for work that are unreasonable.”

RCR Tomlinson’s issues primarily stemmed from its entry into the solar market in North Queensland, which contributed to a $16.1 million loss in the 2018 financial year and a large wipe in the company’s share price.

This price crash led to a classaction lawsuit against the company by litigators Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan (Quinn Emanuel), which filed proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales on November 16.

The firm called RCR’s share drop a “catastrophic decline”.

“They didn’t have the experience to deliver on [the solar projects] and potentially haven’t priced them correctly so what that means is they’ve found themselves with a cash flow shortage, so they went out to the market and raised a substantial amount of capital and after only a couple of months found themselves in administration,” Stewart explains.

By the time of its administration last November, the company had racked up several incomplete solar farm projects, including the $60 million expansion of Bright Energy Investments’ Greenough River solar farm in Walkaway, Western Australia, and a $175 million engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract at APA’s Darling Downs project in Queensland.

Two of the solar farms RCR was involved with, the Edify Energyowned Daydream and Hayman operations in Collinsville, Queensland,

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suffered cost overruns and work delays resulting in a cumulative $57 million writedown on the original tendered margin in August 2018. The two EPC projects were worth a combined $315 million when announced by RCR in August 2017.

Edify Energy has made claims for $73 million and $37.8 million from RCR for Daydream and Hayman respectively. Other companies claiming significant sums of money from RCR include Visy Energy ($66.7 million), Custom Service Leasing ($40.4 million) and Assetinture ($20.96 million).

Secured creditors such as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia ($120.58 million), MUFG ($42.8 million) and Chubb Insurance ($22.78 million) also stood out, but by far the largest claim was the $165 million sought by Ashita Tomi, the trustee represented by Quinn Emanuel’s aforementioned class action against RCR. According to Stewart, subcontractors in Australia are at a high risk of insolvency due to companies that fail to pay the bills, creating a crippling domino effect.

“I think you don’t have to be particularly clever to work out that there’s some things here that don’t add up,” Stewart says.

“We think it emphasises again a reminder to the government that small businesses are relying on them to act and make sure that appropriate laws are in place to protect them for the work that they’ve done and make sure they get paid for that work.” AM

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DASSAULT SYSTÈMES TARGETS METS SUSTAINABILITY PARTNERS SUSTAINABILITY IS AT THE CORE OF DASSAULT SYSTÈMES’ GLOBAL VISION AND NOW IT IS BRINGING THIS COMMITMENT TO AUSTRALIAN MINING. BEN CREAGH WRITES.

BACK: (L-R) NARAYAN SREENIVASAN, BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION LEADER, AP SOUTH, DASSAULT SYSTEMES; CHARLES VUILLIER, PRINCIPAL, STRATEGY & DEVELOPMENT, ATC WILLIAMS; SYLVAIN LAURENT, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL FIELD OPERATIONS ASIA / OCEANIA, DASSAULT SYSTEMES. FRONT: (L-R) ALLAN WATSON, CEO OF ATC WILLIAMS; MASAKI SOX KONNO, MANAGING DIRECTOR, AP SOUTH, DASSAULT SYSTEMES

D

assault Systèmes’ confidence in the Australian mining equipment, technology and services (METS) sector is guiding the company’s aspirations for sustainability.

The European software company, despite being founded in France in 1981, is a relative newcomer to mining. Its expansion into the industry in Australia has only taken place this decade.

Dassault Systèmes is, however, making an impression in mining with the Geovia geology and mine planning software, and the 3DExperience platform that is used across its business areas.

The company has focused on being part of the global ‘industry

renaissance’ in mining by introducing new ways, both real and virtual, of inventing, learning, producing and trading.

In Australia, Dassault Systèmes is leveraging its technology solutions to unlock potential across the resources sector, particularly through partnerships with METS companies.

Dassault Systèmes geo leader, business transformation AP south, Narayan Sreenivasan, who moved to Australia with the company as part of its expansion, has been impressed with the METS sector since arriving.

Based in Melbourne, Sreenivasan has noticed a plethora of skills that could be developed to benefit the local and international mining industry.

“Here, the big advantage, which I don’t think many of the global firms realise, is the innovation potential of AUSTRALIANMINING

the small businesses in Australia,” Sreenivasan tells Australian Mining.

“The digital skills exist in Australia but they don’t yet exist at the skill that is needed. They all exist in pockets of small businesses with their innovation and digital skills. How do we expose that?”

Dassault Systèmes is committed to exposing this talent by collaborating with METS companies to support their growth.

The company has engaged with METS businesses, and also state governments and education providers, to deliver STEM education and industry-based curriculum in mining-related and engineering disciplines.

Its expansion in Victoria, producer of close to one-third of the country’s engineers, is another example of this

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focus on collaboration and upskilling.

Dassault Systèmes is making these moves consistent with the company’s legacy of promoting sustainability, a core value entrenched across its business areas.

This combination of developing capabilities with sustainable practices is reflected in a partnership Dassault Systèmes has formed with mine tailings specialist ATC Williams.

Together, the companies are developing water sustainability management solutions using the 3DExperience software platform.

Dassault Systèmes regards waterrelated challenges as paramount in Australia’s mining industry, with issues such as water shortages, increasing costs of storage and transportation across vast distances the key concerns.

COLLABORATION

The company wants to help mining companies find cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly ways to manage their water supply at sites to sustain profitability and their social licence to operate.

With a focus on tailings, Dassault Systèmes and ATC Williams are combining their expertise to develop water management solutions that meet these sustainability challenges.

They plan to create a digital twin of future tailings facilities that simulates complex water recovery processes in the virtual world, while also preserving as much water as possible from tailings.

Sreenivasan describes ATC Williams as a niche mining business that complements the sustainable approach at Dassault Systèmes.

“We look to take specialised partners with us like ATC Williams to address a larger industry challenge. Part of that is around the sustainability of the miners and their operations,” Sreenivasan says.

“We started working with ATC Williams because of their niche profile and their specialisation in tailings dam technology.”

Sreenivasan says Dassault Systèmes hopes to unlock the potential of ATC Williams’ tailings dam technology with the 3DExperience platform.

ATC Williams chief executive officer Allan Watson is optimistic of the same outcome. He says designing a tailings facility is a collaborative process and demands a deep level of customisation.

“By implementing Dassault Systèmes’ 3DExperience platform, we benefit from its flexibility and collaborative ability to design and construct highly customised tailings facilities that best serve the

DASSAULT SYSTÈMES BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION DIRECTOR (ASIA PACIFIC SOUTH) NARAYAN SREENIVASAN.

specific geology of our customers’ mining sites,” Watson says.

Dassault Systèmes has also formed a system integrator alliance with ASX-listed engineering services company, LogiCamms.

The agreement with LogiCamms covers both enterprise technology deployments and applying Dassault Systèmes’ expertise based on the 3DExperience platform.

Dassault Systèmes and LogiCamms have collaborated on software since 2017. Their work has included the development of South Australia’s Virtual Shipyard program for the state’s defence industry.

Sreenivasan says Dassault Systèmes will next work with LogiCamms to expand its capabilities for the mining industry.

“We will be training LogiCamms to consult with Tier 2 and 3 companies in mining and other processing firms using our global best practices consulting methodologies. We will be coaching the LogiCamms team to do the consulting on our behalf,” Sreenivasan says.

“Usually, only the large firms can afford to work with an Accenture or Deloitte, but for the Tier 2 and 3 companies affording them is much harder. We would like LogiCamms to work in that space with emerging producers.”

The partnerships with ATC Williams and LogiCamms are important steps in Dassault Systèmes’ plan to help mining companies improve sustainability in

the industry, Sreenivasan continues.

He says Dassault Systèmes wants to see mining catch up to other industries, such as aviation, from a sustainability perspective.

“Now that we understand mining better we realise the industry is not where the rest of our base is,” Sreenivasan says.

“We have not spent decades in mining, only a few years. In those years our realisation is that the intent for sustainability is clear. But when you benchmark mining against what we have done in an industry like aviation, it has a long way to go.”

Dassault Systèmes’ vision to enhance sustainability in mining is clear and the Australian METS sector looks set to be an integral part of that plan. AM

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COLLABORATION CHILE-BASED CHUQUICAMATA IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST OPEN PIT COPPER MINES IN THE WORLD.

AUSTRALIA A FERTILE GROUND FOR CHILEAN COLLABORATION WORLD’S TOP COPPER PRODUCER CHILE HAS EXPERIENCED A CLIMB IN NON-COPPER EXPORTS IN RECENT YEARS. WITH ITS LONGSTANDING MINING HISTORY, THE COUNTRY IS LOOKING AT BRIDGING METS COLLABORATION WITH INTERNATIONAL MARKETS. AUSTRALIAN MINING REPORTS.

A

ustralia has become one of ProChile’s top destinations for promoting its country’s mining, equipment, technology and services (METS) sector.

ProChile, the export promotion bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has established one of its 50 offices in Sydney, New South Wales.

If that didn’t convey the importance Chile places on the Australian market, consider the four Chilean Parliament members that graced ProChile’s post at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) last year.

The delegation was made up of the vice president of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, Mario Venegas; Chile’s ambassador to Australia, Patricio Powell; the consulategeneral of Chile in Melbourne, Felipe Cousiño; and the trade commissioner of Chile to Australia, Paula Moreno.

This goes on top of the seven Chilean mining supplier companies brought to Australia in October last year.

These companies have been filtered out from a list of nearly 100 companies that are “really good at what they do in Chile already.”

It explains the culmination of ProChile’s success at IMARC: there were 50 bilateral meetings that took place between Chilean and Australian companies.

Chile’s ambassador Powell is confident that one of the deep integrations between Chile and Australia is embedded in the mining space. While Chile is the world’s largest copper producing country, 86 per cent of the country’s export to

Australia in 2017 were non-copper related. “[This] highlights the importance of our goods and services, including the offer of mining suppliers,” trade commissioner Moreno adds.

“Given that Chile is responsible for 28 to 30 per cent of the world’s copper production – and 48 per cent of our national income comes from copper – we have quite naturally developed a strong supply base in the mining sector.”

CSIRO Mineral Resources Chile’s program director Angus McFarlane reinforces there is potential for Chile to provide a focal point for Australian mining activity in Latin America in a way that benefits both countries.

“Australian mining already has a very strong ‘brand’ in Chile,” McFarlane says, “And the METS sector boom in Australia is a trend Chile is keen to emulate.

“There is a strong technical base in Chile which, with language and time-zone or location considerations, provides a strong bridge to the rest of South America.” Álvaro Palominos, former employee of Chile’s state-owned copper mining company Codelco, echoes this sentiment. He says Chile is quite open to collaboration with mining countries such as Australia and Canada.

“Chileans are also well developed in terms of mining capabilities.

There are a lot of opportunities for mining suppliers from Australia to get our products in Latin America,” Palominos says.

With the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that has been running for 10 years between Australia and Chile, mining companies enjoy zero AUSTRALIANMINING

L-R: RICARDO CELIS (CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES), CATALINA DEL REAL (CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES), HON. TELMO LANGUILLER (STATE MEMBER FOR TARNEIT), PATRICIO POWELL (THE REPUBLIC OF CHILE AMBASSADOR) INAUGURATING PROCHILE STAND AT IMARC.

tariff and double tax relief. This is worthy of a celebration, according to ProChile business development manager – mining Giancarlo TostiCroce.

“We see what’s happening in other parts of the world today. The world is increasing tariffs and barriers,” TostiCroce says. “But we have to be happy we don’t have any barrier between Australia and Chile when it comes to trade. That’s the beauty of an open economy.”

Chile is not only looking to advance its position as a supplier of goods and services in Australia, but also in Canada, Mexico and Peru.

And entering a different territory calls for its own set of challenges.

These include language proficiency, time differences and shipping rates.

But more and more companies overcome this challenge by having

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a local representative working in the other country, Tosti-Croce says.

In some other cases, promotional materials have been provided and company website has been written in the English language.

Time zone challenges can also be alleviated by establishing a nondisclosure agreement. And where a company recognises a long-term opportunity in the business, it may set itself up in the host country.

“As with most places, building local connections is important,” McFarlane tells Australian Mining.

“A medium to long term commitment to engaging locally is best for enabling the time needed to build reliable business networks.”

ProChile’s presence at IMARC after all confirms the country’s eagerness to share its mining suppliers’ services with Australia. AM

EFFICIENCY

SCANNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR EFFICIENT CONVEYING LOADSCAN’S CONVEYOR VOLUME SCANNER PROVES THAT MEASURING BULK MATERIAL FLOW SHOULDN’T CAUSE A HEADACHE. VANESSA ZHOU WRITES.

L

oadscan managing director Carey West recalls getting on the back of a truck and shovelling out the load during his 20s.

His job at the time was to manage truck movements on and off construction sites for a company his late father owned.

During this time, truck drivers constantly complained about West manually measuring the amount of material carried by the truck – by standing up and pressing the material down to make it compact.

The truck drivers would say it wasn’t a true measure of how much was in there. So, in 1998, West’s father decided to make a truck volume metric scanner and called it Tally Clerk.

The scanner received trade certification in New Zealand a year later, but only in 2010 did it obtain the same certification in Australia.

After all, to West’s father Tally Clerk was just a hobby business on the side

of the family’s main company.

His son begs to differ, however.

“I was using the product on the construction site that I was running and could see firsthand the difference it made to operations. I really liked the product. I thought it should be sold globally,” West says.

Tally Clerk load volume scanning (LVS) systems were sold between 2009 and 2010 to a few customers in North America and the United States.

Not long after, West’s father passed away.

“The family ended up with this business called Tally Clerk that wasn’t really a business. It was just a product that my father was working with,” West says.

“After 20 years of being in construction, I decided to get out and make something of this innovative tool for industry. I took the LVS product and knew it had global appeal.”

And so what started out as a hobby business was taken on

wholeheartedly by West. With only an engineer by his side, Tally Clerk was transformed into the company now known as Loadscan.

It now employs 13 people, with a couple more contractors also working for the company.

The story doesn’t stop there.

The team has taken truck load scanners to the world, developed and improved them.

And now Loadscan has innovated a new product called the conveyor volume scanner (CVS). Like the load volume scanner (LVS) before it, the CVS combines laser scanning with proprietary software to deliver real-time volume measurement and insightful reporting.

“This is the biggest product development that we’ve done in the last six years. And we designed it specifically for the market, because we have been asked if it would be possible to make a belt scanner many times in the past,” West continues.

Loadscan took inspiration from the global bark and mulch industry,

THE SCANNER IS DESIGNED TO BE USER-FRIENDLY, EQUIPPED WITH AN ONBOARD COMPUTER AND WI-FI.

AUSTRALIANMINING

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where operations are largely volume-based. Similarly in the mining industry, the team wanted to bring data that delivers efficiency and productivity improvements at operations.

With CVS, operators gain an understanding of their material flow on conveyor belts, including what’s passing through the belt every minute or every hour, how much is required to fulfil the target in one shift, and whether target ore processed has been achieved.

Each of these can be converted into tonnes per hour and tracked over time as needed.

“We felt that the other conveyor belt scanning products that we see around weren’t that easy to use, and they didn’t give you a nice userfriendly experience,” West says.

So the team focused on making the CVS as easy as possible to use.

Loadscan listened to the market and identified their problems, and designed CVS to be a product that, when set up, works.

“All complication of software is hidden under the hood,” West says. “The interface is the part that users shouldn’t need to be an expert to use. The CVS has got to be intuitive.

“It’s got its own operator console – an onboard computer that comes standard with Wi-Fi antenna. It’s touch screen, it’s interactive, it’s easy to use.

“It’s also got its own web browser built into the computer, so all you need to do is connect the scanner via the Wi-Fi on your smart phone, tablet, or laptop, and you’ll be able to access the webpage for direct access to data.”

Loadscan’s CVS can also fit on conveyor belts ranging from a 400-millimetre to two-metre width.

“Because we developed the original trucking system for our construction business, we got to test it in real life and understand what’s required of the system. That helps us understand what the market wants,” West concludes. AM

MINING EQUIPMENT SCANIA HAS INCREASED THE PAYLOAD ON THE XT RANGE.

SCANIA PUTS THE XT TRUCK TO THE TEST THE TRUCK MANUFACTURER HAS TARGETED THE TOP END OF TOWN WITH ITS XT RANGE AND HAS ALREADY MADE INROADS IN THE PILBARA. AUSTRALIAN MINING WRITES.

T

here has been no complacency in Scania’s approach to introducing its XT range of new generation trucks to the Australian mining industry.

In a mining jurisdiction where ultra-class machines roam supreme, the Swedish original equipment manufacturer (OEM) was determined to do its due diligence to maintain its niche in the market place.

Scania also set high-profile targets with this approach by focusing on the needs of the leading mining companies in areas like the Pilbara.

The company already had a strong presence in the Pilbara with the previous generation of its trucks.

However, it wanted the region’s miners to gain even more value with the new vehicle.

Scania Australia mining general manager Robert Taylor says the manufacturer spent a lot of time learning what drives these companies to better understand what’s important

to the Australian mining industry.

“The first thing we did when we started we took a year traveling around Australia meeting the various mining companies,” Taylor tells Australian Mining.

“If you can engage these companies then you can engage anyone else. We actually did that and we were quite successful. From that we have grown.”

This approach has seemingly paid off with the XT trucks, with Scania’s first two machines in Australia put to work with a miner in the Pilbara.

Two Scania NTG 450 8x4 twin steer chassis have been fitted with 40,000-litre Shermac water cart bodies for the mine.

The tailor-made Shermac bodies are more than double the capacity of those fitted to traditional road-going trucks used on mine sites. They are also designed to replace minespecific road train combinations.

Scania vice president and mining head Björn Winblad says the discussions with mining companies AUSTRALIANMINING

SCANIA’S HEAVY-DUTY WATER CART XT TRUCK.

like the Pilbara giants always focus on how they can create more value.

This requirement has, more than ever, been integral in Scania’s strategy during the development of the XT as a machine for mining.

Winblad points to the increase in payload on the XT range as a notable improvement that achieves this.

“On a four-axel truck today we can load a 40-tonnes payload, which

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is around five tonnes more than our direct competition,” Winblad tells Australian Mining.

“That five tonnes is the most important thing with the new XT. When we started on the XT more than six years ago we said let’s expand our modular product range because that’s the way it is going to operate.

“We have a modular system with

MINING EQUIPMENT

WE HAVE A MODULAR SYSTEM WITH COMPONENTS THAT HAVE STANDARDISED INTERFACES SO THEY ARE INTERCHANGEABLE – IT IS A BIT LIKE LEGO.”

SCANIA HEAD OF MINING BJÖRN WINBLAD.

components that have standardised interfaces so they are interchangeable – it is a bit like Lego.”

Winblad says the modular system allows Scania to bolster the payload by an extra five tonnes over the previous model.

He reinforces the truck is not, however, a totally new vehicle, but instead one that features various addons and new components.

“Importantly, it facilitates parts availability in the mining industry because we have very few components,” Winblad continues.

“It also facilitates easy mechanics training and quality because each component has a long production series and it simplifies maintenance.”

The XT range may resemble its on-road siblings in many ways, but Scania is adamant the truck has been designed for the harshest of mining conditions on sealed and unsealed surfaces.

Scania has equipped the XT with a unique protruding steel bumper, headlamp protection grilles, front under-bumper skidplate, 40-tonne towing point in the centre of the bumper and robust door mirror housings.

Like the on-road versions, the Scania XT comes with side

curtain rollover airbags as standard to provide driver and passenger protection in the event of a crash or rollover.

Scania claims to be the only truck maker that offers this feature, which it has made standard to the Australian range.

The XT is available with a full range of Scania’s frugal and modular Euro 5 or Euro 6 SCR emission engines and Opticruise automated gear-changing, including the innovative clutch-on-demand feature designed for challenging environments.

Like all New Truck Generation Scania on-road trucks, the Scania XT range benefits from the full array of Scania operator solutions and services, designed to provide positive ownership experiences while delivering a total operating economy.

In Australia, the Scania XT can be specified in P, G and R-series Day Cab versions. It can be ordered with all-steel leaf spring suspension all-round, complete with bogie drives designed to cope with rough and unmade road conditions.

The XT range will continue to primarily serve the Australian mining as a service vehicle, as it does at the first Pilbara site it AUSTRALIANMINING

is being used.

Taylor says the Pilbara mining company with the first XT trucks previously has experience operating a fleet of the company’s machines as service vehicles, flatbeds and technical support vehicles.

“The trucks were in service 24-hours per day, seven-days per week and have clocked up around 70,000 kilometres on-site in their first 12 months. They have been very reliable in service and the drivers enjoyed the comfortable and quiet Scania cab,” Taylor says.

“When we were discussing the replacement of the customer’s existing water carts, we suggested a more flexible solution, in the form of the NGT G 450 XT 8x4 as they could handle the higher payload of 40,000 litres for a GVM of around 66 tonnes.”

The mining company has the water carts on call 24/7 so reliability is very important, Taylor continues.

“They work in an extremely harsh environment where there is a lot of dust and heat and so water cart availability is critical to the mine’s operations. The vehicles will be serviced on-site to maximise uptime.” Taylor says.

A drawback of the Scania trucks in Australia, when compared to large haulers, is that more of them are required to move large volumes of dirt, meaning higher labour costs.

However, Winblad says miners in jurisdictions where labour costs aren’t as high have shown more interest in what Scania can offer as production

vehicles since mining conditions have improved.

He believes Scania can become even more relevant in this area in the coming years through automation.

It is working with parent company, Volkswagen, to develop autonomous technology for its trucks. “(With automation) that is when the big weakness of our truck goes away. Or if not taken away completely, heavily removed – there will still have to be some staff,” he says.

“Then we can offer the lower capex, the better fuel consumption, higher speeds and lower tyre costs.

The mining companies would have to change their system, including how they load, tip and possibly how they build the mine if they are going to put light vehicles in there.

“It is a dramatic change but something they could think about.”

Scania has tested an autonomous transport system at Rio Tinto’s Dampier Salt operation in Western Australia since mid-2018.

The first phase of the trial, which started in August, involved a Scania XT 8×4 autonomous tipper truck that worked separately from active operations at Dampier.

During the initial stage, a safety driver sat inside the vehicle to observe the truck’s performance and intervened if necessary.

Rio Tinto will add more autonomous Scania trucks in subsequent phases to develop vehiclevehicle awareness and intelligent fleet supervisory controls. AM

DRIVER COMFORT HAS BEEN A PRIORITY OF THE SCANIA DESIGN.

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COMMUNICATIONS

MAKING OPERATIONAL DECISIONS THROUGH AUTOMATION MINE SITE TECHNOLOGIES (MST) GLOBAL IS PIONEERING COMMUNICATION BY MAKING IT POSSIBLE THROUGH DEEP ROCKS. CHIEF EXECUTIVE HAYDN ROBERTS SPEAKS TO VANESSA ZHOU ABOUT THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE MINE.

T

he mining industry woke up to the news of fatalities at a New South Wales coal mine one day in the early 1990s.

Technology was limited in its capability in securing human lives at the time. There was no way of sending messages or tracking the affected miners.

The only silver lining was the development of a technology prompted by the incident. It allowed a message to be sent through the strata underground.

A message would land on a miner’s cap lamp without any antenna or infrastructure, conveying onedirectional commands for miners.

This emergency communication solution provided hope for people who worked deep below the earth’s surface in the absence of power, wireless technologies and radio frequency identification (RDIF) communications underground.

That was the start of MST Global’s journey. It spearheaded this technology in partnership with CSIRO shortly

after the company was founded in 1989.

“Communication is very important in the underground space,” MST Global chief executive Haydn Roberts tells Australian Mining. “It is very different to how you would do it on surface.

“There is different sorts of challenges when you’re underground.

For one, it takes a different platform to be able to communicate. ” Despite the challenges, MST Global persisted with developing product offerings that revolved around tracking and communication for underground miners. This capability was then extended into the tracking of and communication with equipment, capturing time-sensitive and vehicle health information.

MST Global was yet again the first Australian company that introduced the mining industry to a high bandwidth connection network on digital infrastructure. Pervasive Wi-Fi was finally brought to underground operations in 2004.

Today, the level of automation that is required underground is increasing,

GEOLOGISTS CAN USE THE FARA GEO APPLICATION TO LOG INFORMATION IN REAL-TIME FROM THE MINING FACE.

AUSTRALIANMINING

AXON CORE AND AIR ENABLES LTE DEPLOYMENT ALONGSIDE WI-FI.

whether an operation be fully or remotely automated. There is a leap in the amount of data being pulled out of machines, tracking systems and asset monitoring.

To Roberts, this poses a need for reliable, mission critical communications.

“We see that the bandwidth that you need underground is only increasing.

At the same time, people want to have different types of wireless technology to connect to people and devices,” says Roberts.

“For example, people want to be able to turn on a fan if there’s a certain number of miners or machines in a stope, or shut down fans to preserve energy.”

Amidst this rise of automation, MST Global kept to its pioneering ways. The company believes it is imperative to have different types of wireless technology, to have a communication solution that works on high-gigabit fibre network and to have smart infrastructure that allows mine operators to control various different assets underground.

All these requirements will be ticked off in a single product called Axon, which will be launched by the company in the next quarter.

“People talk about having smart cities,” says Roberts. “But what they’re really talking about is having real-time communication for all of their assets around the city.

“It’s the same difference underground. We’re creating a smart platform called Axon that can host automation software to control and monitor a diverse range of assets.”

Roberts explains that in one application of the smart platform, such as tracking, different tracking technologies will be used to locate

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people and equipment underground.

“We certainly use Wi-Fi as our tracking technology, but there are others we’re investing in that will be a drop-in module for Bluetooth and [low power wireless platform] LoRa, another module that will enable a practical way to deploy LTE underground,” says Roberts.

“There is a growing interest from industry to leverage LTE and emerging 5G technologies underground. So this smart switch will future proof your mine. The whole smart network will be connected by one gigabit of fibre.

That’s our differentiation.”

One software that can go on Axon and digitise the workplace in one stride is FARA, which stands for field analysis and reporting application.

FARA takes paperwork out of the working environment. When that happens, operators will no longer have time cards or safety check list on paper.

FARA enables users to program their workflow logic into a smart device. For example, a safety walk-around or an equipment check list will be digitised into a smart device and sent to the server wirelessly through either LTE or Wi-Fi. The software allows mine operators to capture their activities, while giving them a visualisation of their equipment in real time.

“A lot of this generation’s miners are very used to smart devices. In three to five years, the underground mine will be very different from what you see today. It will be a truly digital mine,” Roberts says.

“Geologists, mining engineers and supervisors will still be underground.

And those people need to be connected in real time so they know what’s going on around them and be able to respond accordingly.” AM

SOFTWARE

ONE OF MICROMINE’S NORTH AMERICAN OFFICES IS IN VANCOUVER.

MICROMINE LOOKS TO THE AMERICAS FOR NEXT PHASE OF GROWTH THE MINING SOFTWARE SPECIALIST IS ALREADY RECOGNISED IN MANY PARTS OF THE WORLD. WHERE ARE THE COMPANY’S GROWTH AMBITIONS TAKING IT NEXT? AUSTRALIAN MINING EXPLAINS.

M

ICROMINE is targeting growth on an international scale in 2019.

The Perthbased mining software company has, of course, already developed a global presence off the back of its Geobank, Micromine and Pitram solutions.

It has become well-known in several major international mining jurisdictions, especially Russia, and has opened a number of offices in Asia, Europe and Africa.

MICROMINE is hungry for more expansion to build on this presence.

It is now looking further afield to the Americas, in particular, where it hopes to replicate the growth experienced in other parts of the world.

Mark Gabbitus, Micromine product strategy manager, says the expansion strategy developed by the company has identified North and South America as the targets with the most growth potential.

“We have a real focus on Canada, Mexico, the United States and also South America,” Gabbitus, who was Geobank product manager up until late 2018, says. “They are areas that we haven’t done a massive amount of business in over the years.”

MICROMINE has already appointed regional managers and sales support in Vancouver in Canada and Denver in the United States to underpin these ambitions.

“That has been a real big change for us and part of our planned investment in those regions. We are starting to see some return on that now,” Gabbitus says.

MICROMINE is confident its software will appeal to these regions as they share a similar level of sophistication with Australia in their mining industries.

The company has been actively promoting its solutions to local mining and exploration companies since making the appointments in North America.

Gabbitus also attended the American Exploration and Mining Association’s (AEMA) Annual Meeting in Washington State during December to discuss the company’s products and to establish a better understanding of their potential on the continent.

“We are in a position now where we need to, and we are able to expand into these countries,” Gabbitus says.

“We have been consolidated in Russia for quite a long time. Now we have got a real focus on how we AUSTRALIANMINING

WE HAVE A REAL FOCUS ON CANADA, MEXICO, THE UNITED STATES AND ALSO SOUTH AMERICA. THEY ARE AREAS THAT WE HAVEN’T DONE A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF BUSINESS IN OVER THE YEARS.” drive into these new regions. It’s about taking the products out there to the market because people like to see new stuff.”

MICROMINE aims to stay at the front of mining executives’ minds who are seeking software solutions for their companies by exhibiting at major international events like AEMA. In addition to Gabbitus’ visit to Washington State, the company’s team has been busy in recent months attending mining’s stacked global exhibition schedule.

MICROMINE reached the global marketplace at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Melbourne last year.

The company also displayed its solutions at the Mines and Money conference in London last November, giving it up-close access to the European market.

It has attended these events armed with the latest versions of its

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products, including data management solution Geobank 2018, 3D modelling and mine design solution Micromine 2018, and fleet management and mine control solution Pitram 4.10.

The company remains committed to continual upgrades to these products in 2019, whether it be a regeneration of them or various addons to bolster the existing offering.

Gabbitus is hopeful these products will capture the imagination of the North and South American mining markets in the same way they have in other parts of the world.

“The MICROMINE company strategy is for scale and growth so there has been a real effort to change the way we do business,” Gabbitus says.

“There are probably 1500-2000 exploration and mining companies in North and South America. You don’t have to get a large percentage of those to realise growth.” AM

AUTOMATION

AT THE FOREFRONT OF A CONNECTED FUTURE ROCKWELL AUTOMATION HAS PREDICTED THE FUTURE OF MINING, AND THE FUTURE IS SEAMLESS. AUSTRALIAN MINING REPORTS.

I

n the years since the industry downturn at the start of the decade, Australian mining companies have consistently sought ways to maximise profitability while streamlining operations.

It is a philosophy of continual refinement that has seen an uptake of advanced automation and other technology-led processes within the industry.

Rockwell Automation is one such company that has seen considerable interest from the mining sector regarding this pivot towards smart operations.

Whether it’s a start-up greenfield miner getting in on the ground (or, in some cases, underground) floor, or an established Tier 1 operator looking to modernise their fleet, the digitisation, modernisation and standardisation of processes and equipment across mining operations is a modern trend that doesn’t look likely to subside any time soon.

Rockwell Automation is an advocate of standardising processes for mining companies, optimising hardware and software across their portfolios as a way to push operations to near or even beyond nameplate capacity.

Advanced process controls such as model predictive controls (MPC) can be used to maximise process throughput of equipment and finetune either equipment or full process flows accordingly using algorithms gleaned from advanced data analysis.

This kind of machine learning is a key part of the Rockwell Automation digitisation offer.

Rockwell Automation used such techniques to aid Anglo-American at its Minas-Rio operations in Brazil, for example, by keeping the miner ahead of schedule and budget cost estimates at a major greenfields operation in the region. Closer to home, GFG Alliance (formerly Arrium) reaped the benefits of Rockwell Automation process controls at a South Australian operation that required minimal training to get site staff up to speed.

This integration can translate to cost savings not just from improved uptime and product throughput, but

from the potential minimisation of energy use as well.

An example of this is the concept of ventilation on demand for underground mines, according to Geoff Irvine, Rockwell Automation strategic account manager, Rio Tinto.

Since ventilation is generally only required in areas where there are people or equipment, this energy minimisation strategy can safely divert or even cut off fans in unmanned areas to save energy.

“Another example, which is probably a little bit more involved, is on the crushing plant where the idea there is to introduce advanced control strategies,” Irvine says.

“The strategy deployed is to adjust the speed crushing that depending on the varying concentrations of hardness that are going into it.

“What it effectively means is that you can get the same ore increase output with less energy going into it.”

According to Rockwell Automation managing director Scott Wooldridge, this desire for increased connectivity and centralised support is already firmly entrenched among the Tier 1 producers the company often services.

“There are multiple value propositions to having a common networking automation system software standard,” he tells Australian Mining.

“One is risk management – they’ve gone through the learning curve at one site so they can deploy more holistically.

“To optimise mine assets can have significant benefits and certainly avoids the risk around small, disparate systems with the unique hardware and software components you need to manage.”

One way to achieve this is to have common platforms where the software integrates from multiple sites to a single remote operations centre (ROC).

This is an operational strategy that has achieved much leverage in recent years by miners such as BHP, which opened a coal-focused integrated remote operations centre (IROC) in Brisbane two years ago

AUSTRALIANMINING

MINE WORKERS HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY RELIANT ON TECHNOLOGY TO STREAMLINE PROCESSES.

OPTIMISING MINE ASSETS HAS SIGNIFICANT PRODUCTION THROUGHPUT BENEFITS WHILE AVOIDING THE RISK OF SMALL, DISPARATE SYSTEMS WITH THE UNIQUE HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE COMPONENTS YOU NEED TO MANAGE.” following the successes of its IROC implementation in Perth in 2013, and Rio Tinto’s two-hectare ROC development at Perth Airport.

These highly connected remote operations are not outside the realm of smaller mining operations, however. According to Wooldridge, start-ups can also benefit from this kind of holistic implementation.

“If you’re a start-up miner with a greenfield, you should be thinking about some of these things from day one, because if you get it integrated in, it’s probably not going to cost you anything more,” he says.

“You need to think about optimising maintenance, optimising energy, and optimising processes — you want to do more than just modernise equipment from a maintenance perspective. As a company, we actually want to enable better data analytics and better data

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access at the same time.”

In the near future, Irvine predicts four key trends towards increased digitisation in mining, including the increased use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) for data overlays; predictive failure analysis; data science; and a general increase in the integration of cloud computing.

And further down the track, ROCs may be all that is required to keep a mine site running effectively.

“That’s a kind of nirvana,” says Irvine. “If you can set up one of these ops centres and have no-one working on the side that’s kind of where we want to get to.

“We aren’t quite there yet — there’s still a bit of manual intervention required and you still meet people on site to see what’s actually happening on the spot — but it’s a trend that’s continuing and there’s a high desire for it.” AM

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MAINTENANCE

FROM RIP TO REPAIR MECHANICAL BELT FASTENERS OFFER A QUICK AND EASY FIX FOR DAMAGED CONVEYOR BELTS BUT IT IS IMPORTANT TO ENSURE THEY ARE MATCHED WITH THE CORRECT BELT CLEANER SELECTION. AUSTRALIAN MINING WRITES.

L

ongitudinal conveyor belt tears and damage can cause significant downtime issues for mining operations.

Whether caused by foreign materials such as sharp ore, general wear, or issues with the construction of the conveyor itself (such as belt mistracking), a ripped belt results in costs for repair or replacement, as well as lost revenue from associated downtime.

Site personnel traditionally repair rips in one of two ways: vulcanisation, a process where rubber is applied to the splice under high heat and pressure to form a strong and seamless join; and with mechanical belt fastening, where fixed or hinged fasteners are used to close up the rip in a stitch-like fashion.

Both methods have advantages and disadvantages. Vulcanisation tends to produce a stronger and longer lasting repair but requires much more downtime to implement. Mechanical belt fastening is a much quicker fix that can be completed in house and will provide an equally strong join — however, this join will need to be replaced more often.

An additional benefit of mechanical fastening is that minimal tools or

training is required to apply the repair, whereas vulcanisation may require specialised staff and an expensive vulcanising press.

In fact, mechanical belt fasteners are considered so easy to install that they find application not just for repairs but belt installations as well, especially in underground longwall mining where belts are often extended or retracted as per user requirements.

“To put clips in is quick,” explains Flexco territory manager Phil Dreghorn, who has been with the company for 15 years overseeing operations in Queensland, the Northern Territory and Papua New Guinea.

“It saves time, and the less time you take and less labour you use the more savings you get. Vulcanisation could take 12 hours whereas a clip could take two hours.”

Fasteners are generally hinged or solid in nature, with the former more commonly used for belt repair in the quarry and aggregate fields, which see a higher proliferation of material sifting.

Flexco provides a range of hinged and solid mechanical belt fasteners as part of its range, which includes wire hook fasteners, staple fasteners, rivethinged fasteners, solid plate rivet

ONE OF FLEXCO’S HINGED BELT FASTENERS, WHICH IS USEFUL FOR BOTH BELT REPAIR AND BELT INSTALLATION.

AUSTRALIANMINING

MECHANICAL BELT FASTENERS ARE GENERALLY HINGED OR SOLID, AS SEEN HERE.

fasteners and bolt fasteners (among others), with each type suited to belts with particular ranges of thickness and pulley diameters.

“We have manual tools and automated tools for fastener installation, so they can be installed through hydraulics or pneumatics”, Dreghorn says.

“If you don’t have access to the automated tools then we can still install the fasteners manually with a hammer or applicator. We do carbon steel through to stainless steel and have a wide range of clips across industries, such as quarries, food grade, aggregate mining and heavy mining industry. There’s a fastener for every application.”

According to Dreghorn, mechanical belt fastening is the preferred option for operations where continual throughput is the top priority.

However, mechanical belt fasteners can clash with tungsten tip (V-tip) belt cleaners when the belt is in motion. This interface can cause damage to both the tungsten tip and fasteners.

To counteract this potential damage, the tips of the belt cleaner can be retrofitted with polyurethane blades, and the top belt cover removed or skived to lower the profile of the fastener.

“The other option is to replace the tungsten tips with C-tips (a softer tungsten encrusted in tool steel).

V-tips are noted for their long wear

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life, and C-tips are not as prone to shattering when they interface with the clips. The C-tips are more commonly used on secondary belt cleaners.

Polyurethane tips can be supplied in fire-resistant, anti-static (FRAS) for underground coal mining and other potential combustible environments.

Natural polyurethane is commonly used for surface mining.

A belt cleaner’s primary role is to remove carryback from the conveyor belt. If this carryback is not removed, it can lead to loss of product, roller failure and belt misalignment.

This exposes the site personnel to unnecessary and unplanned maintenance, and potential safety incidents.

Product falling on the ground also takes time to clean, and can lead to not just lost material but housekeeping and environmental problems as well.

A combination of the right fastener with the right cleaner can massively reduce these issues.

“Primarily we would use tungsten tips, but when a fastener is introduced to the belt we use polyurethane,” Dreghorn says.

“We also have one-piece poly blades and segmented blades — segmented blades tension individually, allowing blades to conform to belt profiles and keep constant tip-to-belt contact across the entire width of the belt.” AM

MAINTENANCE

REDUCING ENERGY COSTS WITH FUEL ADDITIVES AUSTRALIAN MINING DISCUSSES HOW MINING COMPANIES CAN LOWER THEIR COSTS BY REDUCING ENERGY CONSUMPTION WITH A TOTAL SOLUTION. metallic additives have the tendency to form external deposits.

These deposits can build up within the combustion chamber and lead to combustion inefficiencies and higher fuel consumption and maintenance, resulting in an increase in costs.

Further, the use of metal-based additives in fuels is not recommended by many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of newer technology engines, especially those equipped with exhaust after treatment equipment (diesel particulate filters).

Total solutions

TOTAL EXCELLIUM DIESEL FUEL ADDITIVES HELP TO CLEAN ENGINES AND KEEP NOZZLE TIPS FREE OF DEPOSITS.

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nergy use is a major expense in the mining industry.

Finding ways to lower energy costs reduces total cost of operation, helping mining companies to improve their bottom line.

The most effective ways to reduce energy costs include: using lighter viscosity grades of lubricants; using synthetic lubricants in industrial gear equipment; high VI viscosity hydraulic fluids; fuel cleanliness; and fuel additives.

Total teams have identified how fuel additives help to reduce energy use and costs.

Additives are often added at the refinery to amend the properties of the base fuel to meet the required specifications at optimal costs.

These may include additives to adapt cetane property, lubricity and cold flow improvers to meet legislative fuel requirements for a region.

Oil companies may use an additive package at different treat rates customised to improve the quality of the diesel usually used on the market.

Such additives are added to the fuel during distribution or at the end users facility.

Combustion process

The role of an injector in a diesel engine is to atomise fuel, that is, to convert the required volume of “liquid fuel” into many tiny droplets with a size and spray pattern appropriate for auto-ignition combustion.

Converting this fuel into a “spray” form allows for mixing of the fuel with oxygen to form a combustible mix. A fully functioning injector is required for even engine operation and efficient combustion.

Any damage or defect to an injector may affect atomisation of the fuel, which reduces the effectiveness of the atomisation process, resulting in lower efficiency of the combustion process.

Injector deposits

Elevated temperatures at the injector nozzle tip generally propagate external injector deposits. Once initiated, continued build-up of carbonaceous deposits around the injector nozzles is heightened.

Although these deposits will not usually lead to injector failure, the formation of these external deposits on the injector may impact the quality of the combustion process.

The effect of injector fuel spray AUSTRALIANMINING

properties is an unseen issue and may go undetected, resulting in power loss, reduced fuel economy and increase in emissions.

As technology in engines improve, the move to higher fuel temperatures and pressures can also lead to fouling of the internal parts of the injectors, a process known as Internal Diesel Injector Deposits (IDID).

These deposits form on the internal parts of the injector, such as the injector needles and valves. While they can form on any type of injector, recent engines are particularly sensitive.

Fuel additives

Fuel additives can be categorised as organo-metallic or metal-free additives. Organo-metallic additives are commonly used as octane boosters and anti-knock agents.

These additives are then introduced into fuels for diesel engines for their ability to further oxidise soot (particulates) from combustion.

There are a number of metal additives known to improve or catalyse combustion in diesel engines, including barium, cerium, copper, iron and magnesium. Unfortunately,

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Total recommends the use of Total Excellium Concentrate Diesel fuel additives, a premium range of products that “cleans” the engine and provides longstanding protection to make the engine more efficient, more economical and less polluting.

The additive contains no metallic constituents. Therefore, the product is regarded as ashless in accordance with OEM recommendations and the required compliance with local fuel specification is preserved.

Total Excellium Concentrate Diesel enables optimum performance of the combustion process within the engine to be sustained, thus maintaining maximum power output.

The additive is also fully proven for preventing any IDID formation.

Total Excellium Concentrate Diesel contains deposit control additive technology, reducing deposit build-up by up to 93 per cent. eliminating the carbonaceous deposit formation at the injector nozzle tip. This contributes to improve the engine efficiency and then save fuel.

Furthermore, the reduction in consumption directly results in a reduction in CO2 emissions.

The demand for energy will continue to increase as will the need to reduce carbon emissions resulting from this increase in energy usage.

Any reduction in the use of hydrocarbons (diesel fuel) as a result of improved combustion efficiency can make significant savings to any company’s bottom line. AM

MAINTENANCE

ESS OFFERS AN EASY OUT FOR CONVEYOR IDLERS AND TRACKERS BELT ALIGNMENT AND IDLER MAINTENANCE ARE IMPORTANT FACETS OF GOOD CONVEYOR BELT HEALTH AND ESS IS MAKING ITS REPLACEMENT EASIER AND SAFER FOR WORKERS. AUSTRALIAN MINING REPORTS.

A

ll conveyor systems are designed to allow for some beltdrift during normal operation. However, if the belt drift exceeds its parameters, issues like spillage, conveyor structure damage, and failure to conveyor components will occur.

Over time, this initial spillage and damage creates further spillage on conveyor components, resulting in a higher degree of mistracking that causes more spillage and damage to the conveyor components down the conveyor line.

Ultimately, outcomes associated with spillage due to poor belt tracking include increased environmental contamination, interrupted production and compromised workplace health and safety (WHS) through increased dust, blocked walkways and manual handling when attending to clean up. Increased cost associated with conveyor maintenance includes fines and fees, environmental contamination and clean-up and greater frequency of component replacement.

Components like conveyor idlers that facilitate the belt’s smooth movement require replacement once they fail; the issues associated with misalignment increase the frequency

of their replacement.

Idler replacement is essential as friction between the frozen idler and the conveyor belt wears away the case of the idler creating sharp edges, which in turn causes damage or excessive wear to the belt, shortening conveyor belt life considerably and increasing replacement costs.

To remove an idler, the idler frame must be removed from the belt; these are typically heavy, especially with the added weight of the conveyor belt, which increases manual handling risks.

Additionally, idler replacement often involves working from heights, in confined spaces and exposed areas.

Bulk materials handling specialist ESS Engineering has traditionally offered dynamic belt training devices to solve misalignment and retractable idler frames to simplify idler changeout. ESS has now modified its belt tracker to include a quick-change idler system.

ESS utilises multi-pivot, torquemultiplying belt tracking systems that use the force of the wandering belt against the guide rollers to position a steering idler to correct the belt path continuously.

ESS belt trackers transfer the motion of mistracking to the steering idler through a parallel linkage. This

requires less force to initiate the correction, and, as it steers, it needs less force to turn the belt.

The advantage of this multi-pivot design is that it allows the rollers to move perpendicular to the structure’s centreline while directing the steering idler to the proper angle, instead of pivoting and pinching the belt edge.

ESS Quick Change Idler frames allow access to idlers without the need for scaffolding, elevated work platforms, or physically lifting the belt.

ESS Quick Change Idler frames are designed to lay flat when removing the idler, reducing the effort needed to slide the idler out for replacement and supporting the weight of the belt while negating the need to organise separate hardware to lift the belt and replace the idler.

Since mining conveyors are often not just long, but tall — reaching heights of up to 60 metres or more — workers may require scaffolding or elevated work platforms (EWP) to get into position, posing a considerable working-at-height risk.

According to Queensland’s Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011, working at any height over two metres in construction (three metres for housing construction) is classified as a height risk and as such fall prevention

ESS’S QUICK CHANGE BELT TRACKER IN ACTION.

AUSTRALIANMINING

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is mandatory.

ESS’s quick-change method can eliminate the need to build scaffold or call in EWPs, saving time and reducing costs.

Sales and services technician Scott Medling, who has been with the company for a year and worked in mining for over 12 years, explains how this retractable system offers several safety benefits.

“Being able to slide these idlers out onto the walkway essentially removes the working-at-height risk, and it reduces the dropped object risk,” he tells Australian Mining.

Some conveyors use a dual walkway with one ramp placed on each side, for example, while others may only have a walkway on one side. ESS’s Quick Change belt tracking system is designed to compensate for these variables.

The ESS Quick Change system allows the replacement of both idlers and tracking frame from one side of the belt. The sliding mechanism allows workers to avoid pinch points, awkward positions and heavy lifting.

“It slides the idler out from under the conveyor over the walkway where you can get into a nice, ergonomic position to make a straight lift up and down without twisting and bending,” Meddling explains.

The company is running a threemonth trial at a major iron ore site in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The ESS engineering team worked in conjunction with maintainers at the mine site to implement the conveyor improvements as part of a continuous improvement program (CIP).

The CIP involved reducing manual handling, limiting repetitive lifting, improving ergonomics, lowering the frequency of lost time injuries (LTIs) associated with poor manual handling techniques, and minimising the risks associated with working at heights.

“ESS understands the importance of ongoing site support, whether be inspection, recommendations, problem-solving, or training of site or contractor personnel. Which is why ESS now has staff located in the Pilbara area,” Meddling concludes. AM

PRODUCTIVITY

SWEATING THE ASSETS: AVEVA DISCUSSES THE APM REVOLUTION MINING HAS MUCH TO GAIN FROM TECHNOLOGY WHEN IT COMES TO VALUE OPTIMISATION. AUSTRALIAN MINING EXPLAINS.

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here’s a lot of terminology bandied around when it comes to mining technology. Industry 4.0, the connected mine, big data, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), predictive analytics and machine learning are just some of the terms that have become familiar in recent years.

All of these disparate technologies and concepts can be boiled down to a central tenet however, which is that they exist to create value.

Value optimisation and asset performance are drivers of the mining industry and its everexpanding technological push.

Industries such as aerospace, defence and automotive have long understood the critical ways in which technologies aid asset performance.

Mining, a traditionally conservative sector, learnt key lessons from the downturn that birthed newer and more efficient ways of working.

This has inspired tech companies such as engineering and industrial software provider Aveva to constantly look for ways to improve asset performance in mining and other industries.

Aveva merged with Schneider Electric’s industrial software business in March last year and is focused on the ‘digital transformation’ of companies through asset performance management (APM).

The increasingly prominent role of technology in business optimisation has led to the term APM 4.0, denoting a new and rapidly evolving subset.

Aveva breaks down APM 4.0 into three main areas, focusing on the digital lifecycle of ‘smart’ connected assets: asset efficiency, predictive analytics, and decision management.

For asset efficiency, this might mean the delivery of improved asset health, better overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and reduced downtime through data collection, aggregation and analytics.

Predictive analytics applies advanced algorithms to identify

MINING IS LEARNING A LOT FROM OTHER INDUSTRIES ABOUT MAXIMISING PERFORMANCE.

subtle changes in system behaviour, which are often early warning signs of equipment health and performance problems trying to get away from unpredicted downtime.

Decision management, meanwhile, uses asset anomalies to drive digital accountability and collaboration so that companies make faster decisions and efficiently predict future occurrences using that data.

“We’re looking at assets and saying how can we improve our asset health and make the most of what we have,” Aveva marketing specialist Rachel Carson tells Australian Mining.

“Basically, the big push we’re seeing with APM is that we really want to reduce that risk of downtime and assets that are running incorrectly with a move towards condition-based maintenance.”

For example, design and AUSTRALIANMINING

engineering information gained from sites can be modelled out as a ‘digital twin’, allowing operators to view real-time performance and asset health information via AR or mixed reality (MR) overlays using mobile technology.

“Instead of looking at a dashboard that might tell you a piece of equipment is going to fail, we can instead provide operators with a full 3D model of their mine so that they can drill down into each of the physical assets that they are operating in real time and mash up all the info related to it,” Aveva senior portfolio marketing manager Matt Newton says.

This access provides operators with on-hand information that eliminates the need for paper, increasing workforce efficiency and improving the accuracy of data. AR and MR are also applied in this way

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for maintenance, operator training and predictive analytics.

Digitising work processes empowers operators with improved situational awareness. AR and VR connect different types of operators into a single digital environment, useful for training and collaboration.

Looking to the future, Newton believes the accelerated adoption of predictive analytics and AR, VR and MR solutions will be key trends in APM. “They will actually get a full digitised version of the plant, the processes that are going on, what’s happening with all the equipment, what maintenance schedules look like, what production schedules look like,” Newton says.

“It’s almost like a complete digital model — or digital twin — of everything going on within the mine itself.” AM

INDUSTRY COMMENT

UNLOCKING MINING’S FUTURE TALENT DIVERSITY AND TECHNOLOGY RANK HIGHLY IN INSPIRING THE NEXT-GENERATION OF MINING TALENT, ACCORDING TO A 2018 SURVEY FROM AUSIMM. AUSTRALIAN MINING DISCUSSES THE FINDINGS WITH CEO STEPHEN DURKIN.

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mployment strength and employee wellbeing can be useful indicators of the overall health of an industry, and the resources sector is no

exception.

An Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) survey of employment conditions completed last December revealed significant improvements in the health of the resources sector.

AusIMM’s 2018 Professionals Workforce Survey recorded a resources sector unemployment rate of 2.6 per cent, a figure less than half that of the Australian average and 11.5 per cent lower than the 14.1 per cent figure in the sector in 2016.

Seventy per cent of respondents were in overall agreement that the resources sector offered increased employment opportunities in 2018.

For point of comparison, just 17 per cent of participants in AusIMM’s 2015 survey felt the same, suggesting a huge improvement in outlook over the past three years.

AusIMM hopes the positive results of the survey will also prove encouraging to young people with an interest in studying mining.

While applications for miningrelated courses at universities have fallen in Australia, the unemployment rate among people who work in the resources sector of 2.6 per cent is significantly lower than the national unemployment average of 5.4 per cent.

Despite the contrast, AusIMM chief executive officer Stephen Durkin believes the talk of a skills gap in the mining industry is “very real.”

“There is clearly a significant decline in the number of students studying some of these traditional courses and those graduate numbers are getting worse, not better,” Durkin tells Australian Mining.

“Our response to that is to focus on the innovation and technology that is going to underpin the future of the industry and to start to build a more contemporary narrative that might appeal to younger people who are interested in these areas and see the resources sector as being an industry

that’s on the move and would be of interest to them in terms of building a career.

“We need to move the perception away from rocks, blokes and trucks towards the space of being a sophisticated industry dealing with complex issues.”

Durkin also regards the increasing move towards automation in the mining industry as essential to securing economic prosperity and job growth.

The survey examines areas outside of vocational and economic growth as well, including a strong focus on social factors. When asked about workplace diversity, 69 per cent of males and 64 per cent of females responded that their workplaces met or exceeded expectations.

However, more than half of female participants in the survey viewed the resources industry in Australia as generally not diverse.

A November 2018 federal government report — Australia’s gender equality scorecard: Key findings from the Workplace Gender Equality

AUSIMM CITES DIVERSITY AS A KEY FACTOR IN INSPIRING INDUSTRY HEALTH.

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Agency’s 2017-18 reporting data — found that while the mining industry was among the industries most likely to take action regarding pay gaps, it still ranked low in overall female representation.

The industry did, however, show fairly strong results for gender equality strategy when compared with other industries.

Durkin pointed to the establishment of AusIMM’s Council for Diversity and Inclusion as a step towards improving diversity in the resources industry; not just in terms of female representation, but also nationality, race and religion.

“The council has come about because we feel that we need to be on the front foot to ensure that we are a more diverse and inclusive industry and to make sure that we are welcoming as a professional home for a range of people from professional backgrounds,” Durkin says.

“We’re very conscious of the fact only 16 to 17 per cent of people that work in the industry are women, for example, and we want to face up to that. It’s really a notion of being a more inclusive industry and a welcoming organisation.”

More than 1500 people took part in the survey over a six-week period, with the University of Melbourne helping to analyse and compile the report.

Respondents included a mix of technical professionals (such as geologists, geoscientists and engineers), students, other mining sector employees and consultants such as finance, HR and environmental science professionals, and students.

“It provides a snapshot of the resources industry overall,” Durkin says. “It enables our members to identify what they see as being some of the trends and priorities within the industry and also measures how happy and satisfied they are in terms of the work that they are doing.

“That includes asking questions around pay, which is certainly not the only measure of satisfaction.”

The survey base incorporated a wide age range from young graduates through to retirees. AM

INDUSTRY COMMENT

SCALE-UPS RISE TO THE INNOVATION CHALLENGE METS IGNITED’S ACCELERATOR PROGRAM IS BACK WITH AN EXPANDED PROGRAM FOR MINING AND ENERGY RESOURCES SCALE-UPS. AUSTRALIAN MINING FINDS OUT WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2019.

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ndustry growth centre METS Ignited made waves two years ago when it collaborated with the Queensland Government and KPMG on an accelerator pilot for small-tomedium enterprises (SMEs) in the resources sector.

Igniting METS (mining equipment, technology and services) involved candidates from eight shortlisted companies, who embarked on a 12week intensive course to deliver better exposure to their respective businesses and increase their confidence.

The program will return in 2019 in an expanded form and with a new name: the RISE (Resources Innovators, Scale-ups and Entrepreneurs) Accelerator.

The Queensland Government and KPMG also return, along with the addition of the Western Australian Government and METS Ignited’s fellow industry growth centre NERA (National Energy Resources Australia).

In addition, RISE will expand the applicant pool beyond the resources sector and into the energy sector as well.

RISE is distinguished by its focus on scale-up companies as opposed to start-up companies.

The companies don’t have to be new to take part — they could be as new as 12 months old or industry veterans with 20 years or more to their credit.

The most important aspect is that they have a new innovation to showcase that needs traction, whether it be capital investment or new customers.

“We decided to go with scale-ups because there wasn’t really anything to help existing SMEs with new innovation to reach the customers in the mining and energy sectors use them as a basis for international growth,” METS Ignited acting chief executive officer Ian Dover says.

“Our objective is to grow the international competitiveness of the METS sector, which means that if you’re starting with an SME that is already experienced in dealing with customers then the chances of them being able to make an impact in a

THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE 2017 IGNITING METS PILOT. L-R: JAMES WHITACRE, KURT ALEXANDER, DARREN FOSTER, JENNIFER REVIE, DANIEL GROME, MICHELLE DELEBET, MICHAEL ILLET, TONY LIOSATOS, ANDREW HESELTINE, JASON KELLY, RYAN NORRIS.

shorter time frame is higher.”

With the expansion west, the cohort will expand from eight companies to up to 16, with eight Queensland companies and eight Western Australian companies being the ideal distribution, according to Dover.

The final cohort will be selected in February and courses will again span 12 weeks across Brisbane and Perth.

The course will teach participants to refine their innovation offerings in order to better-appeal to potential customers and investors within their relevant industries.

Participants can also gain useful exposure to corporations, including the opportunity to present their company or offerings to potential investors in a Shark Tank-style scenario.

“Essentially what happens is you go from a very broad understanding of what you’ve got to offer, and go through business improvements that bring you to a much crisper definition of what you’ve got so you can then provide that to the corporates,” AUSTRALIANMINING

Dover says.

“In turn, it teaches participants in the corporate stream to deal with small or innovative companies, giving them a good understanding of the environment and ecosystem of scale ups and innovations within their particular field.”

Quick Safety, one of the graduates of the 2017 pilot, is a notable example of what a company can gain by participating in the accelerator.

With a focus on supplying software for electrical compliance testing, Igniting METS provided a foothold for the company to gain significant access to the mining industry through networking opportunities.

The company applied skills learnt on the program to a wellreceived seminar at the 2017 International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC).

“Because of the accelerator, we have a much better understanding of the procurement and operating environments in mines,” Quick

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Safety’s founder and CEO Kurt Alexander commented in 2017.

As the Igniting METS pilot has grown into the RISE Accelerator, RISE is expected to grow in turn. A focus on expansion to different states and regions of Australia will be the next key stage for the program, with METS Ignited and its partners hoping to increase the cohort significantly in the coming years.

RISE also promises to build on its predecessor’s successes with an emphatic focus on the importance of regional businesses. Five of the eight companies in 2017’s accelerator were from regional Queensland and that trend looks set to continue.

“The first key thing that we learnt from 2017 was the importance of the regions in resources innovation in Australia — that’s really important,” Dover says.

“We need to be able to provide access to those capabilities that came out of 2017’s exercise for the next cohort as well.” AM

2019

AUSTRALIAN MINING PROSPECT AWARDS

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PRODUCT FOCUS

HOW GREENGOLD IS RECYCLING CYANIDE AND RECOVERING DISSOLVED METALS CYANIDE GETS A BAD RAP BUT IT’S STILL MINING’S GO-TO SOLVENT. GREENGOLD HOPES ITS RECYN PROCESS HELPS TO CHANGE THE CHEMICAL’S IMAGE.

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yanide use in gold leaching has a long history dating back to the late 1880s but its use has not come without controversy.

High profile instances of tailings dam failures have helped to contribute to this, such as the Baia Mare dam disaster in Romania that occurred in 2000 standing as perhaps the most prominent example.

The practice is banned or has moratoriums in place in several countries, including several European nations and states of the United States, several Argentinian provinces and Costa Rica.

Alternative methods have been proposed or implemented in limited capacity, but they do not tend to be as efficient as cyanide. They are, therefore, considered less commercially attractive for mining operations.

According to Malcolm Roy Paterson, the chief executive officer of GreenGold Engineering, cyanide is often misunderstood.

GreenGold has developed the ReCYN Process, which can recover base metals, precious metals and cyanide while detoxifying tailings. It

does this in an efficient manner by using an absorbent resin bead that can be imbued with different properties depending on the task at hand.

This can reduce cyanide consumption by up to 50 per cent by recycling free cyanide back into the leach circuit.

Paterson, who has over 45 years of experience in the minerals industry, has been continually refining the cyanidation processes that eventually led to ReCYN. The process works using a resinbased process that offers cost advantages over all other treatment processes that usually involve destruction of cyanide complexes.

Ore slurry flows through several adsorption tanks following the carbonin-leach (CIL) circuit co-currently with activated resin beads.

This loaded resin is then transferred for metal and cyanide elution (i.e. extraction via solvent washing).

Cyanide recovery involves a process of volatilisation and scrubbing to form a concentrate for return to the leach circuit.

The detoxified slurry is then discharged to the tailings dam.

This recycling process helps to AUSTRALIANMINING

detoxify the tailings stream and allow for the discharge of 100 per centcompliant clean water. This is not only environmentally beneficial but results in significant cost savings associated with the cyanide reuse and reduced detoxification costs.

“The ReCYN process in detox can recover gold to 0.01 parts per million and silver to less than one part per million,” GreenGold operations director Peter Mellor says.

“A lot of companies are throwing gold out so we can capture that gold that is going to waste.”

With copper soluble ores, ReCYN technology allows for a more innovative approach to a flowsheet that would reduce both operating and capital cost.

The inclusion of a ReCYN plant allows higher cyanide levels in the CIL, which keeps the copper off the carbon and allows its subsequent recovery in the ReCYN plant. This, therefore, turns a traditional detoxification cost into a revenue stream.

GreenGold has two operating plants in Indonesia, with a third on the way.

The company has signed agreements with the world’s biggest gold miners to implement the technology.

According to Mellor, reception has

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LOADED RESIN BEADS RECOVERED PRIOR TO ELUTION.

been overwhelming. The company provides gratis tailings stream analysis for interested companies in the first instance, to show brownfield improvements.

“If the economics are compelling we will do some preliminary engineering to give them a concept design, provide a site visit to an operational asset in Indonesia, perform lab work on their tailings, and propose a design build on their site,” Mellor says.

“Usually the return on investment is less than 12 months for brownfield projects. For greenfield projects, the costs are similar to a standard detoxification plant.” AM

QUARRYING, CRUSHING & SCREENING

NEW THYSSENKRUPP CRUSHER REVOLUTIONISES PRIMARY COMMINUTION THYSSENKRUPP’S ECCENTRIC ROLL CRUSHER IS READY TO CHANGE THE GAME IN BOTH OPEN PIT AND UNDERGROUND MINES WITH ITS SMART DESIGN, HIGH CAPACITY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY. AUSTRALIAN MINING REPORTS.

ERC 25-25 WAS BROUGHT THROUGH A PILOT TEST AT A HARD ROCK QUARRY IN GERMANY.

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he eccentric roll crusher (ERC) from Thyssenkrupp has taken the business of hard rock crushing to another level. A totally new type of primary crusher promises to significantly reduce installation height while maintaining many of the production and service advantages of traditional gyratory crushers.

Contrary to conventional crushers, the ERC uses a unique integrated pre-screening device that allows for bypassing of fines. This significantly reduces power consumption, compaction risk and the wear rate of crushing tools.

The ERC features a patented combination of pre-screening and crushing to represent the best of two worlds. This agile attribute lends the ERC the ability to crush hard rock in high throughputs and energy efficiency unparalleled to commonly used crushers.

For a long time, double roll crushers and sizers have become established as primary crushers across mining operations. But their design constraints are more suited to soft feed applications and are limited on how efficient and economical hard rock processing can be.

Due to the high-headroom, gyratory and jaw crushers require construction of large-scale caverns when used in underground operations. When used in open pit operations, they require large installation structures and residual imbalance induced forces limit their suitability for mobile applications.

But Thyssenkrupp has redefined the concept of primary crushing of hard rock with the ERC this year.

The German-engineered crusher is suited for both underground and open pit mining operations, thanks to a reduced installation height of 20 to 50 per cent compared to gyratory or jaw crushers.

AUSTRALIANMINING

Thyssenkrupp head of technology, innovation and sustainability Benedikt Meier says operations across the mining industry are increasingly moving from open pit to underground mining.

“We need to grasp that reality with our product because the crushers that we have in place at the time were not sufficient for these underground mining opportunities,” Meier says.

“Our idea initiation process started from talking to a lot of our customers, technicians, engineers and service people. New ideas and new trends were brought to the development team, and we got to make sure we react to that.”

Thyssenkrupp’s development team then decided to draw up specifications for the ERC and invented a compact crusher with a throughput of at least 1000 tonnes per hour, capable of dealing with hard rock of up to 200 megapascal compressive strength and generating resulting product between 0 and 200 millimetres.

This idea was finally brought into reality.

In a six-month test campaign at a hard rock quarry in Germany, a prototype of the crusher model ERC 25-25 was selected as the pilot plant.

This machine boasts a crushing roll of 2500 millimetres in diameter and width, and a feed opening into the crushing chamber that’s 2500 millimetres wide and 1230 millimetres high.

It was fed with both coarse and fine run of mine feed, as well as selected lumps of up to five tonnes in weight.

The desired product size of 0 to 200 (x) millimetres was achieved at various settings, with feed particle size P80 at closed side settings (CSS) of 140 millimetres recorded with approximately 130 millimetres.

The ERC’s integrated grizzly contributed to around 30 to 40 per cent to the total equipment capacity.

And with equipment parameters varied according to eccentric shaft speed and gap CSS, average capacities of 2000 to 3000 tonnes per hour were recorded.

While power consumption at nominal capacity ranged between 200 and 500 kilowatts the high energy efficiency of the ERC was evident in its power consumption of 0.1 to 0.2 kilowatts per hour over time.

Now the ERC is ready for Industry 4.0, integrated with an extensive monitoring system that enables local or remote control, and the automation of equipment from the crusher’s display.

“Prior to developing a product, somebody came up with an idea, a statement, a thought. We needed to do something different,” Meier says.

Little did the industry know, however, that one idea would end up revolutionising the processing of mineral raw materials across global underground and open pit operations. AM THE ECCENTRIC ROLL CRUSHER IS A GAME CHANGER IN THE AREA OF MINERAL RAW MATERIALS PROCESSING.

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QUARRYING, CRUSHING & SCREENING

UNWAVERING COMMITMENT TO SAFETY GUARDING LINCOM GROUP GOES ABOVE AND BEYOND TO EQUIP ITS MOBILE PLANTS WITH THE NECESSARY GUARDING SO OTHERS CAN BENEFIT FROM THIS SERIOUS ATTENTIVENESS. AUSTRALIAN MINING REPORTS.

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rushers and screeners imported from the United Kingdom often meet their local standards pertaining to guarding. However, some of the world’s most stringent mobile plant guarding requirements today are demanded in Australia.

Guarding helps prevent contact with areas of the machines that potentially cause human injury. It also provides protection against falling debris while the machine is undergoing normal operation and maintenance.

By complying to the relevant guarding standards, a machine is secured so certain parts cannot be manipulated. The machine can also easily operate without interfering with its productivity or efficiency.

Some years ago, material processing

equipment manufacturer Lincom Group made a decision to set its standards to meet the more stringent and relevant Australian Standard requirements.

For example, Lincom’s mobile crushing and screening equipment is fitted with custom safety guards, lanyards and fire extinguishers that meet or exceed all Australian Standards.

Before going out to site, each unit is given full guarding on all external conveyors, extra e-stop lanyards on each side of every external conveyor and two fire extinguishers fitted to the chassis.

Lincom also trades in older machines, as on many occasions these units do not have sufficient guarding fitted. Such cases of inappropriate guarding will be rectified before

SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST STRINGENT MOBILE PLANT GUARDING REQUIREMENTS TODAY ARE DEMANDED BY AUSTRALIA.” machines are resold to customers. This ensures Lincom continues to prioritise on worker safety, and for plants to properly function in mine sites.

Mining operations can benefit from Lincom’s Powerscreen H6203R, which features a horizontal screen that is ideal for handling high volumes of sticky materials.

The Powerscreen also meets the exact fine sizing demanded in many construction contracts. In addition, it offers an excellent capacity output of up to 800 tonnes per hour.

The Powerscreen H range products

POWERSCREEN H6203R GETTING ‘SITE READY’ AT LINCOM’S BRISBANE HEADQUARTERS.

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are especially effective for jaw crusher or scalping after a primary impact, with special ability in screening out specific small sizes. Its proven performance is facilitated by the adjustable elliptical throw, which combines linear and circular amplitude to produce an aggressive screening action.

The Powerscreen is suited to applications such as natural and crushed aggregate, coal, iron ore, recycled concrete and asphalt.

It also features a high capacity variable speed belt feeder, oil

QUARRYING, CRUSHING & SCREENING

bath screenbox bearing lubrication, screen walkway and access ladder, engine protection shutdown system and hydraulic folding stockpiling conveyors.

Importantly, Lincom’s range of screens, crushers and equipment for mines and quarries reflects the company’s focus on safety and efficiency of production.

Among the codes of practices its products meet include those set by the New South Wales Resources Regulator (MDG 15 – guideline for mobile and transportable equipment for use in mines); Workplace Health and Safety (WHS Regulation 2017); Standards Australia (AS 5062 – fire protection for mobile and transportable equipment); and International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO 2867:2011 – earth-moving machinery access systems).

Further, these codes of practices assist with risk assessment of machines during commissioning.

Lincom’s highly-trained service engineers will also provide training on product safety features and safe operational requirements to maximise return on investment.

The team at Lincom has the skills, expertise, experience and capability of resources to get plant equipment site ready for the mining industry. AM

LINCOM MEETS MACHINERY GUIDELINES TO PROVIDE SAFE WORK PRACTICES.

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PRODUCTS

DRIFTMASTER RODS AND BITS SERIES

HILLIARD A400 CALIPER BRAKING SYSTEM

Boart Longyear’s DriftMaster series of top hammer rods and bits have a unique thread profile designed for added endurance and strength. The DriftMaster thread geometry, combined with carburising heat treatment, makes it suitable in the most demanding tunnelling, bolting and drifting applications.

Test results from global field testing are strongly aligned with Boart Longyear’s design goals – DriftMaster products have significantly improved durability compared to standard threads. They have exceeded expectations in trial duration and sample size.

DriftMaster offers increased strength through stress reduction for maximum productivity. The tapered profile provides an increased material cross-section at the base of the threads, and the asymmetric thread geometry minimises stress concentrations.

The lower stress, combined with deep case hardening, also allows for a significant increase in cyclic load handling capability.

The A400 caliper brake is a spring applied, pneumatically released brake that is capable of handling three distinctly different motions – hoist, drag and swing.

It offers a more efficient advantage to existing braking systems installed on draglines and shovels: the commonality of parts. The Hilliard A400 system typically requires only pad replacements for servicing.

This means less parts inventory is required to maintain these machines, not to mention the reduction of inventory maintenance downtime from days to hours. Hilliard braking systems are made in America for global use.

• hilliardcorp.com

• boartlongyear.com

RONSON GEARS GROUND GEARING Ronson Gears offers gear grinding service on a make-complete or on a geargrind-only basis.

Using world-class computerised numerical control (CNC) gear grinding technology out of Germany, its third brand-new Hofler gear grinder is due to arrive in April.

Ground gears feature an abrasive wheel for precision grind of its tooth profile, giving them the ability to run quieter and spread the ware more evenly compared to a cut or machined gear.

They are also built in accordance to application requirements; where quiet running, minimum vibration and greater power transmitting capability are required, gears will normally be ground.

Gear grinding can also eliminate any distortion that may occur during heat treatment and improves surface finishes. This ensures a longer gear life for users.

Ground gears are not only used in traditional parallel axis gear boxes, but also gear boxes of vibratory screens and exploratory drill head, as well as in underground mining vehicles.

FENNER DUNLOP CONVEYOR BELTING KORDFLEX Fenner Dunlop has released a straight-warp conveyor belting KordFlex, which uses a high tensile and extremely low stretch aramid (kevlar) carcass.

This revolutionary concept leads to the highest strength-to-weight ratio of all conveyor belt reinforcements used: more than twice that of synthetic fibres and five times that of steel. KordFlex also has a 10:1 safety factor.

The KordFlex carcass can be combined with any of Fenner Dunlop’s premium cover compounds, which makes it especially useful in weight sensitive, high abrasion and high tension applications. When using KordFlex in place of existing steel cord belting, it can result in a carcass weight reduction of more than 70 per cent.

When combined with Fenner Dunlop’s Ultra Tuff abrasion resistant cover compound in preliminary site trials, KordFlex has outperformed steel cord belts used in short cycle balance machine applications.

• ronsongears.com.au

• fennerdunlop.com.au

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PRODUCTS

AUSTIN ENGINEERING EXCAVATOR BUCKET

DUSTBOSS 60 FUSION DUST SUPPRESSION SYSTEM

Austin Engineering’s two-piece excavator bucket consists of a reusable upper structure and a consumable lower structure. The lower bucket section enables quick and efficient change-out during maintenance intervals, which minimises downtime.

Finite element analysis and EDEM modelling is conducted on all bucket designs to ensure users get faster cycle times and maximised machine efficiency.

The excavator bucket is also manufactured using the latest welding techniques to ensure maximum structural integrity. The bucket shape is customised for optimum payload.

The bucket design is customised for any application from hard rock to coal, meeting original equipment manufacturer’s (OEM) specifications such as tip radius, pin centre and maximum suspended load. The excavator bucket also suits most OEM machines ranging from 100-tonne to 900-tonne class excavators, up to 50 cubic metres in size.

BossTek dust control cannon DustBoss 60 is paired with a mobile power source (a genset) placed on a roadworthy trailer for easy hauling to and around job sites that lack a convenient power source.

The genset features a John Deere Tier 3 engine with a 100-gallon (378.5 litres) fuel tank, which can run for up to 24 hours.

The heavy-duty trailer is also fabricated with a steel frame and roadworthy tyres for towing at high speeds. The 2971 kilogram dust suppression system can be towed by any vehicle with suitable towing capacity equipped with a class four ball hitch.

The optional dosing pump is powered from the standard 120V electrical outlet on the genset, allowing operators to precisely meter surfactants or other additives.

With a width of just two metres wide, the DB-60 Fusion can be placed virtually anywhere dust suppression is needed. Its versatility also makes it suitable for uneven ground, as well as open spaces or tiered terrain.

• austineng.com

• bosstek.com

SANDVIK RELEASES NON-CABIN RANGER RIGS

NATIONAL CRANE RAPID ATTACH PLATFORM

Sandvik Ranger DX600R drill rig is a hydraulic, self-propelled, self-contained, crawler-based surface drilling unit equipped with a radio remote control panel and rod handling system.

The Ranger DXR series is designed for efficient top hammer drilling in difficult terrain, where a drill rig with operator’s cabin is not practicable.

The surface top hammer drill rig series is designed to perform in the most challenging conditions, having features such as a revolving superstructure for excellent drilling coverage, a counterweight solution for stability and a Rock Pilot+ drilling control system.

This makes the Ranger DXR suitable for applications, including road cutting, pipeline drilling and foundation drilling, where radio remote control adds safety and flexibility. The other model included in this series is the Ranger DX800R.

A new rapid attach platform has been introduced to complement National Crane’s NBT boom truck series. The platform comes in two styles: yoke style (released) and rotating style (available this year).

The platform can attach at around 15 degrees, which gives unprecedented installation efficiency at job sites using one pin system and self-centering boom nose adapter. It also retains a weight limit of 1200 pounds (544 kilograms) for the basket and 500 pounds for the jib.

The rapid attach platform is ideal for aerial work with many of National Crane’s NBT series machines due to its design, pressure intensifier option and remote-control docking station direct from the factory.

• manitowoccranes.com

• rocktechnology.sandvik/en/

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EVENTS

CONFERENCES, SEMINARS & WORKSHOPS EVENT SUBMISSIONS CAN BE EMAILED TO EDITOR@AUSTRALIANMINING.COM.AU

PDAC, TORONTO, CANADA, MARCH 3–6 Billed as the world’s premier mineral exploration and mining convention, the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) exhibition is a fourday event that includes over 1000 exhibitors, 3500 investors and over 25,000 attendees from 135 countries.

The 2019 convention, which includes myriad technical sessions, networking opportunities and short course, as well as the PDAC 2019 Awards event (nominations for this are now closed).

PDAC, which has more than 8000 members, has been running the event since 1932.

• pdac.ca

MINERAL SANDS CONFERENCE, PERTH, MARCH 20–21 Part of Minerals & Investment Week, the 20th annual Mineral Sands Conference will take place alongside the 22nd Global Iron Ore & Steel Forecast and 2nd annual Lithium & Battery Metals Conference.

This event will take place at The Crown in Perth over two days and will examine Tio2 and zircon developments in Australia.

With an interest in Australian mineral sands projects led by companies like Iluka Resources and Base Resources, now is the perfect time to get involved with what could be a burgeoning industry.

• informa.com.au/event/conference/ mineral-sands-conference/

ALTA 2019, PERTH, MAY 18–25 Now in its 24th year, ALTA 2019 shines a practical focus on technology and project development within the metallurgical sector. The event includes five international conferences over a one-week period, including day sessions devoted to in-situ recovery (ISR), lithium processing and fit-for-purpose leaching systems (Gold-PM). The ISR session are organised in partnership with CSIRO Minerals while the Gold-PM session is presented in partnership with Curtin Gold.

Also included throughout the week are three short courses.

• altamet.com.au

AUSTRALIANMINING

AUSTMINE 2019: MINING INNOVATION, BRISBANE, MAY 21–23 Austmine is taking its biennial conference to Brisbane in 2019. The event will continue to feature the best in innovation from around the world. Over the course of three days there will be workshops, presentations, case studies, networking and Austmine’s mining industry awards.

The comprehensive program features a high calibre selection of international and Australian speakers, paired with first-class and innovative content. The exhibition will present a stellar display of technology, services and solutions that can be discussed in a face-to-face environment.

Austmine 2019 will be a must-attend event for the mining industry and METS sectors.

• austmineconference.com.au

DIGGERS & DEALERS MINING FORUM, KALGOORLIE, AUGUST 5-7 The annual Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum combines presentations by listed mining and exploration companies with a large exhibition area housing

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exhibitors from the sector. Organisers endeavour to bring highly respected and relevant experts who are well positioned to provide insightful commentary to delegates. An entertainment program ensures that delegates experience the best of the style and hospitality of Kalgoorlie.

The delegation is made up of mining and exploration companies, brokers, bankers, investors and mining services industries.

• diggersndealers.com.au

AIMEX, SYDNEY, AUGUST 27-29 AIMEX returns to Sydney in 2019, with more than 500 suppliers from around the world expected to feature at the exhibition.

This year’s platform will showcase the latest mining technology, equipment and services, offering a unique opportunity for suppliers and buyers to interact. AIMEX will also feature the largest free-to-attend mining conference in Australia. Organisers expect the program will deliver operational improvements for all mining techniques, bringing together industry leaders and mining experts.

• aimex.com.au

Experience the Progress.

Liebherr R 9100 B — Technology for Your Excellence • • • • •

New EVO bucket offers higher productivity without compromising component lifetime Perfect match for 50t to 100t trucks Continuous improvement with new gen of key components e.g. diesel engine and swing pump Operator friendly cab: quieter working environment for efficient work First-class accessibility with larger catwalks and new handrails for increased safety.

Liebherr-Australia Pty Ltd | Head Office 1 Dr. Willi Liebherr Drive, Para Hills West South Australia 5096 P: (08) 8344 0200, F: (08) 8359 4311 www.liebherr.com.au, E: info.las@liebherr.com