Australian Mining May 2016

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COMMENT

HAS THE DOWNTURN FINALLY REACHED THE BOTTOM? COLE LATIMER

ozmining@cirrusmedia.com.au

T

he market (as well as the team here at Australian Mining) have been predicting that we have reached the bottom of the downturn time and time again.

Unfortunately, we were wrong time and time again.

Each time we forecast that the worst seemed to be over, we saw commodity prices hammered once more and junior miner after junior miner collapse, jobs cut, and mines shuttered.

All the while we were left wondering: “When will this end?”

It appears that we may have – finally – reached the trough and begun the climb out of this volatile period.

Since the start of the year iron ore and gold have managed to defy all predictions, moving from strength to relative strength.

From the low point of US$38 per tonne iron ore it fell to late last year it has risen exponentially, more than 60 per cent, to peak at just over US$70 per tonne.

Gold and silver have also gathered pace, reaching their highest point since January 2015.

This in the face of market predictions that forecast a price point of between US$35 and US$45 per tonne for iron ore and expectations that gold would slip below the US$1000 per ounce mark.

Rio Tinto’s former CEO Tom Albanese believes we’ve finally reached the end of this economic turmoil for the mining industry.

This is a turnaround not just for the industry, but also for Albanese, who only three months ago held a polar opposite view, at the time stating, “This is exactly where we were in the late 1990s.”

“We’re all quite hesitant to say to say the bottom is here and has turned.”

Now he has done a 180 on this position, stating earlier this month his belief the worst is over.

“I believe with what we’ve witnessed early in 2016 will be the trough for the commodity markets,” Albanese said in an earnings conference call for his current business Vedanta.

“Commodity prices have improved materially

MANAGING DIRECTOR JOHN MURPHY EDITOR COLE LATIMER Tel: (02) 8484 0652 Email: ozmining@primecreative.com.au JOURNALISTS SHARON MASIGE Tel: (02) 8484 0854 Email: sharon.masige@primecreative.com.au PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR ZIBA MAHABAT Tel: (02) 8484 0625 Email: ziba.mahabat@primecreative.com.au

in the last couple of months, and investor sentiment has started to turn cautiously positive on the resources sector.”

Couple this with a few green shoots like MMG’s Dugald River zinc mine getting a development boost from the QLD Government, and new coal mining operations slated, it appears the resources industry may be moving to recovery mode, and all the – to some degree excessive – belt tightening over the last few months is finally paying off.

So what now?

Now is not the time to rest. The industry has worked hard to make an impact and claw back ground. It needs to stay the path, and if it can, it will recover and enter a new era.

So let’s look forwards at what is to come, and not backwards at what has been and what has been lost, because after all, people will always need mining.

In this edition we’ve focused heavily on the latest truck and transport technology, particularly fuel and oil systems, fleet management, and the newest articulated dump trucks on the block. In the wake of Rio Tinto’s decision to increase its payment times – and then retreat following broad condemnation from the industry – we look at invoicing payment loan systems and how to bridge that financial gap. The state of uranium present and future is examined, while we also delve into automation in practice at Sandfire’s DeGrussa mine.

Cole Latimer Editor

SALES MANAGER JONATHAN DUCKETT Tel: (02) 8484 0866 Mob: 0498 091 027 Email: jonathan.duckett@primecreative.com.au GRAPHIC DESIGNER LOUIS SANTOS SUBSCRIPTION RATES Australia (surface mail) $140.00 (incl GST) New Zealand A$148.00 Overseas A$156.00 For subscriptions enquiries please call GORDON WATSON 03 9690 8766

AUSTRALIANMINING

FRONT COVER

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CONTENTS

SAFETY

AUSTRALIAN MINING ON SITE

10-11

DRIVING THE AUSTRALIAN WIRE ROPE MARKET An insight into Australia’s largest wire rope supplier

24-25

HEAT STRESS – MORE THAN A HEADACHE Beating the heat

POWER GENERATION

12

MOBILE SOLAR SYSTEMS A new way to keep your site running

MINERALS PROCESSING

30-33

FUTURE PROOFING PLANT Innovation installations in PNG MINERALS PROCESSING MERGER Industry shakeups

URANIUM COMMUNICATIONS

14

URANIUM MARKET REPORT The state of uranium

34

NEW DUST PROOF PHONES More durable smart phones

FINANCE

TRUCKS & TRANSPORT

16

PIONEERING THE FUTURE OF FLEET MANAGEMENT Brining fleet management into the next era

38-39

SIX WAYS TO CUT OIL COSTS ON THE MINE How you can cut costs and lift efficiency

MINING’S RALLY POOR FOR THE INDUSTRY A return to strong commodity prices may actually weaken the industry long term TACKLING LONGER PAYMENT TERMS Beating the invoice payment financial gap

POWERING REMOTE TRUCKING 24-hour accessible diesel in remote areas

18

AUTOMATION & REMOTE CONTROL

ARTICULATING PERFORMANCE The latest ADTs

42-43

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

GOING SEMI-AUTONOMOUS WITH SANDFIRE An insight into effective automation

23

GETTING REVEGETATION OFF THE GROUND Seeding rehabilitation on old sites

EXPLOSIVE CONTROL SYSTEM UPGRADE ALL UNDER CONTROL Integrating control and safety in SCADA systems

44-45

NEW STANDARDS FOR RESPONSIBLE MINING A new initiative for next wave mining

TECHNOLOGY IN AUSTRALIAN MINING Where are we now, and where are we going?

REGULARS

INDUSTRIAL COMMENT

6

NEWS

8

PROSPECT AWARDS AUSTRALIANMINING

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42 MAY 2016

PRODUCT SHOWCASE

48-51

EVENTS

54

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INDUSTRY COMMENT

BLACK LUNG’S BACK? HOW WE BECAME COMPLACENT WITH COAL MINERS’ PNEUMOCONIOSIS. PETER GIBSON WRITES.

T

he name black lung says it all. When miners inhale excessive amounts of coal dust, the fine air filtration system of the lungs sieves out the dust, which then remains permanently in the lung. These deposits can even be seen with the naked eye if the lungs are removed from the body, hence the name.

The sinister part is the slow progressing breathing disorder that develops over many years due to excessive lung inflammation and scarring that is triggered by coal mine dust. This disease, coal workers’ pneumoconiosis or black lung, is preventable and was widely considered a thing of the past in Australian miners.

But just before Christmas 2015, people were shocked to hear about newly confirmed cases of black lung in Queensland miners. Governments responded swiftly to investigate the problem, with inquiries established by the Queensland government and the federal senate.

The Department of Natural Resources and Mines has released some interim findings outlining poor documentation of confirmed cases, a lack of preventive measures taken where confirmed cases were found and too few screening tests being performed.

There is no cure for black lung. The review has recommended a greater focus on prevention and early detection, and ongoing surveillance.

Preventing black lung

Prevention involves managing exposure by monitoring dust levels and actively taking steps to reduce coal dust exposure in miners. Mining practices have progressively improved over the years, but overseas experience tells us not applying standards can result in cases of black lung.

There are no uniform standards for acceptable levels of dust exposure throughout Australia. Authorities permit Queensland miners to be exposed to coal dust levels higher than those in the United States, where the exposure limit is set at two micrograms per cubic metre.

Prevention also involves regular screening of exposed workers and having the results looked at by experts.

The screening procedure requires imaging the lung with X-rays and assessing for possible lung impairment with breathing tests and focused clinical assessment. Each of these steps has to be quality controlled in order to successfully detect the subtle changes of black lung as early as possible.

The very early changes of black lung are an increase in dots and lines on the X-ray. The problem is the blood vessels and airways in the normal lung also show up as dots and lines, and so it takes expert training to tell when things become abnormal.

Fortunately, there are ongoing improvements in imaging technology, and there are now suggestions that a lowdose CT scan may make early detection easier and more reliable. Measuring impairment of lung capacity is very accurate when done in a quality controlled lung function laboratory, and this is the standard needed when trying to detect the changes of black lung as early as possible.

Of course, these assessments are useless if they’re not acted on. This means it is not only important to assess the results of individual workers, but to take a helicopter view of larger numbers of workers.

Given the significance of the issue and the potential implications, the peak professional body, the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand believes this is best done at a national level, and independent of mining AUSTRALIANMINING

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companies. There is also value in making the results of monitoring and screening accessible, so that the process is transparent.

Why has black lung returned?

Efforts in the 20th century to eradicate the disease including setting occupational exposure limits, introducing personal protective equipment, and improvements in dust management and health monitoring dramatically reduced the numbers of miners with black lung.

But in 2013, there were 25,000 deaths globally recorded from black lung. State-run mines in China now report black lung in between 4% and 17% of workers, and in Colombia, an growing coal producer, 36% of miners were recently found to have black lung.

Black lung is has been classified by Safe Work Australia as a deemed disease. This means the disease is caused by specific work-related activities, in this case prolonged exposure to coal dust. We don’t know exactly what has happened to cause black lung to reappear, but statements in the Queensland mines inspectorate report of 2014-15 indicating significant dust exposure above recommended limits are highly concerning.

There are now even recorded increases of black lung in the United States. It appears that just as the coal economy is a multinational activity, so are its risks. Black lung is just one of many diseases that can develop in miners. Conditions such as silicosis, occupational COPD (colloquially called emphysema), bronchitis and occupational lung cancer all require evaluation.

Peter Gibson, is a conjoint professor for the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle

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NEWS

IRON ORE FALLS IRON ORE HAS BEGUN TO RETREAT FROM ITS 16 MONTH HIGH. Last month the metal rose to just over US$70 per tonne, marking a 61.7 per cent gain, and the third largest surge since spot pricing first began in May 2009, but movement in China against over-speculative market has brought price reversals.

Much of the earlier upwards movement was off the back of Rio Tinto, BHP, and Vale taking action to address the glaring oversupply issues by announcing cuts in forecast output guidance for this year and the next, as well as increasing speculation in China as investors poured money into commodity stocks.

Poor weather in the March quarter was blamed for BHP cutting guidance for iron ore production in the Pilbara, a move which may allow some

breathing room for the juniors.

The company shaved ten million tonnes off their previous 2015/16 guidance of 270 million tonnes, which combined with the stoppage at Samarco in Brazil will bring BHP’s global production for this financial year down by around 30 million tonnes.

Rio Tinto recently cut production guidance by 20 million tonnes from 350, but blamed issues with introducing automated, driverless trains for the slower than expected expansion.

Vale also cut guidance earlier.

However despite this apparent strength and market movements to cut stockpiles, iron ore has begun a price reversal.

The Northern China benchmark price at the Port of Tianjin fell 5.6 per cent to US$60.50.

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

NEW MINERAL UNEARTHED IN WA A new mineral has been discovered at Kalgoorlie’s Super Pit, dubbed ‘kalgoorlieite’.

The mineral was discovered by geochemist Dr Kirsten Rempel, from Curtin University’s Department of Applied Geology. She first identified the microscopic, silver coloured particle in January after examining ore samples at Curtin’s Kalgoorlie campus museum.

“I’ve decided to name it kalgoorlieite, after the type of locality – it’s about time Kalgoorlie had its own mineral,” she said.

Although the sample is small, it is the largest amount of the mineral discovered so far, providing an opportunity to understand the origin of high grade ores in the area.

“This mineral, while only seen in very small grains so far, can provide important information about the genesis of the giant Golden Mile gold deposit, which is widely contested,” she added.

The sample was taken from the former Associated Gold Mines which was eventually consolidated into the Kalgoorlie Super Pit which is operated by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM). For years it stayed in the museum, simply described as ‘gold ore showing tellurides’.

Rempel told Australian Mining it took approximately three months to have the mineral approved by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA), with all measurements and tests conducted in London. She said the IMA receives over 100 mineral proposals each year, and that most of the newly discovered minerals are complex and have minor differences to existing ones.

“It is rare to find a mineral with the simplicity of kalgoorlieite these days.”

WORKER SUFFERS FRACTURED SKULL AT SAND MINE

She added that kalgoorlieite was a telluride mineral that chemically related to the silver and gold telluride ores in the super pit.

“Kalgoorlieite contains only trace amounts of gold and silver, but it is closely associated with gold-silver telluride minerals such as sylvanite,” she said, adding that it may be possible to find other new minerals in the sample.

“I think it’s actually possible because telluride is not very studied, it is easily overlooked. But there are already quite a number of telluride found.”

She added that telluride is really important for gold recovery, with 20 per cent of gold from the mine coming from gold telluride.

“It’s very exciting; It’s not something that never happens but I don’t know of many people who have found something new for the first time. I am happy to be a part of it,” she said.

The sample will be displayed in the Western Australia Museum.

AUSTRALIANMINING

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A worker has suffered a skull fracture after falling from an articulated dump truck.

The incident occurred in February, at Sibelco’s Salt Ash sand plant.

The plant operator was preparing to unload a Volvo A30 ADT that had been transported to the site on a low loader.

During preparation the operator accessed the top of the right front wheel arch to adjust the side mirror, and upon making the adjustment turned and walked towards the access steps, missing them and falling from the vehicle.

While the left side of the vehicle has access grab handles for the steps and handles for the platform next to the driver’s door, the right side does not have a handrail for the platform, although two grab handles had been installed.

“The plant operator appears to

have turned to face the rear of the dump truck and walked to the top of the access step where he has turned his upper body and reached for the gran handle on his right with his left hand,” the NSW Department of Industry has stated in its investigation of the incident.

“While twisting to reach the grab handle he has fallen to the ground level below the loader.”

It is understood while the height of ADT wheel arch platform to ground level is only around 1.8 metres, the height added by the low loader meant the platform was now 2.7 metres from the ground.

Immediately following the incident the operator was attended to by emergency services at the mine and transported to a nearby hospital.

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AUSTRALIAN MINING ON SITE

DRIVING THE AUSTRALIAN WIRE ROPE MARKET AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST WIRE ROPE SUPPLIER WRI INDUSTRIES HAS BEEN PLAYING AN EVER-GROWING GAME SINCE THE 1920S, BUILDING A BUSINESS FROM THE BHP EMPIRE TO BECOME THE LARGEST SUPPLIER IN THE COUNTRY, AND THANKS TO A FORTUITOUS BUYOUT, THE WORLD.

A

ustralia’s manufacturing industry cops a lot of bad press, and in focusing on stories about companies going bust due to managerial stagnation and waste, we forget the success stories, the companies holding their own and continuing to press forward in terms of productivity and innovation.

With the fall of Arrium recently, the mining industry would do well to acknowledge a business that arose from the BHP and the OneSteel empire, which will continue to thrive thanks to good management and sound investment: WRI Australia.

WRI Australia is the most successful wire rope business in the nation’s history.

Dating back to its first rope produced for

the mining industry in 1926, WRI has gone from strength to strength, streamlining operations to maximise efficiency over the past 90 years.

Until 12 months ago, WRI (Wire Rope Industries) was owned by the Arrium Group. The recent purchase by one of the world’s largest producers of wire and other related products, Belgian company Bekaert, may have saved the jobs of 100 Newcastle employees at the WRI factory.

At present, the chief claim to fame of the WRI business in Newcastle is the fact that it produces around 90 per cent of the wire rope used in the Australian mining industry. That’s ropes for draglines and shovels, ropes for cable-hauled conveyors, crane ropes and lifting gear, not to mention the structural ropes produced for engineering projects in other sectors.

AUSTRALIANMINING

A world-leader in the manufacture of drags, hoist ropes and pendants for draglines, as well as the shorter pendants for shovels, WRI’s is a story of successful management, and of changing with the times in order to meet the needs of industry.

In its heyday as the Australian Wire Rope Works, a fully-owned subsidiary of BHP from 1933 onwards, the Newcastle factory produced many different wire rope products, and employed up to 450 workers at any one time.

Today the Newcastle factory, still with original art deco brick frontage, produces only 30 different products for the mining industry, and employs 100 people. Good management and top-class approach to safety made the company an attractive buy for a multi-national looking to take over the world’s wire rope business.

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Baekart has all but monopolised the world’s manufacture of this important consumable, as late last year the Belgian manufacturer announced plans to merge with the largest wire rope manufacturer in the US, Bridon, to form a joint venture which will be named the Bridon Bekaert Ropes Group.

Meeting Australian needs

With original BHP pedigree, WRI is primarily about mining supply, specialising in new-technology ropes that will last longer in the field.

Chief among the products manufactured in Newcastle are the plastic infused wire ropes, which were designed specifically for the mining market, to suffer the extremes of heavy use.

One of the key advantages of plastic

AUSTRALIAN MINING ON SITE

infused rope is that it is impossible for dirt and rock chips to become embedded between the rope wires, where the intrusion can cause excessive wear and weaknesses in rope strands. The plastic coating serves as a barrier against contaminants and foreign bodies, which is especially important for shovel hoist ropes, which are exposed to contaminants in operation.

The other major benefit is that the impregnated plastic prevents the kind of wear that occurs within dynamic ropes, which are designed to be repeatedly put under load and strain, creating movement and wear between the wires. The impregnated plastic helps to retain the natural balance of the rope by locking strands in place to minimise the movement of component strands and wires during operation.

In addition, the plastic coating provides a smooth surface to pass over sheaves and drums, preventing nicking as well as wear to the sheaves, where a great deal of the outer wear on the rope occurs.

Each of these benefits adds up to a doubling of the expected operational life of each rope, which represents a significant saving when a single shovel pendant sells for around $20,000.

WRI also ensures additional levels of

safety are built into the pendant sockets in a technique that ensures failure of the connection is impossible. By passing the rope into the socket, splaying out individual wires and filling the void with molten zinc, the safe working load of the connection is ensured to be greater than that of the rope.

WRI also specialises in long distance cable-haul conveyors, where resistance to corrosion is important to keep maintenance costs down, as is the number of splices in the rope made to achieve long distances.

According to WRI general manager Stuart Callender, Australia is home to one of the largest populations of overland conveyor systems, for materials handling from mines and loading facilities to ports. “They take long continuous lengths of rope, so we took the opportunity to invest in machinery capable of achieving that.

Those ropes are just under 10km long,

THIS DRAG ROPE IS MADE FOR AUSTRALIAN CONDITIONS

and we make them in parcels of around 120 to 130 tonne.

Manufacturing the ropes in such long single lengths precludes the need to splice smaller ropes together, which would create unnecessary points of weakness in the rope.

With export markets in China, South America and South Africa to name a few, around 10-15 per cent of the total production from WRI in Newcastle goes overseas.

The success of WRI as Australia’s premier wire rope business is grounded in manufacturing experience dating from the 1920s, evolution and continual development of manufacturing techniques, and ongoing investment in technology, as well as service to the customer. AM AUSTRALIANMINING

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POWER GENERATION

MOBILE SOLAR SYSTEMS AND THE DISPLACEMENT OF DIESEL NEW SYSTEMS ARE BEING DEVELOPED TO OVERCOME MINING’S RELIANCE ON DIESEL.

I

t’s no secret that diesel fuel can be dangerous.

Its toxic fumes have the potential to cause serious respiratory illnesses (as confirmed by the World Health Organization), not to mention the amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted into the atmosphere. Yet it continues to be used in applications such as mining because in many cases, renewable energy is not a viable option.

Laing O’Rourke and ARENA are seeking to change this. In a venture that has been years in the making, they have finally piloted their mobile solar system, dubbed SunSHIFT, in Queensland with encouraging results.

Essentially, mobile solar refers to a solar plant that can be rolled out and packed up quickly, and is well-suited to short-term use in applications such as outback mining, powering remote communities and disaster relief projects. The fact that the plant can be rapidly set up, is cheap to move and can be easily scaled up makes it suitable for off-grid applications where power is needed for only a few years, according to ARENA Chief Executive Ivor Frischknecht. It’s also cost-effective, considering the fact that

solar power is now cheaper than diesel-generated electricity.

However, Frischknecht has suggested that mobile solar is only cost-effective for projects needing power for two to six years.

Projects requiring power for less than a year would be better suited to diesel energy, and those requiring power for more than seven or eight years would find a permanent solar farm more worthwhile, said Frischknecht.

The mobile solar pilot by Laing O’Rourke and ARENA was a world-first. The companies piloted the SunSHIFT demonstration plant late last year at a 550-person worker accommodation site near Roma in Queensland, providing all electrical power to the village.

The trial ran for six months, and the system performed as expected. That is, the solar plant’s output matched forecasts almost exactly.

This came not long after First Solar, Rio Tinto and ARENA announced the operation of Australia’s first commercial diesel displacement solar plant at Rio Tinto’s Weipa bauxite mine. The plant now generates approximately 2,800 megawatt hours of electricity per year for the mine and facilities, and the township.

This clearly represents an important step forward for the mining industry, a sentiment echoed by First Solar’s Asia Pacific Regional Manager, Jack Curtis.

“The significance of the Weipa Solar Plant is that it provides the opportunity to demonstrate that PV-diesel hybrid projects can also be as reliable as standalone diesel-powered generation,” he said.

While the ultimate goal is to rely completely on solar power, it is unfortunately not feasible with our current technology. It is important to understand that there are two main metrics for solar within a mini-grid: solar power penetration and solar energy contribution. Solar power penetration is the maximum percentage of power that comes from solar rays (usually occurring at mid-day) and solar energy contribution is the overall contribution of energy that comes from the power.

Without energy storage, a solar plant can achieve an energy contribution of up to 50 per cent during the day. At night however, the energy contribution could be as little as 10 per cent. With energy storage, it is possible to achieve a solar penetration of over 50 per AUSTRALIANMINING

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cent and ultimately up to 100 per cent if the battery and storage are large enough. However, this is certainly not guaranteed.

Therefore, SunSHIFT acts as an additional energy source that integrates with new or existing diesel infrastructure.

As far as the plant’s composition, it contains a diesel generator and fuel tank, as well as an integrator to integrate solar power and any optional energy storage with the diesel generator. The plant’s solar sub-arrays consist of either 24 identical three-panel solar modules or 12 identical sixpanel solar modules, one inverter module and multiple screw piles, with each solar module including either three or six monocrystalline silicon solar panels. The final element of the plant is the

energy store, which is an optional lithium-ion battery and inverter container for achieving higher solar penetration and greater diesel fuel savings.

According to Laing O’Rourke’s Managing Director, Cathal O’Rourke, “Construction and engineering must break away from traditional resources if it is to evolve and deliver projects quickly, safely and more sustainably.”

Ultimately however, the biggest argument for the employment of a mobile solar system is the fact that it lessens our reliance on diesel fuel. With this comes less exposure to fuel price volatility, reduced frequency of tank refills, reduced fuel spillage risks, increased human safety, and a reduction in CO2 emissions.

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URANIUM IN FOCUS

URANIUM MARKET REPORT

W

ith nearly 200 nuclear power plants either under construction or in planning around the world, and the pending closure of the Ranger Uranium Mine, increased supply will be essential to ensuring sufficient product is available to service the low-emissions energy market. Ben Hagemann writes.

Uranium has continued its long-term, downward trend on the commodities market in the first quarter of 2016. Although spot prices increased approximately 10 per cent in 2015, up to US$37 per pound, early 2016 was not kind to global miners.

Between November 2015 and midMarch 2016 the market saw a 19 per cent drop in value, from US$37 to US$29 per pound, amidst reduced demand, increased inventories and growing secondary supply.

Downward pressure is expected to continue in the short term, with the average predicted spot price of US$32 per pound expected to drop to an average of US$31 in 2017.

However, 2018 will be an entirely different story, when new nuclear power plants under construction in Russia, China and India start to come online.

This will mean a substantial increase in demand for uranium, which Resources and Energy Quarterly expects to result in increased exports, with a growth rate of 45 per cent to lift Australian exports to 9450 tonnes of uranium in 2020-21.

This increase in demand will underpin increasing prices, which will bring Australia’s uranium reserves to a value of $934 million.

growth rate is expected to repeat again in 2016, bringing production to 77,000 tonnes. Supplies are being driven more and more by inventories held by nuclear utilities and secondary market supplies.

Production is expected to increase by an average rate of 2.7 per cent per year up to 2021, bringing world production to 87,600 tonnes, underpinned by production increases at CGN/Swakop Uranium’s Husab Mine in Namibia, Peninsula Energy’s Lance Mine in the US, and Cameco’s Cigar Lake Mine in Canada.

Australia

Plants under construction around the world are primarily in China, India and Russia where governments have taken steps to work towards policies of carbon reduced baseload electricity. In 2016 China has 24 nuclear reactors under construction and 42 planned; Russia has eight under construction and 25 planned; while India has six under construction and 24 planned.

World consumption of uranium is expected to rise by 10 per cent to 75,600 tonnes over the next year, as more reactors come on-line, while it will it is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 1.5 per cent between 2016 and 2021, when consumption is forecast to reach 80,900 tonnes.

Of course, such rises in value and export demand will be contingent on the completion of projects, and any delays to the construction of the new power plants will slow growth in the market.

Consumption

In terms of consumption, 2015 saw the use of uranium increase by 1.6 per cent to 68,800 tonnes, compared to 67,700 tonnes in 2014. This was attributed to increase in demand driven by the completion and start-up of Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power’s Shin-Wolsong 2 reactor in South Korea and Rosatom’s Rostov 3 reactor in Russia.

Commissioning a new power plant requires more uranium than under ordinary operating conditions, in order to stock the core, with annual requirements declining as the plant reaches a steady state level of operation.

Production

Global production in 2015 increased by seven per cent to 71,500 tonnes, and that

WHILE THE RANGER MINE WILL WIND UP SOON, WA IS JUST RAMPING UP ITS URANIUM OPERATIONS

AUSTRALIANMINING

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Back home in Australia, Boss Resources have announced they will target a reopening of the mothballed Honeymoon uranium mine by 2019, with expanded operations which will also contribute to increases in global production.

Exploration and development since acquisition of the high-grade NSW mine has increased the known resource by 330 per cent, to 52.5 million pounds at 640ppm.

Quasar Resources restarted production at the Four Mile Mine in South Australia in the September quarter of 2015, and production increases at the ERA Ranger Uranium Mine and BHPs Olympic Dam gave Australia a production boost of 21 per cent in 2015-16, from 6496 tonnes in 201415 up to 7835 tonnes, although exports are expected to reach 8007 tonnes in 2015-16.

In the medium term, exports are expected to increase to 9450 tonnes per year, underpinned by increased volumes and long term sales contracts.

Nationwide, uranium exploration expenditure was down 8 per cent in 2014-15, taking $43.9 million in the previous year to $40.6 million.

However, exploration expenditure in Western Australia has increased by17 per cent, counterbalanced by a decrease in Queensland, caused by government policy and regulatory changes.

The start of FY15 saw the announcement from ERA that the Ranger 3 Deeps project would not proceed after parent company Rio Tinto withdrew support for the development. This was followed by advice that the Mirrar Traditional Owners would not support an extension to the mining authority, meaning the mine will be wound up in January 2021.

The South Australian Royal Commission into nuclear power and supply continues to identify new opportunities and regulatory hurdles, such as the Federal legislative prohibitions on nuclear fuel cycle industries.

With 30 per cent of the global uranium reserves located in Australia, a country which accounts for only 10 per cent of global trade (Kazakhstan produces 40 per cent), it’s clear there are significant avenues here for increased exploitation. AM

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TRUCKS & TRANSPORT

PIONEERING THE FUTURE OF FLEET MANAGEMENT

W

ith the rise of production costs in mining reaching almost 30 per cent over the past few years, the translation of constantly changing fleet data into understandable information in real time is essential for efficiency and productivity.

Fleet management provides vehicle tracking, diagnostics, and the assessment of driver behaviour to ensure the effective running of operations. It also decreases overall production costs by lowering downtime through scheduled maintenance, and preventing the wastage of fuel by enforcing fuel management, as well as identifying discrepancy problems of specific trucks and the workers responsible.

The use of next level technology in the areas of safety, maintenance, and productivity is expected to rise in this area, with a survey by Timetric Mining Intelligence indicating that 85 per cent of respondents have invested in fleet management technology as well as predictive maintenance.

As the Internet of Things (IoT) expands into the mining industry, efficiency has increased, enabling all equipment data and tracking information gathered to provide predictive (or preventative) measures for maintenance. The collation of these immense resources of

information – referred to as Big Data – means traditional database management systems (often just excel spreadsheets) are unable to compete. These require more innovative systems for fleet management; this has seen companies such as Rio Tinto open a ‘Big Data’ Analytics Excellence Centre in 2015 to predict and prevent equipment failures, lower maintenance costs, and heighten productivity.

In an effort to improve fleet productivity, decrease operational costs, and reduce administration time for data capturing and management, Whitehaven Coal implemented the MiPlan MiFleet solution at one of their Gunnedah Basin operations in north west New South Wales.

MiFleet, one of MiPlan’s range of apps for monitoring fleet management, uses tablets to gather performance and productivity data of truck fleets.

The apps are part of the MiApps suite, which includes MiDrill, MiBlast, MiDig, MiFleet and MiTime, that collectively offer monitoring of an operation’s excavation, material logistics, drilling and blasting, human resources, and maintenance.

MiFleet features time allocation capabilities which track the state and activity of equipment during each shift in order to calculate utilisation and availability KPIs. Vertical and horizontal distances are able to be measured in real time dollars per kilometre,

enabling planning and tracking of any variations. Truck activity is improved by the system’s complete cycle time, which can track their load and haul cycle times.

The system features a GPS map to determine the current location, status and activity of a fleet in one view. It also enables offline capability for as long as necessary, automatically syncing all data collected once it comes within range of an internet connection.

The system was trialled in October 2015 at Whitehaven’s Tarrawonga mine in Boggabri, approximately 30km west of Gunnedah.

After two months of successful operation alongside their normal paper management approach, the system was ready to ‘go live’. It began with the installation of a single tablet for the workers to understand how it worked.

Over the following two weeks, they purchased Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablets – their tablet of choice – and installed brackets into all their fleets. Engineers, supervisors, and operators were provided with onsite training on how to use the system, after which a trial run parallel to their normal paper system. At the end of each month, MiPlan went back onsite to assist with the increased data streams and aid better data reporting and management processes.

Tarrawonga mine manager Anthony Margetts said, “After AUSTRALIANMINING

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conducting a proof of concept of MiPlan’s MiFleet, we decided the application was a good match. It was simple and readily accepted by all.”

“MiPlan was onsite to engage with equipment operators and helped us through the transition to a paperless system. The use of conventional consumer products like Samsung tablets represents a low cost technology solution for managing the equipment fleet.”

Since implementing the system, Whitehaven reaped several benefits such as achieving more production and performance data, enabling them to analyse and action that data in almost real time. This also allowed faster communication about production decisions with operators.

The trial discovered significant discrepancies between the paper-based and real time data, highlighting another advantage of the app. Additionally, it limited lengthy data entry processes,

saving time and costs incurred when supervisors and site clerks are required to manually process paperwork. This les to the saving of paper, printing, and administration time and costs.

The system allowed for the consolidation of the operation’s wider production data into a single source, improving the flexibility of reporting.

Supervisors found that they were able to make in-field decisions on the way their fleet is used with the system’s real time data feeds.

After the first year, return on investment is expected due in a large part to the low product purchase and implementation costs.

This is the first collaboration between Whitehaven and MiPlan, with Tarrawonga now looking to implement the MiDrill and MiBlast (MiD&B) applications offered. This will ensure their whole operation is managed in real time and render their operation paperless. AM

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TRUCKS & TRANSPORT

WAYS TO CUT OIL COSTS ON THE MINE

DESPITE THE WEAKER OIL PRICE, THE MINING INDUSTRY IS ALWAYS ON THE HUNT FOR EFFICIENCY MEASURES AND WAY TO DRIVE DOWN COSTS.

O

ne of the major ways to decrease energy costs and machinery downtime is to have a solid operational plan in place. Total, one of the world’s largest energy companies and a mining industry specialist lubricant supplier, has developed a six step guide aimed at helping miners battle the cost crunch.

Rationalise your lubricants: An oil management fundamental is to rationalise the number of lubricants and lubricants packaging used, the company said. “After an on site analysis, the Total mining team found that this [practice] can result in savings of up to 17 per cent of total oil costs.”

This can be achieved through savings in physical inventories, costs associated with handling, spillage, theft, storage space, and stock obsolescence.

Standardise your oil packaging: Are the same products needed in a variety of different packaging, such as pails, drums, intermediate bulk containers (IBCs), and bulk? Too many options can often results in increased costs and duplication. “Looking into where and how each pack size is being used and dispensed will allow you to reduce the number of disposable packs,” Total explained. This will not only simplify an operator’s ordering process, but also free up valuable storage and reduce the overall costs of working capital.

Avoid contamination: Contamination control is often overlooked when considering why premature failure occurred or why lubricant life has been diminished. The two main contaminants in oil are dirt and moisture. When oils are contaminated it dramatically accelerates equipment wear, which can result in premature breakdowns and unscheduled downtimes, increasing overall operating costs.

According to Bosch Rexroth, between 70 and 80 per cent of all hydraulic failures which can lead to machinery breakdown can be traced back to contaminated oil.

Maintaining clean oil is a crucial investment for mining companies, with Total suggesting using contamination control techniques such as desiccant breathers on bulk and intermediate containers as well as filtration on bulk fluid dispensers.

“The benefits of sound contamination control in lubricants will extend the life of lubricated equipment and reduce overall maintenance costs,” Total said.

Oil analysis: Oil is the lifeblood of the industry and literally keeps the wheels turning, so ensuring it is as clean as possible is crucial. The aim of oil analyses is to get snapshots of the condition of the lubricant and the equipment at singular points in time. Using this information operators can develop greater visibility of their equipment and provide predictive maintenance schedules, a forecast for oil change frequenAUSTRALIANMINING

cies, and avoid the costly repairs that come with unscheduled downtimes.

Getting a FIFO approach to lubricant storage: Having a proper First-In FirstOut approach to the storage of lubricants on site will reduce the ongoing occurrence of ‘obsolescence costs”. This also reduces the potential for products nearing the end of their shelf life, and which may have suffered from contamination, being introduced into the circuit and having a

detrimental effect on equipment.

Get a lube supplier audit: Lubricant specialists are often able to assist customers in identifying areas of improvement for lubricant efficiencies that aid cost saving initiatives. “For example, replacing just one lubricant with another can contribute to the reduction of many different types of costs, including purchasing, maintenance, energy, fuel, and waste oil costs,” Total stated. AM

ACCORDING TO BOSCH REXROTH, BETWEEN 70 AND 80 PER CENT OF ALL HYDRAULIC FAILURES WHICH CAN LEAD TO MACHINERY BREAKDOWN CAN BE TRACED BACK TO CONTAMINATED OIL

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MAY 2016

TRUCKS & TRANSPORT

POWERING REMOTE TRUCKING SUPPLY AND 24-HOUR ACCESS TO DIESEL IN REMOTE PARTS OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA’S PILBARA REGION HAS BECOME MUCH MORE FEASIBLE WITH THE CONSTRUCTION OF WHAT IS BELIEVED TO BE THE WORLD’S FULLY-TRANSPORTABLE SOLARPOWERED RETAIL FUEL OUTLETS.

C

altex Australia’s sites at Tom Price and Onslow, both more than 1300 km from Perth, are not connected to mains power, instead relying on abundant solar energy in the region and on-site battery storage technology.

The Australian company is pioneering the environmentallyfriendly initiative to further extend the reach of its National Truck Network -the largest truck refuelling network in Australia, comprising 200 dedicated truck stops and 300 truck-friendly sites across the country.

Caltex network development manager for Western Australia Leon Calvetti said diesel customers driving between remote locations across the state were benefitting from the availability of fuel whenever they needed it.

“The biggest challenge of supplying fuel in remote parts of Australia isn’t getting fuel there – after all, we have fuel storage at the site and a great logistics team able to make regular deliveries,” Calvetti said.

“The obstacle is powering the pumps so the fuel can get into the customers’ tanks – it’s very expensive and inefficient to run a generator when there are only a

handful of customers every day.

“It’s also difficult to locate staff in the middle of the Pilbara many hours’ drive from the nearest major town.

“By creating what we believe are the world’s first fully solarpowered fuel facilities, we can efficiently provide diesel in some of the most remote locations of Australia.

THE SOLAR POWERED OUTLETS ARE EXTENDING TRUCKERS’ REACH

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“The other benefit of these sites will come when, at some stage in the future, there is no longer the same demand in that area – if that happens we can simply relocate the entire facility to a new part of the country, as everything on the site is easily transportable by truck.

“The whole design is tailored to Australian conditions, given the abundant sun and the long distances between service stations.”

Calvetti said that unlike many fuel outlets in rural Australia the innovative Caltex sites could offer diesel 24 hours a day via a card payment system.

“These sites offer the same high-quality diesel available elsewhere across our national network and customers can access it at any time,” Calvetti said.

“But in such remote locations, with only a limited number of customers driving past, don’t expect all the typical services available at other Caltex sites.

“While these no-frills facilities won’t provide a pie, a can of soft drink or ice creams, they will help keep drivers of heavy transport and four-wheeldrive vehicles supplied with the diesel they need to get to the next town for a well-earned rest.” AM

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AUSTRALIANMINING

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MAY 2016

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TRUCKS & TRANSPORT

ARTICULATING PERFORMANCE NEW ADTS WERE LAUNCHED AT THIS YEAR’S BAUMA.

W

ith the world’s biggest trade show done and dusted, it’s time for the market to take a deep breath and absorb the wealth of new technology and machines shown in Germany at Bauma 2016 for the first time.

Articulated dump truck specialist Bell Equipment, having already launched the prototype B50E truck at Intermat 2015, came in strong to reveal several models in their new heavy haulage fleet, the E-Series Large Truck range.

With the push for bigger payloads in a productivity-hungry market around the globe, Bell’s E-Series Large Truck programme has been in development for three and a half years, with the full worldwide release planned for late 2016, however Bauma 2016 last month saw the curtains raised on the 41 tonne payload B45E articulated dump truck, as well as the new 60-tonne B60E. The full E-Series range is powered by the new Mercedes Benz HDEP engine platform and fitted with Allison transmissions.

Bell Equipment product marketing manager Tristan du Pisanie said that although new to Bell, the Mercedes HDEP engine has been in production for seven years.

“It is an engine that Mercedes Benz is very familiar with and we are confident that our customers will appreciate the advances in terms of fuel economy and

power density over our D-series machines,” he said.

Compared to the outgoing DSeries, the E-Series comes with power increases from the new engine platform. Larger models have the Allison 4700 transmission, boasting seven gear ratios for increased fuel efficiency.

“The move to a 7-speed Allison transmission across the range, with the exception of the B35E, effectively delivers better performance due to the smaller steps between gear ratios, which keeps the engine at optimum revs more consistently,” du Pisanie said.

To accommodate the larger 7-speed transmission, Bell has removed the automatic retarder on the transmission and opted to rather incorporate this important feature into the wet brake system. Du Pisanie explained: “The retardation is still operated automatically and the new position of the retardation will not adversely impact on brake life. This is because extensive testing has shown that at the low pressures generated in the brakes during retardation there is always oil between the wet brake plates, so there is no touching and wear.”

In addition to mechanical improvements, Bell has making use of the E-series Small Truck cab for the Large Truck range due to the positive feedback that has been received from customers in terms of operation and ergonomics.

Electronic bonnet opening has been added to the Large Truck cab as an additional, convenient feature.

The operator’s experience has been a key focus area of the E-series truck programme with the objective of simplifying the interface and improving the ergonomics by taking into consideration the lifestyles of today’s younger generation of operators.

“Smartphone technology is growing in popularity and we also wanted to build the familiarity of what happens in your car into what happens in our E-series trucks,” explained du Pisanie.

Therefore the E-series cab has a full colour screen and an automotive mouse interface to control the sealed display unit.

The Bell ADT is the first to offer this technology and the standard reversing camera can also been integrated into the colour screen display.

“Coinciding with our E-series Large Truck programme, we have even further improved the response speed of the colour monitors in the cab. This not only affects the new Large Trucks but can be achieved on all existing E-series machines with a software update,” du Pisanie said.

Bell has also opted for an Isringhausen seat, with its own suspension and dampening system, to improve ride comfort and reduce whole body vibration. The seat also has a three point safety harness which can be configured, as an additional safety feature, so that the truck’s engine will only start once the seat harness is fastened. A heating option is also fitted for colder climates.

AUSTRALIANMINING

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t safe

The full glass door, maximised window apertures and ideal operator position give unparalleled visibility. Safety blind spots are significantly reduced, particularly in the area commonly used for cabin access.

“Overall we are confident that we have looked critically at what needed to be included in the upgrade, and focused only on delivering real value added improvements in terms of reduced cost per ton and safety, without compromising the platform that has served us so well for the last 15 years. We look forward to taking users through our trucks with the traditional Bell hospitality at Bauma 2016,” du Pisane said.

Also launched at Bauma was the B60E, Bell’s new 60-tonne dump truck.

Bell Equipment Europe managing director Marc Schürmann said there was already a great deal of awareness and excitement about the B60E. “The small size rigid market

presents a good opportunity for Bell,” he said.

“A truck concept that delivers application advantages over rigid machines with the additional benefit of improved fuel burn, flexibility and safety is just what is required to re-invigorate this market sector.”

Representing the E-series Small Truck range was Bell’s B30E, which has gained widespread market acceptance in Europe since the new generation truck was introduced just over two years ago.

According to Schürmann the remarkable engineering and the Bell product validation and verification process are largely responsible for the text book introduction of these trucks and the continued growth in reliability, quality and performance from the D-series to the E-series.

Commenting on the European market, Schürmann said the subdued market conditions of 2015 were “expected to remain for at least the next year”, words which echo for the Australian market.

“Although there are positive signs from Spain, Ireland and Italy as they follow the UK growth trend,” he said.

“While we remain cautious, there are some interesting projects and we do see growth for the region in the medium term.

“Our German manufacturing facility and our new E series range, which will incorporate all models from 2017, are ideally poised to capitalise on this.” AM

ENVIRONMENT

GETTING REVEGETATION OFF THE GROUND FUNDAMENTAL APPROACHES TO SEEDING AND SITE RESTORATION ARE NEEDED IN MINE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT.

M

ining has undergone major changes in the wake of the Great Boom.

It has become a forward looking industry, not just in terms of understanding their deposits and how best to ride the commodities waves, but also in terms of, inversely, what they leave behind.

The issues of mine rehabilitation and site remediation are becoming ever more critical in this era of the modern, socially responsible miner, which means planning for the end of the mine, and beyond.

This entails dealing with lingering issues related to excavation, regenerating flora, and making the land viable for other uses if possible.

In the NSW Hunter Valley miners have been trialling innovative grazing programs, introducing soil and vegetation into previously mined areas and turning the remediated land into an agriculturally viable site.

In the NSW Central Ranges, Ulan coal mine’s Bobadeen irrigation scheme is a unique solution to water management that uses surplus mine water to irrigate 242 hectares of land specially planted with perennial pastures.

Another miner has also been working with local wine producers, operating a

mine underneath the vineyard.

The Northparkes copper mine, in NSW’s Central West, runs large local cropping operations.

“We farm about 3000 hectares around the mine with no till. We grow wheat, barley, canola, field peas, and lupins. The enterprise has been going since ‘97 and I believe the soil’s getting better,” Northparkes Mines farm manager Geoff McCallum said.

“We’ve planted 10,000 trees a year since I’ve been here, so that’s around two hundred thousand trees we’ve planted so far.”

In Canada, Vale has introduced site revegetation programs utilising bees as a method of re-pollinating the local flora, and covering the waste rock and slag left over from years of mining.

There are a myriad of different ways miners are attempting to remediate their old site, and native seeds are part of this process for BHP. Last year BHP partnered with the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority (BGPA) to hold an interactive ‘think thank’ as part of a multi-million dollar Restoration Seed Bank Initiative (RSB).

“WA is a global leader in restoration research and the think tank comes as an important time for ensuring the mining industry in WA is leading the world in reAUSTRALIANMINING

habilitation practices,” BGPA CEO Mark Webb said at the time.

BHP Iron ore’s head of environment Gavin Price added that “a core principal of the RSB is that it is a collaborative, engaging, and locally practiced with global implications”.

The group will examined the latest methods in rehabilitation practices and work towards new solutions for native plant establishment as well as new approaches to the rehabilitation of mined areas.

Speaking to Dr. David Merritt, senior research scientist for BGPA Western Australia, he explained to Australian Mining the shifting views towards conservation and restoration, how miners are rehabilitating their land, and the important role an apparently ever diminishing seed stock is playing in this.

“We’re seeing a diminishing number of seeds and a problem with establishment,” Merritt said.

“We need research into seeds, as they are a finite resource…the seed supply is a limitary factor for restoration.

“We need to recognise earlier the role restoration will play in the long term.”

However the current methods for reseeding regions are apparently ineffective, and stymieing restoration and remediation.

“With [the current method of] sowing

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seeds there is between zero to five per cent establishment, maybe ten per cent if we are lucky,” Merritt explained.

“Sowing practices vary, and some aren’t as effective, but it isn’t just about seeding, but also about adopting agricultural practices for seed enhancement and getting them to germinate; about priming them seeds to pollinate.”

Miners simply can’t spread seeds over a wide area and expect the task of remediation to finish there.

“It’s about treating the micro-environment around the seed and preparing it for soil that isn’t in the same state it was prior to mining.”

Despite the importance of the issue, Merritt said some miners are still dragging their feet.

However, “there are good examples, miners who are leading research and revegetation processes, who are redemonstrating both corporate and social responsibility.”

There are many ways for miners to not only fulfil their environmental responsibilities, but in terms of site revegetation “seeds are fundamental to this landscape restoration, and thousands of seeds are needed, but we don’t have enough,” Merritt said.

“We’re on a long journey…a continuous process.” AM

Keep it Safe, Keep it Clean When conveyors shut down, core staff are often overwhelmed and maintenance of conveyor belt cleaners, skirts, impact beds and other conveyor accessories are often overlooked or service is performed by people who are not trained to service the equipment. Unless conveyor accessories perform at optimal levels, belt damage, carry-back and spillage can result.

NEW STANDARDS FOR RESPONSIBLE MINING RELEASED

L

ast month the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) released the second and revised draft Standard for Responsible Mining for a sixtyday review and public comment period ahead of the first-ever global certification program for industrial-scale mine sites, planned to begin in late 2016.

This second draft of the Standard for Responsible Mining reflects the input from over 1400 points of comment contributed by more than 70 organisations and individuals worldwide, including industry and technical experts.

Additionally, in October 2015 and March 2016, IRMA conducted two field tests of the Standard for Responsible Mining to ground-truth the draft Standard through simulated mine audits in the United States and in Zimbabwe.

Auditors hired by IRMA reviewed company documentation, made firsthand observations at the mine site, and conducted interviews with company representatives and other stakeholders to verify the requirements in the Standard are clear, practicable, and measurable.

With growing awareness and demand for ecologically and socially-responsible products jewellers, electronics businesses and others have sought assurances that the minerals they purchase are mined responsibly.

The Standard seeks to emulate for industrial-scale mine sites what has been done with certification programs in organic agriculture, responsible forestry and sustainable fisheries.

Microsoft general manager for compliance and safety Joan Krajewski said: “Microsoft believes that fairly applied global mining standards such as outlined in the Standard for Responsible Mining are key to helping solve labour, human rights, and environmental issues at the far reaches of industry’s supply chains.”

“Collaborative initiatives like these can help improve practices associated with mining of metal ores at their source, which is why we work closely with and support IRMA.” The draft Standard for Responsible Mining is the result of ten years of collaboration between groups from the mining industry, organised labour, nongovernmental organisations, impacted communities, and businesses.

Tiffany & Co. chief sustainability officer Anisa Kamadoli said: “We believe that using our brand to advocate for critical

ESS provides competency based technicians to specifically monitor and maintain Conveyor Belt Cleaning, Sealing and Support systems.

ESS technicians are able to inspect conditions and produce a condition report and maintenance plan that can be actioned by Owners, Contracting companies or ESS technicians in a manner that prioritizes the maintenance based on risk analysis ESS offers a range of flexible maintenance and monitoring services to ensure optimum performance from the plants conveying systems. We tailor our services to your requirements.

issues like responsible mining is one of the most important things we can do.”

“Today, collaboration across sectors is necessary to drive systemic change. As a founding member of IRMA, working across sectors to strengthen mining standards, we are proud IRMA is close to launching its certification. We believe IRMA’s progress represents a significant step toward a global standard in responsible mining.”

“ArcelorMittal believes that, although challenging and rigorous, the Standard for Responsible Mining is possible to implement over time,” ArcelorMittal GM and head of corporate responsibility Alan Knight said.

“It serves as a credible multi-stakeholder tool to allow participating mines to differentiate themselves as leaders in environmental and social responsibility.

“We commend the addition of a scoring tool that allows mines at all levels to demonstrate continuing improvement in the areas of environmental and social responsibility.”

The Standard for Responsible Mining’s best practice requirements for mining include elements such as health and safety for workers, human rights, community engagement, pollution control, mining in conflict-affected areas, rights of indigenous peoples, transparency in revenue payments from companies to governments, and land reclamation once mining is done.

Stakeholders and the general public are invited to participate in this next round of feedback and input. After the 5 June comment deadline, the Steering Committee will make another set of revisions to the draft Standard for Responsible Mining and release the final Standard in late 2016. AM AUSTRALIANMINING

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SAFETY

HEAT STRESS – MORE THAN A HEADACHE FOR AUSTRALIANS AS CONCERN OVER HEAT-RELATED INCIDENTS IN THE RESOURCES INDUSTRY GROWS, AN INNOVATIVE SMART VEST HAS BEEN DEVELOPED TO TACKLE THIS ISSUE HEAD ON.

E

xtreme heat is Australia’s most dangerous natural hazard, accounting for 55 per cent of natural hazards combined. However, deaths related to heat stress are often under-reported.

Heat stress is a significant problem in Australia, with research conducted at Charles Darwin University’s Northern Institute finding absenteeism and lost productivity caused by heat stress cost the Australian economy more than $6 billion during the 2013 financial year.

The research, compiled in the Nature and Climate Change journal, surveyed 1746 employees to determine the impact of heat stress. Head researcher Dr. Kerstin Zander said they found heat stress to have an estimated annual cost of $728 per person.

In January 2013 Glenn Richard Newport, a 38 year old Santos subcontractor, died from heat stroke in Queensland

after working on the Roma 2 GLNG upstream project, prompting concern from the Electrical Trades Union, union’s state secretary Peter Ong saying many of the workers had been working in 40 degrees and above temperatures since December.

“Our request was pretty simple, we said to Fluor, they are the major contractor with numerous companies working on projects where workers have been exposed to temperatures up to 49 degrees, [they] should sit down with our members and explain the situation, understand that workers had concerns and act in good faith to alleviate their concerns,” he said.

In April, a coronial inquiry into Newport’s death found he suffered from hyponatremia, from low level sodium in the blood, which causes organs to swell.

The inquest emphasised a number of potentially life threatening safety deficiencies in mining.

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SAFETY

Research by SafeWork Australia found that the construction industry accounts for 12 per cent of work related deaths between 2013-2014 in Australia.

“Globally, the construction industry is one of the lowest performing industries in terms of its safety record,” Edirisinghe said.

Edirisinghe’s vest is considered the first of its kind in the world, as previous heat vests do not have any sensor monitors on them. She hopes to expand into smart glasses that will allow users to have their health warnings projected in front of their eyes.

Queensland coroner John Hutton said the current procedures for managing worker safety during times of extreme heat were not sufficient, adding that if Newport had been taken to the hospital immediately, he could have survived.

He went on to suggest construction industries should develop a code of practice for heat injuries at work, including cut-off temperatures for when to stop operations and regulations for night work when temperatures are expected to be high.

Determining the risks

Heat stress is not only determined by air temperature, other risk factors include wind speed, humidity, radiant heat, the nature and duration of the workload, and any clothing. The physical fitness of workers is another risk factor, particularly if they have any pre-existing conditions including any heat or circulatory issues, being overweight, having a skin disease or using particular medicines.

Additionally, heat stress is likely to affect workers that are not acclimatised to heat, have insufficient cooling off periods, and do not consume enough water.

The smart vest

Developed by researcher Dr. Ruwini Edirisinghe, vice-chancellor’s research fellow in RMIT’s School of Property, Construction and Project Management at Melbourne’s RMIT University, the innovative vest analyses the health of

Other preventative measures

A NEW VEST HAS BEEN DEVELOPED TO MONITOR WORKERS’ HEAT STRESS LEVELS

“Heat related illness is of serious concern in the construction industry, and can lead to fatalities,” she said.

“It can cause heat stroke and damage to body organs and the nervous system resulting in permanent disability or even death.

“A big part of the problem is some workers don’t recognise the early warning signs. This technological solution will hopefully change that.”

construction workers in real time using sensors that monitor heart rate and body temperature, signalling any irregularities to users through a smartphone app.

It helps inform workers and supervisors of problems before they arise.

Edirisinghe worked on the idea of the vest for over a year and designed it as part of her research on improving safety for workers.

SafeWork South Australia identifies a variety of methods to prevent heat stress.

These include the provision of drinking water near working sites, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and providing accurate training to workers on how identify the signs and symptoms of heat stress.

Queensland government’s Department of Natural Resources and Mines lists other factors such as ensuring workers are acclimatised before entering conditions prone to causing heat stress, planning and designing mining sites with consideration to refrigeration units, and substituting equipment that generate high levels of heat. Proper ventilation and cooling systems are also necessary as a preventative measure. AM

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In consultation with the world’s leading mining companies and regional mining authorities, the MineSAFE SD Series has been continuously re-engineered to provide miners with optimum safety features, functionality and performance.

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Specifications • Man down alarm with real time remote wireless notification • GPS module for location • Bluetooth technology for smart phone device communications • WiFi • 915MHz Mesh connectivity Small & Ergonomic design • Dimensions - 117 x 76(66)74 x 24 mm • Weight - 206 g

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VENTILATION, DUST CONTROL & FIRE SUPPRESSION

NEW FIRE PROTECTION SYSTEM EASIER TO INSTALL FIRE PROTECTION SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED FOR COMPACT WORK AREAS.

V

ictaulic will launch the new Installation Ready FireLock Fittings, a range of fire protection system fittings, in May. The fittings will require fewer fasteners which creates more efficiency in the workplace.

The range also includes VicFlex sprinkler fittings which use a flexible, stainless steel hose to enable sprinkler installation on both suspended and hard-lid ceilings.

Victaulic’s National Fire Protection Manager Scott Harris, said the new fittings have revolutionised the implementation of fire protection systems.

“Installation-Ready fittings are the logical next step for our customers in the advancement of the technology’s innovation,” he said.

“Because the new one piece FireLock Installation-Ready Fittings require fewer components and steps to install, the result is consistently faster pipe joints, and up to 75 per cent less jobsite inventory, allowing contractors to optimise crew size and to

better manager their labour risks, making it an overall more reliable solution.

“Moreover with the introduction of our full range of VicFlex products, contractors are installing as many as 60 drops per man per day – representing the fastest way to

connect the fire sprinkler to the branch line.”

The fittings come with pre-assembled parts. Their built in couplings enable users to insert the couplings onto the grooved part of a pipe, valve or fitting and tighten

the nuts. The fittings reduce time and increase production efficiency as they install up to 10 times faster than welded joints and up to six times faster than flanged joints.

The fittings are shorter than traditional FireLock fittings and thus suitable for tighter ceiling spaces, such as those in compact work areas. They reduce the handling of material as couplings are installed without the need to disassemble them first. They also increase work safety as their installation does not require loose parts, hot work or elicit fumes.

In addition, VicFlex fittings enable faster connections from the sprinkler to the branch line. The fittings are corrosion resistant and as they are installed to the ceiling, they move with it, maintaining the ceiling plane.

The fittings minimise jobsite coordination through their Styles AB1 and AB2 as most ceiling tiles can be connected with the bracket already in place. It reduces the amount of hands-on installation in comparison to hard pipe and eliminates the need for foam sprays and rubber boots. AM

UNDERGROUND ROADWAY DUST SUPPRESSION A NEW DYNAMIC ROAD DUST SUPPRESSANT HAS BEEN LAUNCHED FOR UNDERGROUND MINING.

D

ust suppression on any mine site is an ongoing battle.

With tight operational environmental strictures concerning dust levels, ensuring that their mines remain within shrinking guidelines.

Regulators are imposing increasingly strict conditions, and mine operators have had to respond with more innovative and technologically advanced systems to meet these demands, which are now considered standard within the mining industry.

While the issue is important for any open cut operation, the enclosed nature of underground mines make it a serious safety issue as workers are exposed to increased dust levels.

Reynolds Soil Technology (RST) has developed a new dynamic road dust solution designed specifically for the challenges faced in underground mining.

RST’s new Hammer dust suppressant is designed for unsealed ‘dynamic’ roads that are watered, continually graded, and worked hard, as well as permanent surrounding roads.

“Hammer achieves excellent results in underground mining applications, which can require specialist solutions due to situational factors such as operating

within an enclosed space, increased ventilation, and higher evaporation rates” according to RST. The product has been designed for both reactive and non-reactive soil type, and allows for significant reduction in watering activities as well as road maintenance requirements, while at the same time actively reducing road dust generation.

“Created with operational optimisation as a priority the application of Hammer delivers minimal requirements for unsealed road maintenance programs and produces freight cost savings due to minimal dosage rates,” the company stated.

David Handel, RST operations and technical director, explained that “dust suppression for underground mining is more important than ever, with mine operators needing to ensure they provide employees with an environment that is safe to work in”.

“Adding Hammer into water used to suppress mechanical dust life-off from surfaces allows for the aggregation of the fine particles, making them larger and heavier to minimise dust lift-off and reduce the height of dust that does arise,” Handel said.

“Hammer works to compact the road running surface and after continued use helps reduce roll resistance and surface degradation, producing AUSTRALIANMINING

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significant savings by reducing the time between repeat watering and road maintenance requirements.

It is environmentally safe, dilutes easily into the water cart, and is applied topically for instant results.”

The solution is added to each load of water applied to the surface, while the dosage rates depend on water quality and material types, with RST supplying a range of dosing pumps to inject correct dosages into each water cart. AM

ADVERTORIAL

ACHIEVING BETTER RESULTS IN THE FIELD WITH FLUX CORED WIRE

T

here are a range of factors to consider when weighing up choices for wire-feed welding on a particular job.

Welding in a workshop provides a range of benefits to the tradesman. One has all the equipment they require at their disposal for fabrication, as well as the benefits of comfort and shelter from the elements.

However, not all welding is done under such ideal circumstances, and in the case of construction projects, a good deal of forethought and preparation is required to ensure all the welds, especially those in cross-country pipelines and field structural fabrication, surpass testing standards.

For MIG welding, gas is one of the most important parts of the job. Typically a mix of 75 per cent argon and 25 per cent carbon dioxide, welding gas is used to shield the arc from the ravages of oxidation, which can cause problems in the form of porosity and poor penetration.

Unfortunately, transporting welding gas around a construction job can be costly.

Leaving aside the purchase and delivery costs of the additional material, heavy argon gas cylinders are often loaded into large racks which require expensive crane movements for transport around sites.

In planning for a job in the field, among the diverse array of logistical concerns, there is a key product which can simplify a range of anticipated planning requirements, one which removes the need for the purchase, delivery, and onsite transport of gas bottle, and which can also reduce project overheads to enable companies to become more competitive in the tender process.

Flux cored wire designed for wire feed welding simplifies the planning process by precluding the need for argon to shield welding arcs.

It’s important to account for the elements when working outdoors. The gas shielding required with solid wire welding is easily disrupted by even slight wind, as the small amount of argon is blown away from the welding arc.

This necessitates the building of shelter, commonly known as a welding humpy in Australia, in order to make sure air around the weld is kept still. Building and shifting humpys means more trades assistants are required to make up hours on the job, to prevent higher paid coded welders from having to perform simple tasks.

In a typical MIG welding setup, gas shielding prevents spatter as well as oxygen contamination in the weld. The gas also assists with achieving maximum penetration with the weld, and higher levels of deposition.

The self shielded flux core serves not only to prevent the molten weld pool from atmospheric oxidisation, but also acts as a deoxidiser to scavenge any contaminants already present in the material. Although proper steel preparation is the key to achieving good welds, the de-oxidising elements in flux-cored wire trap contaminants, such as rust, mill-scale or oil, in the weld pool and hold them in slag coverage, which prevents the problems associated with welding “dirtier” steels. This aspect of flux-core wire can help to achieve higher productivity on the job without the need of onsite shielding gases.

AUSTRALIANMINING

“WITH THE NEED FOR GAS TAKEN OUT OF THE EQUATION, THERE ARE A NUMBER OF ADVANTAGES TO USING SELFSHIELDED FLUX CORED WIRE, ESPECIALLY WHEN WORKING ON CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN THE FIELD”

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MAY 2016

MINERALS PROCESSING

FUTURE PROOFING PLANT IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA

A COMPLEX SITE CONSTRAINT COMBINED WITH TIGHT PROJECT STIPULATIONS SAW AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH IN PNG.

M

onier Limited is Papua New Guinea’s single largest producer of construction materials and building products.

When the company upgraded its Nebiri Quarry to increase annual output capacity from 300,000 to 1 million tonnes, PNG’s government publicly commended Monier for its contribution to the country’s ability to deliver significant infrastructure improvements.

Established in 1958, Monier was purchased by its current owner Sir Theophilus (George) Constantinou in 2005. Since then, the company has continued to invest in its capabilities to meet the complexities and growth of PNG’s construction industry. Currently employing 350 people, Monier supplies

readymix concrete, quarry products, pre-stressed / pre-cast concrete products, masonry products and reinforced concrete pipes.

Monier’s Nebiri Quarry, which is located in PNG’s National Capital District, supplies the key ingredients that are required for developing infrastructure, including; aggregates, road base, armour rock, sand and select fill. The upgrade will serve as a stand-out example at the 2018 APEC summit of Papua New Guinea’s ability to harness the latest technology.

Investing in technology

The decision to invest in upgrading the Nebiri Quarry was made in 2012, so that Monier could be well positioned to take full advantage of the growth in infrastructure that would be generated during preparations

for the APEC Leaders’ summit hosted by PNG in 2018, as well as the ongoing opportunities that the summit may bring. Monier wanted to be seen as a supplier of choice for future infrastructure projects, so it was important for the company to make a good AUSTRALIANMINING

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impression on Papua New Guinea’s government and infrastructure developers. With this in mind, Monier focussed on a new plant design that would feature a high degree of sophistication, combining efficiency and high operational standards.

THE PLANT WAS DESIGNED TO BE A NEW BENCHMARK FOR PNG

MINERALS PROCESSING

CLOSE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE COMPANIES ENSURED EFFICIENCY

The company aimed to build a highly advanced plant that would be seen by the country’s construction industry as ‘the plant of the future’. Importantly, this approach would also allow Monier to become a glowing example of Papua New Guinea’s ability to deploy advanced technologies; so it was vital that the plant featured leading-edge technology that would create new benchmarks in safety, automation, ease of maintenance, production efficiency and versatility.

Understanding the operation

Campbell Johnston, Metso’s director - systems sales & support systems, explained Metso’s approach to the project, which presented a number of unique constraints in terms of space and power supply.

“The plant configuration requested by Monier was not typical. Before attempting any design work for our tender submission, we needed to clearly understand Monier’s space constraints and their operational requirements. We decided that the best way to achieve that was for our engineers to visit site,” he said.

“While sending our engineers over to PNG was a costly exercise, it proved to be a very good move. Based on our team’s first hand appreciation of site conditions and an exchange of ideas with Monier’s management, they were able to propose an optimised solution.”

Locating the new plant close to the existing plants was a logistical necessity. Land adjacent to the existing plants was allocated, but it didn’t offer the ideal amount of space for a plant that matched Monier’s production requirements. Metso’s proposal was based on a design which ensured that the new plant would be compact enough to fit into the allocated area.

Following a rigorous review of submissions from a significant number of potential suppliers, in July 2013 Monier chose Metso as a strategic partner, awarding the company a 10.5 million euro contract for the upgrade. The contract included design, fabrication, installation and commissioning of the new plant.

Metso’s Australasian systems business manager, Glenn Oldfield stated the company went a step further than competitors in assessing Monier’s needs.

OPERATIONAL SPACE WAS A MAJOR CONSTRANT

“When our final bid was ready, we returned to site with our French based Project Manager, Jean-Marc Tonneau, to present the proposal in person,” Oldfield said.

“We were the only company that took the approach of visiting site to understand Monier’s requirements and then returning to present a proposal.

“We wanted to show Monier our commitment to a partnership that could successfully deliver an outstanding solution. Combined with our deep knowledge of Monier’s requirements, this helped us to win the order. It set a really good tone for the entire project.”

Project execution and design standards

Delivering the project involved teamwork across three countries: Papua New Guinea, Australia and France. The design and supply of equipment was undertaken by Metso’s team based in the French town of Mâcon.

Plant safety had to be in line with Australian OHS regulations and all electrical work was to comply with Australian electrical standards. To best cater for these requirements, Metso Australia took the lead on OHS as well as the plant’s electrical design, installation, and commissioning.

In order to comply with Papua New Guinea’s laws, Metso had to set up a local subsidiary. The company’s employees and contractors from outside of Papua New Guinea all needed to have work permits and visas. Setting things up for effective project execution was complex. The

process was delayed due to new business and visa procedures that had just been introduced by authorities.

Robert Palmer, Metso’s Australian project manager explained how Monier helped Metso to work through these issues.

“Customers are not obliged to get involved in a supplier’s logistical problems, but Monier closely partnered with us to get the necessary authorisations.

Good collaboration between our two teams is what made all the difference in delivering this complex contract.”

Metso engaged its Australian electrical partner, Peak AUSTRALIANMINING

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Industrial Electrical, as well as local PNG companies including; electrical sub-contractor SBS Electrical, and Workforce for the construction work. Vincent Gibert, the installation project manager from Metso in France, said, “The key to the success of this project was the excellent co-operation between our multinational team that included representatives from Monier, Metso and our contractors. From the outset and throughout the project we performed well together. We shared competencies, information and best-practices in each phase from bid to installation.”

“From a Metso point of view,

our teams in Australia and France collaborated to engineer a proposal that led to detailed budget estimates and split responsibilities. This is what ultimately delivered the most costeffective solution for Monier,” he said.

Complex Construction challenges

With the new plant designed to fit into the allocated space, one problem still remained - there was not enough room for a construction area. Thinking ‘outside of the box’, Metso gained permission to convert a nearby rugby field into a construction zone.

Equipment was transported

MINERALS PROCESSING

THE NEW PLANT CAN PRODUCE NINE TYPES OF PRODUCT

ENSURING UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER WAS CRUCIAL

from the construction zone to the new site as complete and semi-complete assemblies. Access to the new plant is shared with the existing plants, and so an extraordinary level of project management was required to ensure that the movement of equipment and personnel to the new site would in no way hinder production at the existing plants.

This required careful planning and strict scheduling by the project team. Good communication between Monier, Metso and all of the contractors was essential.

Plant configuration

The new plant includes four stages of aggregate crushing and screening. The first three stages consist of three crushers in series, each followed by a triple deck screen. In the final stage, there is the option to send all or part of the product for shaping through a vertical shaft impact crusher. A bonus from this stage is a fine aggregate by-product that can be used as an additive in road base.

The plant simultaneously produces up to nine different products at a rate of 350 tonnes per hour. ‘Made to order’ products have no impact on production rates or quality. To achieve this result, Metso worked closely with Monier’s management to develop a design that offers a unique level of flexibility.

Metso’s design allowed for extra capacity and so Monier was

delighted when final tests showed that the plant is capable of delivering the nine different products at a rate of 450 tonnes per hour; 100 tonnes per hour more than the contractual requirement.

Achieving reliability

During pre-contract discussions, Monier’s management had expressed concerns about intermittent power cuts that they experience from time-totime, mostly without warning.

These are caused by unexpected demands on Port Moresby’s electricity grid. Metso addressed these concerns with an electrical design that allows the plant to be run on either main’s power or by diesel generator sets (gen-sets).

When power is lost, the gen-sets provide power to the plant without the need for connection to the electricity grid.

The system incorporates an uninterruptible power supply which provides backup power for the PLC and SCADA system.

A signal appears on the SCADA screen to let the operator know when mains power is lost. The system also lets the operator know when the gen-sets are ‘run up’ and in operation.

Monier wanted to be assured that their new plant would operate reliably for the next 20 years.

To address this, Metso included a five-year Equipment Protection Plan in the contract. Shaun Fanning, Metso’s Australasian head of ag-

gregates explained that “in the unlikely event of component failure we cover all costs, which demonstrates our faith in the reliability of our equipment. This has given Monier a high degree of confidence in the plant’s endurance and performance.”

The plant of the future

“The new plant is very advanced in terms of technology, ease of operation and maintenance,” Stanley Correa, Monier’s electrical services manager, said. “On the electrical side, the PLC system design is a real stand out for me. From the AUSTRALIANMINING

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maintenance diagnostic tools and monitoring equipment that can pin point a problem at its source, right down to the compartmentalised layout and the reporting software.”

In operation the plant has proven to be highly efficient, using 40 per cent less power per tonne than the older plants and delivering three times the output of both the existing plants put together. This has been achieved through the combination of the plants high production capacity and a unique design that allows production to continue whilst sections of the

plant are offline for maintenance.

Anthony Grimmer, Monier’s Quarry manager added, “In my 35 plus years of mining and quarrying experience throughout Australia and PNG, I have not yet come across the level of sophistication as provided

by Metso in the total crushing package at the Nebiri Quarry.”

“In my opinion we can easily claim to have a true ‘plant of the future’. It puts us in a strong position to be selected as a preferred material supplier for PNG’s current and future infrastructure projects,” he said. AM

MINERALS PROCESSING

MINERALS PROCESSING MERGER

A

shakeup of the global minerals processing landscape is coming as two major manufacturers come

together.

The Australian arm of global mineral processing specialist FLSmidth has purchased the ANI Mill Intellectual Property (IP) for the Bradken (ANI) grinding mill business.

The purchase includes all associated design, engineering and service documentation for mills throughout Australia as well as mills in Europe, the Americas and APAC. The purchase was finalised following close to two years of negotiations.

Despite the move appearing out of its remit, FLSmidth is no stranger to the ANI mills.

For more than 10 years the company has been providing a service, support and maintenance package for owners and operators of ANI grinding mills under a licensing agreement with Bradken.

“It is an arrangement that has been successful and worked well,” FLSmidth country manager Mark Clifford said, “however, the acquisition of the IP, and its integration into our business model will give us the opportunity to develop and introduce an expanded service and support package targeting consistency and longevity of the mills we maintain.”

According to Clifford the initial focus will be on mill productivity and return on investment; allied to that approach will be a significant reduction in response times and the introduction of

engineering and technology innovations.

“Mills are a major investment for any mineral processing operation,” he said.

“Expectations are for a 20year service life. We are looking to improve mill service life and increase overall mill availability to improve profitability through greater productivity at a decreased cost.”

Clifford argues these are attainable goals for mill owners and operators.

He added that, as part of the mill support program, there is a need to increase the availability of the mill and lengthen the time between scheduled service intervals.

“Mills are tough environments,” he said.

“They are physically imposing and they need to run at maximum availability. The last thing any operation needs is an unscheduled shutdown. As a specialised supplier to the sector we need to get smart about mill operations to improve the overall result and reduce the impacts of the process.”

To that end, engineering and technology innovations are integral to the comprehensive approach to mill operation the company is developing.

“With mills generally accepted as the single biggest consumers of energy, a goal must be to reduce the demand for energy without compromising mill performance and/or output,” he said. “A reduction in energy consumption will have

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A FOCUS IS ON REDUCING MILL ENERGY USAGE

substantial positive impact on the bottom line.”

He said that the company was also investigating additional technological improvements including consumables.

Clifford said the acquisition of the mills IP package adds substantially to the comprehensive FLSmidth mineral processing flowsheet and enhances the company’s worldwide ‘one source’ service provider business model.

“It’s a model that gives our clients confidence in the specialist service, support and maintenance skills we deliver.” AM

THE NEW IP WILL ALLOW FOR EXPANDED SERVICES, CLIFFORD SAID

COMMUNICATIONS

NEW PHONES TO KEEP OUT WORKSITE DUST AND DAMP SAMSUNG HAS BROUGHT BACK THE FEATURES EVERY WORKER NEEDS. BEN HAGEMANN WRITES.

F

or a resource industry worker, choosing a mobile phone comes down to key physical features.

Durability, while certainly desirable, is very hard to come by. The market for ruggedized phones in Australia is frankly a bit naff, with some dodgy no-name brands and a serious lack of big name options.

However, in terms of standing up to workplace abuses just short of impacts like dropping onto concrete, Samsung have recently brought back the two most important features you could want in a modern smartphone.

Protection against dust and water ingress was left out of the 2015 generation S6 handset, which was a great loss after the introduction of the IP86 rating in the 2014 S5.

Fortunately, the Korean electronics giant has regained its senses and brought out the new Galaxy S7 handset with protection against dust ingress, and water resistance to a depth of 1.5 metres for 30 minutes.

In the absence of a ruggedized handset available for sale in Australia from Samsung (hopefully they take the hint and realise there is a major market here for such a phone), the S7 is the next best thing if used with a suitable cover.

Most importantly, this is a phone that can suffer a sweaty, drenched pocket day after day, or in the dustiest of environments, without suffering the ingress of liquid or particles that could cause damage to this expensive bit of personal property.

Of course, it can be quite difficult to trust all those open ports at the bottom of the phone, like the USB charging port, microphone and headphones jack.

With a retail price around $1149 ($1249 for the Edge model), you probably don’t want to be trying out its water ingress protection.

So we’ve done it for you.

Samsung sent out a shiny new standard S7 for us to play with, and it is undoubtedly an impressive unit. The first thing we

noticed out of the box was that some other tech reviewer had already had their wicked way with it, as there was a fairly deep scratch on the back panel of the phone. Point taken: this thing is NOT scratchproof. However, the back case is made of Corning Gorilla Glass 4, as is the AMOLE D touchscreen, and having just tried to engrave my name in the back of the phone with a rather sharp flathead screwdriver, that is easier said than done, but not impossible in terms of marring the lovely, out-of-the-box finish. A case for this phone is an absolute must to retain the gloss.

In terms of impact protection, I was reluctant to push that to the limit, however experiments with a Galaxy S4 demonstrated that it is very difficult to break a Gorilla glass screen by smashing it over a steel-capped boot.

Most importantly, the phone seems to handle water quite well.

Samsung stressed to us that the S7 is only designed to “withstand incidental moments/encounters with water and dust and has not been ruggedised to operate under stress, i.e. tough environments”.

You certainly won’t be trying to take underwater photos, as the touchscreen doesn’t function when immersed in water, but it will happily comply as soon as you remove it from the liquid. Sam-

SAMSUNG HAS COPIED THE BASIC IPHONE DESIGN BUT TAKEN FEATURES TO THE NEXT LEVEL

sung strongly discourages applying any kind of water pressure to the phone, so hosing it off might be a bit too much to ask. If you did get it covered in mud, a gentle wipedown with a soft, wet cloth would be the way to go.

The reason the phone is able to operate without taking on water through the microphone, speaker or receiver is an innovative design using an old “space age” material: Gore-Tex. That revolutionary, breathable material made famous on a certain New York sit-com from the 90s is the key to allowing sound and power transfer without needing any rubberised caps or covers.

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As for the USB port, headphone jack and sim tray, rubberised seals have been used to ensure water resistance, while an exclusive, water-protective tape sits between the sleek aluminium frame and the glass front and back panels.

Weighing 152 grams, the phone has a nice solid feel, and in looks it’s basically an Android iphone 7 with a square home button.

Internally we have a quadcore 2.3GHz Mongoose CPU running Android 6.0 Marshmallow, with 32GB storage capacity.

That memory can be expanded up to 200GB thanks to the

microSD slot, which was absent from the S6.

It’s worth noting that the 12 megapixel camera has excellent colour reproduction, and could possibly be the best camera on the market in a water resistant phone. It’s low-light performance is miles ahead of the Galaxy S6, making it perfect as a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) for taking photographs on dark maintenance jobs, to be sent back to the supervisor or client in real time.

The camera stops down to f/1.7, giving superb ability to take photos in low-light conditions, and comes with video capable of 2160p@30fps. The lens is a medium 26mm, providing the perfect length for basic photography.

Another very exciting feature is the speed at which it charges.

If you run the phone down to flat and need some juice to get you by, about 2 minutes charging with gain you 10 per cent battery. The endurance rating is for 80 hours, but with heavy internet use it will only last for four hours. Like an iPhone the battery is nonremovable, so there’s no swapping with friends when you need your phone to work down the pub.

All in all, a very impressive phone, and one that is sure to keep out the sweat and dust and provide the perfect medium as a BYOD on site. AM

The easiest way to find the right products and suppliers

MANUFACTURING | MINING | INDUSTRIAL

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03 9690 8766

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20/01/16 1:44 PM

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

HELPING WOMEN SUCCEED IN BUSINESS AFTER SEVERAL YEARS OF SUCCESS AS A TV PRESENTER AND REPORTER, INDIRA NAIDOO’S CAREER TOOK A TURN AND SHE PUBLISHED A BOOK ABOUT GROWING SUSTAINABLE FOOD ON BALCONIES. SHARON MASIGE SPOKE TO HER ABOUT HOW WOMEN SHOULD APPROACH NEW BUSINESS VENTURES, AHEAD OF THE WOMEN IN INDUSTRY AWARDS.

I

ndira Naidoo’s first book The Edible Balcony became a best seller, featuring advice on creating and sustaining a balcony garden with recipes from the produce. Her follow up book The Edible City showcases a variety of innovative balcony and community gardens.

Naidoo found there is more to a book than just writing it; you have to be physically prepared to go out and promote the ideas within it, otherwise booksellers may not even put it on the shelf.

For women interested in beginning their own business venture – whatever the field – Naidoo stressed the importance of identifying your strengths and skills.

Although she admitted that it is sometimes the most difficult to objectively find out, it is a crucial first step. From there you need to look at areas you need support in, and get in touch with friends and colleagues who may have ideas or advice that can take your venture into the marketplace.

“If you have a business concept, if you have something you want to share, a book is a really powerful way of getting that idea across. People take you much more seriously after you put an idea in a book,” she told Manufacturers’ Monthly.

And one of her largest achievements since publishing the books is the ability her ideas have had in influencing others, especially children. “If you know your ideas can help and improve people’s

ACCORDING TO INDIRA NAIDOO, THOSE STARTING NEW BUSINESSES OFTEN FOCUS ON ‘TASKS’ RATHER THAN WHAT THEY FIND ENJOYABLE

lives I don’t think there’s any better reward,” she said.

Naidoo said that one of the biggest challenges women have when thinking of starting their own business is their task oriented nature; rather than focusing on things they find enjoyable more time is spent on tasks intended to get you through the day.

“It’s really important creating survival hours so when you set that time aside, you can then start seeing the things that you really love about your day, and your work, and your creativity, and what your world’s opening up to you.

AUSTRALIANMINING

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“A lot of people, when they start businesses and new concepts, sometimes [they think] it’s just tiny. You’ve got to realise that its still a great idea but you’ve just got to come back in a few months or a few years’ time. When I developed my first book The Edible Balcony, a lot of my friends thought it was the nuttiest thing I had ever done. Why would you want to grow food on a little balcony on the thirteenth floor? It’s a crazy idea. There was just something about it that I knew I needed to do for myself and I felt the need out there generally that people

wanted to reconnect with plants.

“If you’re passionate about spreading a certain idea or concept or product, I can’t recommend the value of a book higher enough because I can now access writer’s festivals around the world, I lecture at universities, my books are in the library, I get invited to schools, corporate events affecting government policies and one of the many drivers for that has been most of the other work I do, but also that fact that I can walk into a room with some books and say here are my ideas and put them down on paper and in print and it’s very powerful.”

In terms of her new business venture, Naidoo said that the environmental, climate change and sustainability policies in Australia are approximately 10 years behind the rest of the world. As a result, she has tailored her message of sustainability to many different levels from schools to mother’s groups to corporate business.

“I’m actually with a company that’s building new residential apartments and they want to put an edible balcony into all their apartments in this new building, so for me that’s very exciting because it’s moving the concept into real development and getting developers engaged with the concepts that I’m passionate about.”

When it comes to business, Naidoo said it is important to work at different levels and at a variety of locations.

“Look at what the market is saying and try to vary your offering according to what that particular market is, look at how it can be applied at lots of different levels from a one on one engagement to much bigger global and government policy change.

“The good thing now is with travel, with skype, with all those different ways of communicating you can spread your business across lots of geographies and work at different levels.”

[Indira Naidoo will be MC at the upcoming Women in Industry Awards 2016]

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FINANCE

MINING’S RALLY POOR FOR THE INDUSTRY

A RETURN TO STRONG COMMODITY PRICES MAY ACTUALLY NOT BE THE DRIVER THE MINING INDUSTRY NEEDS TO MAKE ITS WAY INTO A NEW ERA. COLE LATIMER REPORTS.

T

he recent rally mining commodities saw are more likely to have a negative impact in the long run, according to market analysts.

Speaking at a roundtable earlier this year, UBS analysts Glyn Lawcock and Daniel Morgan outlined the reasons for the consistent rally experienced by iron ore this year, and why the metal’s softening to more sustainable levels will be more beneficial for the industry.

The metal experienced an aggressive rally mid-March, recording the largest one day spike in years as the price for ore of 62 per cent grades jumped by nearly a fifth to just over US$63 per tonne.

At the Port of Tianjin the overnight movement turned into the single largest one day gain ever as it rose to US$62.60 per DMT, marking a 46 per cent increase since the start of 2016. It then rose again in late April to above US$70 per tonne, an unexpected movement for the metal.

Iron ore rose close to 85 per cent above the recent low watermark price of US$37 it rested at only a few months ago.

However the metal soon receded in price, leaving many over eager investors and operators to wonder what happened.

According to Morgan the iron ore price has historically spiked around this time.

He explained it grows after Chinese New Year due to stockpiling, and the rally itself caught the market by surprise.

“The magnitude surprised the market, it as a stro nger rally than expected,” he said.

UBS reports dismissed the strong upwards movement as a flash in the pan,

stating it was “based on macro hopes and short-covering with little evidence of fundamentally better demand – yet”.

It stated that the sharp rise and subsequent fall was based on the typical rise following Chinese New Year combined with a predicted growth in the country’s infrastructure and property markets, Morgan adding that the “property market accounts for 40 to 50 per cent of Chinese steel demand”, however the “latest data doesn’t show an infrastructure lift – yet”.

“The trade signals are not strong enough yet for a sustainable lift in demand,” Morgan said, “prices rallied in hope.”

UBS isn’t the only investment house that believes the high price point is unhealthy and unrealistic for the current state of the industry.

Even as iron ore rose, Goldman Sachs was predicting the metal’s reversal, stating its movements were “not sustainable”.

This was echoed by Citigroup, which believes optimism over China’s economic movements will be short lived.

Citigroup remains bearish on metal’s future and Chinese demand, while Axiom Capital Management dismissed the current rally as a ‘blip’.

“Higher prices are much harder to sustain in a supply-driven market since supply is primed to return with higher prices,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in the report.

“But this lesson will likely only be learned through false starts.”

Jeffrey Currie, Goldman Sachs’ head of commodities research, stated, “Demand hasn’t really changed, [so] it takes lower prices to push and keep supply below AUSTRALIANMINING

demand to create a deficit.”

UBS went on to state that iron ore’s rally will continue to fade unless there is a lift in demand.

This lift looks uncertain as China’s 13th five year plan signals additional mining consolidation, particularly in iron ore, and a returned reliance to imports, but one that is unlikely to grow in actual demand levels.

According to BMI Research’s latest industry trend data, “The fall in Chinese iron ore grades from 66 per cent in 2004 to 17 per cent in 2014 will lead to heightened seaborne import demand for higher grade ores.”

“This increase in import demand will partially offset the decrease in demand from a severe cooling of domestic steel production.”

However, despite demand for high grades ores – which Australia is able to produce – BMI states that “Chinese import growth fell to 2.2 per cent in 2015 from 14 .1 per cent in 20 14 even with the heightened consolidation of the iron ore mining industry in China adding to import demand”.

“Australia, the largest iron ore exporting country to China will be hit hardest, evident from the fall in average annual export growth from 31.5 per cent in 2014 to 10.8 per cent in 2015.”

Sustainability in the long term?

Morgan pointed to a lower price point for the long term, floating around an average of the mid US$40s per tonne, with UBS data noting: “We don’t see prices sustaining low to mid US$30s for any significant

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period of time; we believe supply will respond to preserve margins.”

“We forecast US$45 per tonne 16e and US$47 per tonne 17e.”

At this price point many of the smaller, less productive players are likely to shut down their operations, which in turn will remove excess supply and reduce stockpiles.

Morgan warned against iron ore falling too heavily over the year.

“Prices can get too low, and the power of the major producers may increase too much, returning the industry to the oligopoly,” he said.

Morgan believes miners are already reducing outputs in order to overcome the oversupply issue, as they “are chasing value over volumes (as previously seen in the market), as there is no point in cannibalising their own earnings”.

He pointed to the major miners plans to produce less this year, with Rio Tinto, BHP, and Vale taking action to address the glaring oversupply issues by announcing cuts in forecast output guidance for this year and the next.

Poor weather in the March quarter was blamed for BHP cutting guidance for iron ore production in the Pilbara, a move which may allow some breathing room for the juniors.

The company has shaved ten million tonnes off their previous 2015/16 guidance of 270 million tonnes, which combined with the stoppage at Samarco in Brazil will bring BHPs global production for this financial year down by around 30 million tonnes.

Rio Tinto recently cut production guid-

ance by 20 million tonnes from 350, but blamed issues with introducing driverless trains for the slower than expected expansion.

Vale cut guidance as well.

“Production in the first quarter and the plan for the rest of the year suggests an annual production towards the lower end of our original guidance of 340-350 million tonnes,” it said in a statement.

Although with Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill mine coming fully online and Vale’s S11D mine on the horizon the planned reduction in tonnes may be negated.

However he also warned against the price rising too high, which could act as a catalyst for smaller operators to restart their operations, adding more tonnages and distorting the market without additional demand to support these increased output levels.

Manganese mayhem

The iron ore crunch has also affected other metals required in steel making, such as manganese, which has seen a collapse of the industry in a relatively short period, forcing miners such as OM Holdings and its Bootu Creek mine; Consolidated Minerals and its Woodie Woodie mine; and Shaw River shuttering operations or entering administration.

“It was the steel price that led to the collapse,” Daniel Morgan said.

However in the race to lessen their exposure miners have cut too deep, Morgan explaining, “We’ve seen too much production cut in the short term, and now there is a panic over supply”.

“Due to shutdowns and cuts in production around seven million tonnes of supply out of what was a 40 million tonne market has been cut.

“We won’t be surprised to see restarts in the Kalahari from Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) groups which can get production rolling quickly to port thanks to the recent investments in infrastructure in the region.”

In the wake of this, South32 has restarted its South African manganese operations

after it previously extended its operational suspension in order to draw down on its existing stockpiles.

The Copper Crunch

The volatility recently seen in copper is unlikely to stop, with UBS predicting a price point of between US$2 per pound and US$2.30 per pound.

According to UBS reports, “We see the market in a surplus this year, with around 200 KT more being produced compared to last year, so unless we see a shift in demand or shutdowns the oversupply and market unsustainability will continue.”

This stance was echoed by Barclays, which stated copper was at risk of a steep decline as forward movements in the price need to be supported by fundamentals, adding that investors may rapidly exit if improvements are seen, with UBS’s Daniel Morgan stating that even at US$2.30 per pound the market is still vulnerable.

The sector may also see increased merger and acquisition activity, mirroring the recent M&A seen in coal, in order to make their operations more manageable.

“Everyone is in shrinking mode,” Lawcock said.

“Vendors will be trying to get out to get out of the downturn [possibly through M&A] without selling the family home.”

For sale by private treaty

Coal sizing units

Investor reluctance

Despite potential upside for the mining industry in the longer term, investor sentiment remains divided over the market.

According to the Prequin Investor Outlook, almost twice as many natural resources investors hold a negative perception of their asset class – at 33 per cent – compared to those 17 per cent who remain positive.

“Natural resources have faced challenging performance conditions over the past year, and 62 per cent of investors feel that their performance expectations have not been met,” the report stated.

Over the next 12 months approximately 41 per cent of natural resources investors plan to allocate less capital to those assets.

Barclays was less pessimistic in its report, although it did add that investors could look to liquidate bets on gains quickly, hastening mining’s decline, according to Bloomberg.

“Investors have been attracted to commodities as one of the best performing assets so far in 2016,” it said in the report.

“However, in the absence of any concerted fundamental improvements, those returns are unlikely to be repeated, making commodities vulnerable to a wave of investor liquidation.”

The Barclays report went on to state: “Given that recent price appreciation does not seem to be very well founded in improving fundamentals, and that upward trends may prove difficult to sustain, the risk is growing that any setback will result in a rush for the exits that could again lead commodity prices to overshoot to the downside.” AM AUSTRALIANMINING

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MAY 2016

FINANCE

TACKLING LONGER PAYMENT TERMS

EVER LENGTHENING PAYMENT TIMES FOR INVOICES ARE LEAVING SUPPLIERS WITH A FINANCIAL HOLE. SHARON MASIGE WRITES.

T

he mining downturn has seen operators carry out severe belt tightening across the board, some even extending their payment periods in an effort to control costs.

These decisions are leaving suppliers and contractors scrambling to fill their new, yet ever widening, gaping financial hole.

Despite Rio Tinto dropping its proposed doubling of payment terms from 45 to 90 days, workers, suppliers, and contractors in the sector are still affected by lengthy payment times, increasing the need for more secure financing plans.

According to Dun & Bradstreet’s Trade Payment Analysis in 2014, the mining and utilities industries have the slowest payment times; the former taking an average of 56 days and the latter 55 days. Under state law, construction contracts have to be paid within 50 days however the resources industry has exemptions.

Rio’s initial proposal came in an effort to free up their cash flow and resolve account invoices following the company’s 2015 net loss of US$866 million, and plummeting commodity prices. The 90-day policy was intended for suppliers with contracts over $3 million, while those with less than $3million expected to wait 60 days.

It came on the back of Rio’s prior extension of its payment schedule from 30 to 45 days last June.

As pressure from governments and suppliers mounted, including the lobbying of PM Malcolm Turnbull during his visit to the Pilbara, Rio abandoned its policy, retaining its normal term of 45 days. A spokesperson from Rio Tinto said, “The decision to ask our suppliers to share some of the burden has not been taken lightly and we have endeavoured to reduce the impact where we can.”

However, it still means that suppliers will have to wait up to 76 days for payment after receiving an invoice.

For suppliers, long payment times creates a delay in reimbursement for goods and services they have already given, creating a burden for those with short term bills such as leases and wages. It also creates a huge problem for small businesses who cannot afford the long waiting times for payment.

BHP Billiton was in a similar position last year, altering their bill payments from 30 to 60 days. At the time, CEO of Australian Trucking Association Christopher Melham outlined the major issues this presented in the trucking industry.

“Operators that agree to extended payment terms still need to pay their own creditors on their existing cycles – for example, this could include 21 day payments to fuel suppliers, AUSTRALIANMINING

30 day payments to small owner-driver subcontractors, and weekly or fortnightly payroll payments,” he said.

While banks are the first option for lending, they are more reluctant to back the resources sector due to its potentially volatile nature.

Macquarie Group incurred a $363 million bad debt charge in the six months leading up to March 2015 due to mines and related developments being affected by cost blowouts and delays. In response, CEO Nicholas Moore said, “[It’s] the combination of what happens if you have a project that’s delayed, a project that runs over budget, your hedging effectively runs off at that time and at the same time commodity prices are falling.”

“We are continuing to support the resources sector…just in terms of where the cycle is at the moment, there isn’t a lot of opportunities to lend into new mines.”

Goldman Sachs identified that direct exposure to the mining industry by the big four banks is less than 1.5 per cent of total exposure at default. A higher credit exposure, the total sum of credit given to borrowers, is extended to companies that maintain higher credit ratings.

InvoiceX, a recently established Australian loan company, has unveiled a new invoicing scheme to help struggling mining companies overcome the new challenges created by long payment terms.

This comes following this year’s likely liquidation of Queensland nickel and Arrium’s voluntary administration.

As banks are more likely to offer loans for land and real estate rather than liquid

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assets often incurred by mining, director of InvoiceX Dermot Crean questioned their motives.

“What is the intent here? To put them [workers] out of business?” he asked, pointing to Rio’s now redacted decision.

The company, which distinguishes itself from other peer to peer lending groups and consider themselves a market planner, has implemented a system, backed by private investors and the director’s own funding, that gives companies financial assistance upfront to fill the looming invoice gaps.

This funding ensures payment of workers despite creditor difficulties. The average repayment period was 51 days and with the company, repayments are offered between 30 and 90 days. A three per cent interest rate is given for 30 days and 10 per cent for 90 days.

Another director of InvoiceX, Steve Yannarakis, said that all companies have this issue, “cashflow is a problem worldwide.”

One of the main points both directors stressed about their company is their emphasis on transparency, with their website providing an anonymous list of business dealings.

Started only four years ago, the directors said they are the only company in Australia to offer this position. It comes as a substitute to the commonly used factoring system, which involved books sent to a third party however all invoices were disclosed with their stamp all over it, creating a signal to investors and the market that the company may be in decline. AM

NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN 2016

11th August, 2016 – MCG, Melbourne For more information and to nominate visit www.paceawards.com.au

AUTOMATION & REMOTE CONTROL

EXPLOSIVES CONTROL SYSTEM UPGRADE ALL UNDER CONTROL INTEGRATING CONTROL AND SAFETY FOR OPTIMISED PLANT PERFORMANCE

A

ustralia boasts world-class capabilities to manufacture propellants and high explosives. To retain these capabilities and ensure ongoing domestic access to munitions and explosives, aging manufacturing plants can benefit from investing in new technologies.

Technology challenges facing explosive manufacturers today include replacing aging control systems on equipment that may not be supported, with modern platforms and integrating control and safety to support ongoing increased demand.

When a leading explosives manufacturer decided to undergo a complete control system upgrade, they took the project to tender. As a result of this process, SAGE Automation, a leading provider of industrial automation and control services, was engaged to develop a solution to cater for both current and future requirements.

Seamless integration

The control system of the high explosives plant is responsible for a variety of machine, process and safety control functions in a number of physically separated process areas.

SAGE Automation was tasked with developing a new solution to replace unsupported hardware with current day platforms and technology.

According to Steve Lloyd, senior project manager at SAGE Automation, “The new control system was required to be integrated across 17 process buildings and also include a new control room fit out, while ensuring the safety instrumented system

complies with today’s current standards.

This scope included upgrades to the distributed control system (DCS), programmable logic controllers (PLC), operator interfaces, network infrastructure and the delivery of a simulation system for operator and maintenance personnel training.”

In executing the control system upgrade, there was a focus for best practice design, high availability system and an integrated architecture from plant controller through to reporting and asset management. To achieve this, a detailed design process together with an integrated architecture from process controller through to enterprise level reporting and asset management was successfully implemented.

“After investigating a number of options, we found that the Rockwell Automation PlantPAx process automation system with ControlLogix Integrated Architecture and AADvance fault tolerant system was the best choice for this application to provide integrated control and safety,” said Lloyd.

Integration on this scale with the Rockwell Automation solution allowed for full use of the pre-integrated functionality within each individual product resulting in rapid deployment, pre-validated software function and access to information and diagnostics key to operational efficiencies.

The PlantPAx process automation system delivers all the core capabilities expected in a world class distributed control system (DCS). The system is built on a standard-based architecture using Integrated Architecture components that enable multi-disciplined control and AUSTRALIANMINING

seamless integration and scalability to support ongoing increasing demand.

The AADvance fault tolerant control system is a truly distributed scalable architecture which comprises of both a hardware controller and a software environment that allows the user to apply different levels of module redundancy as required by specific parts of their application.

“It is a reasonable size installation and a state-of-the art control system. The solution is the result of an innovative design in terms of the way the control system is architected, moving away from traditional centralised models and employing a decentralised virtualised architecture which still maintained and utilised the full functionality and capabilities of the PlantPAx and AADvance platforms,” ex-

plained Nigel Dezdjek, solution architect at Rockwell Automation.

Back up plan

Being an explosives manufacturing plant, introducing redundancies across a number of control system layers was paramount for safety reasons. The customer highlighted the specific requirement for the provision of complete control from the local process areas. Consequently if there was a loss of control path between the main control room and a process area, complete control was still required in that process area to facilitate a safe and controlled process shutdown.

To achieve this, the architecture design was modified to separate the primary and standby SCADA servers across locations.

THE SYSTEM ALLOWED FOR CONTINUED CONTROL EVEN IF CONTROL PATH LOSS OCCURED

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AUTOMATION & REMOTE CONTROL

This satisfied the requirements although now the solution required a larger number of hardware components to achieve this. The PlantPAx platform provided an effective and reliable solution for this redundancy.

A key feature of this solution is the HMI fault tolerance; allowing each building to continue to function independently and provide local control functions in the event of a network outage. In addition, high availability ensures that a failure of the primary HMI server node at each building location will not prevent the system from running, as the secondary HMI server in the control room data centre will take over.

The plant operator interface consists of four dual monitor FactoryTalk View SE clients within the central control room and nine dual monitor FactoryTalk View SE clients distributed throughout the process areas, all served by a distributed redundant HMI server configuration. The system installed is a dual redundant system with 2-1-0 degradation so that if a module fails, the system degrades to single control and if the last module were to fail, the system would shut down.

This solution also allows the management all projects from the centralised engineering workstation and avoids the need to duplicate changes to a standalone project for each process area.

“We implemented redundant process controllers within critical process areas at the building level, with the overall facility connected via a redundant fibre optic Ethernet network. Redundant power supplies were also implemented to provide redundancy in the power supply system,” said Lloyd.

“A redundant uninterruptable

power supply (UPS) architecture was implemented, which included seven redundant and 11 non-redundant UPS systems, totalling 34kW of back-up power. This provides greater than one hour back up time across all PlantPAx and AADvance controllers, HMI servers and clients, network switches and process instrumentation,” he said.

Virtualisation and customisation

Due to the size and complexity of the control architecture of this facility, SAGE designed and implemented a virtualised server environment and associated network architecture to satisfy and exceed the specific site requirements. The network infrastructure involved a new fault tolerant Gigabit fibre Ethernet network, utilising a Cisco and Rockwell Automation Stratix managed switch configuration to connect the 50-hectare facility.

“PlantPAx is based on open IT standards and networks, allowing all PlantPAx workstations and servers to be easily virtualised. By creating virtual machine templates and deploying them across virtual machine hosts, it made the deployment faster and reduced engineering time, it also increases flexibility as you can easily move virtual machines between hosts, allowing you to more easily set up redundancy within the virtual environment,” explained Lloyd.

“Additional benefits that virtualisation brought to this project included reduced power consumption, and centralised management of the virtualised environment which equates to lower running and support costs. Also part of that same architecture is the use of thin HMI clients which are low cost computers with a

small physical footprint that typically have a higher environmental rating and are more robust than traditional PC-based clients,” he said.

This solution used a lot of different product offerings from within the FactoryTalk suite of products to deliver a fully integrated solution.

FactoryTalk Historian and VantagePoint were used for all trending and reporting, FactoryTalk AssetCentre was used for asset management and FactoryTalk View was used for the HMI component of the PlantPAx solution.

“Another benefit of using the FactoryTalk platform for this solution was that it is flexible enough to customise. We were able to customise the Rockwell Automation Library of Process Objects standard templates and develop custom code within the FactoryTalk environment where required to satisfy specific customer requirements and provide additional unique functionality which, at the time, was not standard out-of-the-box, including tag search, trend page tools and cross navigation,” said Lloyd.

Successful implementation

Meeting the customer’s unique requirements and specifications was a key priority for Rockwell Automation and SAGE. “We successfully delivered a completely integrated control and safety solution that maintains functional safety compliance to AS61508 and Hazardous Area regulations, AS60079. The new solution provides enormous benefits around a common approach and platform to provide all the functionality within the system. Downtime was also minimised during installation as the solution was delivered around the plant’s normal operating schedule,” said Dezdjek. AM

AUSTRALIANMINING

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MAY 2016

CHALLENGES To upgrade existing DCS, PLC and SCADA u controllers and associated control gear for a number of physically separated process areas responsible for a variety of machine, process and safety control.

To develop a solution that complies with u

hazardous areas, functional and machine safety standards and regulations

SOLUTIONS Integrated control and safety PlantPAx Process Automation System u combines plant wide control with scalability of Integrated Architecture ControlLogix with Studio 5000 software u u FactoryTalk integrated production and performance suite.

AADvance fault tolerant control system u RESULTS Meeting safety standards Compliance with Functional Safety standard u AS61508 and Hazardous Area regulation AS60079 Seamless integration PlantPAx provides a seamless integrated u solution

Ability to support ongoing increasing demand u AADvance solution provides distributed u scalable architecture with flexible module redundancy Connected, integrated system EtherNet/IP used to connect DLRs and u reduce installation time and cabling

u Stratix managed switches provide the ability for a number of managed virtual LANs Manufacturing intelligence FactoryTalk suite of products delivered a fully u integrated solution

AUTOMATION & REMOTE CONTROL

GOING SEMI-AUTONOMOUS WITH SANDFIRE AN INSIGHT INTO AUTOMATION AT ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S FASTEST MOVING MINES.

S

andfire’s DeGrussa mine has always been focused on ramping up development and taking the operation to the next level.

The DeGrussa Copper-Gold Mine has set a rapid pace—moving from discovery in April 2009 to the completion of project construction in 2012.

But it’s not just the mine itself striding forward, with its contractors also making an impact int terms of technological advancements.

Byrnecut, Australia’s largest underground mining contractor, has racked up years of experience applying Cat semi-autonomous LHD technology.

The company’s mining team put that experience to use in Western Australia as they deployed Command for underground in Sandfire Resource’s DeGrussa Copper-Gold Mine,

with the objective of boosting productivity and driving down costs.

In March 2014 Sandfire Resources determined that it would seek tenders for the DeGrussa underground mining work, which had been performed by another contractor during the three years the young underground mine was being developed.

Byrnecut worked with Caterpillar and WesTrac, the Cat Dealer in Western Australia, to submit a proposal differentiated by semi-autonomous mining technology.

It caught Sandfire’s attention, as they awarded Byrnecut the contract on June 20 with start-up on July 1.

“We had a tight time frame to mobilise and start working at DeGrussa,” Pat Boniwell, Byrnecut’s director, said.

“Caterpillar and WesTrac were engaged early, during the

planning phase; we had to have a strong commitment to ensure early delivery of the mining equipment. Detailed planning to reduce delays and disruption was critical to success, as was communication and teamwork during mobilization,” he said.

The machinery delivered to DeGrussa included six AD60 trucks, one R3000H LHD, two R2900G LHDs and three Command for underground automation systems, which included three mobile operator stations.

“We were excited about the proposition of an all Cat fleet at DeGrussa,” said Ed Mort, Caterpillar Account Manager. “A lot of the incremental improvements in the new AD60 trucks, R2900G and R3000H loaders were from key customers like Byrnecut. It also gave us the opportunity to leverage the integrated technology on these new models for machine health monitoring and payload management.”

THE SYSTEM OVERCOMES POSSIBLE TRAMMING ISSUES

AUSTRALIANMINING

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MAY 2016

“We’ve had a long and productive relationship with Byrnecut,” Colin George, Caterpillar’s account manager, said, commenting on a relationship that has been ongoing since before Cat acquired Elphinstone Underground in Burnie, Tasmania “They are early adopters and drive innovation in the industry through their contracts and by working with equipment manufacturers like Caterpillar.”

Boniwell listed the reasons for using Command for underground: “We can use larger loaders in the same size drive with no damage caused by contact with the drive walls—which is a problem when tramming via tele-remote. Production is largely driven by loader size and speed, and autonomous tramming allows both. Command also allows us to use the dead time during blasting, which can be one or two hours because miners have to exit the mine. We can’t

do that with a simple tele-remote system, but we’ve been successfully doing this for years with Command.”

Operating LHDs by teleremote when tramming results in significantly increased maintenance costs due to collisions with the drive walls; the accurate sensing and guidance system of Command for underground eliminates contact with drive walls when tramming autonomously.

One of the remote operator stations for the LHDs is located on the surface and connected to the equipment via fiber optic cable. The surface location provides safe and easy access for shift changes, as the operator does not have to travel underground to start a shift or potentially face a hotseat changeover.

The other two operator stations are mobile and can be moved to the appropriate production level.

Across the entire operation Byrnecut mobilised 30 pieces of mining equipment and 150 people. It used a high percent-

AUTOMATION & REMOTE CONTROL

age of the existing workforce as well as its own employees who had experience with Command for underground. Those experienced personnel ensured that proper procedures were instituted quickly while also touting the benefits of semi-autonomous LHD operation.

As a result LHDs were up and operating via remote from the surface within two weeks of contract start-up.

“Experience allowed us to do this,” George said.

In addition to bringing experience to the project, Byrnecut, WesTrac and Caterpillar developed a framework for dealing with any problems during the delivery, commissioning and early operation of the machines and automation systems; all three working together to identify problems early and plan around those issues. Collaboration was another key to success.

In practice, the WesTrac support team remained on site for about three months.

“The field services team made our job easy,” Max Woods, group plant manager for Byrnecut, said.

“They allowed us to focus on other things.”

By the end of the first three months of operation, produc-

tion was back up to the previous levels.

“It was a well-run mobilisation,” Woods said.

“We reached the full production rate very quickly, and consistency has been good month-in and month-out. That’s impressive considering that we had not previously brought new loaders with new technology to a new job.”

Now the fleet moves around 180,000 tonnes of ore and waste monthly.

The underground mine plan itself includes more than 38 kilometers of lateral development, providing access for simultaneous extraction of ore from multiple faces on multiple lenses.

Four different deposits provide production flexibility.

Byrnecut is working with a 5.5-meter-wide decline and 4.5to 4.7-meter-wide level development. The open-stope mining plan includes paste fill of the primary stope before mining the adjacent secondary stope. Byrnecut managers point out that safety in open stope mining requires them to rely on remote control technologies. At least 60 per cent of the material is handled by the semi-autonomous loaders.

The semi-autonomous LHDs muck from production stopes

and carry material to stockpiles.

That material is subsequently loaded onto trucks by other LHDs. Because of a long truck haul of four kilometers and Byrnecut’s emphasis on productivity, the company looks closely at such things as speed on grade and optimum payloads. Cat machine technologies such as lockup torque converters—on both LHDs and trucks—and payload indicating systems contribute to higher productivity, according to operations managers.

“The addition of the lockup

AUSTRALIANMINING

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clutch torque converter on the R2900G has been a great product improvement for our applications,” Woods said.

“Good speed on grade is especially critical when doing decline development work.”

Byrnecut emphasised optimising truck payloads to achieve the high productivity. The Cat payload indicating system has been useful at DeGrussa. Because waste weighs only two-thirds of the same volume of ore it’s difficult for operators to assess weight of material visually as such payload indicating on the

trucks has been most useful.

“Increases in productivity go to the bottom line,” concluded Boniwell. “Technologies such as Command are not inexpensive, but we can get huge increases in productivity. We will continue to adopt technologies that bring good returns in the form of increased productivity.” AM

THE FLEET MOVES AROUND 180,000 TONNES OF ORE & WASTE MONTHLY

AUTOMATION & REMOTE CONTROL

TECHNOLOGY IN AUSTRALIAN MINING – WHERE ARE WE NOW, WHERE ARE WE GOING? AS THE MINING INDUSTRY CHANGES, MINERS HAVE TO ADAPT TO THE NEW WAY OF DOING BUSINESS. KEVIN GRIFFEN WRITES*

T

he mining sector always faces a wide range of significantly varying challenges. Safety and security are always paramount since mining sites are often located in some of the riskiest places on earth. Remote sites cut off from mainstream areas and services, mines deep underground where the landscape can become more dangerous in an instant, new sites in new locations with all-new challenges and risks – all have to be managed successfully.

Mining in Australia is one of the most significant vertical sectors in the country and considered one of the vital ‘five pillars’ of the economy. And technology has always played a major part in helping the mining sector push forwards, with the adoption of new advancements having a big effect on safety, productivity, security, communications, employee welfare and more. In recent years Australia’s mining sector has enjoyed great growth, with the ten years from 2003 to 2013 seeing six-fold growth in revenues and reaching $154 billion US by 2014.

The couple of years since have seen something of a slowdown, with a rising demand for production capacity creating a knock-on effect of rising production and labour costs, typically caused by companies expanding operations into more dangerous mining locations to meet the increase in demand. This in turn created a need to reduce costs – a far from ideal scenario when operating in remote and dangerous locations and when employee and site safety are two of your paramount

concerns. So cost reduction initiatives were put in place but 80 per cent of them failed. Accidents increased, up threefold between 2013 and 2014. So what can technology do to help make sites safer and reinvigorate the Australian mining sector?

Making remote sites safer

To put it bluntly, technology helps make remote sites safer. For many years now we have been investing in tools and techniques designed to improve mining sites, bringing fast, reliable connectivity to them to ensure secure data transmission and also focusing on smart, connected devices and data analytics. This threepronged approach is designed to bring safer and more productive operations to mining companies however remote their sites. The Internet of Things (IoT) and machine to machine communications (M2M) are still in their relative infancy as technologies, but for mining operations they are a great development.

When I say smart devices, I’m not talking only about smartphones. In the mining industry this means M2M sensors placed on pieces of equipment all over a site, it means huge driverless trucks and other vehicles that move ore about the site without putting human drivers at risk.

It means vehicle telemetry data that is AUSTRALIANMINING

analysed in real-tie to make sure vehicles are taking the safest possible routes. It can also be used to provide workers with health monitoring devices that track and transmit data about their physical conditions, also in real-time, and raise alerts in the event of accidents or incidents. Technology has enabled all these advances.

Getting the most out of the IoT

So technology is enabling another key area in Australia’s mining industry – efficiency. As the price of commodities in the sector has fallen, mining companies have had to shift focus away from capital expenditure and onto efficiency. Attaching sensors on equipment and vehicles and utilizing today’s IoT-linked data analytics tools helps mining companies make operations more efficient and increase productivity, making remote sites more cost-effective and reducing downtime of assets.

Ultimately it is about embracing new technologies to keep a long-established industry fresh and inventive. Previously physical and manual ways of doing things can now be done using IoT and M2M. For example where previously mining companies would have had a physical team presence at every mine site, today’s technology enables a central manage-

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ment team to monitor multiple locations.

Traditional worker safety processes and procedures have been surpassed by smart solutions that monitor worker health and security on site in real-time. Sensors and data analytics in remote locations can now drive predictive maintenance and fault avoidance in mine assets, where before manual management and labour-intensive upkeep was required. Automated haulage systems and driverless trains can now make sites both safer and more efficient.

For the right solutions you need the right expertise

Mining companies know how to work remote mining sites. Orange knows how to power them forward with all this state of the art technology. Mobile working, applications that enhance business performance, fast, reliable connectivity wherever it is needed and the flexibility of cloud infrastructure are all vital to empowering these next generation mining tools and practices. At Orange we have worked with some of the world’s largest mining conglomerates for more than 20 years and we know what technologies, relationships and skills are required to keep mining operations moving forward. *Kevin Griffen is the country manager – Australasia for Orange Business Services

“Providing pumping solutions to the mining, industrial, environmental, oil & gas and agricultural industry for over 30 years�

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Sales - Hire - Service 30 Harris Road, Malaga WA 6090 P: +61 8 9209 3355 F: +61 8 9209 2666 W: www.airwellgroup.com.au (Offices also in Queensland and Victoria)

PRODUCT SHOWCASE

MICROMINE LAUNCHES MICROMINE 2016 MICROMINE will be releasing the latest version of its highly successful exploration and 3D mine design solution at a special event in Perth this month. Relevant to all stages of the mineral extraction process, Micromine enables users to capture, manage and interpret critical data, and provides explorers with an in-depth understanding of their project so they can target prospective regions more effectively. Miners can use the software’s easy-to-use modelling, estimation, planning and design tools to simplify day-to-day production tasks.

Continuously enhanced over the years to meet evolving user needs and industry conditions, the software is now getting ready for its 16th release. The Perth launch of Micromine 2016 at the QV1 Function Centre in the presence of clients and industry will be followed by events to be held in Brisbane, Australia, as well as internationally throughout

the company’s global offices, including Russia, North America, Indonesia, the United Kingdom and South Africa.

Commenting on the upcoming release, MICROMINE’s Technical Product Manager, Frank Bilki says Micromine 2016 is the result of nearly two years of continuous development and many hundreds of individual changes. He explained that many of the updates are Core features that benefit every user including simple timesavers such as being able to drop any supported file into Micromine from an outside location, and a Project Explorer pane that provides direct access to all of the files in a project.

Core enhancements also include 3D PDF output, which produces PDFs where users can interactively show and hide layers, rotate, pan and zoom the display, and even measure distances and directions, right within Adobe Acrobat Reader; dynamic field expressions

ALLOWS FOR GREATER DATA INTERPRETATION

that let users write ‘equations’ wherever they would select an input field, together with an expression-based calculator that takes full advantage of this enhancement; quick-find options for locating drillholes and wireframes (triangulations) within a mass of data; and Maximum Intensity Projection for the Vizex Point layer for visualising trends in huge point clouds.

Explorers benefit from a suite of flexible new drillhole planning tools that

TRUCK TRANSMISSION Allison Transmission has unveiled its 6630ORS, the newest off-highway series fully automatic transmission.

Launched at Bauma, this transmission is an evolution of the 6000 off-highway series, and provides increased durability and performance.

It contains a new internal damper and updated torque converter turbine with improved vane geometry and increased oil flow lubrication, while an anodised surface treatment gives increased durability for harsh operating environments.

A series of modifications to the 6000

includes options for designing straight or curved holes from the bottom up or the top down. Customers working in a mature area can save time by easily using an existing hole as a template for a planned hole.

New drillhole-related tools also include drillhole log display, which includes a large number of display types and page layout controls.

• Micromine www.micromine.com

GENERAL PURPOSE ACCELEROMETER range’s transmission’s low and reverse planetary gear assemblies has extended this model’s lifespan in high torque or continued reverse range operations such as mining.

The transmissions are also available with a heavy duty retarder rotor.

These upgrades to the new transmission have been fitted into the 55 tonne payload Volvo A60H, which was on display at Bauma 2016.

• Allison Transmission www.allisontransmission.com

AVAILABLE WITH A HEAVY DUTY RETARDER ROTOR

INNOVATIVE PUMP MAINTENANCE Dewatering pumps have become an indispensable part of minerals processing, but when it comes to understanding how the pump operates, it’s necessary dismantle the pump to look inside.

Grindex has launched in an innovative new tool that will shortcut the process of understanding the internal workings of products without needing a single manual tool.

The general public saw the launch of Augmented Reality at Bauma 2016 last month. The innovative new digital tool gives the user an x-ray view of electrical submersible pumps.

With Grindex being a leader in submersible pumps for construction, mining and tunnelling since the 1960s, the company has sought to use its engineering experience to share with customers.

“Simply point the tablet’s camera at a pump and a cut-away image will be added on the screen, providing the user with buttons that explain and/or animate certain features,” Sales Manager Peter Uvemo explains.

“Grindex strives to make sustainability a day-to-day priority for all activities and is dedicated to meeting the highest environmental standards. As a further step in caring for the environment we see that this digital tool makes less impact than a physical cut-away pump that has to be shipped around the world,” adds Malmport.

The new app will be available for iOS and Android and is preferably run on a 10 inch screen, though even modern smart phones (BYOD) will provide an impressive experience.

Grindex was founded in 1940, and has been located close to Stockholm, Sweden, from the start. Since 1960 the company has strived to offer a pump for every need: drainage, sludge and slurry, in the most challenging environments imaginable.

Grindex exports to over 100 countries around the world, and has a subsidiary in the USA. • Grindex www.grindex.com AUSTRALIANMINING

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Bestech Australia presents the Endevco Model 46AXX POD accelerometer, a general purpose accelerometer designed for versatile mounting configurations. Available in five sensitivities, the POD accelerometer sensor assemblies are threaded for easy installation in any of the POD mounts. The POD mounts are available in five configurations: hex mount, cube mount, triax mount, tri-hex mount, and cube adhesive mount.

The POD accelerometer sensor assemblies may be mixed and matched in any of the POD mounts, with lock wire holes in the POD sensor assembly and mounting bases preventing the POD accelerometer from coming loose during vibration for extra safety.

POD mounts such as the hex and cube mounts are used for traditional single axis measurements while the triaxial mount allows the user to select the same or different sensitivities on each orthogonal axis. The tri-hex is recommended for users that do not know the correct accelerometer sensitivity for the test as it allows them to thread three different POD accelerometer sensor assemblies in a single mount.

Key features of Endevco Model 46AXX POD accelerometers include versatility in mounting configurations and sensitivities; single and triaxial mounting configurations; mix and match sensitivities in any configuration (10, 25, 100, 500, 1000 mV/g); stud or adhesive mount; case isolated and case grounded mounts; and IEEE P1451.4 TEDS capability.

• Betsech www.bestech.com.au

PRODUCT SHOWCASE

TUNNEL CONCRETE SPRAYING KIT A new mechanised spraying kit for tunnelling operations has been released to enhance safety and efficiency.

Normet’s Alpha 1430 Kit, built on a self supporting frame and able to fit a range of new or used truck chassis, allows contractors to configure a concrete sprayer for medium to large cross section tunnels. It can spray cross sections of up to 12m high and 20m wide, suitable for medium to large underground mining projects.

Ilpo Martikainen, sprayed concrete product line manager, said this technology comes with different versions that can be installed on nearly any commercial truck chassis with a suitable payload capacity.

“This unique piece of equipment is

designed and well suited for those market areas and construction sites where the same concrete spraying units are used in different headings or slopes with different cross section dimensions,” he said.

“The possibility to drive this unit on normal roads (local restrictions may apply) widens the usage of Normet’s technologies to a totally new level.”

The kit’s modularity and structure enables it to include features such as a compressor and electro-hydraulic power pack. It also allows simple changing from one chassis to another.

UNDERGROUND MINING PUMP

BUILT ON A SELF-SUPPORTING FRAME

The kit also offers the Normet NSP pump and XEP accelerator dosing system reliability.

• Normet www.normet.com

HYBRID COAL TECHNOLOGY Coal-fired energy producers may gain access to a way to boost efficiency and halve their carbon emissions, thanks to a new hybrid coal gasification system developed by US scientists.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will soon publish a paper which describes a combined system for coal gasification, called an indirect carbon fuel cell (ICFC) system.

The study by doctoral student Katherine Ong and Professor Ahmed Ghoniem coupled coal gasification to a solid oxide fuel cell, suggesting this was a promising candidate for high efficiency stationary power with the potential to enable a 50 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions for a given amount of power produced.

The concept was originally described by Ong, then a doctoral student, with Ronald C. Crane in the Journal of Power Sources in 1972.

Coal gasification is already used for the commercial manufacture of hydrogen gas (as well as the controversial technique of Underground Coal Gasification used by Linc Energy in Queensland), while fuel cells produce electricity by causing gas to react electrochemically with oxygen.

Ong explained that the two system both operate at high temperatures, around 800 degrees Celcius, meaning they can exchange heat with minimal energy loss.

This means that the heat generated by the fuel cell can

AUSMining MAY 16_60x210.indd 1

help to sustain the gasification of coal, eliminating the need for a separate heating system, which is usually the conventional combustion of coal.

Without any burning, the system produces less ash and air pollutants that would otherwise be generated by coal combustion, and carbon dioxide is produced in a pure form that is not mixed with air as in a conventional coal power plant, which would make the process of carbon capture far easier than for present technologies.

So far the research has been conducted by simulations rather than lab experiments in order to determine that steam is more efficient for reacting with coal particles in the system, generating two to three times more power output than when carbon dioxide is used.

Ong said the next step will be to build a small-scale pilot plant to measure performance in real-world conditions, which could be achieved in a only a few years due to present availability of technology.

“This system requires no new technologies”, Ong said.

“It’s just a matter of coupling these existing technologies together well.”

Ong admitted the new system would be more expensive than conventional power plants, but capital outlays would be paid off in a short time frame due to superior efficiency and power generation capacity.

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SKF have released the Lincoln HTL 201 EEX hydraulically driven pump for use in underground mines and other harsh environments.

It features a steel pump body and lubricant reservoir, and is a more cost effective alternative to electronic pumps that require a cabinet for protection.

The pump is designed to minimise wear and friction. It is operated via the hydraulic system of a superior machine or carrier system, and supplies lubricant as long as the device or machine is active.

It also includes a grounding point to immediately discharge electricity if needed.

The pump is durable, compact, and easy to install and maintain.

The pump’s unit features an integrated throttle to adjust lubricant output and it accepts progressive metering devices. Its refillable reservoir is capable of holding 1.5L of NLGI grade 2 grease.

• SKF www.skf.com

DESIGNED TO MINIMISE WEAR AND FRICTION

21/04/2016 11:26 AM

PRODUCT SHOWCASE

CONVEYOR BELT FAULT DETECTION

VENTILATION SOFTWARE Chasm Consulting has released the latest version of its mine ventilation simulation software.

The new version, Ventsim 4.1, includes a number of upgraded features to aid operators in building better and more accurate models, and more precise simulations, Chasm said.

Performance has been a major focus, with Ventsim 4.1 “300 per cent faster [in] simulation for VentFIRE and Dynamic Simulation.

It also has a revised

optional ‘quick’ method, as well as preconfigured quick settings for VentFIRE. Chasm has also i m p l e m e n t e d “improvements to the airflow simulation algorithm for difficult-to-balance models”.

A new feature of the software is Deswik.CAD compatibility.

“Deswik.CAD can now export a fully scheduled mine plan into a Ventsim file. Ventsim airways are automatically built at the

correct size and shape, including stope or orebody graphics/reference files, and are automatically assigned to different stages to show the mine development over time,” Chasm said.

Referenc e g r aph ic layering and st aging capacities of the software now allow for reference object graphics to be assigned to Ventsim primary and secondary layers and stages.

• Chasm Consulting www.chasm.com.au

WORLD’S FIRST THERMAL IMAGING CLAMP METER FLIR Systems Australia announces a new thermal imaging clamp meter featuring an in-built thermal camera for use in electrical troubleshooting applications.

Prior to FLIR’s revolutionary development, it was a tiresome process for electricians to pinpoint problems, forcing them to chase down the cause, one electrical measurement at a time. This inability to locate the true source of the problem led to call-backs from customers, resulting in electricians wasting time troubleshooting problems they thought were resolved, and also putting their safety at risk in the absence of information about the real issue.

FLIR has now launched the world’s first thermal imaging clamp meter, the FLIR CM174, incorporating a built-in thermal camera that powers FLIR’s IGM (Infrared Guided Measurement) technology, which visually guides users to temperature differences and pinpoints anomalies, so they can fix the system, not just the fault,

to get the equipment up and running without any risk of the problem recurring at the site.

FLIR’s CM174 600A AC/DC clamp meter also enables electricians to detect new issues such as overheating or loose connection problems, expanding their scope of work and resulting in more business.

Electricians can also examine any problem area from a safe distance, especially when dealing with cluttered wires or scanning complex panels for hazards, using the IGM to show the anomalies without physically having to reach into the panel. The narrow-jaw design and built-in work lights make it easier to clamp the meter around wires in tight spaces or in poor lighting conditions.

FLIR’s CM174 600A AC/DC clamp meters also validate findings with advanced measurement features to help solve complex electrical issues.

• FLIR www.flir.com.au AUSTRALIANMINING

CRCMining is collaborating with the University of Queensland (UQ) to develop a Conveyor Condition Monitoring (CCM) system based on fibre optic sensing technology to facilitate early detection of conveyor belt faults in mining environments.

The collaborative research project involving CRCMining and UQ’s Fibre Optic Sensing Application Laboratory (FOSAL) is expected to help mine site operators reduce expensive unplanned downtime through realtime monitoring of their conveyor belts and early detection of faults.

Maintenance personnel typically carry out routine inspections by driving along conveyor belts to listen for malfunctioning rollers or using handheld thermal/acoustic devices to identify problems. However, these maintenance practices have proved ineffective with operators having to deal with unexpected conveyor shutdowns caused by previously undetected faults. When this happens, miners need to locate the roller fault, isolate, dispatch, tag, and repair, and restart the conveyor, with the resultant downtime leading to loss of valuable production hours.

The Conveyor Condition Monitoring system being developed by the CRCMining-UQ research team uses fibre optic sensing technology to improve early detection of conveyor belt faults. Optical fibre installed on or near the conveyor structure directly senses acoustic activity in real time at metre intervals along the length of the conveyor.

CRCMining project leader Mohammad Amanzadeh explains that the Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) hardware at the heart of the CCM has been successfully deployed in various industries for remote production and condition monitoring of assets such as pipelines, wellbores, border security, traffic flow and railway monitoring among many more.

This advanced sensing system, currently being further developed

by CRCMining, is capable of continuous monitoring of an entire conveyor system for idler roller failures.

When paired with event detection software, the technology helps identify changes in equipment acoustic signatures, alerting operators to impending roller failures and breakdowns.

The Conveyor Condition Monitoring system delivers multiple benefits to the mine operator with the flexible and robust sensor capable of transforming a single mode optical fibre into a chain of microphones, measuring sounds and vibrations at discrete

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points along the length of the conveyor system. Easily installed on the conveyor structure, the optical fibre requires low maintenance and can be repaired easily in the event of damage.

Though available off the shelf, DAS technology has not yet been applied to mining conveyors and is therefore being further developed

by CRCMining through various field trials facilitating software and algorithms to address the specific application challenges.

Observing that the technology will be a game changer in conveyor condition monitoring and will transform the mining landscape, Amanzadeh said the researchers are trialling the use of fibre optic sensing technology to identify changes in temperature and noise along the conveyor belt to help detect potentially faulty components in real-time and post processing.

The first site trial was conducted at Queensland Bulk Handling (QBH) in 2014, and the latest was a trial by the research team at Anglo American’s Dawson mine in May 2015.

Amanzadeh explains that real-time monitoring of conveyors spanning kilometres with thousands of rollers can significantly reduce costs in mining operations. CCM technology will allow maintenance staff to prioritise repairs and identify types of faults in real-time along the conveyor belt, leading to an effective maintenance strategy that will reduce costly downtimes, and prevent catastrophic events, repairs or production delays typically caused by roller and pulley issues.

CCM technology is expected to reduce unplanned downtime by 20 to 50 per cent depending on the conveyor system, leading to massive savings for the operator. For instance, a mine conveyor currently running at a production loss of $150,000 per hour could escalate production losses to millions each year through unplanned stoppages. In addition to minimising these losses, operators can also expect savings from reductions in labour, belt damage, repairs and safety incidents.

The research project is currently trialling the DAS technology in an underground mine. This phase of the project is supported by CRCMining, Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP), Anglo American, UQ, OptaSense – QinetiQ, Machinery Automation Robotics, and QBH. • CRCMining www.crcmining.com.au

PRODUCT SHOWCASE

NEW HANDHELD BREAKERS Atlas Copco has unveiled its latest handheld pneumatic break, the lighter RTEX. According to Atlas Copco the RTEX slashes energy consumption by half, while at the same time being lighter and more ergonomic.

“Thanks to the invention of a new operating principle – Constant Pressure Control, improved energy transfer within the breaker and the new RHEX Power Chisel – the RTEX achieves record high breaking efficiency,” Atlas Copco said.

“The RTEX has the breaking capacity of a 30+ kg breaker, using only half as much compressed air whilst being 25 per cent lighter.”

It has a high breaking performance of 30 to 35 kilogram breakers, and weighs in at 25 kilograms.

Measured according to EN ISO 28927-10*, the 3-axes hand-and-arm vibration is below 5 m/s2.

Under these conditions an operator can work up to eight times longer than with conventional breakers, according to safety guidelines.

This is due to the Constant Pressure Chamber on top of the break that acts as pneumatic suspension.

Additionally, RTEX is more compact than traditional breakers, making it easier to work in restricted areas.

Due to its more efficient air consumption compressors only half the size are needed, or two breakers can be used on a compressor which previously only powered a single breaker.

This is all due to new working principles developed at Atlas Copco.

“In a conventional breaker air is discharged each time the acting piston moves up or down; in the RTEX we discharge the air only once – on the piston´s return stroke,” Atlas Copco engineers and inventors Olof Ostensson and Thomas Lijia said.

“Then the constant pressure from a chamber on the top of the RTEX pushes the piston down. The pressure on top of the acting piston is constant and therefore does not generate vibrations as on conventional breakers, so there is no need for vibration

MINEWARE SELLS 100TH DRAGLINE MONITORING SYSTEM

damping. To achieve this, we moved the valve from the top of the breaker to the bottom – our new “UpSide-Down” (normally spelt ‘upside-down’) concept.

“The new, longer and heavier piston transfers power much more efficiently to the unique “RHEX” Power Chisel. Even though the RTEX can work with conventional chisels, the RHEX is specially tuned to our new breaker in order to achieve optimal shock wave interaction for better breaking performance. The RHEX also has a special concave tip profile which significantly reduces jamming. The new RTEX working principle, long piston and RHEX chisel have resulted in record high efficiency – 50 per cent less air needed for the same breaking capacity.”

• Atlas Copco www.atlascopco.com

FLUID SENSORS Treotham has released Wenglor’s latest range of fluid sensors, which includes flow, pressure and temperature sensors. The fluid sensors use a patented measuring process which is unique on the field of flow sensor technology. This allows the products to be mounted without regard to position or flow direction, and deliver precise measurement results with a simple installation.

The uniform design, intuitive operation, large 7-segment display and connection concepts makes the fluid sensors extremely user-friendly. Additionally, a separate LED allows quick recognition of the switching status.

The UniFlow Flow Sensors determine the speed of which media flow within closed systems and measure temperature. They offer

a unique, patented measurement method, which is independent from the flow direction. They are suitable for many applications including flow rate monitoring in filling machines, cooling water control, monitoring of cooling water in power generators and cooling of ship electronics.

The UniBar Pressure sensors measure the relative pressure of any media in closed systems in the range of -1 to 600 bar. They are ideal for monitoring processes, pressure in filling systems, filters and compressed air systems.

They are also suitable for food and pharmaceutical industries, determining the fill level in tank and silo systems, and pressure regulation of aggregates. The UniTemp Temperature sensors measure the

temperature of liquid and gaseous media, and permit reliable temperature monitoring within processes. They feature a compact design and measure a large range of temperatures from 0 to 200°C. They are used to monitor temperature in brewing processes, monitor flow and return temperatures in solar thermal energy, regulate temperature in cheese production and measure temperature for tempering furnaces. Three switching outputs are available for each sensor, however depending on requirements the sensors can be equipped with one or two switching outputs, or a switching output in combination with an analog output.

• Treotham Automation 02 9907 1788 www.treotham.com.au

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Mining technology company MineWare has signed the 100th deal of its flagship Pegasys dragline monitoring system, achieving the milestone mark in just over a decade of operation.

Created and commercialised by the mining technology company in its founding year, the Pegasys system was responsible for almost a quarter of MineWare’s sales in the US and Canada in the last financial year, securing more than 60 per cent market share nationally and delivering 24 installations. Half of the new Pegasys sales were replacement systems for older, less reliable competitor products, with the North American market attracted to the accuracy and reliability of MineWare’s system.

Founder and CEO Andrew Jessett explains that the North American market sees strategic importance in using Pegasys for their open cut coal operations. With many of these operations producing anything from 7 million tonnes to 100 million tonnes per annum, it’s important for the companies to achieve direct, measurable improvements in operational efficiency, safety and productivity.

The Pegasys dragline monitoring system delivers these objectives for clients by accurately measuring the performance of their dragline fleets, and providing precise, reliable payload information, vision and guidance intelligence, live operator feedback and remote access to critical production data.

The Pegasys story began 10 years ago when Jessett sold MineWare’s first dragline system to BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance, after commercialising his own invention without seed money.

During his time with CRC Mining as a member of the development team behind the world-renowned Universal Dig and Dump (UDD) rigging and control system, Jessett noted that the mining industry still faced the challenge of not having any reliable or accurate means to measure the end-user benefits of the UDD technology, which meant they could not calculate the return on a significant investment. The Pegasys technology was able to address this gap.

The core platform of the successful Pegasys product has been extended to the shovel and excavator market with MineWare’s widely acclaimed Argus system, which not only provides real-time guidance to the operator on board the machine, but also delivers critical production, maintenance and planning information to key personnel onsite and remotely.

With the mining industry’s increasing interest in MineWare’s technologies, the company is focused on growing its existing presence in the US, Canada and South Africa.

Jessett attributes MineWare’s continued success in the industry to the team’s customer centric culture and their clear focus on productivity improvement backed by premium product support.

MineWare’s 100th Pegasys installation was part of a million-dollar project with a coal mine in Canada.

• Mineware www.mineware.com

PROSPECT AWARDS

THE PROSPECT AWARDS AUSTRALIAN MINING PREPARES TO RECOGNISE INNOVATION AND EXCELLENCE IN MINING AGAIN.

T

he Australian Mining Prospect Awards are launching again, and this time it’s our ‘lucky’ 13th Annual night.

Year after year Australian Mining seeks out the best technology, innovations, individuals and companies in the resources industry in an effort to recognise and reward their achievements over the last 12 months.

Whether it is better production rates, higher efficiencies, clever design, smarter technology, or simply someone who comes in each and every day and gives 110 per cent, the Prospect Awards are a forum to highlight the achievements that have been made.

And in the current mining and industrial climate, highlighting the successes being made across mining is crucial to demonstrate that it is still a sector which – despite the volatile commodities and high pressure markets – is still one that is forging ahead to become a better industry.

At last year’s event, which saw protests outside from various environmental and activist groups, hundreds gathered to celebrate an industry which has been doing it tough.

Innovation in safety; smarter ways of making mines more efficient and productive; and instituting better work processes

were all highlighted.

Since our awards in October last year things have become even more stressed, meaning now, more than ever before, the industry needs to take a step back and celebrate their many achievements.

With this in mind Australian Mining is opening nominations again for these awards.

So nominate someone you know who is making mining a better industry, and recognise those innovators today. AM THE AWARDS RAN ACROSS 15 CATEGORIES

THE EVENING SAW HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE GATHER TO CELEBRATE MINING

UNIQUE TECHNOLOGY, INDIVIDUALS, AND MINING PROGRAMS WERE IN FOCUS ON THE NIGHT

AUSTRALIANMINING28 52 MARCH MAY 2016 AUSTRALIANMINING 50 APRIL 2016 AUSTRALIANMINING 2016

MINING: AUSTRALIA’S MOST RENOWNED INDUSTRY

THE #OSCARSOFMINING

ARE BACK! dney y S 6 r, 201 e b o t Oc 1 2 y a Frid

Don’t miss the Australian mining industry’s night of nights - the 13th annual Prospect Awards are back for 2016.

Twelve awards will be up for grabs, recognising innovation and excellence within the Australian mining industry.

Make sure you don’t miss any of the action!

Head to www.prospectawards.com.au for more information.

For more information regarding nominations, please contact Cole Latimer - Editor, Australian Mining: 02 8484 0652 or cole.latimer@primecreative.com.au For sponsorship opportunities, please contact Jonathan Duckett: 02 8484 0866 or jonathan.duckett@primecreative.com.au Sponsors

PROD-

CONFERENCES, SEMINARS & WORKSHOPS EVENT SUBMISSIONS CAN BE EMAILED TO EDITOR@MININGAUSTRALIA.COM.AU

ALTA 2016 NICKELCOBALT-COPPER, URANIUM-REE AND GOLDPRECIOUS METALS CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 21-28 MAY PERTH ALTA 2016, organised

by ALTA Metallurgical Services, will be the 21st year of one of the world’s premier annual metallurgical events. The conference is an annual gathering of the global Nickel, Cobalt, Copper, Uranium-REE and GoldPrecious Metals industries and features highly focused programs, topical forums and presentations by key international speakers. The event comprises:

Three international conferences in one week Nickel-Cobalt-Copper Sessions including Hydromet Processing Sulphides Forum & Panel Uranium-REE Sessions including Membranes in Uranium Ore Processing Forum & Panel Gold-Precious Metals Sessions including Refractory Gold Ores Forum & Panel Three Short Courses The A-Z of Copper Ore Leaching Solvent Extraction and its Application to Copper, Uranium and Nickel-Cobalt Uranium Ore Processing Trade Exhibition ALTA 2016 will be an outstanding platform for exposing the latest worldwide developments in plant operations, process

EVENTS

technology, new projects, testwork and scaleup, process modelling and control systems, application of mineralogy and geometallurgy, R&D, equipment, reagents, materials, tailings disposal and environmental alleviation. The event provides an excellent opportunity to network with a wide variety of key industry professionals and showcase products and services to key decisionmakers in the pertinent field.

• ALTA Metallurgical Services Allison Taylor 0411 692 442 alisontaylor@altamet. com.au www.altamet.com.au

QUEENSLAND MINING & ENGINEERING EXHIBITION 26 – 28 JULY MACKAY SHOWGROUND, MACKAY This biennial event is

is where mining leaders, policy makers, financiers, technical experts, innovators and educators are brought together under one roof. IMARC has the continued support of Australia’s three leading industry associations, the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), Austmine and Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA).

Queensland pre-eminent mining event.

Held in Mackay, this even connects exhibitors directly with miners, giving them to showcase the latest technology, equipment, and mining services available to the region.

Presented by REEDMININGEVENTS, QME is the leading QLD showcase for the METS sector and a celebration of mining innovation.

It is an essential platform for bringing suppliers face-to-face with the key buyers of Queensland’s mining sector. BETTER

Productivity, BETTER Efficiency, BETTER Optimisation, BETTER Mining.

INTERNATIONAL MINING AND RESOURCES CONVENTION (IMARC) 2015 7 – 10 NOVEMBER MELBOURNE CONVENTION & EXHIBITION CENTRE, MELBOURNE IMARC is Australia’s only truly international mining event. Uniting the entire mining industry, IMARC

• Meet 3000+ Australian and international mining experts, CEOs, government representatives and other industry leaders from over 35 countries ready to discuss.

• Network with key decision makers and influencers through a range of structured events from round tables, one on ones and social hubs.

• Inclusion of Mines and Money Australia – the country’s largest mining investment forum.

IMARC 0 3 9021 2031 www.imarcmelbourne.com

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AUSTRALIANMINING

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MAY 2016

28/04/2016 3:29:04 p.m.

Celebrating Excellence in Industry

Nominations NOW OPEN Celebrating Excellence in Industry Celebrating Excellence in Industry Nominations NOW OPEN Nominations NOW OPEN

Employer of the year Awards Dinner: Thursday 25 June 2015 Excellence in Engineering Time: 6.30pm – 7.00pm start Venue: The Ivy Ballroom Excellence in Manufacturing Excellence in Engineering Costs: Excellence in Mining Date: 14th July Single 2016 tickets – $165 Inc GST Excellence in Manufacturing Table of 10 – $1320 Inc GST Industry Advocacy Time: 6.30pm for a 7.00pm start Employer of the year Excellence in Road Transport Awards Dinner: Thursday 25 June 2015 Excellence Mining BDM in ofinof the Year Venue: Showtime Events Melbourne Employer the year Excellence Engineering Time:Thursday 6.30pm –257.00pm start Awards Dinner: June 2015 Industry Advocacy Award Marketing/Communications Award Excellence in Engineering Venue: The Ivy Ballroom Excellence inthe Manufacturing Time: 6.30pm – 7.00pm start BDM of Year For further information Mentor of the Year Venue: Ivy Ballroom Costs:The Single ticketsplease – $165contact Inc GST Excellence in Manufacturing Excellence in Mining Marketing/Communications Award For further information please contact Samantha.gilroy@cirrusmedia.com.au Costs: Single tickets $165 IncIncGST Table of 10 –– $1320 GST RisingofStar Award Excellence Mining Mentor thein Year Industry Advocacy lauren.winterbottom@primecreative.com.au Table of 10 –0944 $1320 Inc GST (02) 8484 Rising Star Advocacy Award Industry Social Leader (03) 9690 8766 BDM of the Year Social Leader of the Year BDM of the Year Award Marketing/Communications Marketing/Communications Award For further information please contact Mentor of the Year close Nominations 5pmTuesday Thursday 9 information April Nominations 31st May 2015 2016 For further please contact Mentor of the Year close5pm Samantha.gilroy@cirrusmedia.com.au Rising Star Award Samantha.gilroy@cirrusmedia.com.au Nominate nowat: at:www.womeninindustry.com.au www.womeninindustry.com.au Rising Star Award Nominate now (02) 8484 0944 Social Leader (02) 8484 0944 Social Leader

Nominations Thursday99April April2015 2015 Nominations close close 5pm 5pm Thursday

Nominate Nominatenow now at: at: www.womeninindustry.com.au www.womeninindustry.com.au

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Sponsors

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