World Mining Magazine

Magazine

BARRICK GOLD

Delivery and development

Issue 38 2021

World Mining

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TLY N E R E F F I D S G

the editor

Silver linings

Editor

The

A

s well as being a global human tragedy, a matter of life and death for far too many people, the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously compromised the global economy.

The resource sector has seen rapid and unforeseen changes in supply and demand, with consequential price instability. Mine sites were closed in some jurisdictions while countries got to grips with how to handle the crisis, but generally, mining was seen as an essential activity and allowed to continue, albeit with restrictions which forced companies to explore new ways of operating to protect their workforce and local communities.

Technology has played an enormous role by allowing mine sites to work autonomously and in some cases, remotely. This trend was already well established, of course, but the pandemic has served to accelerate take up where circumstances allowed.

Another growing trend in mining in recent years is the emergence of ESG (environmental, social and governance) criteria. The pandemic has brought the social aspect of ESG to the fore, as companies have sought to solve issues at a local level, in accordance with the needs of their host countries and communities.

The nature of mining operations and the remote locations they often occupy grant the industry a closer relationship with its host communities than any other sector. In some jurisdictions, particularly in Africa, mining companies have

Martin Ashcroft

considerable experience in dealing with health crises, for example, HIV/AIDS and Ebola.

When South Africa commenced its rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, mineworkers were designated as essential workers, to be inoculated in the second phase of the country’s vaccination plan, after healthcare workers.

Because of the nature of their relationships, miners have developed infrastructure for their communities, including living accommodation, healthcare, food and water. These developments, inherently good in themselves, further afford companies the opportunity to participate in the vaccine rollout.

Nobody knows when we’ll be able to declare the pandemic over, and it’s doubtful that the world will ever return to normal, but considering the speed at which the virus spread and the measures taken to limit its impact, the mining industry, in common with other sectors, is likely to emerge stronger, fitter, smarter and more compassionate than it’s ever been.

It is in the nature of human beings to look for positives in the face of adversity, and there are plenty to be found in this pandemic, from the increasing use of technology to social awareness. COVID-19 has focused attention on relationships with local communities, which is a positive we must encourage as we move from response to recovery.

Let’s not let this opportunity go to waste.

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Contents Cover story barrick gold: delivery & development Page 8 Page: 5 • 8 • 24 • 28 • 40 •

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• 65 • 67 • • 71 • •

73 • 75 •

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• 79 • •

The Editor: Silver linings Barrick Gold: Delivery and development Bonfiglioli: Engineering dreams Weir Minerals: Engineered for endurance Rio Tinto: Global operations for the modern world Open Autonomy: Why mining is on the brink of an autonomous revolution Nevada Sunrise begins strategic review of its lithium brine projects in Nevada New Century delivers 500,000th tonne of zinc concentrate CIMIC sells 50 per cent of Thiess to Elliott Treasury Metals’ positive PEA for Goliath Exploration commences at Bullfrog Gold Ontario launches online tool for exploration GoGold discovery at Los Ricos North GoGold announces filing of PEA Technical Report for Los Ricos South South Australia approves Port Playford MBU Capital completes acquisition of Ben’s Creek Carbon Mine ABB condition monitoring software commissioned in China Solaris continues expansion of Warintza New KamAZ mining dump truck launched GHH launches new load haul dump truck

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ADVERTISERS Page 2 MAXAM Tire 4 Weir Group 9 In-Situ 27 Austin Engineering 38 Weir Minerals 52 Foth 55 Truflo Pumps 56 Vigil Anti-Slip 57 Goodyear off-the-road 58 Tamrotor 60 Canary Systems 62 THEJO 64 Applied Fiber 66 Vulkan Drive Tech

68 RST Instruments 69 Measurand 70 Hamilton Equipment Company 72 MoistTech Corp 73 Aegion / NFP 74 VEI Group 76 Yale Cordage 78 Marland Clutch 80 GDD 94 ALMEX Group 111 NI USA Corp 112 Pumps 2000 113 World Mining Directory 115 One Eye Industries 116 Resemin Asia

news Page 59

bhp: A diversified portfolio Page 95

81 • First gold at Martha Underground • Leviathan Gold launches 30,000 metre

drilling program at Avoca and Timor 82 • Boris Ivanov: How will technological

innovation shape the future of mining?

84 • ALMEX GROUP: Solutions for detecting rips in conveyor belts 95 • BHP: A diversified portfolio 102 • Midroc AB: The future of mining is remote 106 • Techenomics International: Liquid assets

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Barrick Gold www.BARRICK.com

Delivery and development D

espite the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Barrick Gold referred to 2020 as ‘a year of delivery and development’ as the company met its production targets and advanced its growth projects.

Barrick Gold is pursuing a vision ‘to be the world’s most valued gold mining business by finding, developing and operating the best assets, with the best people, to deliver the best returns, on a sustainable basis, to our owners and partners’. That vision was supported by a consistent operating performance across all quarters of the year, demonstrating the company’s ability to manage impact of the pandemic and its other challenges, which included a coup in Mali, the financial meltdown in Argentina and the Papua New Guinea government’s flirtation with resource nationalism.

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Higher gold and copper prices drove annual operating cash flow up 91% to $5.4 billion and annual free cash flow to a new record high of $3.4 billion

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Higher gold and copper prices drove annual operating cash flow up 91% to $5.4 billion and annual free cash flow to a new record high of $3.4 billion. Net earnings per share were $1.31 for 2020 and adjusted net earnings per share of $1.15 was up 125% on the previous year. Gold total cash costs and all-insustaining-costs (AISC) were within guidance, in spite of higher royalty costs, and Barrick-operated copper assets produced a strong performance with costs at the low end, or below, the guidance range.

The results allowed Barrick to declare an unchanged quarterly dividend of 9 cents per share and to propose a $750 million capital return, in line with the

company’s strategy of returning surplus funds to shareholders. The return of capital is subject to shareholder approval at the Annual and Special Meeting on 4 May 2021.

achieved a 76% replacement of depleted ounces, excluding Massawa, with the Africa and Middle East region once again more than replenishing their reserves.

The group’s total attributable gold resources grew in 2020, net of depletion and excluding the impact of the disposition of Massawa, as a result of the focus on high-confidence geology models following the merger with Randgold. Attributable gold reserves

The merger with Randgold created a company which owned five of the industry’s Top 10 Tier One gold assets – Cortez and Goldstrike in Nevada USA (both 100%), Loulo-Gounkoto in Mali (80%), Kibali in the Democratic Republic of Congo (45%) and Pueblo

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Viejo in the Dominican Republic (60%) – as well as two with Tier One potential – Turquoise Ridge and the Goldrush/ Fourmile project, both in Nevada.

When Barrick combined its Nevada assets on 1 July 2019 with those of Newmont to create Nevada Gold Mines (61.5% owned and operated by Barrick) Turquoise Ridge became the sixth Tier One mine in the Barrick portfolio.

www.BARRICK.com

“The discovery of a new zone of mineralisation approximately 2km east of the Winu deposit, as well as a number of other encouraging drilling results in close proximity to the maiden Winu Resource, indicates the potential for the development of multiple ore bodies within one system”

Delivery and development

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“Kibali is a world leader in automated underground mining, through systems that allow multiple autonomous machines to operate on the same haulage and production levels”

Africa Barrick’s African mines have performed particularly well, as the benefits of the merger with Randgold come to the fore. Loulo-Gounkoto is now one of the world’s largest gold mining operations and one of the largest businesses in West Africa. Randgold also brought with it the Tongon Mine in Côte d’Ivoire, Kibali Gold Mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Massawa in Senegal (now sold), Lumwana in Zambia and the Morila Gold Mine in Mali.

The discovery and development of Morila, in which a JV with AngloGold Ashanti owned 80 per cent, served as the springboard for the company’s expansion into Africa. Since it went into production in October 2000 Morila produced 6.9 million ounces of gold.

The mine was due for closure this year but the JV’s share was sold in November 2020 to Firefinch Limited (previously known as Mali Lithium Limited) for $28.8 million cash. The Government of Mali retains the remaining 20 per cent.

For Barrick, the sale is in line with its policy of selling non-core assets to concentrate on Tier One mines – those with the capacity to produce at least 500,000 ounces of gold annually for more than 10 years in the lower half of the industry’s cost curve.

One of these is Kibali in the DRC, a joint venture with AngloGold Ashanti and the Congolese parastatal SOKIMO. The Kibali Joint Venture produced 808,134 ounces of gold in 2020, achieving the top-end of production

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guidance for the year.

This performance was driven by its underground operation which achieved record monthly and quarterly ore production in December and Q4 2020. Kibali is a world leader in automated underground mining, through systems that allow multiple autonomous machines to operate on the same haulage and production levels, and provide real-time visibility of all operations as well as automated control of the ventilation fans.

Kibali has consistently lowered its carbon emissions thanks to its three hydropower stations and the implementation of predictive maintenance monitoring at these plants will further minimize downtime. At the same time, Kibali has continued

exploration and resource conversion and has replaced the ounces depleted by mining, thereby extending the life of the mine.

Barrick’s Loulo-Gounkoto mine complex comprises two distinct mining permits, Loulo and Gounkoto, in western Mali, bordering Senegal and adjacent to the Falémé River. The Loulo gold mine is owned by Société des Mines de Loulo, and the Gounkoto gold mine by Société des Mines de Gounkoto.

Both Loulo and Gounkoto are owned

by Barrick (80%), and the State of Mali (20%).

The Loulo-Gounkoto complex delivered production of 680,215 ounces of gold in 2020, exceeding its full year guidance despite Covid-19 and other challenges. At the same time,

Delivery and development

www.BARRICK.com it improved its safety performance, reducing its lost-time injury frequency rate by more than half compared to 2019 and achieving a lost-time injury-free year in its underground operations.

The underground operations have reached a world-class level of automation, hard on the heels of pace-setter Kibali. The two existing underground mines, Yalea and Gara, will shortly be joined by a third when Gounkoto underground delivers its first ore tonnes planned for the second quarter of this year.

In another major technological advance, Loulo commissioned Barrick’s first solar power plant in the Africa and Middle East region, delivering 20mW of capacity into the microgrid. Projects scheduled for completion in 2021

“In another major technological advance, Loulo commissioned Barrick’s first solar power plant in the Africa and Middle East region, delivering 20mW of capacity into the microgrid” include the commissioning of a water treatment plant, an expansion of power generating capacity and a powerline upgrade to support the new Gounkoto underground mine.

gold reserves were now larger than they had been 15 years ago, and indications were that it would once more have replaced ounces depleted by mining in 2020.

The complex continued to support and develop local businesses, spending more than $375 million with local contractors and suppliers in 2020.

In a presentation to local media and stakeholders at the Loulo mine, Barrick president and chief executive Mark Bristow said that thanks to continuing successful exploration, the complex’s

“The Loulo district lies at the heart of one of the world’s most prolific gold regions,” he said. “Over the past 15 years, this has delivered more worldclass discoveries than any other, and our extensive exploration programs are designed not only to replenish our reserves but to find our next Tier One mine.”

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In Côte D’Ivoire, Barrick’s Tongon gold mine is 55 kilometres south of the border with Mali. The mine is owned

by Société des Mines de Tongon SA, in which Barrick has an 89.7% interest, and the State of Côte d’lvoire 10%, with 0.3% held by Ivorian investors.

The Tongon mine produced a total of 284,863 ounces of gold in 2020, at the top end of its guidance for the year, driven by strong plant throughput with runtime setting a record of 95.2% in October. This improved throughput, combined with cost-reduction initiatives, had a positive impact on per ounce costs compared to 2019.

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“The discovery and development of Morila, in which a JV with AngloGold Ashanti owned 80 per cent, served as the springboard for the company’s expansion into Africa” Built and commissioned in the middle of a civil war, Tongon has operated in an unstable socio-political environment

and has been impacted by problems including a mill fire, recurring technical issues and an erratic grid power supply.

“Despite all these challenges, Tongon has been consistently profitable and in 2020 again paid a $150 million dividend to its shareholders,” said Bristow. “It provided $1.2 million to the government to support its campaign against Covid-19 while implementing effective prevention measures at the mine to protect its people and the business. And it maintained its commitment to its host community with the installation and start-up of a number of incomegenerating projects.”

Delivery and development www.BARRICK.com Continued exploration and the conversion of resources to reserves have extended the life of the mine to 2023 and further opportunities for replacing reserves are being pursued.

In Tanzania, the North Mara and Bulyanhulu gold mines both produced near the top end of their production guidance in 2020, their first full year under Barrick’s management. Including Buzwagi, the Tanzanian assets delivered a combined output of 462,472 ounces for the year.

The mines have been successfully revived, with North Mara delivering significant improvements and underground production restarted at Bulyanhulu. The mines, managed through the Twiga joint venture with the Government of Tanzania, paid a maiden dividend of $250 million in October 2020.

North Mara posted a record throughput in Q4 and Bulyanhulu recommenced processing of underground ore during the quarter.

Bulyanhulu is scheduled to be in full production by the second half of 2021, when its ramp-up is completed. “We’re optimizing our 10-year plan to make the combined North Mara and Bulyanhulu mines the seventh Tier One complex in the Barrick portfolio by bringing them into the lower half of the industry’s cost curve,” said Bristow.

During 2020, Barrick invested $800 million in the Tanzanian economy in the form of taxes, permits, infrastructure development, salaries and payments to local suppliers. In line with its groupwide policy of employing host country nationals, the company continued to recruit locally, with over 600 new workers employed during the year at Bulyanhulu alone. Tanzanian nationals now make up 96% of the mine’s total workforce.

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Barrick’s African portfolio is completed by the Lumwana copper mine in Zambia, a conventional open pit (truck and shovel) operation located about 100 kilometres west of Solwezi in Zambia’s Copperbelt - one of the most prospective copper regions in the world.

Lumwana ore, which is predominantly sulphide, is treated through a conventional sulphide flotation plant to produce copper concentrate. The mine

produced 276 million pounds of copper in 2020, a 23% increase since 2018.

Proper maintenance and increased efficiencies led to a record throughput of 25.3Mt in 2020, with December being the highest month for milling since the plant was commissioned in 2008. The life of mine has been extended to 2039 as a result of the improved cost profile, and there is potential for further expansion and development of a super-pit.

Proper maintenance and increased efficiencies led to a record throughput of 25.3Mt in 2020, with December being the highest month for milling since the plant was commissioned in 2008

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Delivery and development www.BARRICK.com

“Loulo-Gounkoto is now one of the world’s largest gold mining operations and one of the largest businesses in West Africa”

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North America On 1 July 2019 Barrick Gold and Newmont Corporation (then known as Newmont Goldcorp) announced the completion of their joint venture to combine their respective Nevada properties into Nevada Gold Mines LLC. The deal was described at the time as a classic case of the whole being more valuable than the sum of its parts – and so it has proved.

The JV is operated and 61.5% owned

by Barrick, and 38.5% owned by Newmont. It ranks as the largest gold producing complex in the world by a wide margin, with three of the world’s top 10 tier one gold assets (Barrick’s Cortez, the combination of Barrick’s Goldstrike and Newmont’s Carlin,

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and Barrick’s Turquoise Ridge with Newmont’s Twin Creeks.

In its first year of combined operation, NGM met the production and cost targets set out at the start of the joint venture, a significant achievement considering the JV had required the integration of multiple assets, including three Tier One mines, into a unified complex under a new leadership team.

“The new team was drawn from both legacy companies,” said Bristow. “It started with a clean slate in a fit-forpurpose structure, integrating the two bodies of knowledge to produce new models and fresh opportunities.

“By removing the fences that had previously separated geologically connected assets, mines and projects

Delivery and development Having successfully implemented the financial consolidation process into OneStream during Q4, the next building block is a concurrent roll-out of a more agile financial planning system, also within the new OneStream application.

The full integration of these two major platforms (SAP and OneStream) will enable much quicker insight into the group’s key cost drivers and enormously increase the potential for efficiency analysis, benchmarking and other valueadded reporting.

Barrick’s approach to delivering digital innovation is to let subject matter experts from within the business functions drive the programs, as opposed to a centralized innovation office that clearly belonged together could be combined into larger and more efficient operations, with substantial savings as an immediate benefit. Even more important, this joint venture has created a platform from where we can see a bright new future for NGM as the leader of its industry in every respect: truly a case of the best assets and the best people delivering the best returns.”

Barrick’s growth projects in Nevada are also continuing according to plan.

Construction of the twin exploration declines at Goldrush continues to progress ahead of schedule. The integration of the Goldrush project team into the Cortez structure has been completed and the consolidated underground management team is currently progressing operational readiness.

During 2021, underground development and exploration will continue at Goldrush. First ore will be exposed in the first half of 2021 as part of ongoing exploration and development. Activities in 2021 will

primarily focus on verifying geological, geotechnical and geohydrological models developed for the feasibility study until a Record of Decision is received. Following receipt, construction of infrastructure to allow the ramp-up of production activities can commence.

Construction of the third shaft at Turquoise Ridge, which has a hoisting capacity of 5,500 tonnes per day, continues to advance according to schedule and within budget.

Together with increased hoisting capacity, the third shaft is expected to provide additional ventilation for underground mining operations as well as shorter material haulage distances.

Commissioning is expected in late 2022.

With the implementation of SAP S4 HANA at Nevada Gold Mines in 2020, Barrick laid one of the key foundations for its updated digital roadmap. As the remaining mines and regions bring SAP online in 2021, a major portion of the data used for operational and financial analysis will become standardized globally.

Barrick’s approach to delivering digital innovation is to let subject matter experts from within the business functions drive the programs, as opposed to a centralized innovation office. This has the benefit of ensuring tight ownership by the business and alignment with technology teams.

In Canada, the Hemlo operation is located about 350 kilometres east of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Plans were announced in October 2020 to extend the life of the Hemlo mine by transitioning it to a modernized Tier Two asset with a purely underground operation.

The Hemlo open pit has been mined since 1989 and has produced over 2.8 million ounces of gold. In 2013, the David Bell mine closed, leaving the open pit and the Williams underground mine as the chief sources of ore for the mill feed. Over the next six years, the open pit ramped up and became the primary source of ore for Hemlo.

With mining at the open pit scheduled to wind down at the end of October last year, however, with less than 200,000 tonnes of ore remaining, a transition plan was put in place to transfer most of the 70-plus open pit employees to the current underground contractor, Barminco.

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Latin America

www.BARRICK.com

Barrick’s flagship operation in Latin America is Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic, approximately 100 kilometres northwest of the capital city of Santo Domingo. Owned and operated by the Pueblo Viejo Dominicana Corporation, a joint venture between Barrick (60%) and Newmont (40%), the project has been producing gold since 2012. The company’s workforce is 98% Dominican. For the second straight year, mill throughput achieved a record in 2020.

The expansion of Pueblo Viejo is expected to maintain the mine’s Tier One status for years to come. Plans include an expansion of the mine’s processing plant and tailings capacity with an estimated initial capital investment of more than a billion dollars and the potential to extend the life of the mine into the 2030s and beyond.

The plant expansion was approved last year and work has commenced.

Construction activities continued to ramp-up following EIA approval in Q3 2020. The company is engaging with government and stakeholders to secure land tenure and access for a new tailings storage facility.

During the past year, Pueblo Viejo converted its Quisqueya power plant from heavy fuel oil to natural gas. This will reduce greenhouse gases by 30% and nitrogen oxide by 85%, further reducing Pueblo Viejo’s impact on the environment. There are also plans to switch its lime kiln from diesel to natural gas.

In Argentina, the Veladero mine is located in San Juan Province, in the highly prospective Frontera District.

The property is located at elevations of 4,000 to 4,850 metres above sea level, approximately 374 kilometres northwest of the city of San Juan. Veladero is a 50/50 joint venture operation with Shandong Gold.

Barrick is presently focused on the transition to a new heap leach phase at Veladero, which was temporarily delayed by the response to the Covid-19

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“Barrick is presently focused on the transition to a new heap leach phase at Veladero, which was temporarily delayed by the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Argentina” pandemic in Argentina. As the operation now transitions to Phase 6, which is on-track for commissioning by the end of the first half of 2021, the focus at Veladero will be on ensuring the delivery of the optimized 10year plan, including the start of the Cuatro Esquinas pit pushback and the acceleration of brownfields and infill drilling. Barrick expects stronger performance at Veladero in the second half of 2021 after commissioning of Phase 6, as heap leach processing operations will be reduced during the transition phase.

The project to link Veladero to the power grid in neighbouring Chile, halted by the pandemic, is also underway again.

In February this year Barrick announced it had reached an agreement to sell its 100% interest in the Lagunas Norte mine in Peru to Boroo Pte Ltd (Singapore) for a total consideration of up to $81 million, plus the assumption

by Boroo of Barrick’s closure liability relating to Lagunas Norte.

Mark Bristow said the sale was in line with Barrick’s policy of selling non-core interests, a process which has already realized some $1.5 billion, in order to focus its portfolio on Tier One assets.

The proposed acquisition would benefit the mine’s stakeholders in Peru, he said, by giving Boroo the opportunity

Delivery and development to extend its life by accessing satellite resources and adapting the infrastructure.

At Pierina, also in Peru, closure planning is continuing, although Bristow has made it clear that the Latin American region remains an important destination for Barrick, so the company will keep a team in Peru to continue to develop its portfolio of exploration assets and to pursue opportunities to find and operate world-class gold and or copper mines in that country again.

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Middle East and Asia-Pacific The Jabal Sayid copper operation is located 350 kilometres north-east of Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It’s a 50/50 joint venture operation with Ma’aden. The first shipment of copper concentrate occurred in December 2015, and the mine commenced commercial production in July 2016.

Jabal Sayid’s copper production in the fourth quarter of 2020 was 6% higher compared to the prior quarter, mainly due to an increase in throughput following improvements to the milling circuit and higher plant availabilities. Copper production in 2020 of 75 million pounds exceeded the guidance range of 60 to 70 million pounds, with the mine exceeding expectations on grade and tonnes, and the plant outperforming on both throughput and plant availabilities. 2021 production guidance is 70 to 80 mlbs.

The drill program at Jabal Sayid is on track to convert additional inferred resource into the life of mine plan. It continues to highlight extension opportunities at the known lodes and to outline new potential at greenfield targets. Building on the exploration success in the third quarter of 2020, surface and underground drilling has recommenced at Lode 1.

The Porgera Joint Venture is an open pit and underground gold mine located at an altitude of 2,200-2,600 meters in the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea, about 600 kilometres northwest of Port Moresby. Barrick and Zijin Mining Group each own 47.5% of the operation, with the remaining 5% interest held by Mineral Resources Enga.

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Copper production in 2020 of 75 million pounds exceeded the guidance range of 60 to 70 million pounds, with the mine exceeding expectations on grade and tonnes, and the plant outperforming on both throughput and plant availabilities

Delivery and development Porgera’s Special Mining Lease terminated on 16 August 2019. The company applied for a 20-year extension in June 2017 and has been engaging with the Government of Papua New Guinea on the matter ever since.

On 2 August 2019, a ruling from the National Court of Papua New Guinea allowed the mine to continue operating while the application to extend its SML was being considered. Also in 2019, in response to a request from Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Marape, the company proposed a benefitsharing arrangement that would deliver more than half the economic benefits from the Porgera mine to Papua New Guinea stakeholders, including the

Government, for the remainder of the life of mine, estimated at 20 years.

On 24 April 2020, however, Barrick Niugini Limited (BNL), the majority owner and operator of the Porgera JV, was told by the Government of Papua New Guinea that the SML would not be extended, a move interpreted by Barrick as tantamount to nationalisation.

Porgera was placed on temporary care and maintenance on 25 April 2020 to ensure the safety and security of its employees and communities.

The power struggle is continuing through the courts. Due to the uncertainty, however, Porgera has not been included in Barrick’s full year 2021 guidance.

www.BARRICK.com

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ENGINEERING DREAMS www.bonfiglioli.com

Tell us about Bonfiglioli Bonfiglioli operates in electromechanical power transmissions and electronic power control, more specifically in gearboxes, gearmotors and AC drives, through which we serve a very wide spectrum of applications and sectors in stationary and mobile machinery. The company was founded in 1956 and, after constant and mostly organic growth, has achieved a turnover of over US$1.1bn, with nearly 4,000 employees placed all over the globe in branches and manufacturing plants. This direct structure is further supported by a network of more than 500 distributors worldwide.

What does Mining mean to Bonfiglioli?

Bonfiglioli has been active in the mining industry since the very beginning and thanks to various product developments and geographical expansions we have built a solid reputation in this sector over time. Bonfiglioli offers the largest range of planetary, parallel shaft helical and bevel helical drives to meet any customer need.

Our product range and its proven reliability are merely the foundations for a valuable relationship with our customers, which starts with a deep study of the application, works out customized solutions and finally offers full product lifetime services to keep plant productivity as high as possible.

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What is Bonfiglioli’s product offering in mining applications?

We are very well aware that mines are, by nature, very tough environments, usually located in the harshest regions of the world, with sometimes extreme temperatures. Think of the hot summers in South America, which can easily reach 45°C, or the cold Siberian winters at -30°C; add to that a dusty environment, the sandstorms of the Middle East or the salty air of plants close to the sea.

All this, as well as the conditions under which the machine is used, must be taken into account at the design stage.

This is why, in Bonfiglioli, we have developed a dedicated product series for the heavy duty and mining sector.

More specifically, we develop solutions for the entire crushing process, such as crushers and apron feeders, or sedimentation, such as thickeners and flotation cells, filtering systems or material handling systems, such as conveyors, car dumpers or stacker reclaimers.

“We have Key Accounting Teams directly dealing with multinational mining OEMs. Our local teams of application and service engineers follow up, offering 24/7 service to them or directly to the mine site when required”

“Thanks to our worldwide network of branches, distributors and service companies, we are able to support our customers all around the word with our technical support”

What is Bonfiglioli’s approach to the customer?

We work very closely with the OEM to design jointly the most suitable solution for our customer. Bonfiglioli pays particular attention to aftersales, granting the best possible support on service and spare parts, which helps the customer reduce machine downtime and increases profitability for the operating companies.

Thanks to our worldwide network of branches, distributors and service companies, we are able to support our customers all around the word with our technical support. The ability to assemble locally allows us to give continuity to the end user’s maintenance activities by providing spare parts and service in a very short time.

We really have a comprehensive approach to this sector: we have Key Accounting Teams directly dealing with multinational mining OEMs. Our local teams of application and service engineers can then follow up, offering 24/7 service to them or directly to the mine site when required.

“A complex system of seals, labyrinths and pressure sensors facilitates the pipe connection and prevents the entry of air into the gearbox, thus protecting all components affected by the flow under pressure from wear”

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hDP SERIES

300M SERIES

Are Bonfiglioli units also driving key processes like flotation?

Correct. The flotation machine is one of the key aspects of the entire sedimentation system. Big tanks in series, containing mineral solution and reagents, separate the pure element from the mineral; a specifically designed long impeller stirs the mixture through a gearbox placed on top of the machine.

The process must not be contaminated and this can be guaranteed by the gearbox Drywell solution. The last output bearing, which is reinforced to withstand the high radial and axial loads of the moving impeller, is closed and sealed within a greased chamber which protects it and in turn prevents oil leaks, thus making the gearbox drip-proof.

A complex, compact piping system connected to the gearbox housing at strategic points ensures perfect lubrication of the bearings and gears, which are lubricated with oil free of impurities thanks to a double filter installed in the circuit and monitored by specific pressure and temperature sensors. All of this is managed by a mechanical pump driven by the gearbox itself, which ensures greater reliability than an electric solution.

For better mixing, pressurised air is fed into the tank through the impeller shaft.

A specifically designed connection allows the piping to be fixed at the top of the gearbox which, through a hollow shaft flanged to the impeller shaft, conveys the air to the base of the tank.

A complex system of seals, labyrinths and pressure sensors facilitates the pipe connection and prevents the entry of air into the gearbox, thus protecting all components affected by the flow under pressure from wear.

A fan, integrated in the motor flange, ensures cooling of the gearbox in all conditions. The entire product range can operate at an ambient temperature of 40°C up to an altitude of 4000m without the need for an external cooling system, making the solution simpler. This drastically reduces the risk of failure and the number maintenance hours.

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“For several years, Bonfiglioli has developed IIOT solutions aimed at extending the life of gear units and reducing downtime to the very minimum required for normal maintenance”

What is the bond between Bonfiglioli and Barrick?

In which direction is the mining sector moving?

Barrick is certainly one of the most important end-user customers, although indirectly, that Bonfiglioli has in the mining sector. Every day, Bonfiglioli products, installed in the machines of our OEM partners, contribute to the success of their projects around the world. In particular, in the Pueblo Viejo project in the Dominican Republic, our 370 kW bevel-helical gear units HDO 160 - will soon be installed in 600 cubic metre flotation cells more than 10 metres deep, as well as several apron feeders to complete the package.

According to the World Economic Forum, 79% of mining companies are accelerating digitalization and the adoption of digital tools and processes.

The main drivers for this are to extend the life of plant and machinery, and optimise productivity.

For several years, Bonfiglioli has developed IIOT solutions aimed at extending the life of gear units and reducing downtime to the very minimum required for normal maintenance.

Our sensorized units produce many interesting and useful data which, also thanks to the Bonfiglioli algorithm, provide critical pieces of information for mining companies, such as optimised maintenance intervals, residual lifetime monitoring, and the health status of the gear units, along with more conventional data like oil levels, speed, temperature, etc… In brief, it means having full control of a critical component like the gear units and managing the risk of production losses and O&M costs as well as possible.

Interview answered by:

Luca Tiozzo Key Account & Sector Manager Mining

Our products have played a major role in Barrick’s mining operations, not only in the Pueblo Viejo project.

For example, the thickeners installed in Australia at the Barrick Cowal Gold mine feature our planetary gearboxes.

INTEGRATED COOLING FAN: “TUNNEL DRIVE”

AIR INTAKE

OPTIMIZED LUBRICATION SYSTEM TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE SENSORS

DRYWELL

OUTPUT FLANGE

www.bonfiglioli.com

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REINFORCED OUTPUT BEARINGS

“Every day, Bonfiglioli products, installed in the machines of our OEM partners, contribute to the success of their projects around the world”

Weir Minerals

B

jorn Dierx, global product manager for High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGRs) at Weir Minerals, tells Martin Ashcroft why the Enduron® HPGR is the perfect solution for today’s comminution conditions.

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Engineered for endurance G & J Weir, a marine engineering company founded in Scotland in 1871 by brothers George and James, developed groundbreaking inventions such as the direct-acting feed pump for steam ships, helping support the rapid growth of transatlantic trade.

Their innovations led to significant gains in efficiency and reliability, and meant Weir’s products and services were soon in demand all over the world. The company has since grown to become one of the world’s leading engineering businesses serving mining, infrastructure and, until recently, oil and gas customers in more than 50 countries.

Announcing the recent sale of its oil and gas division to Caterpillar, the company said it was transforming itself into a ‘premium mining technology pure play’. This strategic decision underlines the importance of mineral resources to global economic development, while recognising the opportunities available to help miners extract and process them more efficiently and sustainably.

Not long ago, miners were driven by a desire to maximise production.

A number of influences have come together in recent years to change the mining mindset, however, involving criteria commonly collected under an umbrella known as ESG (environmental, social and governance).

With ore grades declining and new mineral deposits also becoming harder to find, miners are feeling the pinch. Weir is particularly well placed to respond to these new drivers, as its engineers are experts in solving problems. With a tradition of innovative engineering stretching back 150 years, Weir believes it can play a crucial role in helping its mining customers make their operations safer, more efficient and more sustainable.

“With a tradition of innovative engineering stretching back 150 years, Weir can play a crucial role in helping its mining customers make their operations safer, more efficient and more sustainable” World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

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“Requiring fewer process stages, the HPGR reduces overall circuit energy use, as well as grinding media consumption and wear cost”

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Introducing the HPGR One of the many ways that Weir is addressing the new mining momentum is through its Enduron® HPGRs (High Pressure Grinding Rolls), the latest generation in crushing and grinding technology.

Mining is an ancient industry and the business of breaking rocks has been fundamental to mineral recovery for centuries. In modern terminology,

Engineered for endurance to break the particles up.”

Crushing and grinding technologies have come a long way since early man first broke rocks by striking them with repeated blows. “Advances in technology led to mechanisation and the

up to 80mm, tertiary and quaternary crushing stages can be combined into a single operation, and they can also take-over part of the ball mill grinding task. Requiring fewer process stages, the HPGR reduces overall circuit energy use, as well as grinding media consumption and wear cost.

www.global.weir comminution refers to the process through which solid materials are reduced in size through crushing, grinding and screening, before being passed through further mill circuit processes where copper, iron ore and other minerals are refined into raw commodities.

In minerals processing, different combinations of crushers and mills can be deployed in the comminution process circuit, dependent, for example, on ore characteristics including rock size, hardness and moisture content.

“Comminution in mining usually means crushing or grinding,” says Bjorn Dierx, global product manager for HPGRs at Weir Minerals. Crushing and grinding both break material into smaller pieces, but although most of us use these words interchangeably, they are not quite the same to an equipment manufacturer.

“Crushing involves the application of sudden sharp blows,” explains Dierx, “while grinding uses consistent pressure

introduction of steam and electricity,” explains Dierx, “so roll crushers, tube mills, hammer mills and jaw crushers became the standards for crushing and grinding equipment.” In modern times, he says, the jaw crusher became the inspiration for the cone crusher and the ball mill, but more recently still, an increased awareness of flaws in conventional methodology has stimulated a need for a new technology to streamline the transition from crushing to grinding.

Weir Minerals engineers and manufactures its Enduron® HPGRs in Venlo, the Netherlands, and has supplied HPGRs for a range of applications for mine sites around the world.

A comminution circuit can involve several stages, depending on the size of the original rocks and the desired size of the final particles. By using HPGRs, which can be fed with particles

“It’s almost impossible to eliminate feed variance and segregation completely. This has posed a critical challenge for HPGR operators in the past – but dynamic skewing, as featured in the Enduron® HPGR, maintains optimal pressure across the entire feed”

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Saving energy Comminution is an energy-intensive process. HPGRs, often in combination with secondary cone crushers, are therefore seeing increasing acceptance in the mining industry as a replacement for the conventional SAG mill, because they offer significant benefits in energy consumption and consumable parts - as well as superior crushing performance.

“The conventional blueprint for copper/gold grinding circuits using

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“In September last year Weir was awarded a £100m order to provide energy saving solutions to the Iron Bridge Magnetite Project, including Enduron® High Pressure Grinding Rolls and GEHO® pumps”

SAG and ball mill combinations,” says Dierx, “is known as an SABC circuit,” (semi-autogenous ball mill crusher).

“One of our key copper/gold customers shared some figures with us from a copper project we worked on for them.

These figures showed that overall circuit energy was reduced by up to 30 per cent by using HPGR, saving them around $8.4 million US dollars in a year, as well as saving 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. So, the savings are huge and bring a return on the

investment in the increased CAPEX in less than two years.”

With their excellent throughput capacity, low maintenance requirements and energy efficiency, HPGRs are fast becoming a go-to solution for greenfield projects looking to maintain their margins, despite commodity price pressures and declining ore grades.

One such is the Iron Bridge Magnetite Project, a joint venture between Fortescue Metals Group Ltd subsidiary FMG Magnetite Pty Ltd and Formosa

Engineered for endurance “The HPGR is a flexible comminution tool which accepts a larger feed size than conventional mills but yet still produces a fine product. As the roll speed and pressure can be changed online, it can also readily adapt to changing throughputs and ore characteristics” Steel IB Pty Ltd, 145km south of Port Hedland in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. In September last year Weir was awarded a £100m order to provide energy saving solutions to the project, including Enduron® High Pressure Grinding Rolls and GEHO® pumps, which together will reduce energy consumption and wet tailings waste by more than 30% compared to traditional mining technologies.

Responding to the award of Weir’s largest ever mining contract, Group CEO Jon Stanton said, “Fortescue challenged us to help create one of the most energy and cost-efficient magnetite ore processing facilities in the world.

Our engineers have worked relentlessly to design a solution that is truly innovative – delivering significant energy, water and cost savings. This is a great example of working in close partnership with an ambitious customer who shares our passion for using innovative engineering to make mining more productive and sustainable.”

When you’re designing a comminution circuit from scratch on a greenfield site, the use of HPGRs has become a no-brainer, but it’s also becoming more of an attractive proposition in brownfield sites, too. “We definitely see interest when the existing installation is aging,” says Dierx, “or when there is a desire to increase capacity. From a financial point of view, it could also be that the energy costs of the existing site are causing losses.

“It’s also the case with the older mine sites which are now processing harder rocks, that a large amount of the pebbles generated are treated as waste. In South America there are mines with massive stockpiles of pebbles which, with an efficient technology like HPGR, would become viable again to extract valuable material from. So, essentially, we can turn waste into cash for the miners.”

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“One of our key copper/gold customers shared some figures with us from a copper project we worked on for them. These figures showed that overall circuit energy was reduced by up to 30 per cent by using HPGR, saving them around $8.4 million US dollars in a year, as well as saving 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions”

How it works An HPGR basically consists of two counter rotating rollers, which draw the feed material from the top and into the working gap between the rollers.

It sounds fairly simple, but, of course, it’s anything but. While the beauty of the Enduron® HPGR may be in its apparent simplicity, anything that works as smoothly as this is inevitably the result of a great deal of sophisticated engineering.

“As there is no need to disassemble the feed chute and hopper to exchange rollers, the tyres can also be replaced within a 24hour shutdown”

The reason the HPGR is called a grinder, rather than a crusher, is that the ore material is not actually crushed by the working surfaces of the machine.

With one roller fixed and the other floating, high-force hydraulic cylinders press against them. In the operating gap (the distance between the rolls), the particles experience extremely high pressures which exceed the compressive strength of the ore, so the material undergoes a process called inter-particle grinding. “In simple terms,” explains Dierx, “the ore is grinding itself, which gives a higher degree of efficiency compared with the cone crusher, where there is a single point of contact.

“The HPGR is pressure controlled, not gap controlled, which means that the gap will be a function of the ability of the material to handle the pressure and therefore self-adjusts the gap to cater for the characteristics of the ore,” Dierx continued. This dynamic movement is called ‘skewing’.

The HPGR is a flexible comminution tool which accepts a larger feed size than conventional mills but yet still produces a fine product. As the roll speed and pressure can be changed online, it can also readily adapt to changing throughputs and ore characteristics. In the last ten years, the HPGR has sparked a lot of interest and has been accepted

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into the market, with a growing number of new machines installed around the world.

The Enduron® HPGR has been designed to eliminate problems often experienced by other HPGRs. Dynamic skewing, for example, solves a number of them. “In a perfect world,” explains

Dierx, “the ore feed would be consistent, evenly distributed, with a common hardness, grade and moisture. But in the real mining world there are changing ore bodies, changing grades and uneven feed, including oversized material which can impact the operation of the machine.

That’s why skewing is an essential feature

of the HPGR. The Enduron HPGRs are the only machines designed to support the roll-skew required to handle those changing conditions.”

In order for particles to be crushed effectively, the pressure on the particle

Engineered for endurance side of the conveyor belt, the operating gap needs to be wider at that side than

challenge for HPGR operators in the past – but dynamic skewing, as featured in the Enduron® HPGR, maintains optimal pressure across the entire feed.”

As well as uneven ore feed, tramp metal such as steel balls from ball mills can also enter the operating gap, which can cause substantial damage to the roller surface. The risk of damage is significantly reduced with a skewable HPGR. There are other HPGRs on the market, but the Enduron® HPGR is the only one capable of delivering dynamic skewing reliably, because of its innovative bearing arrangement. In an Enduron® HPGR the bearings stay aligned with the shaft when it skews, as the bearing housings are designed to skew with the shaft. “We see a lot of bearing failures with competitors’ machines,” says Dierx.

“It’s a global problem with HPGRs, but our design mitigates that issue. It’s one of the great strengths of the Enduron HPGR. “Some competitor HPGRs are prone to bearing wear because the shaft skews within the bearing itself, which introduces a very high load in the bearing and results in unreliable shafts.

These bearings have lead times over 52 weeks. There’s a huge global shortage of large engineered bearings so for our customers it’s very important that the machine has high availability and they don’t need to keep expensive stock on site. Our unique bearing design ensures that.”

needs to exceed the compressive strength of the material. In the perfect world of even feed conditions, where the particles are spread uniformly across the width of the belt, the operating gap can be the same along its whole length and the particles will be crushed evenly.

But if the rocks are loaded more on one

the other, so a wedge-shaped operating gap is formed. This is referred to as the roll-skew, and it’s this that ensures a consistent grind, as all the ore particles experience the same pressure.

“It’s almost impossible to eliminate feed variance and segregation completely,” says Dierx. “This has posed a critical

“The multi-faced integrated locking system features tungsten carbide studs, embedded into the base material of the tyre, permanently securing the edge stud” www.global.weir World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

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Value-adds Another value-add built into the Enduron HPGR is the design of the lateral walls. These retain the ore particles to ensure they are kept in the operating gap. The lateral wall is the sealing plate, which, combined with the tyres, are the main wear components of an HPGR. “The Enduron HPGR’s lateral walls have a spring-loaded design,” explains Dierx, “which adjusts their position relative to the tyres, a particularly important factor with a skewable design philosophy. This assures a tight seal, where others have a static design with a larger distance between the tyre and the lateral walls.

“We use a patented tyre technology, which works in conjunction with the lateral walls,” he continues, “bringing another high value-add to the machine.”

The multi-faced integrated locking system features tungsten carbide studs, embedded into the base material of the tyre, permanently securing the edge stud. Edging can be problematic with poor feed presentation and maintenance practices, but the Enduron® HPGR’s edging studs remain in place where others might become dislodged.

Still on the subject of edges, HPGRs are subject to a so-called ‘edge effect’ at the end of the roller, which gives a lower grind as a result of the lower pressure there. The length of the edge effect area is related to the operating gap between the rolls, which is a function of the diameter of the roll.

The bearing design of an Enduron® HPGR facilitates a compact roller design, keeping the roll diameter as small as possible but with wider rolls.

The Enduron® tyre’s Length (L) to Diameter (D) ratio therefore delivers a higher grinding efficiency at a single pass, as the edge effect is diminished with wider rolls.

“The L/D ratio can also have a big impact on a circuit’s CAPEX,” points out Dierx. “Longer rolls can be fed with a wider hopper, which reduces the height of the hopper, which in turn reduces the height of the building which houses the

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“Fortescue challenged us to help create one of the most energy and cost-efficient magnetite ore processing facilities in the world. This is a great example of working in close partnership with an ambitious customer who shares our passion for using innovative engineering to make mining more productive and sustainable” HPGR, and that is directly reflected in lower structural costs. Furthermore, a lower HPGR building reduces the length of the conveyors, and that impacts on the plant’s footprint, which means a big reduction in investment as well.”

Weir continues to work on technology development, too. “Wear life improvement is another big value-add for our customers,” says Dierx, “and here we are focusing on improving the roller surfaces, so the wear life can remain

high in the face of increasing ore hardness.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has also created a need to support customers remotely, so we’ve developed digital systems which enable remote monitoring of all our HPGRs. And we are working on an automatic tyre wear management system so we can monitor the condition of the tyres without stopping the machine. So, the remote support will help with optimisation and also predictive maintenance.”

Another advantage of the Enduron® HPGR is its high degree of availability – 95 per cent is not uncommon. Its unique design enables the rollers to be replaced quickly, reducing downtime and releasing personnel and lifting

Engineered for endurance “The Covid-19 pandemic has also created a need to support customers remotely, so we’ve developed digital systems which enable remote monitoring of all our HPGRs” tools during a planned shutdown. As there is no need to disassemble the feed chute and hopper to exchange rollers, the tyres can also be replaced within a 24-hour shutdown.

www.global.weir

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CAVEX® 2

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www.global.weir

Summary As crushing and grinding machinery are energy-intensive, optimising efficiency can save a lot of money. In a conventional SAG mill, oversized feed wastes energy because some of the material is recycled continuously through the machine.

Being pressure controlled, rather than gap controlled, gives the Enduron® HPGR several advantages over conventional machinery. Interparticle grinding increases efficiency, as pressure is transferred to the particle via multiple directions. By applying the right pressure for the specific material, final product size can be determined by controlling the pressure. The HPGR therefore streamlines the transition between crushing and grinding by accepting a larger feed size than a ball mill and producing finer sized particles than a cone crusher.

The unique control philosophy of the Enduron® HPGR, facilitated by the bearing design, transfers the energy equally to all ore particles across the width of the tyre, creating self-adjusting

Engineered for endurance metal rolls, and ensures that the ore is kept in the operating gap at all times, even during roll-skew.

The optimised roller surface technology derives from over 25 years of operational experience. Thanks to their premium tungsten carbide studs, Enduron® HPGR tyres last longer than the competition. Optimised for load bearing and promoting an autogenous layer to absorb wear, the Enduron® HPGRs come with a guarantee of a specified minimum life. Combined with the unique bearing assembly that reduces the risk of failure and the wear reduction associated with skewing, the Enduron® HPGR is expertly engineered for endurance.

“The market drivers for HPGRs are very compelling,” concludes Dierx. “Ore grades are declining, ore is harder and can be more difficult to liberate. Energy is a huge cost for the mining industry but all miners are now under huge pressure to reduce their carbon footprint

as well. And then, ore scarcity means that new mines tend to be located in increasingly arid areas, so water is at a premium or not available at all.

“Against this backdrop HPGR brings essential benefits,” he continues. “It doesn’t need additional water for fine grinding, as we saw in Iron Bridge. This also leads to substantial reduction in wet tailings. So, the cost of ownership compared to a SAG circuit is greatly reduced, driven by high uptime and relatively long wear life. And, of course, the massive energy savings.”

“The cost of ownership compared to a SAG circuit is greatly reduced, driven by high uptime and relatively long wear life. And, of course, the massive energy savings”

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Rio Tinto www.riotinto.com

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Global operations for the modern world R

io Tinto is a global mining and metals group with operations on six continents, focused on finding, mining, processing and marketing the earth’s mineral resources to provide consumers and industry with what they need. Here we summarize the company’s most recent projects and achievements around the world.

Rio Tinto’s mining operations produce raw materials including copper, iron ore, bauxite, diamonds, and industrial minerals including titanium dioxide, salt, gypsum and borates. The company also processes some of these materials, with plants dedicated to processing bauxite into alumina and aluminium, and smelting iron ore into iron. Other metals and minerals are produced as by-products, including gold, silver, molybdenum, sulphuric acid, nickel, potash, lead and zinc.

Copper “Rio Tinto’s Weipa operations in north Queensland include three bauxite mines, processing facilities, ship loaders, an export wharf, two ports, power stations, a rail network and ferry terminals”

Rio Tinto’s very first mine was a copper mine on the banks of the Rio Tinto river, in Andalusia, Spain – purchased by auction from the Spanish government in 1873 by a British-European investor group.

Following this purchase, the Rio Tinto Company was launched in March 1873.

The Spanish assets have long since been divested, but Rio Tinto has become a world leader in copper, with operations in the United States, Chile, Mongolia and most recently, Australia.

Today, its copper operations around the world are at various stages in the

“Rio Tinto’s very first mine was a copper mine on the banks of the Rio Tinto river, in Andalusia, Spain” mining lifecycle, from exploration to rehabilitation. In Arizona in the United States, exploration is under way at the Resolution Copper Project, a joint venture with BHP, which reached a significant milestone in 2019 with the release of a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS), paving the way for the development of one of the world’s most significant copper deposits.

By contrast, the Kennecott mine in Utah is a long-standing world-class, integrated copper mining operation which also produces gold and silver as bi-products. In 2019, after 75 years of operation, Kennecott retired its coal-fired power plant in Magna, Utah, replacing it with power from renewable energy certificates purchased from Rocky Mountain Power – primarily from wind and solar resources.

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Rio Tinto also has a 30% interest in the Escondida mine in the northern Atacama Desert in Chile, although the mine is managed by BHP which owns 57.5%. From mid-2021, the power supply at Escondida will also be largely sourced from renewable energy.

Still being developed is Oyu Tolgoi, in the South Gobi region of Mongolia, home to one of the largest known copper and gold deposits in the world.

When the underground mine is complete, it will be one of the world’s largest copper mines.

Oyu Tolgoi is jointly owned by the government of Mongolia (34%) and Turquoise Hill Resources, which owns 66%. Although not a direct shareholder in the mine, Rio Tinto owns 50.8% of Turquoise Hill Resources and manages the operation on behalf of the owners.

Open pit mining began at Oyu Tolgoi in 2011 and the copper concentrator, the largest industrial complex ever built in Mongolia, began processing mined ore into copper concentrate in 2013. Current infrastructure at Oyu Tolgoi will allow the mine to operate for decades to come.

The vast majority of resources lie underground, and Rio Tinto achieved

a significant milestone at Oyu Tolgoi in late 2019 with the completion of Shaft 2, enabling the acceleration of work on the Oyu Tolgoi Underground Project, but subsequent development has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and other difficulties, including arrangements for a permanent power supply. In the summer of 2020, agreement was reached between Rio Tinto, Turquoise Hill and the Government of Mongolia on the preferred domestic power solution for Oyu Tolgoi, paving the way for the Government to fund and construct a state-owned power plant at Tavan Tolgoi.

More recently, Rio Tinto and Turquoise Hill Resources entered into a memorandum of understanding to provide a clear pathway for completion of the underground project, but delays and cost-overruns continue to cause difficulties in the relationship between the partners. In December 2020 the Government of Mongolia and representatives of Canada’s Turquoise Hill called for a special board committee to be set up to conduct an independent review of the project.

In late 2017, Rio Tinto discovered

“Oyu Tolgoi, in the South Gobi region of Mongolia, is home to one of the largest known copper and gold deposits in the world. When the underground mine is complete, it will be one of the world’s largest copper mines”

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copper-gold mineralisation at its 100% owned Winu project in the Yeneena Basin in the Paterson Province of Western Australia. A significant programme of work has continued since, including reverse circulation and diamond drilling to define the mineralisation extent and continuity.

In July 2020 the company announced the maiden resource at Winu.

Global operations for the modern world www.riotinto.com Study work suggests the copper mineralisation supports the development of a relatively shallow open-pit mine, combined with the industry-standard processing technology used at other Rio Tinto sites. The project team is working with regulators and local Nyangumarta and Martu traditional owners to progress the agreements and approvals required for any future development. First production is targeted for 2023, subject to all necessary approvals.

“In Arizona in the United States, exploration is under way at the Resolution Copper Project, a joint venture with BHP, which reached a significant milestone in 2019 with the release of a draft environmental impact statement”

The discovery of a new zone of gold dominant mineralisation approximately 2km east of the Winu deposit, as well as a number of other encouraging drilling results in close proximity to the maiden Winu Resource, indicates the potential for the development of multiple ore bodies within one system.

Other activity at Winu includes cultural heritage surveys and the commencement of construction of a gravel airstrip for emergency response purposes, given the exploration camp is located approximately 200 kilometres by gravel and sand track from the Great Northern Highway and a seven hour drive from Port Hedland.

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Iron ore Rio Tinto is also one of the world’s leading producers and exporters of iron ore, operating a world-class, integrated network of 16 iron ore mines, four port facilities, and a 1,700-kilometre rail network and related infrastructure in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

“The discovery of a new zone of mineralisation approximately 2km east of the Winu deposit, as well as a number of other encouraging drilling results in close proximity to the maiden Winu Resource, indicates the potential for the development of multiple ore bodies within one system”

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On the other side of the world, the Iron Ore Company of Canada – a joint venture between Rio Tinto (58.7%), Mitsubishi (26.2%) and the Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Income Corporation (15.1%), operates a mine with five pits, a concentrator and a pelletising plant near Labrador City, Newfoundland and Labrador; a port and stockpile in Sept-Iles, Quebec; and a 418 kilometre railway that joins these two parts of the operation.

Rio Tinto is currently expanding

its operations in the Pilbara to epic proportions, while at the same time introducing next generation technologies to deliver greater efficiency, lower production costs and improve health, safety and environmental performance, including artificial intelligence, automation and robotics.

The company’s AutoHaul™ train system is the world’s first fully autonomous, long-distance, heavy-haul rail network – one of the world’s largest robots.

In July 2019, the company approved

“Rio Tinto operates a world-class, integrated network of 16 iron ore mines, four port facilities, and a 1,700-kilometre rail network in the Pilbara region of Western Australia”

a A$1 billion investment in its existing Greater Tom Price operations (100% owned) to help sustain the production capacity of its world-class iron ore business in the Pilbara of Western Australia. The investment in the Western Turner Syncline Phase 2 (WTS2) mine will facilitate mining of existing and new deposits and includes construction of a new crusher as well as a 13-kilometre conveyor. The new conveyor system will help lower greenhouse gas emissions from the mine by 3.5 per cent compared to road haulage. First ore from the crusher is expected in 2021.

As part of the investment, the haul truck fleet at the mine will be fitted with autonomous haulage system (AHS) technology, which has been proved to deliver significant safety benefits as well as enhancing productivity and reducing costs at the company’s existing Pilbara operations.

In August 2019 Rio Tinto awarded contracts worth more than A$250 million to leading Western Australian suppliers BGC Contracting and Monadelphous Group, for work on the Robe River Joint Venture’s West Angelas iron ore mine in the Pilbara. Rio Tinto owns a 53 per cent interest in the Robe

Global operations for the modern world

River Joint Venture, Mitsui 33 per cent and Nippon Steel 14 per cent.

The epic investment, however, is the $2.6 billion earmarked to create Rio Tinto’s first ‘intelligent mine’, GudaiDarri, approximately 35 kilometres northwest of its Yandicoogina mine site, and about 110 kilometres from the town of Newman.

After working closely with the traditional custodians of the land, the project, formerly known as Koodaideri, will now be pronounced and spelt in the Banjima language as Gudai-Darri, following a request from Banjima Elders.

All set to be the company’s most technologically advanced mine, the 100% owned Gudai-Darri has more than 70 design innovations, in addition to technology already in use across Rio Tinto, such as autonomous trucks, trains and drills. The project will incorporate a processing plant, associated infrastructure and a 166-kilometre rail line. Significant innovations include a digital replica of the processing plant, accessible in real time by workers in the field and at the remote operations centre, fully integrated mine automation and simulation systems, and an

www.riotinto.com

automated workshop.

In February 2020, Rio Tinto approved a $98 million investment in a new solar plant at Gudai-Darri, as well as a lithium-ion battery energy storage system to help power its entire Pilbara power network.

The 34-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant is expected to supply all of the mine’s electricity demand during peak solar power generation times and approximately 65 per cent of its average electricity demand. The plant will comprise an estimated 100,000 panels, covering an area of 105 hectares.

Construction is due to be completed in 2021. Complementing it will be a new 12MWh battery energy storage system in Tom Price that will provide spinning reserve generating capacity to support a stable and reliable network.

In November 2020 Rio Tinto opened Australia’s newest airport at GudaiDarri. The facility can accept a range of different aircraft including Boeing 737s, A320s, F100s and King Airs. The airport is expected to handle more than 600 workers in a day at peak operating times.

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

45

Aluminium Rio Tinto is also a global leader in aluminium, with largescale, high-quality bauxite mines and alumina refineries producing some of the highest quality, lowest-carbon footprint aluminium in the world. The Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region in Canada is an important hub for Rio Tinto’s aluminium business, responsible for close to half of its global production. Its operations in the area include an alumina refinery, four wholly owned smelters, six hydropower plants, the Arvida Research and Development Centre (ARDC), the Aluminium Operational Centre, a rail network and one port.

In 2018 Rio Tinto launched ELYSIS, a joint venture with Alcoa, and supported by Apple and the governments of Canada and Quebec, dedicated to developing a breakthrough aluminium smelting technology with no direct greenhouse gas emissions.

Also in Canada, Rio Tinto’s BC Works operation in Kitimat, British Columbia, comprises a newly modernised aluminium smelter and the Kemano Powerhouse, a hydropower facility

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

46

supplied by the Nechako reservoir. From Canada’s west coast, products are transported by ship and rail, primarily to customers in Japan, South Korea and the United States.

In 2019, BC Works was certified by the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) for producing aluminium to

Global operations for the modern world “In 2018 Rio Tinto launched ELYSIS, a joint venture with Alcoa, and supported

by Apple and the governments of Canada and Quebec, dedicated to developing a breakthrough aluminium smelting technology with no direct greenhouse gas emissions” the highest internationally recognised standard for responsible environmental, social and governance practices.

Back across the world to Australia again, Rio Tinto’s Weipa operations in north Queensland include three bauxite mines, processing facilities, ship loaders, an export wharf, two ports, power stations, a rail network and ferry terminals. Here the company’s newest

mine, Amrun, will extend the life of the company’s Weipa bauxite operations by decades, building on its 55-year history on the Western Cape.

The $A2.6 billion Amrun bauxite mine, plant and export facility were approved in 2015, with a targeted start date of 2019. Rio Tinto made Amrun’s first shipment to its Yarwun alumina refinery in December 2018, six weeks

ahead of schedule. At full production, Amrun will have capacity of 22.8 million tonnes a year, with options to expand.

The mine and associated processing and port facilities will replace production from Rio Tinto’s depleting East Weipa mine and increase annual bauxite export capacity by around 10 million tonnes, at a time when higher-grade bauxite is becoming scarcer globally.

www.riotinto.com www.riotinto.com World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

47

Diamonds Until the closure of its Argyle diamond mine in November 2020, Rio Tinto was one of the world’s major producers of diamonds, with a diamond mine in Canada as well as Australia.

The Argyle ore body in Western Australia was discovered in October 1979. Alluvial operations began in 1983, open pit mining began in 1985 and the mine became a fully underground operation in 2013. Over this period of time the mine has produced more than 865 million carats of rough diamonds, becoming the world’s largest producer of coloured diamonds and virtually the sole source of a very small but consistent supply of rare pink diamonds.

The technologically sophisticated underground operation at Argyle was the first block cave mine in Western Australia, a method involving undercutting the ore body and allowing it to break up or ‘cave’ under its own weight. The closure process is expected to take some five years to decommission and dismantle the mine and undertake rehabilitation, followed by a further period of monitoring.

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

48

“At the Diavik mine, Rio Tinto has developed world class engineering technology and techniques to hold back the waters of Lac de Gras to reach the diamond-bearing pipes at the bottom of the lake” Rio Tinto’s Diavik diamond mine is in the Northwest Territories of Canada, half a world away in geographical terms, and vastly different in conditions. Around 200 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, Diavik operates in an icy tundra, where Argyle enjoys the savannah-like conditions in remote Western Australia. While Argyle operated underground, Diavik comprises four diamond-bearing pipes that are mined using a combination of open pit and underground mining, although underground, in this instance, also means under water.

Rio Tinto has developed world class engineering technology and techniques to hold back the waters of Lac de Gras to

Global operations for the modern world

“The technologically sophisticated underground operation at Argyle was the first block cave mine in Western Australia, a method involving undercutting the ore body and allowing it to break up or ‘cave’ under its own weight”

reach the diamond-bearing pipes at the bottom of the lake, building an embankment to create a pool of water within the lake, then pumping millions of litres from this pool back into the lake, monitoring water quality and fish stocks.

The Diavik Diamond Mine is managed by Rio Tinto but owned by a joint venture between Diavik Diamond Mines (2012) Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto (60% ownership) and Dominion Diamond Diavik Limited Partnership, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dominion Diamond Mines (40% ownership).

All mines have a finite life cycle and Diavik has planned for its closure from the outset. The buildings on site have been designed to be removed without a trace. When mining ends, the embankments will be reclaimed and lake water will flow back into the open pit.

www.riotinto.com

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

49

Minerals

most of it to customers in Asia and the Middle East.

Rio Tinto has thriving operations in the minerals sector, too, where it produces salt, borates, titanium dioxide and one of the most highly demanded minerals of the modern age, lithium.

Deposited millions of years ago, borates are crystallised salts that contain boron, a mineral used in fertilisers, but also in high tech applications such as the heat-resistant glass for smartphones and materials for renewable energy – for both wind and solar projects, in wood protection and fiberglass insulation.

The company’s Dampier Salt operation in Western Australia is the world’s largest exporter of seaborne salt – salt produced from evaporating seawater, as opposed to being mined as a solid mineral. The shallow evaporation flats at Dampier have the potential to produce salt almost indefinitely. The operation relies on evaporation over an area equivalent to 27,900 soccer fields to transform seawater into salt, predominantly used for industrial purposes. Rio Tinto exports more than five million tonnes of salt every year,

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

50

Commercially viable quantities of this rare and versatile mineral have been found in a very few places in the world.

One is in California’s Mojave Desert, where Rio Tinto started mining over 100 years ago, first in Death Valley and then moving, in 1927, to Boron, California, from where the company supplies approximately 30% of global demand for refined borates.

Titanium dioxide is a brilliant white, opaque compound, used as a pigment in paints, plastics and paper, and also to produce toothpaste, sunscreen and cosmetics. The 70-year-old Rio Tinto Fer et Titane (RTFT) operation in Quebec, Canada, pioneered the process of removing iron and titanium from

Global operations for the modern world titanium dioxide slag; the company also produces the higherpurity 95% titanium dioxide product rutile as well as pig iron and zircon, from the vast mineral rich sands of the northern KwaZulu-Natal province.

On the island of Madagascar, QIT Madagascar Minerals – a joint venture between Rio Tinto (80%) and the government of Madagascar (20%), also produces ilmenite, rutile and zircon.

The raw material is shipped to the Rio Tinto Fer et Titane operation in Canada and processed into titanium dioxide.

ilmenite. The RTFT Havre-Saint-Pierre mine in eastern Quebec is home to the largest ilmenite deposit in the world.

The ore is transported from there to the Sorel-Tracy metallurgic complex, just over an hour from Montreal, for processing into iron and titanium.

“The company’s Dampier Salt operation in Western Australia is the world’s largest exporter of seaborne salt – salt produced from evaporating seawater, as opposed to being mined as a solid mineral”

When it is smelted and processed into metallic form, titanium is light, resilient and corrosion-resistant. Most of Rio Tinto’s production is used in the automotive industry, to manufacture complex mechanical parts.

In South Africa, Rio Tinto holds a majority interest in Richards Bay Minerals, launched in 1976 and now the country’s largest mineral sands producer and a world leader in heavy mineral sands extraction and refining.

RBM’s principal product is titanium dioxide in the form of an 85% pure

www.riotinto.com

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

51

From Concept Environmental Engineering and Consulting for the Mining Industry Strategic Consulting Feasibility & Permitting Development Construction Management u Operations u Closure

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Lithium Few minerals have the economic potential of lithium, an important component in batteries for electric vehicles, energy storage facilities and consumer electronics.

The Jadar Project in western Serbia is a worldclass lithium-borate deposit discovered by Rio Tinto in 2004. This is a unique deposit containing jadarite - a new lithium sodium borosilicate mineral found nowhere else in the world.

Jadar has been ranked as one of the most significant, high-grade lithium deposits in the world, with the potential to supply a significant amount of lithium and boric acid.

Rio Tinto completed the detailed exploration of the Jadarite deposit in February 2020. At the end of July 2020, the project moved into feasibility study, with an investment of almost

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

52

Global operations for the modern world “Rio Tinto is currently expanding its operations in the Pilbara to epic proportions, while at the same time introducing next generation technologies to deliver greater efficiency, lower production costs and improve health, safety and environmental performance” $200 million on a scope that includes detailed engineering, land acquisition, workforce and supply preparation for construction, permitting and the early infrastructure development. The feasibility study is expected to be complete at the end of 2021 and, if approved, construction could take up to four years.

As recently as 10 December 2020, Rio Tinto disclosed to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) a maiden ore reserve and updated mineral resource at Jadar. Pre-feasibility studies showed that the project has the potential to produce both battery grade lithium carbonate and boric acid. The deposit is located on the doorstep of the European Union, one of the fastest growing electric vehicle markets in the world, and has the potential to provide lithium products into the EV value chain for decades.

In parallel, Rio Tinto has also started work on the commissioning of its lithium demonstration plant in the United States, which is extracting lithium from waste rock at its Boron mine in California. This plant could potentially produce 10 tonnes per year of lithium-carbonate.

As a pioneer in mining and metals, Rio Tinto maintains a portfolio of materials in demand around the world. Having disposed of its coal interests, the company now concentrates on iron ore for steel, aluminium for cars and smartphones, copper for wind turbines, electric cars and the pipes that bring water to our homes, not to mention borates for agriculture, titanium for paint, diamonds for glamour, and the resource of the future, lithium. With a history approaching 150 years, Rio Tinto looks set for the next century and beyond.

www.riotinto.com

“Rio Tinto has also started work on the commissioning of its lithium demonstration plant in the United States, which is extracting lithium from waste rock at its Boron mine in California” World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

53

open autonomy

WHY MINING IS ON THE BRINK OF AN AUTONOMOUS REVOLUTION

By Richard Jinks, Oxbotica VP Commercial

T

he perpetual challenge facing mine operators is how to move valuable raw materials in the most efficient way. Unequivocally, autonomy is a major part of that solution, and the form of that technology is changing.

While other industries are looking at autonomy as a ‘nearfuture technology’, mining has already started to adopt it and reaped the benefits, helping to improve safety, boost production and increase operational efficiency in mines around the globe.

Vehicles with various degrees of autonomy have been active since the early 2000s and current technology is helping to reduce the number of incidents in mines, with transportation accounting for around 30% of all safety issues[1].

While less than three percent of vehicles in mines around the world are autonomous, those that are in operation are reaching important industry milestones[2]. Autonomous operations typically increase the effective utilisation for a manned fleet from 60% to around 75%[3]. The autonomous trucks at Rio Tinto’s mines are estimated to have operated for 700 hours longer than conventional trucks during 2017, with a 15% reduction in load and haulage costs[4].

The mining industry is now on the cusp of another autonomy transformation with the next generation of technology beginning to be deployed.

What makes this revolution different is that it’s driven by software. Software that

makes machines smart and supports a diversity of vehicles in a diversity of places.

Oxbotica’s autonomy software platform can be installed onto any vehicle, in any setting, to make it drive autonomously. The software platform is able to span across all domains, so technology deployed in mines would benefit from the software’s learnings in other environments such as moving people or goods on-road or in off-road environments such as warehouses, ports, airports. We call this Universal Autonomy.

To fully benefit from the long term productivity gains - forecasted to be up to 80%[5] - the industry will have to embrace a new way of thinking about autonomy and by doing so, harness the transformative power of software.

An Open Autonomy software platform An Open Autonomy software platform enables companies to integrate autonomy strategically as a horizontal across their business, enabling all vehicles, irrespective of size or type, to have the same autonomy system. This

in turn means that a mine can be orchestrated in a way not currently available - utilising intelligent vehicles, with a single autonomy system free from the dependence of external infrastructure.

Oxbotica and Wenco International Mining Systems are developing an Open Autonomy software platform for the mining industry, with the aim of providing customers with complete flexibility and efficiency, allowing them to deploy autonomy using any vehicle in their existing fleet.

Our Open Autonomy strategy allows our partners to choose their preferred technologies independent of their vehicle or primary system decisions. In addition, we will have the capability to provide rapid technology advancements via software updates, without the need for vehicle renewal.

The technology is capable of working in the most challenging weather conditions, underground or overground with zero dependence on external systems or reliance on GPS and/or third-party mapping. The modular architecture allows customers to use the full software stack or individual solutions, for example localisation or obstacle detection, with any combination of vision, radar and/or cameras. The open APIs mean we can be completely flexible when engaging with customers.

This brings huge benefits to the industry and will be transformational.

This is the true power of Universal Autonomy.

[1] https://www.icmm.com/en-gb/news/2019/safety-data-2018 [2] https://clareo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Clareo-TWIN-Autonomy-Whitepaper-0619.pdf [3] https://www.rfcambrian.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/RFCA-NTI-Report-2-Autonomous-Mining-Equipment-May-2019.pdf [4] https://www.constructionweekonline.com/products-services/169830-autonomous-trucks-vehicles-and-machines-show-benefits-for-worlds-largest-miningcompanies [5] https://www.mes-insights.com/who-are-mining-vehicle-market-leaders-a-955269/

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

54

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news

Nevada Sunrise begins strategic review of its lithium brine projects in Nevada

N

evada Sunrise Gold Corporation has commenced a strategic review of its two lithium brine projects in Nevada. The company owns 100% interests in the Gemini Lithium Project and the Jackson Wash Lithium Project, both located in the Lida Valley basin in Esmeralda County, Nevada.

“Our Lida Valley projects are located in a highly-prospective basin that is underexplored for lithium brines,” said Warren Stanyer, President and CEO of Nevada Sunrise. “The company’s ownership of a water right is a distinct advantage for Nevada Sunrise in a discovery scenario – without a permitted source of water, no mineral project can reach feasibility in the desert environment of Nevada.”

The Lida Valley is a flat, arid basin with a similar geological setting to the better-known Clayton Valley basin where Albermarle Corporation operates the Silver Peak lithium mine, which has operated continuously since 1966.

Nevada Sunrise acquired Gemini and Jackson Wash in 2015 by claim staking and purchase by option, respectively.

After consideration of the most recent market interest in lithium and other battery metals, the company plans to review the geophysical and geological data collected at Gemini and Jackson Wash to better define lithium brine targets on the two properties.

A single drill hole completed at Jackson Wash in 2017 by an exploration partner to a depth of 826 metres (2,710 ft), intersected aquifers and a sequence of volcanic sediments but did not encounter lithium brine. Nevada Sunrise believes that other targets indicated by geophysics should be followed up at the Jackson Wash property. Gemini has yet to be drill tested.

Nevada Sunrise is a junior mineral exploration company based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, with interests in gold, copper and cobalt exploration projects in Nevada, in addition to the lithium projects mentioned here.

“Without a permitted source of water, no mineral project can reach feasibility in the desert environment of Nevada”

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

59

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news CIMIC sells 50 per cent of Thiess to Elliott

New Century delivers 500,000th tonne of zinc concentrate

CIMIC Group has completed the sale of a 50 per cent interest in Thiess, the world’s largest mining services provider, to international fund managers Elliott Advisors.

The sale agreement, originally announced last October, valued Thiess at $4.3 billion.

Thiess delivers open cut and underground mining in Australia, Asia, Africa and the Americas, providing services to 25 projects across a range of commodities.

It has a diverse fleet of plant and

N equipment of more than 2,200 assets, a team of around 14,000 employees and generates annual revenues in excess of A$4.1 billion.

Elliott is one of the oldest fund managers of its kind under continuous operation and manages more than US$40 billion in assets, including equity positions in private and listed companies, in Australia and globally.

The transaction will strengthen CIMIC’s balance sheet by generating cash proceeds as well as reducing its factoring balance by approximately A$700 million and its lease liability balance by approximately A$500 million. It will also allow CIMIC to retain a strategic interest in its core mining operations while maintaining a balanced and diversified business portfolio.

ew Century Resources has reached a major milestone, producing its 500,000th tonne of zinc concentrate since the recommencement of operations in August 2018.

The company has also executed a zinc price hedging program for the

“In addition, New Century’s hedging program has successfully locked in the current buoyant market conditions for the remainder of the financial year, while also providing full exposure to further zinc price improvement.

“The company sees strong potential for zinc price upside, given the

“The company sees strong potential for zinc price upside, given the continued demand from growth within China” remainder of FY21, securing put contracts to guarantee a floor price of US$1.20/lb for 100% of sales in the March ’21 quarter and 50% of sales in the June ’21 quarter.

“The milestone of producing 500,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate is a significant achievement for the company and testament to the efforts of our team on site, as well as our strong culture and partnerships with stakeholders throughout the region,” said Managing Director, Patrick Walta.

continued demand from growth within China and the likely near-term improved demand around the world as infrastructure-focused government stimulus packages are rolled out.

“This demand is in contrast to continued global supply challenges, with traditional underground miners facing additional operational difficulties in improving production while also implementing social distancing and Covid-19 mitigation practices.”

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

61

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news

Treasury Metals announces positive PEA for Goliath Gold Complex

T

reasury Metals has announced the results from a preliminary economic assessment for the company’s Goliath Gold Complex, which includes the Goliath, Goldlund and Miller deposits along a prospective 65-kilometre trend in northwestern Ontario.

The PEA, prepared by Ausenco Engineering Canada in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, demonstrates the potential to develop a low-cost 5,000 tonnes per day combined open pit and underground mining operation with strong economics.

“With the announcement of the PEA results today, combined with receipt of the federal Environmental Assessment approval in 2019, we have confirmed the Goliath Gold Complex has sufficient critical mass and we expect Treasury Metals to become one of Ontario’s next gold producers,” said Jeremy Wyeth, President and CEO of Treasury Metals.

“Our robust case for the project supports a 13-year mine life with

average annual production of 102,000 ounces of gold for the first nine years, with a post-tax NPV of $328 million and IRR of 30.2 per cent. The project is underpinned by a high-quality resource, and we have taken a conservative approach to resource estimation, with the total M&I ounces virtually

permitting and approvals for the Goliath Gold Complex will be to treat the Goliath, Goldlund and Miller deposits as three distinct projects for provincial permitting.

The schedule for permitting and approvals for the Goliath Gold Project is more advanced than the schedule for Goldlund and Miller, given that a Federal Environmental Assessment (EA) has already been completed for this project.

Therefore, following the release of the PEA, the Goliath Gold Project may proceed directly into provincial permitting and other environmental approvals using the updated proposed mining plan, while additional baseline data collection will be completed for Goldlund and Miller to support anticipated future provincial approval processes. A full year of baseline data collection has been completed for the Goldlund site and will continue throughout the remainder of 2021 to support the anticipated future provincial approval processes.

“We have confirmed the Goliath Gold Complex has sufficient critical mass and we expect Treasury Metals to become one of Ontario’s next gold producers” unchanged from previous estimates.

“We also see significant exploration potential across our 330-squarekilometre land package. In 2021, we are focusing on in-fill and definition drilling to better define the resource, while also initiating step-out drilling to test new targets around both the Goliath and Goldlund deposits.”

The approach to environmental

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

65

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news Ontario launches online tool to help mineral exploration

exploration commences at Bullfrog Gold Project

A

s part of its plan to stimulate the mining sector and encourage investment, the Ontario government has launched a new online tool to help companies and prospectors identify areas available for mineral exploration and claim registration.

OGS (Ontario Geological Survey) Focus is a new innovative online geoscience tool that consolidates historical exploration information from various databases into a free, publicly-accessible, one-stop, easy to use format.

For the first time, prospectors and miners can overlay multiple

sets of data from the Ontario Assessment File Database (OAFD), Ontario Drill Hole Database (ODHD) and Mineral Deposit Inventory (MDI) database. This includes a Data Rating Grid for Open Areas that provides a visual representation of the quantity of available exploration data, and a Data Hot Spots layer that highlights significant contiguous areas with robust data that are available for acquisition.

“Our government is committed to ensuring we support our province’s mineral exploration and prospecting industry,” said Greg Rickford, Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines.

A

ugusta Gold has commenced its 110,000 metre exploration program for 2021 at its highly prospective wholly-owned Bullfrog Gold project in Nevada, USA. “We are excited to have commenced our multi-targeted exploration program

significant exploration potential.”

There are currently two drill rigs onsite with a total of five expected on-site

by April, comprising three diamond drills and two reverse circulation drills.

Concurrent with the proposed drilling, a variety of additional exploration and

“With an exploration budget of up to $20 million, we are focused on mineral resource expansion” in the heart of the prolific Bullfrog district,” said Maryse Belanger, President and CEO. “With an exploration budget of up to $20 million, we are focused on mineral resource expansion, increasing the confidence level in our current mineral resource and targeting a brandnew discovery.

“The program contemplates two phases on five key exploration targets that have been identified to date, with more expected in the future as we advance our program. With a large land package of approximately 7,800 acres that has three historical operating pits and a current open mineral resource, we see

development activities are planned to help advance the Bullfrog Gold project.

These will include archaeological studies, geologic mapping, geotechnical drilling and a geophysics survey.

Details of the phase two program will be finalized following a review of the results of the first phase of drilling.

The Bullfrog Gold Project is located in the prolific Bullfrog district approximately 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada and four miles west of Beatty, Nevada. The company controls approximately 7,800 acres of mineral rights including the Bullfrog and Montgomery-Shoshone deposits.

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

67

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news

GoGold announces new discovery at Los Ricos North

GoGold announces filing of PEA Technical Report for Los Ricos South

A

fter recently releasing the results of drilling at the Los Ricos North project in Jalisco State, Mexico, Canadian-based silver and gold producer GoGold Resources has announced the filing of a National Instrument 43101 Preliminary Economic Assessment Technical Report for its nearby Los Ricos South Project.

“We are advancing Los Ricos South towards pre-feasibility and towards a mine in parallel with our 100,000m drill

G

oGold Resources has released the results of the initial nine diamond drill holes from the Casados deposit in the Los Ricos North project in Jalisco state, Mexico – the first holes ever drilled in what represents a new discovery at Casados.

displays the assay results for 1,679 samples averaging 422 g/t silver and 2.57 g/t gold. No cross-cuts were developed in the old workings so there was no knowledge of the true width of the mineralization in the Casados Vein 1 or the presence of the Casados Vein 2 until

“Los Ricos North is a very large mineralized system”

program at Los Ricos North to define Mineral Resources and new discoveries,” said Brad Langille, President and CEO. “We see the Los Ricos district unfolding into continued value creation for our shareholders in 2021 and beyond.”

The Los Ricos South Project has been envisioned as a combined open pit and underground mining operation, with contract open pit mining in years one to six of the mine plan, and contract underground mining in years six to eleven.

“Casados is the second major epithermal silver and gold discovery our exploration team has made since we began working on the Los Ricos North property only eight months ago,” said Brad Langille, President and CEO. “These discoveries, along with the resource drilling at El Favor and La Trini, we believe will be paramount to the team defining a significant mineral resource estimate at Los Ricos North in 2021. This additional discovery at Casados continues to strengthen our belief that Los Ricos North is a very large mineralized system.”

At the turn of the 20th century, small scale underground mining followed a portion of the Casados 1 vein for approximately 400 metres along strike and down dip for 160m. Production was limited to several stopes. A longitudinal map of the workings produced in 1921

discovered by this drilling program.

GoGold has two exploration projects at its Los Ricos property in Jalisco state, Mexico, Los Ricos South and Los Ricos North. The Los Ricos South Project began in March 2019 and is focused on drilling around a number of historical mines including El Abra, El Troce, San Juan, and Rascadero.

The Los Ricos North Project was launched in March 2020 and includes drilling at the El Favor, La Trini, and El Orito targets. During 2020, GoGold’s exploration team identified over 100 targets on these properties, demonstrating the significant exploration potential. The company plans to drill 10 of these targets as part of its 2021 drilling program which is planned to exceed 100,000 metres of drilling and will be one of the largest in Mexico.

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

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South Australia Government approves Port Playford plans

T

he South Australia State Government has approved a development application by Port Augusta Operations’ (PAO) for a new port facility to be built on the Upper Spencer Gulf.

The approval will allow for the former Port Augusta power station site to be transformed into a modern port, to be called Port Playford, providing export shipping services to existing and future mining operations and projects in the North Gawler, Curnamona and Braemar iron ore regions.

Minister for Planning Vickie Chapman said PAO plans to invest more than $100 million over the next 18 months, unlocking $160 million worth of existing assets currently wasting away at

the disused site.

“It’s estimated that this development will create more than 100 jobs during construction and 80 permanent positions for ongoing Port operations,” she said. “This development will bolster the local economy and create a pipeline of growth opportunity for Port Augusta.

“There is scope for this site to accommodate a range of commodities and activities, including mineral processing,” she added.

PAO’s intention is to load commodities onto shallow-draft self-unloading vessels at the facility’s wharf, via existing rail links, to Cape-sized, ocean-going bulk carriers, moored at existing offshore trans-shipment points to the south-east of Whyalla.

“The economic benefits of this development are already materialising with the signing of legally binding commitments with key customers,” said PAO managing director Shaun Shan.

“Stage 1 of this project has already received more demand enquiries than its proposed capacity, which is fantastic news for our company and South Australia.”

“The development strongly aligns with key state, regional and local development directions and will unlock significant economic benefit within Port Augusta and across regional South Australia,” Shan added.

Construction is planned to commence in mid-2021 with the first shipment from the port scheduled for late 2022.

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

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news

MBU Capital completes acquisition of Ben’s Creek Carbon Mine

M

BU Capital, a privately-owned investment group based in Mayfair, London, has announced the successful completion of Ben’s Creek Carbon Mine.

Set over approximately 10,000 acres in Wharncliffe, West Virginia, USA, Ben’s Creek Carbon Mine holds an estimated 22 million tonnes of metallurgical coal reserves, which will be extracted through high-wall mining and used exclusively for the production of high strength steel. Meanwhile, a five-mile dedicated railway load-out gives the operationally-ready deep well mine direct access to the Norfolk Southern Railway network.

Government expenditure in large scale national infrastructure projects, combined with growth in the construction and the automotive sectors, has spurred the high strength steel market, which is expected to grow globally by CAGR 7.4%

between 2020 – 2027. This, in turn, has created opportunities for asset backed investments in metallurgical coal mining and steel production, a core pillar of MBU Capital’s investment strategy under its owner and founding

at MBU Capital. “But without met coal, there is no steel.

“We forecast strong demand for high strength steel over the coming decade, and this acquisition will significantly add to MBU Capital’s portfolio of

“We forecast strong demand for high strength steel over the coming decade” partner, Mohammed Iqbal.

“The manufacturing of steel delivers the goods and services that society needs, from healthcare, telecommunications, improved agricultural practices, better transport networks, to clean water and access to reliable and affordable energy,” said Adam Wilson, head of natural resources

precious metals and compound materials.”

Once Ben’s Creek Carbon becomes fully operational in July 2021, MBU Capital anticipates the acquisition will directly create and sustain jobs and will also contribute to the economic development of the region in other meaningful ways.

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

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news

ABB condition monitoring software commissioned in China “The success of this project will play a key role in expanding our digital capabilities among other mining customers and industrial sectors in China”

A

BB has installed ABB Ability™ Asset Vista Condition Monitoring at Shanyang Coal Mine in Heyang near Weinan City in China’s Shaanxi province.

The digital solution has been installed at 18 sites around the world since launching in 2015 and the commission at Shanyang Coal Mine is the first for ABB in China.

Shanyang Coal Mine produces three million tonnes of coal annually and main equipment at the mine includes a production hoist, two service hoists and one main ventilation system. The hoists are equipped with ABB brake systems installed by ABB China eight years ago.

S

The solution that ABB offered to Shanyang included a data acquisition system, five workstations, network devices and ABB Ability Asset Vista to completely monitor three hoists and the main ventilation system of the mine, so that repairs can be made quickly and unnecessary maintenance is avoided.

“We have benefitted from ABB’s expertize in hoists and brake systems previously, and know that ABB also has a strong track record in building unified IT frameworks,” said Chongyun Zhang of Shaanxi Chenghe Shanyang Coal Mine Co, Ltd. “ABB’s local technical competence and the adaptation and scalability of ABB Ability™ Asset Vista

were additional key factors in awarding this contract.”

“This contract marks Asset Vista’s first application in China,” said Xin Wang, Service Manager of ABB Process Industries, North Asia and China. “With technical support from ABB Brazil’s Asset Vista team, including training and project experience sharing, the team in China completed the project successfully, with commissioning in June 2020. The success of this project will play a key role in expanding our digital capabilities among other mining customers and industrial sectors in China with enquiries from new customers already underway.”

Solaris continues expansion of Warintza Central

olaris Resources has reported assay results from a series of additional holes from the ongoing diamond drilling program at its Warintza copper and gold project in south-eastern Ecuador.

Four additional holes have returned long intervals of high-grade mineralization starting from surface, extending the limits of mineralization to the west and northwest.

To date, 17,400 metres have been drilled at Warintza Central in 21 holes, of which results have been reported for 13; drilling is ongoing with six rigs currently operating and six more being added by mid-year, which will lead to a commensurate increase in the pace of results being reported.

“Our drilling continues to demonstrate significant extensions of mineralization

at Warintza Central,” said Jorge Fierro, Vice President, Exploration, “with the latest results extending high-grade mineralization to the west, a direction in which the high-conductivity anomaly that correlates to high grade mineralization at Warintza Central continues for a further 1.5 km at or near surface and is being targeted in ongoing and planned drilling.”

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

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NEW MONITORING SYSTEM PROVIDES REMOTE ACCESS TO BACKSTOP OPERATING CONDITIONS Marland Clutch recently introduced the Smart Marland Monitoring System that provides up-to-the-minute access to critical backstop operating conditions including vibration, temperature and oil level.

The IoT solution allows users to remotely monitor the condition of their equipment from anywhere using a computer or cell phone.

The system can monitor up to 6 backstops from a single gateway. Users can perform statistical analysis to identify maintenance and repair needs, set desired report intervals and receive alarm notifications. System reporting capabilities include current measurements, historic trending and vibration analysis.

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news GHH launches new load haul dump truck

New KamAZ mining dump truck equipped with Allison fully automatic transmission

H

eavy duty mining equipment manufacturer GHH has launched a new load haul dumper, the LF-7.

It comes with the biggest bucket and the best power rating, for highest operating slope angles, in the seven tonnes payload class, with a super low emission, super compact package.

The articulated LF-7 carries 7,000kg of payload in its bucket, but the vehicle is only 8.9m long in driving position, 2.24m wide at the bucket and 2,2m high at the cab when loaded, meeting the demands of large narrow vein and small mass mining operations.

At approximately 18 tonnes operation weight, the LF-7 is powered by a 164 kW Cummins diesel engine, complying with Tier 3 and 4 as well as EU Stage 5 emissions standards.

The Dana transmission shifts forward and reverse in four gears each to cope with gradients of up to 28 per cent and to reach speeds of up to 27 km/h.

GHH offers several LHDs with payloads from 3 to 21 tonnes.

R

ussian OEM KamAZ has launched a new range of dump trucks for the mining sector.

The KaMAZ-65805 Atlant dump truck features an Allison 4700 fully automatic transmission to support its market proposition as an efficient, economical and comfortable dump truck.

Developed by the KamAZ Science and

vehicle components, the transmission is subject to increased requirements in terms of reliability, durability and manufacturability. These were the major factors for selecting a transmission for the new KamAZ Atlant. We opted for Allison Transmission.”

The Allison 4700 transmission’s integrated hydraulic retarder was

“The Allison 4700 transmission’s integrated hydraulic retarder was specified to provide greater brake system service life” Technology Center, the KaMAZ-65805 is designed for the transportation of rock and ore material in medium and small quarries. It is capable of being converted into an autonomous vehicle.

The Atlant truck range will include vehicles with a load capacity of 45 to 70 tons and with a 10x6 chassis.

“We design new haul trucks with the market needs in mind by thoroughly studying the requirements of end users for this vehicle class,” said Sergey Nazarenko, chief designer of innovative vehicles at the KamAZ Science and Technology Center. “As one of the key

specified to provide greater brake system service life and to address the challenge – particularly in quarries and mountainous areas – of slowing the truck effectively without overloading the brake system. Another valuable safety feature of the automatic transmission is that it virtually eliminates rollback when driving uphill.

Founded in 1915, Allison is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, with regional headquarters in the Netherlands, China and Brazil and manufacturing facilities in the US, Hungary and India.

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

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news

OceanaGold achieves first gold production at Martha Underground

O

ceanaGold Corporation has issued an update on Martha Underground, part of its Waihi Operations in New Zealand, including project development progress and updates to mineral resources.

“We are very pleased with the progress

production to sustain continuous milling.

“Following our successful 2020 infill drill campaign at MUG, the company is pleased to announce an increase in the indicated resource to one million ounces of gold grading 5.2 g/t; an increase

“We are pleased to announce an increase in the indicated resource to one million ounces of gold ” we have made at Martha Underground where we have achieved first gold production and expect steady-state in the second half of the year,” said Michael Holmes, President and CEO. “We will continue to batch process MUG ore this month ahead of the planned mill shut down to install a new SAG mill shell which remains on schedule for completion in late second quarter. Once completed, we expect underground

of 36% representing the addition of approximately 260,000 ounces of gold.

The increase in indicated resource underpins the minimum ten-year mine life targeted for MUG. Importantly, we are also on track to complete the MUG feasibility study that will include our initial mineral reserve for the deposit.”

The company continues to expect Waihi to produce between 35,000 and 45,000 ounces of gold in 2021.

Leviathan Gold launches 30,000 metre drilling program at Avoca and Timor Projects

L

eviathan Gold has launched a 30,000 metre drilling program at its newly-acquired Avoca and Timor Projects in the Victorian goldfields of Australia.

Diamond drilling has commenced at Avoca, with the initial phase of work, expected to comprise at least 5,000 metres, designed to target nearsurface strike and depth projections of mineralization around and beneath the Excelsior Reef.

Historic records from Excelsior indicate the mining of 13,200 tons for 9,260 ounces of gold to a depth of 100 meters at an average recovered grade of 22 g/t Au between 1909 and 1915.

“We are excited to commence drilling of this near-surface high grade target

“Historic records indicate the mining of 9,260 ounces of gold to a depth of 100 meters” at Excelsior,” said Leviathan Gold CEO, Luke Norman. “Historic records from this prospect suggest that the mining and processing methods of the day were rudimentary, such that only isolated extraction of shallow, near-surface, visible, high-grade mineralization was possible, resulting in only very selective and discontinuous mining, and leaving open targets at Excelsior – and numerous other prospects – for Leviathan to drill-test.”

World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

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How will technological innovation shape the future of mining?

By Boris Ivanov, Global Commodities Expert

“AI programmes can analyse significant quantities of geological data and identify where to find resources”

T

raditionally, mining has been slow to adopt new technologies and embrace innovations that could transform the industry. However, over the past ten years, the industry has faced an increasingly challenging scenario – to improve efficiency and to reduce costs, whilst also demonstrating an increased environmental and social awareness.

Amidst the turmoil of a global pandemic, the pressure to get this balance right has only intensified and triggered many countries to reassess the long-lasting impacts of their mining projects. As a result, new processes and technologies must be developed to meet the increasing demand for materials and this is where the rise of smart mines can offer a solution.

From AI and spatial visualisation data to automated drones, digital technologies are set to make mining operations around the world more efficient and sustainable, whilst significantly reducing the risks involved.

In fact, a 2017 report by professional services company, Accenture, found that 82 percent of the mining industry

is looking to increase investments in technological innovations over the next few years.

So, how will technological innovation shape the future of mining?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Rapid advances in artificial intelligence tools are improving planning and operational efficiencies, mine safety and workflow productivity, as well as stimulating the integrated supply chain. For example, by using smart data and machine learning, a single operator can now remotely control several drill rigs simultaneously, with autonomous vehicles taking over pit-topit operations.

Moreover, AI can also be used to provide recommendations on new and potentially valuable sites to mine. By using pattern matching and predictive analysis, AI programmes can analyse significant quantities of geological data and identify where to find resources.

This not only helps companies to locate and extract minerals at a much quicker pace, but also to reduce the initial investment required as mining

companies can plan exploration activities with much more precision.

AI-powered technologies can also be developed to help minimise the ecological impact of mining operations – thus lowering the environmental footprint. Mining sites can be easily monitored and environmental parameters such as temperature and groundwater tracked to assess the wider impact of a mine.

Autonomous mines Mines have always been considered dangerous environments to work in.

However, as the exploration of new deposits becomes increasingly complex, including lower ore grades and deeper deposits, the number of injuries remains persistently high. This is where technological innovations help. The World Economic Forum projects that automation and robotics could prevent 10,000 injuries in the mining and metals industries in the decade to 2025.

Through the implementation of AI-powered autonomous systems, mining companies are now able to use self-controlled machines to take

analysis

Remote control stations by RCT

charge of the operations in unstable environments. This move will not only significantly reduce the threat to miners’ lives. The rise of the ‘digital mine’ is also set to boost overall productivity with machines able to work 24/7.

Spatial Data Visualisation Spatial data is becoming increasingly valuable across the mining sector, with three-dimensional modelling and virtual reality software enabling companies to plan new mines remotely.

3D modelling allows companies to create a realistic model of a new mine, with viewable depth perception, which enables them to assess potential issues before plans are deployed in the real world.

In addition to this, using real-time data collated from strategically placed sensors, a digital twin of an already established mine can be created. From this model, it is possible to perform simulations and stress test potential areas of weakness in the equipment.

Digital twinning is becoming an increasingly important tool to enhance operational planning and reduce overall costs, by mitigating against

interruptions across the mine workflow and optimising the maintenance of equipment. In fact, a 2017 study by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Accenture estimated that the rise of digital twinning could contribute a benefit of US$190 billion across the mining industry between 2016-2025.

Drones and surveillance Mining by its nature has a negative impact on the environment. Whilst this is an unavoidable reality, mining companies can significantly reduce this impact by tracking how resources are extracted and disposed of. For example, automated drones can be used to monitor excavation and extraction projects, keeping detailed accounts on the spread of waste products and harmful materials. By introducing an element of accountability, mining companies can take steps to minimise subsequent knock-on effects.

Furthermore, drones can also be used to assess pipeline infrastructure and retention ponds, whilst also providing safety surveillance in hazardous areas and asset management across multiple

sites. By providing a detailed account of what cannot be seen by eyes on the ground, drones are only set to become more important to the successful running of mining operations.

Looking ahead It is without a doubt that the mining sector can only benefit from adopting digital technologies and data analytics to optimise the efficiency of mines, boost asset performance, reduce risk and mitigate against environmental concerns. Moreover, shifting to autonomous or semi-autonomous remote-controlled mines will only work to enhance the process along the entire value chain.

Mining has always involved dealing with uncertainty and variability.

However, in a rapidly changing world, mining companies need to align technology with their business needs to become agile, resilient, and transformative. By delivering modern, safe and productive mines and strategically leveraging technology including data, mining companies can take advantage of opportunities, overcome disruption and create value.

Solutions for Detecting Rips in Conveyor Belts Andrew I. Hustrulid, PhD, PE

C

onveyor belts rip longitudinally, primarily by being impinged by foreign objects such as drill steel, rock bolts, steel liner plates or rock slabs that penetrate through the belt and become lodged in the impact bed structure or surrounding steel. The majority of time the rip occurs at the tail or loading point of the conveyor, but occasionally does occur elsewhere along the conveyor.

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Steel cord belts are particularly susceptible to belt rips as they have no, or limited, rip resistance strength.

Once a foreign object penetrates the belt there is nothing to force the object free, so it is not uncommon to see the entire belt length rip into two pieces.

Belts carrying primary crushed ore are occasionally fitted with an additional fabric or metal breaker layer to provide

additional impact resistance. This can provide some additional protection against damaging the steel cords but only offers limited protection against rips.

The consequences from a rip in a steel cord belt are significant. Rips are generally long and make the conveyor essentially inoperable. These belts are often the lifeline of the mine, carrying

the ore from the primary crusher a long distance to the processing plant or coal up the steep slope out of an underground mine. Steel cord belts are only made to order and typically have a multi month lead time to be manufactured. The costs of the belt and the replacement service can also be substantial. Vulcanized repairs and/or installing mechanical clips offer temporary, but marginal, results in returning to operation. Frantic calls looking for used steel cord belt around the world are not uncommon following the rip of a steel cord belt.

For these reasons it is not uncommon for mining companies or their insurance companies to require that rip detection systems are installed and in operation on critical steel cord conveyors.

Fabric conveyor belts are less impacted by rips. Due to their multiply woven nature foreign objects are less likely to penetrate the entire carcass.

When an object does penetrate the carcass the strength of the carcass may dislodge the object from the belt and/or the rip will migrate out the side of the belt, limiting damage to a limited portion of the entire length.

Straight warp fabric designs have historically performed well in high impact and potential rip applications.

Fabric belts are also commonly held as spares, stocked at distributors, or available with a lead time of a few weeks from the manufacturer, limiting the necessity for rip detection in fabric belts.

Over the last five decades a few different types of rip detection systems have been developed.

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loop based systems

T

he most common systems in use today are two different loopbased systems where an inductive loop is placed in the conveyor during manufacturing and later read with a transmitter and receiver in the field. If a loop is expected, but not found, the controller concludes that the loop has been cut and the conveyor is stopped.

The transmitter and receiver to detect the loop are generally placed a short distance following the load point.

The general principal is that a transmitting coil generates an electromagnetic field (EMF) at a relatively low frequency of approximately 56.5 kHz. If the coil in the belt is intact, a current is induced which then generates a second EMF that is detected by a receiving coil mounted on the opposite side of the conveyor. If the coil in the belt is not intact, the receiving coil should not receive a signal.

However, due to their relatively close proximity of only the belt width, one challenge is when the transmitter and

“The system knows that a loop is there and not some other object when the signal reverses”

receiver “couple” to each other when no loop is present. This can be caused by the positioning of the sensor heads, high gain and/or sensitivity settings, a splice in the belt or other metallic objects on the belt.

Two methods have been employed to avoid the coupling issues: • When using the “Figure 8” loops the signal detected by the receiving antenna is reversed or inverted when the loop is present. The system knows that a loop is there and not some other object when the signal reverses.

• The systems with the rectangular loops take a completely different approach. The transmitter and receiving heads have a polarization in their electromagnetic fields. When they are positioned approximately perpendicular to each other their fields do not interact. Here the word approximate is used because there is some fringing of the fields and they are not perfectly polarized. The long transmitting coil creates a current in the end of the loop and the receiving coil picks up the current from the wires that cross the belt width.

These systems have worked over the years but many mines and service technicians report that they can be difficult to maintain and can have false nuisance trips that are costly to follow up

Figure 1 - Figure 8 Loop with Sensor Configuration

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on, lead to unplanned down time and may eventually lead to the system being turned off completely or not believed when an actual rip does occur. Better understanding of the systems, improved software, user interfaces and remote monitoring have improved the usability of these systems.

Typical difficulties that have been experienced over the years are:1. Physical damage to the systems.

2. Poor or intermittent reading of the loops.

3. The system not knowing where it is in the revolution of the belt.

Operating in a mining environment it is not uncommon for the systems to be physically damaged. Types of damage experienced are severe corrosion due to the corrosive mine environment, sensors position being changed or completely dislodged due to impact from material falling off the belt, and sensors or control boxes being flooded in wet mining environments. To overcome these challenges, control boxes are available in stainless steel or hard plastic cases, sensors are encased in epoxy or secondary hard plastic cases, and it is recommended that the customer carry spares of all components mounted on or near the conveyor.

The principal of these loop systems is an inductive loop, installed in the

“The transmitter and receiving heads have a polarization in their electromagnetic fields. When they are positioned approximately perpendicular to each other, their fields do not interact. Here the word approximate is used because there is some fringing of the fields and they are not perfectly polarized” conveyor. Reliable reading of the loops, while also seeing a false loop when one isn’t present, is a challenge.

The loop can be installed in either the top or bottom cover. Installing the loop in the bottom cover provides additional protection from impacting material and will place the loop closer to the transmitter and receiver without the steel cords of the belt between the two.

However, often a thicker pulley cover is required to accommodate the thicknesses of the loop. Typical minimum cover thickness to accommodate the loop is 6mm.

The wire used in the loops is carefully selected to resist fatigue and corrosion.

Typical constructions are a copper core enclosed in stainless steel shielding. The solder joint of the two ends of the wire is a potential failure point so cable splices are typically done with individual strand ends staggered at up to seven unique locations around the loop. Additional attention needs to be paid to the rubber compounds used to encapsulate the antennae to ensure they do not react with the core metal or the shielding.

The figure 8 sensors are shown in Figure 1. The transmitting coil is supplied with 15 volts. When a loop is not present the transmitter can couple with the receiver. Antennae on the surface of the PCB act to align the rf waves.

Solutions for Detecting Rips in Conveyor Belts

The current generated by the transmitter can be seen moving in the opposite direction as it passes over the receiver in the Figure 8 Loop.

Systems using the rectangular loops use transmitters and receivers with polarized linear radio frequency fields. The system operates at 12 volts and a frequency of 56.5 kHz and the long transmitter generates a current in the wire at the end of the loops nearest the belt edge. The receiver is placed perpendicular over the wires crossing the belt picks up the signal. The signal in the receiver changes direction as the sensor passes under the middle of the loop. The rectangular loop configuration is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 - Rectangular Loop with Sensor Configuration

One byproduct of the close integration between the sensor types and the loop design is that different sensors don’t necessarily work well with alternate loop types.

The linear sensor heads can usually read the figure 8 loops, but the cylindrical sensor heads cannot read the rectangular loops. This can lead to replacement belt sales tied into a particular belt manufacturer. Several different belt manufacturers utilize the rectangular loops.

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operating modes

I

n the simplest operating mode, the controller keeps track of the maximum time expected between each loop. The PLC informs the system that the belt is running and if a loop is not detected within a set number of seconds the system flags that the belt has been ripped.

By adding a speed sensor to the system, the control unit can keep track of the position of the belt as it moves around the system. Instead of the basic time between loops, the system can now keep track of the distance between loops. Knowing the position of the belt as it rotates around the conveyor system is critical. The speed sensor is typically measured on a non-driven pulley in case there is belt slippage. Modern systems use two encoders detecting targets on the pulley shaft or the pulley rim. Dual encoders are required to pick up not only belt speed but the direction of rotation.

As the belt starts or stops a pulley may temporarily run backwards. With only one proximity probe this may look like additional space in the belt which causes problems. Additional recommendations are to use industry standard speed measurement devices, dual output sensors to reduce the number of sensors required on the pulley, and for systems mounted near the head of the conveyor system the speed detection should be mounted on the same side of the take-up as the sensor heads, and finally the speed targets on the pulley should be equally spaced.

More advanced operating modes learn the pattern of loops in the conveyor and then, based on either a short or long loop spacing, can identify a starting position in the belt. While the system is either learning the loops spacing or looking for the start of the pattern it will operate in the maximum loop spacing mode. In practice this model can be problematic as weak loops may or may not be picked up during training, short (or long) loop spacings may be similar in the belt, and

“By adding a speed sensor to the system, the control unit can keep track of the position of the belt as it moves around the system.

Instead of the basic time between loops, the system can now keep track of the distance between loops” the system must be retrained when there are any changes to the conveyor such as adding or changing a splice.

Starting in 2005 manufacturers started installing RFID chips adjacent to the rip panels. These chips, picked up by a separate sensor, each had a unique ID associated with them, enabling the system to immediately know where it is in the belt revolution once the first RFID chip passes the sensor. This improved the availability of the rip detection systems significantly. The RFID chips can either be installed at the time of manufacture or retrofit into existing systems in the field. It is also common to install, at a minimum, one RFID chip in the conveyor so that the system can find at least one unique start point.

RFID chips are being used in conveyor belts for other purposes.

Examples include marking the splice locations and details and marking distances from just before to after the splice in an effort to monitor splice stretch, which may indicate impending failure. RFID readers may also read the chips as they pass on the belt going in the opposite direction. For example, an RFID sensor monitoring the carry run of the belt may also pick up the RFID chips as they pass on the return run on the opposite side of the conveyor. It’s critical to not only return that an RFID chip was present but also the ID number of the chip.

Problems with Belt Mistracking

T

he performance of the system is dependent on the sensors in the belt properly positioned over the transmitter and receiving heads. If the belt mistracks this causes the relative position of the loops to the sensor heads to shift and the read loop strength may decrease.

With the rectangular loops the allowable mistracking is limited by the length of the transmitter which passes over the end of the loop. In 2002 the transmitter length was increased from 250mm to 400mm to allow for more mistracking. This should allow the belt to track +/- 200 mm.

The figure 8 loops initially had two smaller circular loops that were designed to pass over the transmitter and receiver. This permitted minimal mistracking. Over time the pattern has changed to two elongated loops.

The length of these loops is dependent on the belt width. For a 1524mm wide belt the permitted mistracking is approximately +/- 160 mm.

The size and placement of the loops in the belt is also critical. If the loops are not located consistently across the belt width, or a smaller loop is inserted, sporadic problems with the reading of the loops can occur, leading to false trips.

Belt lift off during starting or running at the location where the sensor heads are, may also lead to false trips. When the belt lifts off the loops are farther away from the sensor heads, decreasing the signal strength, and potentially resulting in a missed loop.

For optimum reliability with the loop system the belt should track consistently over the transmitter and receiving heads, all of the belt loops should be the same size and consistently located across the belt width and the belt should maintain positive contact with the adjacent idlers at all times.

“The EMSYS system has two RF tags mounted in the belt, one on each side, connected by two wires. These are referred to as Smartwires”

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The Next Generation of Rip Detection

R

FID technology has significantly advanced since 2005. The chips are now amazingly small, can be read from further distances and can also include sensing and measurements. There is significant commercialization of RFID chips beyond conveyor belts which has led to industry wide standardization and significant development.

There are three common frequency ranges used with RFID that are summarized in Table 1.

Solutions for Detecting Rips in Conveyor Belts

Table 1 - Industry Standard RFID Frequencies

STRENGTH

RANGE

FREQUENCY

Low Frequency

Ability to penetrate metal surfaces

8 Inches to 6 feet

125 – 134 kHz

High Frequency

Medium to high water content

Inches to a couple of feet

13.56 MHz

Ultra-High Frequency

Good for transmitting data

Up to 50 ft

433 and 860-960 Mhz

Figure 3 - Smart Wire and Sensor Head

E

MSYS is the first company to fully incorporate these technologies into belt rip detection.

Instead of a large antenna inserted into the belt, the EMSYS system has two RF tags mounted in the belt, one on each side, connected by two wires.

These are referred to as Smartwires.

The two chips operate at industry standard RFID frequencies of HF and UHF. One chip draws power from the external transmitter and powers the other chip that is picked up by the receiver. If the connection between the two chips is lost, due to a belt rip, then the receiving RFID tag reports that the power antennae is cut, and the belt is shut down. To keep the transmitter and receiver from interfering with each other they are operated at different industry standard frequencies.

Smartwires are constructed of a Kevlar® braided core for impact resistance and strength. They are made of a silver coated copper wire wound around the Kevlar® core which is then stitched in a z pattern to breaker fabric for resistance to breakage. The solder joints and RFIDs are encased in epoxy to prevent breakage and ensure the longevity of the signal. Each Smartwire has a power tag and an antenna RFID and the tags can be programed with information such as: Unique ID codes

to map to the position in the belt, the date of installation, maintenance dates, etc. Smartwires are warrantied for 1 year and will not impact the performance of the belt or lead to belt failures.

Smartwires are placed within the belt, during manufacture or as a 35-minute retrofit for existing conveyor belts, at regular intervals for monitoring the

length of the belt. Smartwires are also manufactured in house at Almex facilities and have short lead times.

They do not require special shipping or handling such as refrigeration, because they don’t contain any uncured rubber and are flexible by design. In fact, they can be delivered by courier due to the flexibility and lightweight construction.

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The Path to the Future

T

here is a large installed base of rip detection systems in the market. It is unreasonable to expect an end user to replace, at one time, all of their existing loops with Smartwires. However, the end user will still want to take advantage of this new technology.

The EMSYS transmitter and receiving heads are designed to read both the existing figure 8 and rectangular loops in the field as well as the new Smartwires.

Installing an EMSYS system as a secondary system or replacement system on an existing conveyor with rip detection will expose the additional software advances in the EMSYS system and as loops are gradually replaced with smart wires the overall system reliability will improve.

“The EMSYS transmitter and receiving heads are designed to read both the existing figure 8 and rectangular loops in the field as well as the new Smartwires”

Figure 4 - Replacing Smartwires in the Field

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Maintenance of failed loops in the field

T

he antenna loops do fail. They may fail due to material impact, fatigue, cuts into the conveyor covers or a manufacturing defect. As the loops begin to fail, they may just weaken in their signal strength or show up sporadically – sometimes active and other times not active. These failing loops are a significant contributor to false and nuisance trips with rip detections systems. To reduce the issues with these failing loops it is typically possible to program the controller to ignore specific loops or not look for a loop during specific segments of the belt. Failed loops do not need to be physically removed from the belt, but they should be physically cut and approximately a 25 mm section of the wire removed from the belt, so they are completely inactive. Where the loop is cut can be repaired with a quick curing urethane type compound.

When a loop fails, that segment of the belt now has a longer unprotected length. If the original loop spacing was 30 meters, that segment of belt, is now unprotected for 60 meters. To return to the original protection level a new loop needs to be installed. For antenna style loops this requires that the belt is stopped at the correct location, the

“The Smartwires with RFID Tags are much smaller at only 100mm wide. With a specialized grooving device and small, lightweight press, they can be quickly replaced in under an hour with two people” conveyor is appropriately locked and tagged out, a section of the top or bottom cover is removed, the new loop and covers are installed and the rubber vulcanized with a press approximately 800 mm wide. Once cooled the belt can be removed from service. This process, after the belt is tagged out, should typically take an experienced crew about four hours. The antennae are typically supplied from the belt manufacturer in a rubberized panel compatible with the belt rubber.

The Smartwires with RFID Tags are much smaller at only 100mm wide.

With a specialized grooving device and small, lightweight press, they can be quickly replaced in under an hour with two people. This technique is shown in Figure 4.

Solutions for Detecting Rips in Conveyor Belts

Belt Installation

T

he coordination of the manufacture of a large steel cord belt with the steps for the planned installation onsite is often overlooked. The OEM or customer orders a new steel cord belt with specified loops spacing of, for example 30 meters. The belt manufacturer makes the belt with a loop spacing of 30 meters, but due to the way steel cord belts are manufactured the roll lengths have minimal variations in length. If all the rolls are installed exactly in the direction and order they were manufactured in, then the loop spacing on the installed belt will be correct.

However, this is often overlooked, and the belts installed in a random order which results in significant variations in the loops spacings around the splices.

Some being shorter than expected and others longer. Even less ideal is when a few, possibly half, of the belt rolls get installed in the opposite direction than the remainder. This can lead to tracking problems which is detrimental to rip detection, and a big problem in the case of RFID tags where there is a specific edge of the belt that needs to be over the reader.

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Recommendations Recommendations for rip detection system:.

1 2 3 4 5 6

Transmitter and receiving heads are located on the conveyor system and in close proximity to the belt. The devices, connections and mounting bracket should be rugged enough to survive in the mining environment.

The control system is mounted near the conveyor system. It too should be rugged enough for the mining environment.

At the location where the transmitter and receiver are mounted the tracking of the belt should be as consistent as possible and maintain constant contact with the adjacent idlers.

The system should be capable of working with different loop styles and RFID chips from various belt manufacturers.

The system should report and record the strength and history of each loop, tag or panel so that their life can be monitored over time.

The system should be accessible remotely, either in the office at the mine site, or over the internet to reduce the required access to the controller located at the conveyor system.

Rip Detection Based on Belt Width

S

ystems that do not require antennae or panels to be installed in the conveyor belt are also desirable.

Companies have tried ultrasonic systems, camera systems, and even simple systems that look for material spillage as an indication of a belt rip.

A new system in this class based on mapping and measuring the width of the belt, the WRS has been developed by

EMSYS. A single RFID chip is installed in the belt to identify a start position, a proximity sensor on the pulley is used to record the distance and a mechanical system is used to measure the belt width as it travels past a fixed point on the conveyor.

Any changes in the belt width compared to the stored pattern raises a belt rip alert and the conveyor is stopped. This creates an additional benefit of edge damage detection. The WSR compares the conveyor belt to

“A new system in this class based on mapping and measuring the width of the belt, the WRS has been developed

by EMSYS. A single RFID chip is installed in the belt to identify a start position, a proximity sensor on the pulley is used to record the distance and a mechanical system is used to measure the belt width as it travels past a fixed point on the conveyor” stored data and changes in the edge profile are detected. If the edge of the belt is newly damaged, changing the belt width, the conveyor will also be shut down.

To measure the belt width the positions of both the left and right edge are compared. This cancels out the belt tracking, as well as records the tracking signature of the conveyor.

Figure 5 - Belt Width Rip Detection System (WSR)

When a conveyor belt is ripped due to a foreign object it will exhibit one of two different states – spreading or shearing. The WSR System utilizes an offset idler in front of the system to amplify these actions and accurately detect a rip.

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Solutions for Detecting Rips in Conveyor Belts

Figure 6 - Belt Spread and Shearing

Direction of conveyance

spreading (positive belt width change)

Direction of conveyance

shearing (negative belt width change)

Because the width-based system does not rely on antennae, it will detect a rip immediately after it begins, due to the change in the width of the belt. As a result, less belt will be ripped with a width-based system than one with loops spaced intermittently throughout the belt.

Conclusion

A

dvances in technology have improved the solutions for detecting rips on conveyor belts. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology can now be applied to not only identify the location of a panel in the belt but also report on the condition of the antennae. This eliminates the need for large low frequency panels in the belt. The smaller size of the RFID based Smartwires significantly reduces the field installation time for new installations and replacements.

To help end users transition to the new Smartwire technology the transmitter and sensor heads are designed to read both the figure 8 and rectangular loop styles common in the marketplace.

For belts not initially manufactured with loops, operators looking to add rip detection to their systems should consider the modern width-based system, the EMSYS WRS.

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Conveyor Belt

Management

REDEFINED

• RFID BASED RIP DETECTION • BELT POSITION MONITORING • AUTOMATED BELT TRACKING • EDGE DAMAGE DETECTION • THERMAL IMAGING • TONNAGE AND SPEED • SPLICE AND CABLE DAMAGE DETECTION • REMOTE MONITOR I CONTROL I SCAN

EMSYS puts it all in the palm of your hand PAY MONTHLY I TEXTILE OR STEEL I RETROFITABLE I CONVEYOR BELT WARRANTY

Email us at info.emsys@almex.com for a presentation and to hear more

bhp a diversified portfolio BHP’s diversified portfolio and high quality assets, together with a strong balance sheet, have made the company resilient in the face of the ongoing market uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic

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M

ining is an uncertain and risky business at the best of times, and the last six months have not been the best of times, by a long way.

The global economy has been seriously compromised by COVID-19, with demand for resources collapsing as industries were put on hold. Mining activities have been curtailed in some countries, while those that continued mining have had to find new ways of operating to protect their workforce and local communities.

The pandemic is far from over, of course, and it would be rash to suggest that anything will ‘return to normal’ in the near future, but considering the speed at which the virus spread and the measures that had to be taken to limit its impact, BHP has shown remarkable

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resilience in terms of production at the end of its financial year.

In its Operational Review for the year ended 30 June 2020, BHP attributes its strong performance to “the commitment of our workforce, our disciplined controls and financial strength,” which “enabled us to continue to safely operate through the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Some mining jurisdictions were affected more severely than others, and the company’s performance reflects that, but BHP still managed to meet its full year production guidance for iron ore, metallurgical coal and its operated copper and energy coal assets.

Production was lower than guidance at the Antamina copper and zinc mine in Peru and at the Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia, following the temporary

“Mining activities have been curtailed in some countries, while those that continued mining have had to find new ways of operating to protect their workforce and local communities”

bhp a diversified portfolio

suspension of operations due to COVID-19, but both operations are now ramping back up.

Amazingly, record production was achieved at Western Australia Iron Ore (WAIO), and at Queensland Coal’s Caval Ridge and Poitrel mines, despite impacts from wet weather and COVID-19. Record coal was also mined at Broadmeadow in the Bowen Basin and in Chile, record average concentrator throughput was delivered at the Escondida copper mine.

Copper

With higher production at Escondida and Olympic Dam offset by lower production at Antamina, BHP reported group copper equivalent production for the 2020 financial year broadly in line

with the previous year, but volumes are expected to be slightly lower in 2021.

In Australia, Olympic Dam copper production increased by seven per cent to 172 kt, supported by solid underground mine performance, record grade and the prior period acid plant outage. This was partially offset by the impact of planned preparatory work undertaken in the September 2019 quarter related to the replacement of the refinery crane and unplanned downtime at the smelter during the March 2020 quarter. The physical replacement and commissioning of the refinery crane is expected to be completed in the March 2021 quarter.

Underground development into the Southern Mine Area progressed to plan over the year, and provided access to higher copper grade ore. Production for the 2021 financial year is expected to increase to between 180 and 205 kt.

Production for the 2022 financial year is expected to be lower as a result of the major smelter maintenance campaign planned for the first half of the year.

For the majority of the June 2020 quarter, BHP’s Chilean assets operated with a reduction in their operational workforces of approximately 35 per cent to incorporate measures in response to COVID-19. The company expects the operating environment to remain challenging, with workforce reductions likely to remain at a similar level during the September 2020 quarter.

Nevertheless, Escondida copper production increased by four per cent to 1,185 kt, with record June 2020 quarter concentrator throughput of 382 ktpd lifting annual concentrator throughput to a record 371 ktpd. This offsets the impact of a three per cent decline in copper grade, stoppages associated with the social unrest in Chile and the reduced workforce. BHP said the new records were achieved through continued improvements in operational and maintenance practices leading to increased availability and utilisation at the site’s three concentrators.

Also in Chile, Pampa Norte consists of two wholly owned operations in the Atacama Desert – Spence and Cerro Colorado. Here copper production decreased by two per cent to 243 kt, with strong operating performance offset by grade decline of approximately

14 per cent. Production for the 2021 financial year is expected to be between 240 and 270 kt, reflecting the reduced operational workforce due to COVID-19, the start-up of the Spence Growth Option Project and expected grade decline of approximately seven per cent.

Cerro Colorado is adjusting its mine plan to meet operational requirements for the remaining period of its current environmental licence, which expires at the end of 2023. The adjustment to the mine plan will result in reduced operations and reduced headcount. The resizing measures will be implemented over the next four months.

Cerro Colorado is, however, also exploring development options that could allow mining operations to continue beyond the end of 2023, including the preparation of new environmental studies required to apply for new permits. In accordance with BHP’s water stewardship commitments, any continuation of production beyond 2023 would be performed using seawater as a replacement for freshwater usage.

Iron Ore

With Brazilian operations at Samarco suspended after the failure of the Fundão tailings dam and Santarém water dam on 5 November 2015, all of BHP’s iron ore has been produced in Australia. Operational readiness activities for Samarco’s restart have been slowed by a reduction in the workforce, as part of the COVID-19 response.

Restart can occur when the filtration system is complete and Samarco has met all necessary safety requirements, and will be subject to final approval by Samarco’s shareholders.

In FY20, total iron ore production increased by four per cent to a record 248 million tons. BHP expects production of between 244 and 253 Mt in the 2021 financial year.

Western Australia Iron Ore (WAIO) is an integrated system of four processing hubs and five mines, connected by more than 1,000 kilometres of rail infrastructure and port facilities in the Pilbara region of northern Western Australia.

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from mines is crushed, beneficiated (where necessary) and blended to create high-grade hematite lump and fines products.

WAIO’s performance included record production at Jimblebar and Yandi.

Weather impacts from Tropical Cyclone Blake and Tropical Cyclone Damien were offset by strong performance across the supply chain, with significant improvements in productivity and reliability following a series of targeted maintenance programs over the past four years. This enabled WAIO to produce at a record annualised run rate above 300 Mt during the June 2020 quarter.

Coal

BHP’s Australian coal assets are in

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Queensland and New South Wales.

Metallurgical coal production was down three per cent to 41 Mt in FY20 as a result of significant wet weather events in the prior quarter and geotechnical constraints at South Walker Creek.

Production is expected to be between 40 and 44 Mt in the 2021 financial year.

Queensland Coal comprises the 50/50 BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) and BHP Mitsui Coal (BMC) assets in the Bowen Basin in Central Queensland.

BMA is Australia’s largest coal producer and supplier of seaborne metallurgical coal. It is owned 50:50 by BHP and Mitsubishi Development. BMA operates seven Bowen Basin mines (Goonyella Riverside, Broadmeadow, Daunia, Peak Downs, Saraji, Blackwater and Caval Ridge) and owns and operates the Hay

“Some mining jurisdictions were affected more severely than others, and the company’s performance reflects that, but BHP still managed to meet its full year production guidance for iron ore, metallurgical coal and its operated copper and energy coal assets”

bhp a diversified portfolio

Point Coal Terminal near Mackay. With the exception of the Broadmeadow underground longwall operation, BMA’s mines are open-cut, using draglines and truck and shovel fleets for overburden removal.

BMC owns and operates two open-cut metallurgical coal mines in the Bowen Basin – South Walker Creek Mine and Poitrel Mine. BMC is owned by BHP (80 per cent) and Mitsui and Co (20 per cent). South Walker Creek Mine is located on the eastern flank of the Bowen Basin, 35 kilometres west of the town of Nebo and 132 kilometres west of the Hay Point port facilities.

Poitrel Mine is situated southeast of the town of Moranbah and began open-cut operations in October 2006.

At Queensland Coal, strong underlying

operational performance, including record underground coal mined at Broadmeadow and record annual production at Caval Ridge and Poitrel, was offset by planned major wash plant shutdowns in the first half of the year and significantly higher rainfall during January and February 2020 compared with historical averages.

Blackwater, the company’s largest mine, was the most severely impacted by flooding, with mining operations stabilised during the June 2020 quarter and a return to full capacity expected towards the end of the September 2020 quarter.

Technology has played an enormous role in recent operations by allowing several mine sites to work remotely in response to the challenges of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Some of the specialised equipment and computer programs required to carry out the work were too large and complex for conventional laptops, which had previously restricted remote working.

In March, BHP’s Resource Engineering team launched the Technical Computing Environment (TCE) project to make some of these programs available off site by hosting them in an online data centre that the teams could access remotely. This proved a game changer for the mine scheduling teams across the Queensland Coal business.

Hayden Bachmann, the Scheduling Manager at BMA’s Blackwater coal mine in Queensland, says the transition from site to remote working has been seamless. “We have access to the TCE from home which gives us access to the programs we need to do our jobs,” he said. “The team has set up their home offices which include large monitors and ergonomic work stations as most of the design work they do requires a large monitor to fit the design work on. Absolutely no one works from the kitchen table.”

Jonathan Regan, the Mine Scheduling Manager at BMA’s Caval Ridge coal mine, manages a team of around 20 engineers and has been impressed with how they’ve taken to remote working.

“We’re still in regular contact with the execution teams on the ground,” he said. “The move to working from home hasn’t impacted the performance of the team at all. I think they’ve taken it as an

opportunity to show that there’s a way of being flexible on the frontline.”

Energy coal production decreased by 16 per cent to 23 Mt in 2020. Production is expected to be between 22 and 24 Mt in the 2021 financial year, while NSWEC production decreased by 12 per cent to 16 Mt as a result of the change in product strategy to focus on higher quality products and unfavourable weather impacts from December 2019 to February 2020. This was partially offset by a strong performance in the June 2020 quarter driven by record truck utilisation. Production is expected to be between 15 and 17 Mt in the 2021 financial year.

New South Wales Energy Coal (NSWEC) consists of the Mt Arthur Coal open-cut energy coal mine in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia, which produces thermal coal for domestic and international customers in the energy sector. Earlier this year Reuters reported that BHP was looking to reduce its exposure to fossil fuels by trying to find a buyer for the Mt Arthur operation.

In Colombia, production at Cerrejón decreased by 23 per cent to 7 Mt due to a temporary shutdown during the June 2020 quarter in response to COVID-19, as well as a focus on higher quality products, in line with the mine plan.

The temporary shutdown lasted for approximately six weeks and allowed for completion of COVID-19 control measures to meet the Colombian Government’s regulations. Production is expected to be approximately 7 Mt in the 2021 financial year. Cerrejón is owned in equal parts by subsidiaries of BHP, Anglo American and Glencore.

Nickel

All of BHP’s nickel operations (mines, concentrators, a smelter and refinery) are located in Western Australia, where Nickel West is a fully integrated mineto-market nickel business. Nickel West production decreased by eight per cent in FY20 to 80 kt due to the major quadrennial maintenance shutdowns at the Kwinana refinery and the Kalgoorlie smelter, as well as planned routine maintenance at the concentrators in the December 2019 quarter.

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and ran at full capacity during the June 2020 quarter. With the major planned maintenance and the transition to new mines now complete, total nickel production is expected to increase to between 85 and 95 kt in the 2021 financial year.

In June this year BHP agreed to acquire the Honeymoon Well Nickel Project comprising the Honeymoon Well development project and a 50 per cent interest in the Albion Downs North and Jericho exploration joint ventures from MPI Nickel Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Norilsk Nickel Australian Holdings BV. BHP Nickel West is already a 50 per cent shareholder in the Albion Downs North and Jericho Joint Ventures. The combined tenement package is located

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in the northern Goldfields region of Western Australia, approximately 50 kilometres from BHP’s Mt Keith mine and 100 kilometres from its Leinster concentrator.

“This is an exciting opportunity to enhance our world-class nickel resource base in Western Australia,” said BHP’s Nickel West Asset President, Eddy Haegel. “Proximity to our existing facilities makes us the natural owners of these deposits, and provides potential options to bring the undeveloped resources to market.”

“Nickel continues to be an essential input into new technologies that will improve the battery storage needed for renewables and electric vehicle manufacturing. Consistent with our strategy to invest in future facing

“Operations at Nickel West ramped back up to full capacity during the March 2020 quarter and ran at full capacity during the June 2020 quarter”

bhp a diversified portfolio

commodities, this transaction gives us access to explore and develop these prospective nickel sulphide tenements.”

Development projects

At the end of the 2020 financial year, BHP had several major projects under development in copper, iron ore and potash.

The Spence Growth Option Project in Chile is continuing to progress on budget, with the overall project 93% complete, but as a result of measures put in place to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the first copper production is now expected between December 2020 and March 2021. After a reduction in the on-site workforce, the desalination plant will be commissioned in the first half of the 2021 financial year.

BHP holds various exploration permits and mining leases for the Jansen Potash Project, covering 9,600 square kilometres in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. Jansen’s abundant resource allows for it to be developed in stages, with anticipated initial capacity of four million tonnes per annum.

The service shaft and production shaft are 1,005 metres and 975 metres deep, respectively. In March this year, final shaft lining work on the two shafts was restricted to one shaft at a time, with reduced crews, as part of the company’s COVID-19 response plan to reduce the on-site interprovincial workforce. Work was resumed on both shafts, however, in June. Timing for completion of the shafts continues to be under review while BHP assesses the impacts of COVID-19 and the temporary reduction in construction activity.

Potash is a potassium-rich salt, mainly used in fertiliser to improve the quality and yield of agricultural production. As such, it is a vital link in the global food supply chain. With demands on that supply chain intensifying as the global population rises, the strains on finite land supply mean sustainable increases in crop yields will be crucial. Potash fertilisers will therefore be critical in maintaining soil quality.

Construction began in July 2018 on BHP’s US$3.6 billion South Flank iron ore project in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia. When operational, South Flank will be one of the largest iron ore processing hubs in the world.

The project will include a crushing and screening plant, an overland conveyor system and rail-loading facilities.

The overall project is 76% complete and remains on schedule for first production in the middle of the 2021 calendar year. It is expected to produce 80 million tonnes per annum, replacing volumes from Yandi which will reach the end of its economic life in the earlyto-mid 2020s.

As at the end of March 2020, approximately 80 per cent of the contracts awarded are being performed in Australia, of which 95 per cent is within Western Australia. Some interstate employees have relocated to Western Australia to help with the project delivery. Over the life of the

project, it is expected that more than 9,000 people will be engaged in the South Flank work force.

The project is using modular construction techniques to speed up the build and the modules are some of the biggest ever delivered into the Pilbara.

Around 1500 units of all shapes and sizes are arriving into Port Hedland, but with many up to 15 metres wide, and the largest weighing 354 tonnes, getting them 350 kilometres from Port Hedland to South Flank is a highly complex road transport job involving two years of planning.

The modules are assembled into convoys on heavy-lift sleds at Boodarie by transport specialist Mammoet. They travel to site at 40 kilometres per hour, but anything more than 8.5 metres wide has to move at night.

In July this year, with ore already being hauled and stockpiled, the mine’s massive primary crushers were slotted into the cliff-like walls of the two run-ofmine (ROM) pads. Over 26 kilometres of high-tech overland conveyors, designed and built in WA, stretch away from each crusher across the undulating Pilbara landscape.

In the Operational Review for FY20, BHP’s Chief Executive Officer, Mike Henry, summed up the company’s approach to a difficult year. “BHP safely delivered a strong operational performance in the 2020 financial year,” he said, “achieving record production in a number of our operations, and an improved cost base. This performance, achieved in the face of COVID-19 and other challenges, is a result of the outstanding effort of our people and the support of our communities, governments, customers and suppliers.

“We continue to focus on becoming even safer, delivering exceptional operational performance, maintaining disciplined capital allocation, creating and securing more options in future facing commodities and building social value. We have learned new ways of working, both internally and with others, through the COVID-19 pandemic. We will seek to embed these in a way that helps to reinforce these priorities.”

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The future of mining is remote “Tomorrow’s winning strategy was invented 40 years ago”

I

n recent decades, the single most talked-about issue in the mining business is no doubt “automation”. A word that immediately makes us think of increasingly sophisticated information and communication systems.

Ultimately, the real key word here is rather “integration” and, in one sense, there is nothing new about

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that. To meet the ever-present need for productivity and workplace safety, especially underground, the world’s mining operators have always strived to optimize their production processes.

Which, in turn, have always called for the bird’s-eyes point-of-view. And an integrated outlook, ensuring that every step along the production process contributes to a smooth, integrated workflow.

The world’s most sophisticated automation systems and processes

are, to a great extent, built on decades of more or less universal mining challenges, and a wealth of hands-on experience. A true pioneer in both automation and integration is LKAB in northern Sweden.

Over the past 40 years or so they have paved the way for modern methods, combining the never-ending chase for competitive productivity with environmental awareness and innovative solutions for workplace safety.

Midroc ab the future of mining

largest underground mines. LKAB Sweden hired Midroc for efficient logistics at the transport level at 1365.

This assignment paved the way for Midroc also being hired by the world’s largest gold mine in Indonesia – Grasberg.

MIDROC’S operations in automation have been developed for more than a decade. The customer base is wide, from pharmaceutical industries to process industries and mines. Midroc performs electrical design, programming, and systemization regardless of which platform the customer uses for its control.

Kiruna - Sweden

Simplicity from A to Z

During the pioneering years of automation, LKAB made the most of the digital technology available at the time – which, by today’s standards, was anything but impressive.

Since then, information and communication systems have developed way beyond anybody’s wildest expectations, and the world’s suppliers of mining automation systems are continually integrating new functions and features to simplify the operators’

workday.

The one remaining challenge for many operators has been to make the systems provided by different companies talk freely with each other. True end-to-end integration of best-in-class equipment.

And now we are getting there, one step at a time.

Midroc Remote Mining

Midroc Automation has been responsible for train control and parts of process control in some of the world’s

When LKAB planned for a new main level in the Kiruna mine, a goal was far-reaching automation for high productivity. Seven driverless trains on the main level would transport the ore from 38 loading points. Midroc was hired to deliver the process control system Siemens PCS7 and the train control system Interflo 150. Midroc was responsible for all control from the trains being loaded at a drop, emptied automatically in emptying mode, even the ore being crushed. All this is managed from the control room on surface enabling LKAB to optimize the transports, with the video systems and screens that are the operators’ work tools.

Indonesia

The solutions in Kiruna were so good that they inspired the operators of the Grasberg mine when the open pit mine was to be replaced by an underground mine, located in Papua, Indonesia.

Representatives from the Grasberg mine visited Kiruna for inspiration and really liked the solution.

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“We were contracted to develop a similar solution as in Kiruna,” says Magnus Emanuelsson, the senior project manager, who previously was the project manager for the commitments in Kiruna.

“In addition to eleven trains, the ore is transported by truck underground and we have built systems to load and optimize truck transport as well. Every day, 240,000 tons of ore are mined, 2.5 times more than in Kiruna, that is.”

Midroc has designed three control rooms located outside the mine for Freeport. With joy sticks, the operators remotely handle both loading and rock breaking. The train dispatchers control the driverless trains. The communication is via fiber and wireless. Not least, the camera systems are very extensive,

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where everything that is controlled is also monitored, from loading all the way to the conveyor belt towards the concentrator.

“The systems we have delivered also include traffic systems for all trucks, cars and buses that drive shift teams in and out of the mine.

Ventilation on demand, gas and air quality monitoring in the mine is also included in the control,” says Magnus Emanuelsson.

The Grasberg mine is the world’s largest gold mine and the third largest copper mine. Midroc Automation is happy to take on assignments for everything from small problem solutions to large turnkey deliveries including hardware. “The global technical competence from several industries and several system platforms is one of our strengths,” Magnus concludes.

Midroc ab the future of mining

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Techenomics International liquid assets

Chris Adsett, CEO, and Jason Davis, Australian Operations Manager for Techenomics International, tell Martin Ashcroft how they help customers extend the life and improve the efficiency of their equipment

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M

ining is a capital intensive business and in order to maximise their returns on investment, miners continually strive to improve the performance of their machinery and equipment. Downtime is expensive, not only for the intrinsic cost of maintenance or repairs, but the consequential loss from a piece of machinery being taken out of production.

Techenomics International, a company specialising in condition monitoring and fluid analysis, is dedicated to helping its customers maximise equipment performance by resolving lubrication problems. “We’ve been in business for thirty odd years,” says CEO Chris

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“When we do somebody’s fluid analysis, we look to provide them with a total end result – a potential solution or a sign-off ”

Adsett. “Our core business is condition monitoring, based on oil analysis and fluid analysis.”

Condition monitoring and fluid analysis help miners optimise asset performance and consequently save money, by highlighting lubrication problems which can cause equipment to underperform or even fail altogether.

Oil analysis provides a detailed picture of the lubricant’s properties, including measurements of any suspended contaminants and wear debris. The oil carries tell-tale signs of potential problems or failures, but so too do the coolant, grease and fuels. Techenomics uses a number of testing methods and procedures to analyse these lubricants.

Performed during routine preventive maintenance, this kind of analysis provides accurate information on the condition of the machine. Huge amounts of money can be saved by reducing downtime and diverting resources to other, more pressing maintenance requirements.

To maximise the potential of condition monitoring and fluid analysis, however, you must provide more than a simple

techenomics international liquid assets

set of results. If you can interpret them and offer solutions, you can help the customer understand what to do next.

“Traditionally, an oil analysis laboratory will produce a pathology report,” says Adsett, “just like when you have a blood test. We put a lot of emphasis on the interpretation of those results, because nobody has a blood test for the sake of doing it. You’re looking for a maintenance platform, either in the human body or with your machinery.

So, it’s the interpretation that’s important, rather than just handing the results over.”

To evaluate an oil sample, Techenomics’ laboratory chemists investigate and report on the lubricant’s fundamentals and ability to perform its duties. Results and comments are then viewed by the chief chemist and evaluated by the mechanical failure analysis team. Once they are in agreement, a report is sent to the client via email. This is then uploaded to the company proprietary online software platform, Blue Oceans, where clients can view historical data anytime they like.

The combination of the laboratory chemists and the knowledge of the maintenance engineers provides clients with highly detailed insight information into the sample results that can reduce

“We analyse the sample to detect things like the wear of metals and the depletion of additives” downtime on their equipment, achieve a higher and more effective availability rate and save companies huge amounts of money.

Blue Oceans

In their classic book, Blue Ocean Strategy, published in 2004, Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne coined the terms ’red ocean’ and ‘blue ocean’ to describe market dynamics. Blue ocean strategy is characterised as the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost, to open up a new market space and create new demand, making the competition irrelevant.

“We named our online platform, Blue Oceans, after that,” says Adsett.

“McDonalds is often quoted as an example of Blue Ocean Strategy. It’s

low cost and universal, and it gives an ordinary person the opportunity to have a restaurant experience at a much lower cost than a traditional restaurant.

“Our Blue Oceans software program provides a marketplace where we combine the equivalent of a physiotherapist, a specialist, a GP and the pathology laboratory all in one.

When we do somebody’s fluid analysis, we look to provide them with a total end result. We use the oil analysis or the fluid analysis data but provide a potential solution or a sign-off.

“Most customers send samples in, then we do the analysis and provide them with their data on the Blue Oceans software, which is interactive.

They can log on, they can look at the entire history, they do a bit of analytics.

It’s continually being updated. At the moment it’s on the Microsoft Azure platform and we’re adding bells and whistles on it for continuous improvement all the time.”

The standard oil sample size is only about 100ml. “We analyse the sample to detect things like the wear of metals and the depletion of additives,” says Jason Davis, Operations Manager for Australia. “As these wear off the quality of the oil deteriorates. We also test viscosity, which is the thickness of the World Mining Magazine www.ogsmag.com

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lubricant. Then there are particles in the oil, so we measure particle size and shape. There’s quite a lot involved.”

Techenomics can customise the package to suit customer requirements.

“They’re not always the same,” explains Davis. “It depends on the equipment and what they’re monitoring.” Another development has been a customer trend towards predictive maintenance.

“Preventative maintenance has been around a long time,” says Davis, “but people are moving towards predictive maintenance now. We’re trying to establish predictive methods so we can predict failures before they happen.

“We can already do that to a certain extent,” he adds. “When it comes to water and fuel dilution. That obviously gives some prior warning that something is going to happen, but when it comes to component replacement, that’s what we’re looking to achieve in the future.”

Liquid tungsten

Another component in the company’s portfolio comes in the shape of the nano additive tungsten disulphide (WS2), sometimes called liquid tungsten.

Added to a lubricant, the nano particles roll between the metal surfaces of engines, components and hydraulic equipment like tiny ball bearings, reducing friction by up to 30 per cent.

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“When you put liquid tungsten into the lubricant it reduces the friction within the component by coating the metal surfaces and ensuring they don’t come into contact with each other. In our results we can actually see the iron drop a minimum of about 25 per cent”

Lower wear leads to longer component life and lower operating temperatures, allowing for greater productivity, while lower contaminants extend oil life.

WS2 additives, manufactured

by US company NIS, are available through Techenomics to suit mining, construction, industrial, energy generation, marine and transport purposes. There are WS2 additives to suit most oils and fluids, including engine oils, gear oils and greases.

“We have the distribution rights for WS2 in Australia and for mining globally,” says Davis. “We’re still doing trials to find where its capabilities end.

So far they seem endless. The idea of the liquid tungsten is that you put it into the lubricant and it reduces the friction within the component by coating the metal surfaces and ensuring they don’t come into contact with each other. In our results we can actually see the iron drop a minimum of about 25 per cent. Some of our customers have temperature sensors on their equipment, and after the liquid tungsten has been added, the temperature drops by around 18 per cent.”

Followers of Formula One may remember advertising for a similar lubricant last season, manufactured by a German company. The additive in that case was molybdenum disulphide (MOS2), abbreviated to liquid moly.

techenomics international liquid assets “Molybdenum and tungsten are somewhat similar, except that tungsten is a superior material in terms of heat transfer and metal wear,” says Chris Adsett. “It’s suitable for a large mine truck engine, it’s suitable for gearboxes, it’s suitable for the crushing circuit, for power station gearboxes, all sorts of things where you have lubricants, where there’s a level of wear, where you can reduce the wear, reduce the temperature.

Oil lasts longer, components last longer and you reduce costs.”

Potential

The company has traditionally focused on the mining industry, but its reach stretches further. “The type of equipment employed varies from sector to sector and from mine to mine,” says Jason Davis, “but our customers include anyone who uses high volumes of oil. We recently acquired a large contract with a bus company which has a fleet of about 2000 buses. It can be anything from locomotives to tug boats,

“Molybdenum and tungsten are somewhat similar, but tungsten is a superior material in terms of heat transfer and metal wear” passenger cars up to mining equipment, drag lines or large ships.”

The company has been spreading geographically, too, over the last few years. “We’re very well represented in Australasia and we’re now operating in

South East Asia, Northern Asia and are just beginning to open up in Africa,” says Adsett. “We’ve got three labs in Indonesia because we’re trying to service different mining areas, so we’ve got a lab in each one for a faster turnaround.

“We’re currently talking to a large OEM with operations in Russia,” he continues. “They’re unhappy with their current provider and we’re talking about them sending their samples to us either in Mongolia or Thailand and then we’ll provide them with their service online.

So we don’t necessarily need to be down the road. The closer we are, obviously, the faster the turnaround. We aim at a one to two day turnaround but if it takes us a day or two to get the sample it means turnaround time’s a little bit longer.

“So the message is, we are very active in the fluid analysis, condition monitoring space, we’ve been there a long time and we’re developing new online tools to enable the customer to get more than just a set of results.”

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mining equipment rentals

GEA Group Peter-Müller-Str. 12 40468 Düsseldorf Germany Tel +49 211 9136-0 chemical@gea.com GEA is one of the largest supplier for process technology and components for sophisticated production processes for many industries worldwide. Across a broad range of mining and mineral operations, GEA offers technologies, equipment & services in evaporation and crystallization, drying, cooling, calcining and conditioning, classification, thickening and dewatering, crud treatment and solvent extraction and wastewater management.

United Mining Rentals (UMR) was born out of a specific niche in the market for both short and longer term rentals for both new and used, Sandvik & Getman equipment for both underground & surface mining and also tunnelling applications.

Coupled with +35 years of experience in the mining business, UMR provides both sales and rental of new & used mobile equipment for various mining & tunnelling operations across the world. In addition, our sister company, QME Mining Services Division (which operates as an International mining and tunnelling contractor), also operates a large fleet of predominately Sandvik equipment.

Tel. +353 (0)87 149 1945 www.unitedminingrentals.com

mineral processing

Salter Cyclones Salter Cyclones specialises in fine solids removal with its own Hydrocyclones and Multi-Gravity Separators. These achieve powerful and precise separations in practical, compact, reliable, operator friendly and economic systems.

Salter Cyclones Limited Tel: + 44 1242 697771 Fax: + 44 1242 690895 Email: sales@saltercyclones.com Web: www.saltercyclones.com

MINPRO

MINPRO International have subsidiary offices in 4 countries all of which have the same business, supplying mineral processing equipment and engineering for the mineral processing industry worldwide. Our main products are AKER Flotation Machines; Hydraulic Roller Mills, Semi Mobile Modular Concentrators, Hydro Cyclone Batteries as well as Polyurethane wear parts for the mineral processing industry.

We deliver complete new mineral processing installations, renovation and upgrade existing mineral processing plants, retrofitting the AKER flotation mechanisms in existing flotation machines as well as engineering services and consultancy

Tel: +48 515 368 833 Minpro International Sp. z o.o. www.minpro.com

mining technology

Adrok is a cutting edge service technology company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, with exclusive global patents to Atomic Dielectric Resonance (ADR) imaging technology. This innovative technology has been developed for use in Oil and Gas, Mining and Civil Engineering sectors. Adrok’s technology has been used in several projects around the world to explore the sub-surface geology and locate accurately and identify precisely the fluids present at great depths providing high resolution without drilling the underground. This subsurface imaging scanner generates ‘virtual borehole’ logs of subsurface geology from the surface. It is lightweight, field rugged and portable, to enable cost-effective mobilisation.

49-1 West Bowling Green Street Edinburgh, EH6 5NX (Scotland, UK) Tel: +44(0) 131 555 6662 Email: info@adrokgroup.com Website: http://adrokgroup.com/

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world mining directory process water treatment

software

GEA Group Peter-Müller-Str. 12 40468 Düsseldorf Germany Tel +49 211 9136-0 chemical@gea.com GEA is one of the largest supplier for process technology and components for sophisticated production processes for many industries worldwide. Across a broad range of mining and mineral operations, GEA offers technologies, equipment & services in evaporation and crystallization, drying, cooling, calcining and conditioning, classification, thickening and dewatering, crud treatment and solvent extraction and wastewater management.

Formed in 1997, Canary Systems provides integrated geo-monitoring solutions for a broad range of mining applications, including open pit, tailings, SW-EX, and underground. We help clients better manage risk, monitor performance, and increase the safety of their operations by tying together the loose ends: the hardware required for automatic or semi-automatic data acquisition – and the software to collect, store, and analyze data in a simple and efficient way on a single combined powerful platform.

We provide turnkey solutions – including system architecture, hardware and software development, telemetry, and instrumentation – as well as individual components customized to and augmenting existing project needs.

Canary Systems, Inc. Mining Group 4732 Oracle Road, Suite 112 Tucson, AZ 85705 USA Tel: 520.887.9800 info@canarysystems.com www.canarysystems.com

Salter Cyclones specialises in fine solids removal with its own Hydrocyclones and Multi-Gravity Separators. These achieve powerful and precise separations in practical, compact, reliable, operator friendly and economic systems.

sump

Salter Cyclones Limited Tel: + 44 1242 697771 Fax: + 44 1242 690895 Email: sales@saltercyclones.com Web: www.saltercyclones.com

scales & weighing equipment

IVAC Industrial Vacuum Systems Ltd., manufactures a powerful pneumatic powered vacuum/ delivery system that allows you to pick-up and deliver your most difficult materials. The materials can be wet or dry including gravel, sand, slimes, sludge’s and water. The powerful, virtually maintenance free vacuum system is able to deliver the materials short or long distances, even up too kilometres through a pipeline or hose. Its is ideal for sump & ditch clean-up, tanks, under conveyors, around crushers and mills anywhere shovels, vacuum trucks or water hoses are being used for your clean-ups today!

Contact: Brad Fryburger Brad.Fryburger@rinstrum.com +1 248 680 0320 Website: www.rinstrum.com

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IVAC Industrial Vacuum Systems Ltd. 35-111 Chartrand Avenue, Logan Lake, BC V0K 1W0 Canada Phone 604-628-3367 Email zereko@zereko.com http://industrialvacuumunit.com