Setting the gold standard
Mining Feature
Gold Fields Australia
Setting the gold standard 2
Issue 101 · Business Enquirer Magazine
Business Enquirer Magazine · Issue 101
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PROJECT DIRECTED BY
WRITTEN BY
Malvern Kandemwa
Jay Benmehidi
Mining Feature where over 1,600 staff are employed on a residential and fly-in, fly-out basis,” a GFA representative explained. She continued: “Our presence has expanded exponentially in Australia since acquiring the St Ives and Agnew gold mines in 2001. This was further bolstered by the acquisition of the Granny Smith and Lawlers gold mines from Barrick Gold in October 2013. Known as the Yilgarn South Assets, the mines provide an additional 452,000 ounces of annual production, 2.6 million reserve ounces and 1.9 million resource ounces, meaning Gold Fields’ largest regional Australian production centre accounts for 40 percent of total production.”
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midst the arid, unforgiving barrenness of the Kargoolie desert in June 1983, three hopeful Irish prospectors, Patrick ‘Paddy’ Hannan, Thomas Flannagan and Daniel O’Shea, discovered to their good fortune what would later come to be known as Kargoolie’s Golden Mile – a deposit possessing the highest known concentration of gold in the world. The rest, as they say, is history – the three gentlemen became fabulously rich, whilst the subsequent gold rush that followed rescued an Australian economy mired in depression. Many years have now passed since such pioneering times when hard and hungry men would brave the ferocious heat and harshness of the outback to find their fortune, and yet the spirit of the gold rush lives on in these lands. The world-renowned gold fields of the Golden Mile and the wider Yilgarn Craton, which makes up a substantial portion of the West Australian landmass, hold an estimated 30% of the world’s total known gold reserves, making the area the
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Issue 101 · Business Enquirer Magazine
hottest real estate in gold mining. Naturally, a who’s who of the world’s leading big-ticket miners are active in the area, amongst them the global gold producing heavyweight, Gold Fields – a name that requires little introduction in the gold mining space. Since it first staked a claim in the region through its acquisition of the Agnew and St. Ives mines in 2001, Gold Fields Australia (GFA) has steadily expanded its footprint in Western Australia to the extent that, today, the division owns a portfolio of world-class gold projects across the region. It is telling that GFA is the most lucrative division within Gold Fields, with in excess of 40% of the company’s total annual gold production coming from the mineral rich earth of Yilgarn – an understandable point of pride for GFA’s leadership team: “Our four Australian mines – Agnew, St Ives, Granny Smith and Gruyere – are located in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia
Suffice to say, business is booming as the company continues to grow in terms of capability and gold output, which in turn brings us to the million dollar question: what is the secret to GFA’s success? How as GFA, much like its parent company, managed to rise to the top and stay there in an industry so capricious as mining.
GROW WITH US Perth office, Australia T: +61 (8) 9317 4844 E: au.sales@growthsteel.com www.growthsteel.com
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Mining Feature The strong, albeit unorthodox values and ethos of Gold Fields Australia is certainly a key driver that has underpinned its success. Much like any other top-tier company that is operating at the peak of its powers, a formidable commitment to achieving business excellence runs root-and-branch through Gold Fields Australia but not purely by measure of revenue. Rather, the company strives to achieve excellence through achieving the highest levels of operational efficiency and effectiveness; through being a business committed to employee wellness and going about its operations sustainably, and through its efforts to build close relationships with local communities and act as a net positive influence in the regions where its mines operate: “Aiming to be the best gold miner in the world overrides our desire to be the biggest. Instead, our vision is to be the global leader in sustainable gold mining.
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Gold Fields Australia By thinking smarter, operating more efficiently and adopting a mind-set of ‘working like an owner’, regardless of rank within the organisation, is how we aim to get there. Our sustainability vision means that we operate through a set of values that encompass who we are, what we do and how we work. This is evident through our responsibility to environmentally-aware work practices, a commitment to safety as a way of life, or through practicing respect and integrity by ensuring local communities are better-off from our presence in their regions.” Another crucial element in Gold Fields Australia’s success over the past two decades has been its strong commitment to innovation and technology adoption, a key area of strategy that has proven crucial in providing the gains needed to really move the needle.
Even before the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, miners were upping the ante in the race to innovate as they sought to gain an edge in an ever more challenging marketplace. Mining, like so many other industries, is undergoing a technological revolution that is turning its long-held reputation for change-averse conservatism on its head.
By thinking smarter, operating more efficiently and adopting a mind-set of ‘working like an owner’, regardless of rank within the organistation, is how we aim to get there.
Increasingly, the integration of clean tech, such as solar and wind energy, as well as smart tech that utilises the industrial internet of things, AI, and big data analytics into mining operations is having a profound and transformational effect on the sector. The increasing emergence of such ‘smart’ mines which are more productive, efficient, clean, and safe then their labour-intensive predecessors, is a game changer. Whilst smart digital mines are not yet a ubiquitous feature on the mining landscape globally, in world-class mining jurisdictions like Australia they are an increasingly common sight. Gold Fields, as a leading global gold producer with a mining heritage stretching back more than 140-years, understands the relationship between innovation, success and achieving longevity better than most, and it will therefore come as little surprise that GFA has stood out as an early adopter of new and cutting-edge tech.
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Gold Fields Australia At its Agnew mine, which has been something of a test bed for new technologies, the construction of a line of colossal wind turbines near Leinster, around 870kms north-east of Perth, represents one of Australia’s most exciting hybrid renewable energy projects: “The five 110m-high turbines with 140m-wide rotor spans are the first used for large-scale power generation at an Australian mine, and are now the dominant source of power at the mine. Alongside over 10,000 solar panels, a battery, and a gas and diesel power plant, they form the five energy technologies incorporated into power producer EDL’s Agnew hybrid renewable microgrid, making it an unparalleled power generation system. The project’s innovative approach to addressing the limitations of different generating technologies and achieving balance between fuel efficiency, economics, reliability and flexibility has garnered national and international recognition. In 2020, the Agnew microgrid took top honours at the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards, the Asian Power Awards and the Global Energy Awards. The microgrid is the result of a collaboration between EDL and Gold Fields to power the Agnew mine, which produces more than 220,000 ounces of gold annually. It attracted Federal Government backing through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which contributed more than 10% of the $112m cost, an important step according to EDL Chief Executive Officer James Harman, in helping’ prove-up’ the trailblazing technology.
Mining Feature GFA’s Granny Smith mine, a site with close to 4,000 different locations which has over 100 employees underground at any one time, is an enormous and complex project which, at present, is more than 1.2 km deep, has also reaped the benefits of innovation, following the implementation of a five-year modernisation scheme that began in 2018. In-line with this program’s objectives, the underground mine, which is located 740 km northeast of Perth, a number of projects centred around data-driven solutions have been completed which will enhance Granny Smith’s cost-efficiency, productivity, and worker safety. Granny Smith is under constant development and further works are presently underway, most notably the implementation of both Mobilaris Onboard and Mobilaris Situational Awareness: “Mobilaris Onboard, working as a machine navigator underground, creates traffic awareness and a safe and effective traffic flow, according to the company. Based on real-time data, Mobilaris Situational Awareness enables transparency and awareness. The information makes it possible to control the operations and resources, and people can quickly act upon what is happening and make smart decisions faster,” a Mobilaris spokesman said.
During the research process, Gold Fields discovered that Mobilaris Onboard addresses specific safety issues. By sharing positional data and navigation in 3D, drivers can avoid traffic congestion and find shelter during emergencies: “We have installed tablets in all our heavy vehicles. With Onboard’s traffic awareness feature, we can minimise the vehicle-vehicle interaction and the vehicle-personnel interaction. The application also tells us where to find the three nearest refuge chambers to our location. So, if there is an emergency, we can get the quickest path to safety.”
Mobilaris Onboard, working as a machine navigator underground, creates traffic awareness and a safe and effective traffic flow... Mobilaris Onboard systems are installed on Gold Fields’ fleet of heavy vehicles.
Part of that technology is the ‘brain’ driving the energy supply, an advanced control system integrating five power sources and optimising renewable energy into the microgrid at an average of 50-60%, recently achieving a record 82% renewable energy over a day. The ‘brain’ also ensures 99.99% reliability by reacting swiftly to changes in load and eliminating unplanned outages.”
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Mining Feature
Gold Fields Australia
All in all, the future looks bright for GFA, whose leadership team is understandably looking to the future with no little amount of optimism. The company is seeking to maintain its current trajectory of modernising its portfolio of mines and optimising its operations over the duration of 2021 leading into 2022. Despite the challenges that COVID-19 continues to present to mining and the wider global business community, Australian miners are well positioned to weather them – Gold Fields Australia, as a leader in its field, will no doubt continue ‘being the best, if not the biggest.’
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Issue 101 · Business Enquirer Magazine
Business Enquirer Magazine · Issue 101
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Gold Fields Australia +61 8 9211 9203 / +61 8 9211 9200 info@goldfields.com www.goldfields.com/australia-region.php
info@busenq.com www.busenq.com