Australian Mining September 2021 by Prime Creative Media

TECHNOLOGY MINING EQUIPMENT VOLUME 113/08 | SEPTEMBER 2021

WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

BOOMING BELOW UNDERGROUND INNOVATION

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COMMENT

THINKING DEEPER ABOUT UNDERGROUND MINING AS UNDERGROUND PROJECTS BECOME MORE PROMINENT, THIS TREND IS CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR METS COMPANIES TO INTRODUCE NEW SERVICES AND PRODUCTS.

BEN CREAGH

Ben.Creagh@primecreative.com.au

ining in Australia is increasingly moving underground. As greenfield discoveries close to the surface become rarer, the focus of exploration is primarily on expanding brownfield sites and often tapping into deeper resources. This has been a common theme in Australia for at least a decade now. And recent moves by leading mining companies support a continuation of this trend. Newcrest Mining, for example, reinforced a focus on growing its underground resources at this year’s Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. The company’s presentation highlighted an exploration strategy aimed at looking deeper for discoveries. Newcrest already has a strong track record with this approach and plans to build on that success in the exciting Paterson Province in Western Australia, where its assets include the Telfer mine and Havieron project. Evolution Mining is also setting up its future as an underground gold miner. In July, the company’s board approved development of the Cowal underground mine in New South Wales. Already a world-class open pit mine for Evolution, Cowal will transition to an underground operation in the coming years to maintain the site’s elite standing in the company’s portfolio. With more activity underground comes an opportunity for mining equipment, technology and services (METS) companies. New underground sites, in particular, are obliged to adopt the latest technologies or innovations to ensure they are sustainable operations throughout their projected mine life.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations will dictate how these mines are designed, as companies look for ways to make underground mining safer and more environmentally friendly. The industry is seeing an influx of batteryelectric equipment being developed, some with autonomous capabilities, in anticipation of this upcoming phase of mining. Historically, factors such as cost, scale and technology have slowed progress towards an uptake of battery-electric equipment in underground mining, but these hurdles could be overcome this decade. Epiroc (pages 28-29) is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) leading this change through development of larger underground battery-electric models and by offering services that help its partners adopt their machines at manageable costs. But it’s not only the major OEMs that can find their niche in this space. Light batteryelectric vehicles are currently easier to adopt in underground environments and being trialled at various sites. There is also a growing requirement for improved communications networks in underground mines as companies look to improve safety and enhance their use of data. As more mining in Australia moves underground, it sets up an exciting environment for growth and opportunity.

FRONT COVER

In this edition, we include a special focus on underground mining, highlighting services and products that are transforming the sector. This issue reviews the current technology trends in mining through the eyes of an expert at ABB Australia. We look at diversity in the industry and how mining is becoming gender balanced with more women working in the sector. This edition also explores how leading coal miners in Australia are rehabilitating their sites for future activities once mining has concluded. And as usual, we cover the latest mining equipment and technology in our products section.

Cover image: Epiroc. Ben Creagh Managing Editor

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SEPTEMBER 2021

IN INTHIS THISISSUE ISSUE 28

50 16 ENVIRONMENT

Greener outcomes for mining Major miners move on site rehabilitation

WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT Diversity gains momentum The benefits of a gender balanced mining industry

INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

Korea presents as perfect partner Australia looks to build on trade relationship

26 RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

UNDERGROUND MINING

54 MANUFACTURING

TRAINING & EDUCATION

56 MINEXPO

Fool’s gold encourages sustainability Researchers sharpen understanding of gold inside pyrite

New services and solutions METS companies transform mining below the surface

Educating the next generation Gold Industry Group initiative sets up future of mining

FUTURE OF MINING

Five top trends in mining ABB weighs in on the innovations influencing mining Dalby business leads trommel tech Thomas Manufacturing stands fortified in manufacturing hub Las Vegas event returns in 2021 OEMs preview the solutions they will display

38 MINING EQUIPMENT

40 MINING SERVICES

65 PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

44 EFFICIENCY & OPTIMISATION

CJD digs deep for tailings facility FMR partnership goes from strength to strength for CJD Latest opportunities in mining Total and Swire highlight their mining solutions Managing the impact of dust Sy-klone solution improves operational productivity

INDUSTRY COMMENT

Resources industry comes together Building skills within the future workforce Welding innovation emerges 3M Speedglas launches Generation 5 helmets

EVENT SPOTLIGHT

AusIMM to host Iron Ore Conference Perth gets set for staging of November event

46 TECHNOLOGY

Missing link in mining networks Vernetzen becomes go-to networking specialist

48 REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT

Sunshine state beams potential North Queensland set up for exploration growth

AUSTRALIANMINING AUSTRALIANMINING 44 SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2020 2021

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NEWS

THE LATEST MINING AND SAFETY NEWS AUSTRALIAN MINING PRESENTS THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE BOARDROOM TO THE MINE AND EVERYWHERE IN BETWEEN. VISIT WWW.AUSTRALIANMINING.COM.AU TO KEEP UP TO DATE WITH WHAT IS HAPPENING. FORTESCUE BUILDS IRON BRIDGE WITH SIMPEC SIMPEC has won a $145 million major construction contract for a wet processing plant at Fortescue Metals Group’s Iron Bridge magnetite project in Western Australia. The Iron Bridge project is a joint venture between Fortescue subsidiary FMG Magnetite and Formosa Steel. SIMPEC, which is an engineering contractor subsidiary to WestStar Industrial, will provide vertical construction services for the project

Dimasi said the contract represents a major milestone after four years of being part of WestStar. “This is an important milestone achievement for SIMPEC in the delivery of our company’s mission to deliver major projects in the industry,” Dimasi said. Fortescue completed a technical and commercial assessment of Iron Bridge in May 2021. The assessment resulted in a

with a workforce of around 500. According to WestStar, the wet processing plant will require major module installation, tank installation, large bore piping, and supply and installation of electrical and instrumentation works. The wet processing plant is a key part of Iron Bridge’s planned magnetite production rate of 22 million tonnes per annum. SIMPEC managing director Mark

FORTESCUE’S IRON BRIDGE PROJECT.

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

IMAGE: FORTESCUE METALS GROUP.

revised cost of up to $US3.5 billion ($4.7 billion) for the project. “We look forward to further developing our relationship with the Iron Bridge joint venture and thank them for the opportunity to deliver such a high-profile project,” Dimasi said. “Thank you to the team for their dedication and efforts in securing this major award. This contract will strengthen our position in the market and allow us to continue to take our business to a new level.” FMG Magnetite owns 69 per cent of the project while Formosa owns the remaining 31 per cent.

FLSMIDTH SPLASHES OUT FOR THYSSENKRUPP MINING BUSINESS FLSmidth has agreed to purchase thyssenkrupp’s Mining Technologies business (TK Mining) for €325 million ($522.28 million) to create a pit-to-plant technology solution with a sustainable focus. The deal was highly amenable as both companies had complementary interests in transforming their businesses. FLSmidth is a Danish company which serves over 60 countries with engineering, equipment and service solutions for minerals, metals,

concrete, electronics and more. FLSmidth chief executive officer Thomas Schulz said the addition of TK Mining’s prowess in mining systems, materials handling and processing would be complementary. “TK Mining and FLSmidth are a perfect match and I am proud to announce this agreement to join forces,” Schulz said. “This is a truly transformational deal allowing us to accelerate our growth ambitions in mining by creating a stronger talent pool,

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and one of the world’s largest and strongest suppliers to the mining industry.” The deal will welcome 3400 TK Mining employees to FLSmidth, once regulatory requirements are completed within the next 12 months. As a multinational group of industrial and technology businesses, thyssenkrupp chief executive officer Martina Merz views the deal as not as a loss, but a shedding, to allow the company to

SEPTEMBER 2021

strengthen other business areas. “The successful sale of the mining business shows that we are pressing ahead at full speed with the transformation of thyssenkrupp and achieving important results step by step,” Merz said. “But we have not yet reached our goal. The principle ‘performance first’ continues to apply. We need to return to positive cash flow as quickly as possible. The sale of Mining Technologies makes an important contribution to this.”

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NEWS

KOMATSU PLUGS IN ZERO-EMISSION INITIATIVE FOR MAJORS Rio Tinto and BHP have joined forces with Komatsu to create and commission zero-emission haulage solutions. The mining companies will trial Komatsu’s pre-production vehicles and have been given an option to be first buyers of the solutions once commercially viable. The collaboration will form part of the Komatsu Greenhouse Gas (GHG) alliance, which was launched in August. The alliance’s founding members include Rio Tinto, BHP, Codelco and Boliden, which will

collaborate with Komatsu on the planning, development, testing and commissioning of zero-emission mining equipment. According to Komatsu, the alliance will advance its power agnostic truck concept for haulage vehicles that can run on different power sources including diesel electric, electric, wired, battery power and hydrogen fuel cells. “Rio Tinto and Komatsu have a shared history of partnership on innovation going back to when we built the world’s largest Komatsu autonomous haulage fleet in

2008,” Rio Tinto chief commercial officer Alf Barrios said. “Our support of a trial, and the option to buy some of the first trucks from Komatsu, underscores our shared commitment to actively collaborate on product planning, development, testing and deployment of the next generation of zero-emission mining equipment and infrastructure as we look to decarbonise our business.” BHP will provide engineering and technical resources to Komatsu through the development stage,

with further collaboration through BHP’s FutureFit Academy to increase the skills of its workforce to operate the trialled equipment. “Tackling climate change requires strong collaboration and collective effort across the supply chain,” BHP chief commercial officer Vandita Pant said. “Reducing vehicle emissions is key to our climate strategy, and we are thrilled to join with Komatsu and our peers in the global mining sector on real, tangible action to help accelerate our transition to a low-carbon future.”

THE KOMATSU GREENHOUSE GAS ALLIANCE WAS LAUNCHED IN AUGUST.

SILVER LAKE RETHINKS MOUNT MONGER WORKFORCE PLAN Silver Lake Resources has modified its operating strategy at the Mount Monger gold mine in Western Australia after a skilled labour shortage caused productivity and cost issues. The new operating strategy will cut mill operation and instead focus on using Mount Monger’s stockpiles. COVID-19 restrictions have impacted Silver Lake’s ability to source skilled labour, with the company expecting the shortage to continue in the 2022 financial year. “The consequence of this has been

higher turnover, lower productivity and higher costs,” the company stated. “It appears unlikely the mobility of skilled labour will improve significantly in the 2022 financial year, however, Silver Lake’s historical stockpile build, and mill constrained operating plan, provides the company with operating flexibility to deliver 2022 financial year guidance.” Silver Lake was still able to reach the higher end of its annual sales guidance with 248,781 ounces of gold and 1724 tonnes of copper sold in the AUSTRALIANMINING

2021 financial year. The company’s gold sales target for the 2022 financial year is set at 235,000 to 255,000 ounces of gold and 600 to 1000 tonnes of copper at an all-in-sustaining-cost (AISC) of $1550 to $1650 per ounce. “At Mount Monger, Silver Lake will modify its operating strategy to reflect the limited mobility of skilled labour which is resulting in lower productivity and higher costs,” Silver Lake stated. “This modified operating plan is made possible by Silver Lake’s

SEPTEMBER 2021

investment in stockpiles at Mount Monger, which will maintain a mill constrained operation as Silver Lake reviews the scheduling of its projects to limit the operating and financial risk in the prevailing operating environment, while retaining optionality over established infrastructure.” Silver Lake’s sales target for Mount Monger in the 2022 financial year is 125,000 to 135,000 ounces at an AISC range of $1750 to $1850 per ounce.

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NEWS

NORTHERN STAR TO EXPAND THUNDERBOX WITH GR CONTRACT Northern Star Resources has awarded GR Engineering Services a $101 million engineering, procurement and construction contract at the Thunderbox gold operations in Western Australia. The contract is related to the Thunderbox six million tonnes per annum expansion project, which will increase the operation’s mill output. Former Thunderbox owner Saracen Mineral Holdings, which merged with Northern Star, previously contracted GR Engineering at the site. According to Northern Star general manager processing, Simon Tyrrell, the Thunderbox expansion will

increase the site’s processing capacity by three million tonnes per annum. “The Thunderbox expansion increases the operation’s hard rock processing capacity to six million tonnes per annum from the current three million tonnes per annum, and decreases processing costs as outlined in the 2021 investor day presentation,” Tyrrell said. “Northern Star is pleased to be working with GR Engineering again, a local company with vast project delivery experience in the Australian mining industry.” Thunderbox is part of Northern Star’s Yandal production centre in Western Australia.

Northern Star’s investor presentation unveiled that Thunderbox’s mill increase would play a part in increasing Yandal’s production by up to 600,000 tonnes per annum. GR Engineering managing director Geoff Jones said the contract extended the contractor’s long business relationship with Northern Star. “GR Engineering is excited to continue working with Northern Star, one of the world’s leading gold producers, to safely deliver the Thunderbox expansion project,” he said. “We have worked with the

Northern Star team over many years and see this award as a strong endorsement of our proven (engineering, procurement and construction) delivery capability.” Northern Star produced 31,761 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of $1297 per ounce at Thunderbox in the June quarter. The company operates the Thunderbox operations, which are in the Yandal Belt and the AgnewWiluna Belt, using open pit and underground mining methods. Northern Star sold 1.6 million ounces of gold in the 2021 financial year at an all-in-sustaining cost (AISC) of $1483 per ounce.

IMAGE: GLENCORE.

SHIPPING ACQUISITION SEES GLENCORE SET SAIL

GLENCORE’S MT OWEN COAL MINE IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

Glencore has acquired a majority stake in Newcastle Coal Shippers as the final part of its Hunter Valley Operations joint venture (JV) with Yancoal in New South Wales. A Glencore spokesperson told Australian Mining that the majority stake is related to its 2017 deal to acquire a 49 per cent interest in the Hunter Valley Operations in New South Wales with Yancoal. Glencore’s JV interest stemmed from Yancoal’s acquisition of Coal & Allied from Rio Tinto and paved the

way for the Swiss miner to secure its stake in Newcastle Coal Shippers. “Glencore’s acquisition of Parallax Holdings closes out an outstanding administrative matter related to our 2017 acquisition of a 49 per cent share in Hunter Valley Operations,” the spokesperson said. “This provides us with a majority stake in Newcastle Coal Shippers and we continue to support its existing operating model.” Newcastle Coal Shippers is a private company that contributed $1.2 million

AUSTRALIANMINING

in dividends to Port Waratah Coal Services last year. According to Port Waratah Coal Services’ 2020 annual report, Newcastle Coal Shippers’ principal activity was investment in the port company. Port Waratah Coal Services owns and manages the Kooragang and Carrington coal terminals at the Port of Newcastle. The two terminals hold a combined capacity of 145 million tonnes per year.

SEPTEMBER 2021

According to the Minerals Council of Australia’s Australian Export Thermal Coal: The Comparative Quality Advantages report, Australia is tied with the United States for the highestquality coal in the world. The Hunter Valley Operations produces thermal and semi-soft metallurgical coal and produced 9.481 million tonnes of saleable product in 2019. Glencore is one of Australia’s largest coal producers with assets across New South Wales and Queensland.

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STANMORE GETS THE NOD AT ISAAC DOWNS Stanmore Resources has received a mining lease for the Isaac Downs metallurgical coal project in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, allowing construction and operations to begin. Queensland Minister for Resources Scott Stewart said approving the mine was the right thing for jobs and the economy. “This project will mean mining jobs for another 10 years, including for the 300 mine workers currently at Isaac Plains, as well as jobs completing rehabilitation in the Isaac Plains East area until 2025,” Stewart said. “Isaac Downs will create up to

of the approval. “The approval of the Isaac Downs project is a major milestone for the company,” Suseno said. “This enables us to proceed with a critical project for the longevity and extension of the opencut operations supporting our Isaac Plains complex, maintaining Stanmore as a competitive producer of essential ingredients for steel production by our global customers.” The project has now received approval for the mining lease, environmental authority, and approval under the Environmental Protection

250 new construction jobs and business opportunities in and around Moranbah, as well as broader economic benefits for the Isaac region.” The approval will allow up to 2.5 million tonnes per annum of metallurgical coking coal to be dug up for 10 years. While creating $200 million in revenue for Stanmore, the project will feed run-of-mine coal to the coal handling and preparation plant at the nearby Isaac Plains complex. Stanmore chairman Dwi Suseno explained the significance

and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Stanmore chief executive officer Marcelo Matos said the company was dedicated to responsible operations. “Stanmore has a proud track record of progressive rehabilitation of its operations and intends to adopt the same commitment at Isaac Downs,” Matos said. “We are committed to participating in community development in the Isaac region and Isaac Downs will ensure ongoing economic employment opportunities for the Moranbah area.”

APPROVALS ACCELERATION TO FAST-TRACK WA ECONOMY MINE APPROVAL TIMES ARE EXPECTED TO IMPROVE FOLLOWING THE INVESTMENT.

The Western Australian Government has invested a record amount to accelerate project approvals across several agencies, including the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety. The $120 million spend included the government’s $27.4 million election promise to the DMIRS to deliver mining approval reform. Premier Mark McGowan said all five departments were integral to the state’s continued strength. “Development in the mining, oil and gas, tourism and agricultural industries is vital to sustain economic growth and

deliver WA jobs,” McGowan said. “We are in the fortunate position of having the strongest economy in the nation, but we cannot be complacent as there are billions of dollars’ worth of capital projects in the approvals pipeline.” The funding will mobilise 150 frontline officers to get their respective departments on the move. McGowan added economic growth wasn’t the only motivator behind the investment. “These additional officers will enable key agencies to meet the demand for timely assessments and approvals, AUSTRALIANMINING

while ensuring the protection of our environment, heritage, and of worker and community safety,” he said. “There is plenty of room to improve regulation to make it more transparent, predictable, seamless and efficient, and ensure the community has high confidence in it. “These extra resources – which include a dedicated red-tape reduction team – represent the single biggest investment in approvals in the state’s history.” The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia chief executive Paul Everingham emphasised the

SEPTEMBER 2021

need for such investment. “There are around $140 billion in projects in the WA mining and resources sector pipeline. An inefficient approvals process restricts our ability to take full advantage of these, impacting job creation as well as the local and national economy,” Everingham said. “Now, more than ever, it is critical to maximise the significant pipeline of opportunities to support the local and national economy as it recovers from the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 as well as create new jobs for WA locals.”

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NEWS

AUSTRALIAN CRITICAL MINERALS SECTOR EXPLORES BLOCKCHAIN The Australian Government has funded a blockchain pilot project to increase competition in Australia’s critical minerals sector. As part of the government’s digital business package from the 202121 Federal Budget, it has provided $3 million to Queensland-based technology company Everledger. The funding will support Everledger in researching how blockchain technology can provide a digital certification for critical minerals when they are extracted or moved across the supply chain. Blockchain technology is used

to record transactions, acting as a digital receipt that avoids hacking or duplicated information. The technology will also help the sector ensure it follows regulations and increase demand for Australia’s critical minerals supply and also reduce costs. An additional $2.6 million grant was given to Convergence.tech, which will uncover how blockchain technology can automate key reporting processes in other sectors. Federal Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Christian Porter said the grants would push Australia forward in its

blockchain capabilities. “The Blockchain Pilot Grants will demonstrate the potential for blockchain to help businesses to save money and cut red tape by improving processes such as tracking products throughout the supply chain and transferring customer information,” he said. “These two successful projects will also highlight opportunities to improve the technical and regulatory environment for blockchain in Australia, bolster blockchain literacy and support collaboration between Australian governments, the private

sector and blockchain companies. “The Blockchain Pilot Grants builds on the National Blockchain Roadmap which ensures Australia is well-positioned to take advantage of the opportunities this technology can enable.” The funding has also aligned with the federal government’s national blockchain roadmap from February 2020. The roadmap’s committee will be supported by working groups that explore blockchain supply chains, credentialling, cybersecurity and regulatory compliance.

KALBAR CROSSES ITS FINGERBOARDS FOR MINING LICENCE

THE FINGERBOARDS PROJECT IN VICTORIA.

Kalbar Operations has applied for a mining licence at its Fingerboards project in Victoria’s Gippsland region, adding to the potential for a mineral sands hub in the state. Earth Resources Regulation executive director Anthony Hurst said Fingerboards was an important consideration, holding potential to be the next big thing in mineral sands mining. “Under our mining legislation, we must begin the process to assess Kalbar’s mining licence application and we encourage anyone with an interest to make a submission on

the specified grounds, including the applicant’s status as being ‘fit and proper’ to hold a licence and their financial capacity to complete their proposed work and rehabilitate the site,” Hurst said. The application seeks to cover 2148 hectares for 20 years, as Kalbar mines highly valuable rare earths such as zircon, neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium. Assuming the mining licence and Environmental Effects Statement (EES) are approved, a definitive feasibility study would occur in

AUSTRALIANMINING

mid-2022, before development and construction occur until mid-2025. In August 2020, Kalbar chief executive officer Jozsef Patarica said the project would contribute strongly to the world’s demands for years to come. “The Fingerboards project contains over two million tonnes of zircon at the highest in-ground grades in the world,” Patarica said “The project has the potential to supply about 10 per cent of the world’s zircon requirements over the 15- to 20-year life of the mine.” Hurst explained the difference in

SEPTEMBER 2021

processes which will allow Kalbar to access the precious resource. “The environmental assessment process underway will determine whether the mining proposal in the Glenaladale area has acceptable impacts and can proceed or not, while the mining licence application process is an additional legislative mechanism to assess if Kalbar meet criteria to be granted an exclusive right to mine the resource,” Hurst said. The licence could not be considered until an EES had concluded.

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ENVIRONMENT

GREENER OUTCOMES FOR OLD MINES THE MINING INDUSTRY IS ENSURING THAT MINES FROM THE PAST TURN INTO OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE FUTURE THROUGH STRINGENT REHABILITATION PROCESSES.

s environmental, social and governance (ESG) expectations continue to rise, mining companies must ensure they have mapped out an effective mine rehabilitation plan before turning over soil. Deloitte’s 2021 Tracking the Trends report outlines that ESG has become a vital aspect to mining company’s commitment to local communities and stakeholders. According to the report, strong governance at a mining company can be reflected in their commitment to ESG, which is key to continue receiving stakeholder support. “Although most mining companies understand the imperative to put effective controls into place, weak governance can result in significant missteps, and potentially cause companies to unwittingly breach not only their regulatory mandates, but also their commitments to investors, communities and other critical stakeholders,” the report states. “Beyond resulting in a loss of the social licence to operate, this can lead to irreparable reputational damage,

lawsuits, community unrest and plummeting market values.” Many of Australia’s mining companies have doubled down on rehabilitation efforts as part of their ESG commitments. This is due to Australia’s already strong approach towards regulating the rehabilitation of mine sites to ensure responsible mining practices are undertaken. The country’s largest coal producer, Glencore, highlights how it can achieve promising rehabilitation outcomes at its coal mines. By actively rehabilitating its sites during mining operations, Glencore is integrating its environmental commitments while producing coal. “Glencore plans for rehabilitation at a very early stage of each coal mine’s life,” a Glencore spokesperson tells Australian Mining. “With our contemporary mines – the mines we have built ourselves – this takes place before production begins. “We then incorporate rehabilitation into daily and annual plans to ensure the work is adequately resourced, budgeted and delivered. “In addition to being efficient, we

find this approach is also very cost effective as it avoids the need for costly or unforeseen remedial work late in a mine’s cycle and minimises the impacts of unexpected or unplanned closures.” Glencore operates 25 mines across New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. This includes 17 coal mining operations in New South Wales and Queensland. The company received a certification for rehabilitating 138 hectares of the Newlands open cut coal mine in Queensland in June. Newlands became the first operation in the Bowen Basin to achieve a rehabilitation certification of coal mine overburden spoil in 2017. “Since the start of 2017, Glencore’s Australian coal operations have rehabilitated more than 5200 hectares of previously mined land,” Glencore’s spokesperson says. “As of 1 January 2021, we’ve rehabilitated more than 20,000 hectares in total, which is equivalent in size to almost the entire city of Sydney. “Our final rehabilitation outcomes meet the post-mining land uses agreed with community and government, such

GLENCORE PROGRESSIVELY REHABILITATES ITS MINES, INCLUDING THE MANGOOLA SITE IN NSW.

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SEPTEMBER 2021

as self-sustaining native ecosystems, agricultural use or other suitable purposes.” The Newlands mine produced 3.5 million tonnes of saleable coal in 2020, while progressive rehabilitation was undertaken. New South Wales, which updated its rules on mining rehabilitation in July, requires miners to show plans for progressive rehabilitation along with annual reports on rehabilitation outcomes. “The vast majority of mines in NSW have already been meeting the new requirements announced by the Deputy Premier (John Barilaro), initiating rehabilitation work at the same time as mining commences,” a NSW Minerals Council spokesperson says. “We think the government’s new rules encapsulate well what is generally already taking place and strike the right balance between streamlining the processes and ensuring that the worldclass rehabilitation requirements here in NSW are protected. “The new compliance and reporting reforms provide streamlined and consistent conditions that will simplify

ENVIRONMENT

REHABILITATION AT GLENCORE’S CLERMONT OPEN CUT COAL MINE IN QUEENSLAND.

some of the administrative burdens for the industry.” For Glencore, mine rehabilitation is an important factor to sustaining positive relations with the communities in which it operates. “We get our licence to operate from these communities and, in most cases, our employees and their families are part of these communities,” Glencore’s spokesperson says. “We are proud of our track record of engaging with, and listening to, local communities and taking on board the feedback they provide. “Local communities have input into the agreed final land use that forms part of our consent conditions, and our rehabilitation performance demonstrates the focus we put on leaving the land we mine in good condition for future generations to use.” Anglo American is another mining major that has demonstrated a commitment to mine rehabilitation outcomes. The miner has progressively rehabilitated its Dawson open cut metallurgical coal mine in Central Queensland since 2012 to turn the area into a zone for local farmers, including a dam for livestock. Operations began at the Dawson mine, one of the oldest coal mining operations in Central Queensland, in 1961.

Cattle grazing has been conducted in Dawson’s rehabilitated area, along with the area being revegetated, since works began. In August, Anglo American showed off its rehabilitation efforts at Dawson through a campaign with Minerals Council of Australia (MCA). Anglo American metallurgical coal business chief executive officer Tyler Mitchelson says the company is aiming to achieve positive outcomes for the community through its mine rehabilitation efforts. “We invest in innovative approaches to rehabilitate land, and we completed more than 400 hectares across our two open cut Australian sites last year,” Mitchelson says. “Under our Sustainable Mining Plan, we direct our efforts to making sure that not only do we minimise impact, but that we seek to deliver positive and lasting environmental outcomes.” Mitchelson has announced that more than $80 million will be spent on rehabilitating the Dawson mine between 2019 and 2023. Last year, Anglo American partnered with heavy equipment provider Komatsu to launch their Growing Together partnership, which aims to return mined laned to use for agriculture. The partnership began with the planting of 4000 trees at Dawson mine with a new tree planting event AUSTRALIANMINING

currently in the planning stage. There are more than 80,000 active, inactive and unrehabilitated mines across Australia. Transforming mining operations back into pastural land is also a target for Glencore. “At numerous operations we are using rehabilitation areas for agriculture and are actively looking at additional opportunities,” Glencore states. “In Queensland, our whollyowned pastoral subsidiary, Colinta Holdings, grazes cattle on established rehabilitation areas at our Newlands, Rolleston and Collinsville operations. “This cattle grazing improves the quality of pasture available by reducing excessive pasture growth and promoting fresh growth, while at the same time providing the disturbance needed to stimulate improved species diversity and cover on bare areas. “In the New South Wales Hunter Valley, Colinta has also been involved in our cattle grazing trials at Liddell over a six-year period, which has demonstrated that cattle can be grazed on rehabilitated mined land at stocking rates at least equivalent to district averages.” According to the NSW Minerals Council, the progressive rehabilitation of existing mines unlocks value for local communities sooner. “By progressively rehabilitating disturbed land, mine owners ensure

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this important component is not left to the final stages of mining, thereby enabling areas to become available for beneficial post-mining uses much sooner,” the NSW Mining Council spokesperson says. “Industry prioritises the rehabilitation of areas that have the greatest impact on visual amenity (e.g. areas facing townships, residences, or the highway); areas with the potential to generate dust leaving the site; and areas that are important for biodiversity.” Last year, Glencore’s Westside open cut coal mine in New South Wales was successfully rehabilitated back into bushland after operations ceased in 2012. Glencore’s Ulan coal mine in New South Wales was also rehabilitated into a habitat for native plants and animals. “The industry also continues to research beneficial reuse of land and residual voids post-mining, with domestic and international examples including agriculture, forestry, power generation, recreation and tourism, and water supply,” the NSW Mining Council spokesperson adds. Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of coal globally, and with a wide range of mines being progressively rehabilitated, these sites could become important components to other major industries that play their part in the country’s economic success. AM

WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

DIVERSITY IN MINING GAINS MOMENTUM AS THE MINING INDUSTRY EVOLVES, ISSUES OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION ARE CONSTANTS ON THE AGENDAS OF EXECUTIVES, GOVERNMENTS AND THE WIDER WORKFORCE. HENRY BALLARD SPEAKS WITH THOSE HOLDING THE TORCH FOR WOMEN AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN MINING.

cross the sectors of mining, manufacturing, construction, supply chain and similar male-dominated industries, women represent around a quarter of the workforce. And while the pace of change in female representation has been slow to date, there is an urgent movement to push that figure closer towards equal territory. The need for gender diversity in the workforce comes not only from pillars of social and moral justice, but from a desire for improved business metrics and enhanced operations, according to Louise Weine, the chief executive officer of NAWO (the National Association for Women in Operations). NAWO is a 10-year-old not-forprofit organisation which works to see gender diversity valued and balanced at every level of operations. Weine explains her personal experiences in realising the need for organisations like NAWO. “I came to NAWO through my background working in maledominated environments for my entire career,” Weine says.

“For quite some time I didn’t feel as though there was any issue with that. As I was managing quite well, but then suddenly things changed and I realised that the playing field was not equal. “When I found out about NAWO, I was thinking, ‘I wish I’d known about them when I was in operations.’ I know exactly what it’s like to be there, on reflection I now understand what’s going wrong, and I want to do something to change it.” NAWO today includes around 60 large corporate companies across multiple industries. The organisation has three focus areas, Weine says, the first being women who are in careers. “We know that some systems are broken. Some things that were designed a long time ago for the workplace don’t work very well for women,” she says. “To keep women in careers, we need to support them while they try to navigate that.” The second area focuses on the leaders of NAWO’s members and how they can work to include people by building a culture which welcomes every individual. NAWO’s third focus area reflects why the organisation came to be – unity.

A NAWO EVENT WITH BLUESCOPE.

“We have a great opportunity to leverage the energy of all of these companies who are committed to doing things differently and move further, faster,” Weine says. “Rather than trying to solve all of these issues in our individual company ‘silos’ – which will take us decades alone – if we can band together and have a united front to solve these issues by sharing what

NAWO HOLDS SEMINARS AND WEBINARS TO EDUCATE INDUSTRIES ON BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE CULTURE.

AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

works, we can reach our goals more quickly.” In June, NAWO welcomed one of Australia’s fastest growing mining companies, Mineral Resources, as a Gold Corporate Member. This level of membership gives every Mineral Resources employee access to any of NAWO’s in-person events, as well as all of its webinars – an important consideration at a time when COVID-19 has restricted the moment of remote and fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workers. Mineral Resources general manager for human resources and industrial relations, Layla Mehravari, says the benefits of diversity and inclusion stretch far beyond moral obligation. “For us, it’s about improving our access to talent, particularly in a labour market like this,” Mehravari says. “It improves financial performance and innovation, and there’s a lot of information and anecdotal evidence that it improves our risk strategies and safety stats. “We have seen – particularly in our work actively recruiting operators – less equipment damage when we have women driving our gear.” Mineral Resources recruits plenty of entry-level workers. In June, the company welcomed its second

WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

all-female intake to its entry-level operator program. Mehravari says Mineral Resources didn’t set out to hold all-female intakes, but found it was just the push some participants needed to get a start in the mining industry. “These are broad programs in that we bring anybody who’s new to the industry through the door,” she says. “But we were having a lot of successful female applicants come through, so we went through the process of aligning intakes with whole female groups to create a nice cohort and community. “This was important because a big challenge is getting that critical mass of women on remote sites with a sense of community among themselves.” While the focus at times can fall on the ratio of women in a company, Mineral Resources’ overall goal is much bigger than this. Mehravari says the company achieved its aim to lift its female employment above the industry average of 16.1 per cent, but a culture of inclusion is the higher purpose. “We try to ensure we have an environment which appeals to all types of people in terms of the way we work on site, the way we lead and develop people, and the way we manage our rosters to include them,” she says.

“If you just use percentage of females in your workforce as your measure, you lose a lot of the richness of what you’re actually doing to improve the experience for women.” Indigenous Women in Mining and Resources Australia (IWIMRA) is an organisation which looks to improve that “richness” for women in industry. IWIMRA chief executive officer Florence Drummond started the now not-for-profit in 2017 when she found a gap in the support network for Indigenous women in mining. Drummond, like Weine, began her career in the mining industry. Working for seven years as a Rio Tinto machine operator at Weipa in Queensland, she came to realise that no Indigenous person was succeeding into senior roles. “It made me think, ‘how is this even possible?’ The companies had been there for around 30 years and still there was no Indigenous people in leadership roles,” Drummond says. “My aim was to shift that generational challenge and that was through financial empowerment – making money and trying to build something. “In my heart I wanted to lead something around Indigenous people and women, because I was a product of that.” NAWO and IWMIRA partnered in

AUSTRALIANMINING

IWIMRA CEO FLORENCE DRUMMOND.

mid 2021 to allow both organisations and the workforces they served to grow as one. Drummond says IWIMRA, being a smaller, younger organisation is embracing its growth phase, continuing to expand its network to inspire as many females as possible to have conversations about improving diversity. “One of the biggest reasons we were excited to partner with

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NAWO is that we can demonstrate that we’re now collaborating as these big powerhouse networks,” Drummond says. “We’re breaking down these barriers, sitting down and having a yarn about how we can figure things out together.” It’s a promising partnership for all involved, as the industry does as NAWO aims in uniting to achieve a common goal.

WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

NAWO CEO LOUISE WEINE.

But discussing the issue is just step one and achieving Mehravari’s “richness” is a tough metric when combatting years of systematic disadvantage. The beast becomes especially difficult to slay when issues of sexual harassment are thrown into the mix, as has been made increasingly clear in the Respect at Work report by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins. The report found that sexual harassment is widespread and pervasive across all Australian

workplaces, with 39 per of women and 26 per cent of men experiencing sexual harassment in their workplace. “There are very clear guidelines that came from the Respect at Work report about what needs to be done,” Weine says. “And this is where commitment from the leadership of business just has to get on with it. “Progress requires a whole society approach – from business, government and individuals.” BHP set a shining target for diversity by setting a goal of achieving gender balance globally by 2025. The company put several measures in place to increase employee confidence in reporting sexual harassment cases – one of which involved abolishing non-disclosure agreements as a quick fix for sexual harassment allegations. It also improved the knowledge of those responsible for investigating reports, increased awareness of appropriate workplace behaviour, drove cultural change through better leadership, and mobilised bystanders. While there have been reports of sexual harassment in the industry, Weine sees these alleged incidents as a positive. “I think (the reports are) to be expected and it’s exactly what needs to happen. What has happened over

however many years is that these issues have been swept under the carpet. The Respect at Work report clearly states that,” Weine says. “What we’re going to see, as ugly and as horrible as it is, is more and more cases being reported. And it’s all got to come out before it gets better. “I take my hat off to everyone in the industry who are stepping up and taking action. Unfortunately, it’s going to be painful in the short to medium term, but hopefully it means in the long term we see amazing change.” More positively, a report from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency and the BankWest Curtin Economics Centre states the mining industry has seen the biggest improvement in women in board positions over the seven years to 2020. The industry doubled its women in board positions to 20 per cent in that time and now has the lowest managerial gender pay gap at only 5.9 per cent. While these are still considerable deficits for women, organisations like NAWO, IWIMRA and Mineral Resources continue to fly the flag for minorities in Australian mining. Weine describes her proudest achievement at NAWO as being the constant presence of the

DIVERSITY IN THE MINING INDUSTRY CONTINUES TO IMPROVE. AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

organisation in people’s lives. “In our recent executive forum we saw 85 executive leaders coming together to discuss what they can do differently around sexual harassment in the workplace,” she says. “The fact we can just keep these issues on the active agenda of busy executives with hectic schedules might sound like a small win. “But for me it’s the fact we can amplify these issues with that audience consistently and keep it on the agenda and not let it drop away as soon as a crisis like COVID-19 appears.” Mehravari says Mineral Resources aims to keep the momentum going through its entry-level programs and use them to push female employees right up the leadership ladder. “Bringing them in the door is one thing but we really want to help understand those pathways through the business into different areas of Mineral Resources and how we can use their skills and talents to give them that career progression,” she says. “The most important thing is continuing cultural improvement and making sure the workplace is accessible to women as possible so that they’re given the opportunity to thrive and move into leadership roles.” AM

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WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

FIFO WORKFORCE NO SUBSTITUTE FOR LOCALS WITH THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC CLOSING AUSTRALIA’S INTERNATIONAL BORDERS, AS WELL AS INTERSTATE BORDERS SEVERAL TIMES, THE IMPORTANCE OF A RESIDENTIAL WORKFORCE IN REGIONAL CITIES HAS NEVER BEEN MORE NOTICEABLE.

he regional Western Australian cities of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Karratha are considered two mining capitals in the state. Karratha, located in the Pilbara region, benefits from the strength of iron ore prices, while KalgoorlieBoulder in the Western Australian Goldfields has historically been the centre of the state’s gold industry. However, despite their resource-rich surroundings, the fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workforce of both regions outnumbers their residential labour force in the resources sector Australian Mining Cities Alliance (AMCA) chair and City of KalgoorlieBoulder Mayor John Bowler says the impact of the global pandemic has been mixed for regional cities in Western Australia. “When COVID-19 first hit there is no doubt that mining companies and the workers both became acutely aware that, for the foreseeable future, we can’t be assured of being able to fly long distances across state borders – and even for a while within regions of Western Australia,” Bowler says. “So we have had an increase in the residential workforce and house vacancies in Kalgoorlie-Boulder are virtually non-existent. “I think FIFO has increased currently because every house is taken by families and so workers, even if they wanted to in some cases, find it difficult to get a three- or fourbedroom home to bring their family to Kalgoorlie-Boulder. “We are working to fix that with the state government releasing more land, the city council are doing their own bit in that regard and are looking to develop more land and build more houses and more apartments. Bowler says he recognises that in the modern mining world there is a case for a FIFO workforce. “Where a mine is opening up with a lifespan of three or four years you are not going to build a town to house those workers,” he says. “There is also the case where there is a temporary big boost in employment where there is a major shutdown.

KALGOORLIE, THE CENTRE OF GOLD MINING IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

“You are not going to build a thousand houses that are needed for only five or six weeks. They are going to go into temporary accommodation.” Bowler says the City of KalgoorlieBoulder council has always baulked at looking at a camp or a workers’ accommodation, preferring to encourage residential over FIFO workers. “However, we may have to relent, recognising there is a need for some short-term accommodation from time to time,” he says. “If there are no houses then we need to provide another way for the mining companies, the drilling companies and the service industries to get their workers accommodated in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. “The same need arises in Karratha, Broken Hill, Mt Isa and in the Isaac Regional Council up in Central Queensland who are the other members of the Australian Mining Cities Alliance.” The AMCA aims to consider and address issues, and progress the economic development of mining cities across Australia. The organisation welcomed the City of Karratha as its latest member in July. AUSTRALIANMINING

City of Karratha Mayor Peter Long says the city’s preference is for a residential workforce as it contributes to the sustainability and growth of the community. “We understand that temporary workers are required for certain major projects and FIFO does provide the ability to mobilise large temporary workforces, usually for short-term constructions and maintenance,” Long says. “The city has done a huge amount of work to improve liveability for the community with millions of dollars spent on enhancing community infrastructure, facilities and services, such as the $56 million Red Earth Arts Precinct, the $63 million Karratha Leisureplex or the $13.6 million Dampier Foreshore Redevelopment. “As a city, we are keen to address issues such as tax inequality, housing affordability, insurance and airfare costs that are common to mining cities. “We can see great value in working collaboratively with other councils from around Australia to fight for change where it is needed.” Bowler says since the Fringe Benefit Tax was introduced in Western Australia it became more viable to

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fly the worker in and out, with the companies then able to claim that tax back in the one year. “So that is what we are doing as the AMCA – we are engaging former WA MP Brendon Grylls, who I worked with in the WA Parliament, to lobby on our behalf to exclude regional accommodation from the Fringe Benefit Tax,” he says. “So let’s get a level playing field so companies go out of their way to provide a quality of life for their workers where they can tuck their kids in at night.” Long says reforms to the Fringe Benefit Tax would be beneficial for the City of Karratha. “Currently the city is supporting advocacy efforts to reform the Fringe Benefit Tax to achieve fairer outcomes for residential home owners in the community and the city has also implemented the highly successful Karratha is Calling campaign to shift perceptions of regional areas,” he says. “Diversifying the local economy and providing support for local business is a key goal of the city and is pivotal in working towards our vision of becoming Australia’s most liveable regional city.” AM

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INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

QUEENSLAND PACIFIC METALS CONDUCTED STUDIES FOR ITS TECH PROJECT IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

SOUTH KOREA PRESENTS AS PERFECT PARTNER AUSTRALIA’S CRITICAL MINERALS SECTOR IS WELL-POSITIONED TO BENEFIT FROM GROWING INTEREST FROM KOREAN INVESTORS. THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS BUILT ON RESOURCES, REPUTATION AND MUTUAL TRUST.

usiness has been booming on both ends of this handshake of late, as the Republic of Korea’s (South Korea’s) gross domestic product (GDP) teeters inside the world’s top 10 and remains a valuable export destination for Australia. Considering South Korea is home to three of the largest battery manufacturers in the world – which combine for a market share of 34.7 per cent – it would make sense to diversify its source of raw battery materials. However, critical minerals hubs such as China and the Democratic Republic of Congo have shown instability of late – the former seeing anti-Chinese sentiment grow in Korea and the latter with environmental, social and governance risks. South Korea, therefore, now views the reliability of Australia’s critical minerals more favourably. Trade and Investment Queensland (TIQ) commissioner for Korea, Ryan Freer, explains what makes Australia so attractive. “Australia is viewed by Korean investors as a trusted partner and as one of the safest places around the globe to do business,” Freer says. “When it comes to mineral resources investments, Korean investors have strong trust in Australia’s regulatory standards and Australian businesses’ environmental, social and corporate governance structures are highly regarded.” South Korea consumed 48,000 tonnes of lithium and 67,000 tonnes

of nickel in 2020, both of which are expected to smash past 100,000 tonnes per year by 2030. At the same time, Australia mined 47 per cent of the world’s lithium resource in 2017 and holds the world’s largest nickel resource (24 per cent). Freer was appointed commissioner in July to boost Queensland’s presence in export supply chains. He understands what it takes to create strong trading partnerships and has stepped in at a promising time. “I feel fostering the right relationships around shared interests is critical. Only then can miners and processors build awareness, create confidence and deliver mutual benefit,” Freer says. “Queensland’s well established resource sector has led to the development of world-class infrastructure to support export markets. Our strategic location has also led to the formation of strong, longterm strategic relationships between companies from Asia and Queenslandbased resource companies.” TIQ has helped to facilitate a significant agreement between Queensland Pacific Metals (QPM) and Korean manufacturers LG Energy Solutions (LGES) and POSCO. The seven-year, $19.35 million deal will see QPM ship 10,000 tonnes of nickel and 1000 tonnes of cobalt to the manufacturers every year once its Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub (TECH) project is up and running. “QPM’s project was identified by TIQ’s mining, resources and energy team in Queensland as an attractive AUSTRALIANMINING

project for the Korean market from the early stages of the project,” Freer says. “Representatives from our Korean office visited QPM’s proposed site in Townsville and met with the QPM leadership team in 2020 to improve our understanding of the project to support pitching to Korean corporates.” From there it was a matter of pitching the project to the right South Korean businesses and a multi-milliondollar deal was signed. Freer says it is a terrific effort by QPM to secure the deal, but the commissioner suggests it won’t be the last of its kind. “Given Korean investors are relatively conservative by nature, it is a significant achievement by QPM to secure an investment from LGES and POSCO in the early stages of the project, in the midst of a global pandemic no less,” Freer says. “Agreements of this nature, where offtake is secured along with an investment, are becoming more common as the battery market in Korea evolves at a high growth rate. “Businesses now recognise the increasing importance of securing a stable supply of raw materials for battery manufacturers, which has resulted in increased investment activity from companies like LGES and POSCO.” QPM chief executive officer Stephen Grocott says the agreement will allow for significant developments to occur at the TECH project. “In March 2021, QPM raised $20 million. The investment from LGES and POSCO delivers a similar amount.

SEPTEMBER 2021

TRADE AND INVESTMENT QUEENSLAND COMMISSIONER FOR KOREA RYAN FREER.

Now with $40 million of funding, QPM is fully funded to advance the TECH project through feasibility, approvals and critical path detailed engineering,” Grocott says. The TECH project is undergoing a definitive feasibility study to confirm if it can process 1.5 million wet metric tonnes per year of high-grade nickel laterite ore. QPM has discussed the deal with a number of offtake partners from around the world. Grocott says, however, QPM never set out to partner specifically with Korean businesses. “With project funding being a key hurdle for QPM, our biggest focus was counterparty risk and having an offtake partner that was bankable in the eyes of financiers,” Grocott says. “With LGES and POSCO, we don’t mind where our product ultimately goes to as their operations are global. The key is that they are highly reputable counterparties.” It shows in the attitudes of both South Korean investors and Queensland’s resources sector that trust and reliability are the biggest players in this growing partnership. And the friendship won’t simply vanish once a deal is secured. “We will continue to support QPM, including Stephen Grocott, when he travels to Korea to meet with the investors in the coming months,” Freer concludes. AM

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RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

PYRITE IS OFTEN REFERRED TO AS FOOL’S GOLD.

CAN FOOL’S GOLD ENCOURAGE SUSTAINABLE MINING? RESEARCHERS HAVE SHARPENED OUR UNDERSTANDING OF GOLD INSIDE PYRITE, WHICH COULD PAVE THE WAY FOR A GREENER AND CHEAPER METHOD TO MINE THE PRECIOUS METAL.

ustralia has the largest gold reserves in the world, according to 2020 data from the US Geological Survey. With estimated reserves of 10,000 tonnes, new brownfield and greenfield gold deposits have become a hot topic among Tier 1 companies and junior explorers in Australia. At the other end of the spectrum, gold exports earned Australia a record $27 billion last year thanks to its existing mining projects, including Kirkland Lake Gold’s Fosterville mine in Victoria and Newcrest Mining’s Cadia operation in New South Wales. While Fosterville and Cadia are mined using more traditional methods, a more sustainable alternative to an underground or open pit site may be looming. Curtin University researcher Denis Fougerouse led a team of seven researchers, as part of a collaboration with the University of Western Australia and China University of Geoscience, to develop

an understanding of gold trapped in pyrite and its potential contribution to mining in the future. The study in free access, A new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations, took pyrite samples from a Chinese gold mine, finding a new way gold atoms are distributed that was never seen before by exploring the mineral at the nanoscale. Pyrite is a common mineral colloquially known as fool’s gold as it appears to share similar characteristics to gold. Fougerouse and his team observed gold in pyrite at a scale 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair using a high-tech instrument known as an atom probe. By discovering this so-called “invisible gold”, Fougerouse believes it may hold the key to more sustainable mining practices. “We’ve known that gold in pyrite is a thing for quite a long time” Fougerouse tells Australian Mining. “What we found was that this new type of gold may be prominent in AUSTRALIANMINING

minerals which have been deformed over the course of time – minerals that have been twisted and kinked in shear zones are probably very likely to have gold hosted in what we call crystal defects.” The study identified that when more defects are seen in a pyrite crystal, more gold will be hosted within the defects. “The thing that’s really interesting about the defect is that they are only a few nanometres in size – if you take the average COVID-19 virus particle size, it’s 100 times smaller,” Fougerouse says. While atom probe tomography has been used in the creation of computer chips for decades, it is a relatively new technology for geology. “The power of atom probe technology is to make measurements at incredibly small scales” Fougerouse says. “It has been used in many different materials and objects particularly in the semiconductor industry to analyse computer chips. “Only in the last five to six

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years have we started to use atom probes for geological studies. This instrumentation has made possible to ‘see’ invisible gold in pyrite.” According to Fougerouse, the discovery rate for gold deposits, as well as the grades of the gold ore that is being found, is declining. This was reflected in an S&P Global Market Intelligence report from September 2020, which revealed that 16 of the 20 largest gold producers worldwide have experienced a decrease in their overall years of remaining production since 2010. S&P believes that major gold producers are now more focused on acquisitions rather than exploration to increase their gold output. Fougerouse says this decline could pave the way for selective leaching to be a sustainable and environmentally friendly extraction method for gold miners. His study suggests that if gold could be extracted from pyrite using this targeted method it could also replace energy-intensive pressure oxidising techniques.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Selective leaching instead uses a fluid to dissolve gold from the pyrite, which is enabled by the pyrite defects acting as pathways to wash out the gold without having to dig out the pyrite. With pyrite being the most abundant sulphide mineral on Earth, there are plenty of places to seek out the gold trapped inside. Fougerouse says Australia is likely to have deformed pyrite similar to what was is used in the study. “Pyrite in Australian deposits could host a lot of these new types of gold microstructure,” Fougerouse says. “The Australian gold deposits are very often hosted in shear zones and are quite old, particularly in Western Australia. It is likely these types of deposits underwent several episodes of deformation and quite a long history. “Our observations can be reproduced anywhere that has a minimum amount of deformation in pyrite, which is rather common in gold systems.” Mining companies are also being pressured to meet net-zero carbon commitments and they need to find new methods to achieve this. A gold extraction technique such as selective leaching from pyrite could materialise into an alternative.

“If the mine of the future can use selective or in-situ leaching, that would be fantastic,” Fougerouse says. “The environmental footprint would be a fraction of a current. Fougerouse says planning for the next stage of research of gold in pyrite is progressing and includes the prospect of collaborating with more researchers. “We would really like to collaborate with other researchers who are more legible in mineral processing to make some tests, experiments to measure selective leaching and characterise it in details,” Fougerouse says. “Once we have done that, we hope to provide tangible end-user outcomes. The research is still in an intermittent state.” While the study itself was completed in weeks, Fougerouse says more needs to be done to build on the understanding of gold trapped in pyrite. “The maths is pretty simple: the more energetically costly a mine becomes the more impact it has on climate change,” he says. “People have talked about selective leaching before but the new ideas we’re putting forward have not been tested yet and may be a tipping point for its application in specific context. AM

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UNDERGROUND MINING

CHARGING FORWARD WITH THE BENEFITS OF BATTERIES EPIROC AUSTRALIA UNDERGROUND BUSINESS MANAGER SHAIFUL ALI EXPLAINS WHY THE MOVE TO ELECTRIFICATION CAN HELP THE ENVIRONMENT AS WELL AS REDUCE OPERATIONAL COSTS. THE M20 PROVIDES DIFFERENCE WITH THREE MAIN CRITERIA IN HEALTH AND SAFETY, PRECISION AND MAINTENANCE.

he environmental benefits of electrification are a major reason why the mining and resources industry has moved to embrace the technology. Research shows that both industry customers and the general public are placing larger emphasis on companies with a greater social and environmental awareness. However, environmental factors are not the only reasons companies are increasingly looking towards implementing battery-powered equipment in underground mining. Swedish original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Epiroc recognises the importance of working together with industry and other manufacturers to give mine operators a range of options when it comes to choosing the right equipment for the right role. In 2017, Epiroc began development of a battery platform and in 2018 unveiled its second-generation battery-electric equipment. Epiroc Australia underground

business manager Shaiful Ali says there are significant reasons behind the move to provide mine operators with a battery option. “There is a lot of discussion around the health and safety aspect of using battery technology underground,” Ali tells Australian Mining. “We see the benefits of batteries not only from a health perspective but also, long term, from a cost perspective. The cost benefits from using a battery are similar to the original costs of a mobile phone. “When the mobile phone was first released it cost thousands of dollars, but as technology progressed and mass production starts, that is where you can see the cost benefit. “There are also other cost reductions when using batterypowered machinery, for example, ventilation costs would be reduced, due to the the reduction in diesel fumes associated with battery equipment vehicles, subsequently providing a healthier environment for the operators underground.” In 2020, the OEM unveiled its Batteries-as-a-service solution, AUSTRALIANMINING

THE CABIN IS DESIGNED FOR THE COMFORT OF THE OPERATOR.

SEPTEMBER 2021

UNDERGROUND MINING

which is designed to provide a unique option for operators to costeffectively access its battery-electric machines. “We sell the customer the machine but then the battery itself is an expensive commodity,” Ali says. “What we did was propose an arrangement where the customer buys the machine, but we then lease them the battery. What that does is allow the customer to have more control over updates in technology. “The service will provide the battery at a monthly nominal fee where Epiroc will be responsible for the management of the battery, the model advances of the batteries and the disposal of the battery.” Epiroc’s development of its services and solutions has this year been complemented by new machinery releases, such as its next-generation development drill, the Boomer M20. The Boomer M20 has a sturdy and robust design with an optional zeroemission battery driveline. This is the first rig of its kind to be able to drill partly on battery power. Its new booms feature internal hydraulics and a hoseless design, meaning less unplanned downtime for hose repairs. The hoseless design gives the operator better visibility from the cabin, greatly improving operator safety. Epiroc expects the M20’s features will increase productivity and machine utilisation, while facilitating planning of mining operations. “The M20 provides difference with three main criteria in health and safety, precision and maintenance,” Ali says. “The M20 will have the ability to be fitted with a battery driveline, it has internal hydraulics because we see the hydraulic hose as one of the real costs of failure underground when it comes to the operation. “We also have the newly designed cabin on the Boomer M20 – the new cabin provides a reduction in noise to the existing cabin and is pretty much designed for the comfort of the operator.” Another key feature of the Boomer M20 is Underground Manager, software designed for production planning and creating drill plans for the drill rig. The drill plans can be transferred to the rig via USB or RRA (Rig Remote Access). Underground Manager logs position, angle and depth of each bolt installed. This gives quality control of the rock bolting to ensure proper bolt installation has been performed. Epiroc has this year also launched its new Collision Avoidance System, which detects objects in the

EPIROC EXPECTS THE M20’S FEATURES WILL INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY.

immediate area of machine operators. “Previously we had a system that informs but did not react – it required the operators to react,” Ali says. “This new system is able to react on behalf of the operator and works together with the proximity detection system, which will dictate what distance the machine will stop at. “The Collision Avoidance System is primarily for our trucks and loaders. These recent products show how important safety is for our customers.” Ali says Epiroc has been working with its mining industry partners to provide tailor-made solutions to increase safety in the workforce. Automation continues to be a key aspect of the bespoke solutions that

AUSTRALIANMINING

Epiroc is developing, with Ali saying the OEM plans to expand on what it offers in this area. “Truck automation is something that we are working on as well, as we see that as the next step of our journey moving forward,” he says. “I think that the concept of automation has now been accepted; I think what everyone is striving for right now is ensuring that the automated machines are able to duplicate manual operations. “There is no real point in automating a machine if it only carries out 50 per cent of the productivity.” Ali says Epiroc strives to anticipate industry needs and works with the industry to provide the best possible solutions.

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The OEM has established a roadmap that looks at least five years into the industry’s future, taking trends in technology and evolving factors such as ESG (environmental, social and governance) into consideration. “Technology has the ability to change so quickly and regulations are also changing around the world, so it is important to be able to move with the expectations of the customer,” Ali says. “For example, diesel-free could be the future, but it is not yet, and at least we are working towards providing our customers with that option. The key is to have that option to move forwards and to try to understand exactly what the industry requires in its next step.” AM

UNDERGROUND MINING

DELIVERING SPECIALIST LONGWALL SYSTEM COMPATIBILITY WITH CONTRACTS WITH INDUSTRY LEADERS INCLUDING ANGLO AMERICAN, HASTINGS DEERING IS THE ONE-STOP SHOP FOR ALL LONGWALL EQUIPMENT COMMISSIONING AND REPAIRS.

astings Deering’s Mackay workshop will be home to a compatibility that will simulate an operating configuration, including equipment from seven suppliers to enable testing of an integrated system. The mini-build allows for proof testing to be conducted in a safe environment, enabling a more efficient re-commissioning of the equipment once operational. Hastings Deering was recently awarded a longwall contract for Anglo American’s Aquila coal project in Central Queensland. Hastings Deering longwall projects manager Scott Barwick says once it is installed underground, the Aquila longwall will be 380 metres long. “Our workshops are 100 metres long and 32 metres wide, so we are able to build an 80-metre longwall mini-build to conduct the compatibility in the workshop,” Barwick says. “The logistics are incredible, with a steady stream of trucks being required to transport the equipment components to our facility and back to site. “Over the course of the compatibility, various components will make their way through our gearbox overhaul centre, electrical and electronics workshops, electrohydraulic valve-shop, fabrication

workshop and finally to the general fitting and assembly bay.” In addition to the equipment assembly, there are approximately 1200 tests conducted – everything from initial function testing of individual components to major component and full system commissioning. Barwick says at the end of the day, it is all about reducing and mitigating risk. “If we can do all this testing above ground in a workshop before the unit goes back to work, we can more closely monitor and evaluate the equipment with our longwall technical resources and complete fine-tune adjustments as necessary,” he says. “The benefit to our customer is confidence that their equipment is fully integrated into a single system and tested ahead of its return to site for production in an underground panel.” Delivery of set one to the Aquila mine site is scheduled for early December 2021 ahead of production starting in the first quarter of 2022. Set two will complete its compatibility testing and be delivered to site in 2022. The Hastings Deering underground facility is also home to Mackay’s only specialist shearer rebuild facility. The facility is equipped to perform 12-hour heat runs as part of the quality checks following an overhaul and regularly invites its customers

HASTINGS DEERING’S LONGWALL SERVICES HAVE A STRONG FOCUS ON CUSTOMER SAFETY.

AUSTRALIANMINING

IN ADDITION TO THE EQUIPMENT ASSEMBLY, THERE ARE AROUND 1200 TESTS CONDUCTED.

to be a part of the process. Where AS3800 and flameproof repairs are required, the Hastings Deering underground workshops hold appropriate qualifications to achieve compliant rebuilds first time, every time. All of the company’s electrical tradespeople hold EEHA Stage 1 and 2 accreditations. Its full electrical test facility is capable of testing and running up to 3.3kV, ensuring the rebuild quality of all electrical equipment. A cable-making facility complements all underground overhauls with the ability to manufacture in-house. Full test facilities allow for high standards of quality assurance following component overhauls, with heat runs and vibration analysis providing confidence in overhaul quality. Hastings Deering regularly partners with customers and reliability representatives where technical issues are encountered, and failure analysis is required. A valve rebuild workshop also complements underground overhauls, with the ability to provide specialist rebuilds and in-house testing following an overhaul. Barwick says Hastings Deering is a one-stop shop for all longwall equipment commissioning and repairs. “Hastings Deering is the biggest and most experienced longwall workshop in Central Queensland and has completed many projects for large mining customers across

SEPTEMBER 2021

the state,” Barwick says. “Hastings Deering strives to be your first choice in supplying parts and service to the regions mining industry. We want our customers to choose us because we understand their needs and consistently deliver the best solutions. “This is why we have invested to bring to our customers the expertise and capability to deliver just that. “With our centres of excellence in draglines and longwalls, and our product performance centre, we have the operational and maintenance expertise to assist our customers to maximise fleet performance and optimise cost.” Hastings Deering has more than 3500 employees incorporating 23 business service centres across Queensland, Northern Territory, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, with its home base in Brisbane. “We are stepping up our investment in technologies that will help our customers achieve the next level of productivity, cost and safety,” Barwick says. “This, combined with more service operations, parts inventory, component rebuild centres, field service trucks and skilled advisors on customer sites across our region, we’re rising to the challenges our customers put to us every day to deliver. “In aspiring to be our customers’ trusted partner, Hastings Deering is digging deeper than ever to assist them achieve sustainable success.” AM

UNDERGROUND MINING

DRIVETRAIN WELCOMES KOVATERA’S BATTERY-ELECTRIC VEHICLE TO AUSTRALIA FULLY ELECTRIC WITH TWICE THE PAYLOAD AND A LIFESPAN TO OUTLIVE SOME MINES, DRIVETRAIN IS NOW SUPPLYING AUSTRALIA WITH A TASTE OF WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS.

hile traditional utility vehicles take on-highway models, electrify them and adapt them for the harsh conditions of underground mining, Kovatera has engineered the KT200e from the ground up. Based on 13 years of development since the Kovatera UT99 diesel version was released, this electrified workhorse can be trusted to last for up to 10 years in mining conditions. Such a bold promise can only be backed up by a comprehensive warranty, which is why Kovatera extended its chassis warranty out to five years – an unheard-of length considering most competing vehicles last around three years. Kovatera general manager Will Gove explains how the vehicle manufacturer achieves such longevity in the KT200e. “It’s in the design of the machine. One example would be our use of heavy-duty off-highway axels where the brakes are enclosed, whereas a traditional on-highway vehicle has them exposed,” Gove tells Australian Mining. “Another example would be the chassis design. A traditional rolled chassis can allow water to get inside to rust the vehicle from the inside out. Our chassis is a fabricated steel chassis with a flat plate. So, the backbone of the machine is exceptionally strong. “Thirdly, the standard thickness of automotive style vehicle body panels is about 0.9 millimetres. On our vehicle it’s about two millimetres, about twice the thickness.” In a nutshell, it is components like these which enable the Kovatera to make a name for itself around the world. Canada-based Kovatera has tested the KT200e in the North American country’s mines and has now found an opening into the Australian mining industry. All Kovatera required to expand the vehicle’s global reach was a reliable Australian supplier such as Drivetrain

with the right locations and people to support mining operations wherever they were needed. Mark Griffith, general manager for sales and business development at Drivetrain, says Kovatera aligns well with where the Australian mining industry is moving. As such, Drivetrain was more than happy to distribute the KT200e across the country’s major underground hard rock mines. “Drivetrain is an established supplier to the mining industry, particularly to underground mining,” Griffith says. “We provide maintenance solutions across most underground mines in Australia in some fashion. That allows us to assess their conditions and pick products from our international suppliers which meet their needs and drive better asset management for sustainability in their operations.” While electric vehicles (EVs) are an emerging trend in the mining industry, Australian operators are known to take a tentative approach to technological developments, according to Griffith. But the KT200e is ready to work in Australian mines. “They like to see it prove itself, and I think we’re at that point in our evolution in Australia where Australians don’t like to jump on a vehicle that’s just landed or hasn’t been fully commercialised and produced for a

THE KT200E IS SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED AS A ROBUST OFF-HIGHWAY VEHICLE FOR THE MINING ENVIRONMENT.

number of years,” Griffith says. “The Kovatera EV has had nearly a decade of engineering design put into it, it’s had years of experience in Canadian mines and we’re confident it will prove itself here the way the diesel has.” The KT200e comes in a standard 88-kilowatt-hour option, but for those concerned with forking out unnecessary funds, the 44-kilowatthour option caters to those with smaller mines and shorter-range requirements. In either case, operators can be sure the charging capacity of the KT200e will be enough for whichever mine it’s thrown into. “We also have two onboard chargers, so one can charge the vehicle on board and it doesn’t require any offboard infrastructure,” Gove says. “You can bring the vehicle into the mine and leverage off the existing mining infrastructure, which is important for a lot of our customers.” Naturally, some people may ask how much production is sacrificed for electrification in this

future-proof utility vehicle. Drivetrain business development manager of capital equipment sales, Joel Mathews, says the answer may surprise a few people. “One additional item which makes the vehicle quite unique is the payload capacity, as traditional units in the market offer around half of what the KT200e does. It’s quite a workhorse for a small truck,” Mathews says. Whether payload, range or lifespan are the deciding factor in a company’s next utility vehicle, Drivetrain is confident the Kovatera has their needs covered. “We have seen an influx of opposition companies starting to enter this market, but the difference is these products are still in their research and development stages,” Mathews says. “They haven’t put in the time or experience operating underground. Plus, Kovatera has the production capability. If a customer comes to us and says, ‘I love these machines, can I have 20 of them this year?’ We can say, ‘yes you can,’ and we can do it with confidence.” AM

THE DRIVETRAIN TEAM IS HAPPY TO TAKE ON KOVATERA’S KT200E AS THEIR VALUES ALIGN WELL.

AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

The miner’s choice for fuel and lubricants

UNDERGROUND MINING

SPECIAL DELIVERY FOR ELPHINSTONE WR810 FLEET THE ELPHINSTONE RANGE OF WR810 UNDERGROUND SUPPORT VEHICLES IS DESIGNED TO THRIVE IN THE HARSHEST UNDERGROUND HARD ROCK MINING ENVIRONMENTS. THE NEW WR810 DELIVERY WITH CRANE ADDS ANOTHER SUPPORT APPLICATION TO ELPHINSTONE’S EXPANDING UNDERGROUND SUPPORT FLEET.

hoosing the right support vehicle for an underground mining operation can significantly increase the productivity of the production fleet and reduce operational costs. The WR810 is a highly configurable, 10-tonne nominal base platform, comprising a scissor lift, agitator (six cubic metres), fuel and lube truck, and water cannon. According to Elphinstone’s regional sales & support manager for the Americas, Nick Furmage, the WR810 model range is growing. “We aim to expand the range of applications to meet the underground support equipment requirements of our customers,” Furmage says. With a payload of 9800 kilograms, the new WR810 Delivery with crane ensures parts, components, equipment and maintenance personnel are transported safely and securely throughout the mine. The fully integrated Hiab X-HiDuo 092 ‘optimal performance’ loader crane features a rated lifting capacity of 8.8 tonne metre and a 7.7-metre outreach, providing a reliable solution for day-to-day heavy lifting. “Operated by manual lever control or via the wireless joystick remote, the operator can manoeuvre loads from a distance with built-in intelligence and automatic speed control (ASC) for safe and effective load

handling,” Furmage says. Safety features include emergency crane stops located on the manual control station and wireless joystick remote. Stabiliser legs with levelling sensors provide a safe foundation with easy pack up for safe transit. The checker plate deck features thoughtfully positioned tie-down points and three-point access with high visibility green handrails and ladders on both sides. The C7.1 ACERT Tier 4 Final engine arrangement is optional, adhering to EU Stage V exhaust emission standards. The engine arrangement offers a dual horsepower configuration set at 151 kilowatts (202 horsepower) for a higher performance rating. The lower reduced ventilation rating at 129 kilowatts (173 horsepower) is possible through a simple software change performed by a Caterpillar dealer. The C7.1 ACERT Tier 3 engine arrangement rated at 168 kilowatts (225 horsepower) is the standard option for less stringent emission regulations. Matched to the engine is a Cat five-speed (three-speed reverse) transmission fitted with a lock-up torque converter. Downtime during service and maintenance is reduced through some clever engineering and design features. Quick change air filters and 500-hour oil service intervals also reduce downtime and keep

THE WR810 DELIVERY CAB’S INTERIOR.

AUSTRALIANMINING

THE ELPHINSTONE WR810 DELIVERY WITH CRANE.

machines in operation for longer for greater productivity. The on-board warning and protection system continuously checks all critical machine functions for early warning and fast fault finding, recorded for analysis. Safety is one of the most important aspects of any piece of machinery employed in the mining world. “The majority of key safety items on the WR810 are mandatory base machine options,” Furmage says. Safety features include firewalls and heatshields, machine interlocks, centralised isolation points (engine disconnect switch, starter isolation switch, jump-start receptacle and fire system activation, if fitted). Optional features include an integrated fire suppression system and metallic fuel water separators made from a non- flammable material. Emergency stops are fitted as standard inside the cabin, at ground level on the front left-hand side of the machine and located near the access ladders on the left- and right-hand side of the deck. Integrated into the WR810 operator station is a ROPS (roll-over protective structure) ISO 3471:2008 and FOPS (falling object protective structure) ISO 3449:2005 that offers protection to the operator. The operator station is designed to seat three people in comfort with exceptional visibility. This is ideal for training purposes, and allows the

SEPTEMBER 2021

complete crew to travel collectively rather than deploying an additional light vehicle for personnel transport. The driver’s seat is a ‘T’ seat with air suspension, and the crew seats are a standard ‘T’ seat or optional ‘T’ seat with air suspension. Ergonomically designed machine controls are located for the operator to control the machine functions with minimal effort. The result is greater concentration on vehicle operation, with reduced operator fatigue. The oscillating hitch provides superior operator comfort, four-wheel ground contact and reduced wear on the hitch and steering components. “The WR810’s oscillating platform stops the transfer of rough conditions from the rear frame into the front frame. The benefit is a far superior ride by allowing the rear frame to oscillate,” Furmage says. Elphinstone has adapted well to Australia’s COVID-19 environment of challenging border closures by expanding its presence in Western Australia. “Due to COVID-19 restrictions, we’re focusing on the Australian market by building local relationships to support our products,” Furmage says. This move has progressed well, allowing Elphinstone to work much closer with underground mine operators. All Elphinstone products, including the WR810, are sold through local Caterpillar dealerships. AM

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TRAINING & EDUCATION

EDUCATING THE FUTURE GENERATION OF MINING GOLD INDUSTRY GROUP AND CORE LEARNING FOUNDATION ARE GIVING SCHOOL STUDENTS THE INFORMATION AND ON-SITE EXPERIENCE NEEDED TO FORGE A CAREER IN THE MINING AND RESOURCES SECTOR.

s the mining and resources industry in Australia goes from strength to strength, concerns have been raised about filling its workforce needs. A 2021 report commissioned by the Chamber of Minerals and Energy Western Australia (CME), undertaken by independent labour market specialists Pit Crew Consulting, looks at the sector’s workforce requirements in the near term and out to 2025. Findings of the report show there

is a significant shortage of workers in the Western Australian mining and resources industries, with the potential for there to be a peak shortage of 33,000 workers. To combat this potential shortage there needs to be a focus on training and education to meet the needs of the growing mining and resource industry. Formed in 2018 to educate Western Australian students about the benefits and pathways to a career in the mining and resources sector, the CoRE Learning Foundation is responsible for overseeing the CoRE Learning model.

CoRE Learning Foundation lead Suzy Urbaniak says the program exposes students as young as Year 4 to authentic STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) learning, which is immersed in resources industry-based contexts. “In CoRE, we aim to help our youth of today succeed in tomorrow’s world and we have achieved this through our authentic and relevant STEM learning using project-based learning,” Urbaniak says. “Through our projects we immerse the students in the world around them, FIELD TRIPS ARE A FAVOURITE ACTIVITY AMONG STUDENTS.

AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

helping them understand the science in their daily life and how it applies to their environment.” Urbaniak says one of the key focus areas of the program was establishing a CoRE centre in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia, an area which she believes is still an underexplored mineral province. The foundation now has footholds in the Pilbara, the Wheatbelt, the Goldfields and the Metropolitan regions of Western Australia. “For me, as an educator, when students start to talk science with you and are able to relate their learning to their environment, connect the science with their environment, they are engaged and that means they have learned something; something which is meaningful and applies to their everyday life,” Urbaniak says. “It is critical that through CoRE, students develop a greater appreciation of the resources sector and the future careers associated with it.” Urbaniak says the sponsorship of Ramelius Resources has enabled the CoRE Learning foundation to begin its journey and expansion within the greater Western Australian Wheatbelt. Ramelius also supports the foundation’s other CoRE schools attending and visiting their mines. This is a crucial aspect, particularly for upper school students as they consolidate their CoRE Learning with the greater awareness of resources careers, combining the two to develop a career pathway into the industry. “In CoRE, we have witnessed this process happen time and time again as evidenced by our growing CoRE alumni,” Urbaniak says. “Ramelius is investing in the future resources talent pipeline of STEM, job aware students, by supporting CoRE in the development of Wheatbelt CoRE.” Northern Star Resources’ sponsorship enabled the CoRE Learning’s Foundation to begin its expansion program throughout Western Australia. Fundamentally, it enabled the foundation to grow from one school to 10, from two to 40 educators and from 140 students to 700 in just two years. Urbaniak says the CoRE Learning Model’s field trips are unique and

TRAINING & EDUCATION

STUDENTS RECOGNISE HOW THEIR STEM LEARNING RELATES TO POTENTIAL MINING CAREERS.

THE PROGRAM HAS GROWN FROM 140 STUDENTS TO 700 IN JUST TWO YEARS.

iconic. According to CoRE alumni, they are the most memorable realclassroom learning experience. Visual and hands-on, these field trips create an authentic awareness for students, connecting their learning with real-world applications. On a mine site, students recognise how their STEM learning relates to potential careers in the industry. Urbaniak says Gold Industry Group members have been integral in the development and growth of the CoRE Expansion Program. “It is a well-known fact that there is a skills shortage, and the CoRE Learning Foundation through its expansion, is geared to provide a

future talent pipeline for the resources sector,” she says. “Our CoRE alumni are a testament to how the CoRE learning model delivers on this performance success indicator.” The Gold Industry Group has also been instrumental in promoting the benefits of a career in the gold mining sector with its own educational program. Its National Gold Education Program provides teachers with access to free, interactive Gold Class Sessions delivered by passionate workers in Australia’s gold industry, as well as exclusive Gold Resources Kits. Since the program launched last

year, it has reached 800 schools across Australia through the delivery of the Gold Resources Kits and dynamic Gold Class Sessions across the country. To date, 44 unique Gold Class Sessions were presented at 11 primary and 10 secondary schools across Perth, Kalgoorlie, Kambalda and Norseman. Around 800 Gold Resources Kits were also delivered to primary and secondary schools across all states and territories, receiving glowing feedback both from teachers and students. The Gold Industry Group has seen increased traffic through the Gold Jobs Website and student interest has been gauged through the number of questions and obvious enthusiasm from students during the Gold Class Sessions. Gold Industry Group executive officer Rebecca Johnston says the education program and jobs initiative is inspiring thousands of students across the nation. “The program is bringing reallife scenarios into the classroom,

showcasing the diverse careers pathways available and educating about the gold industry’s valuable role in society,” she says. “We also hope our resources support educators to deliver well-informed lessons that not only explore the significance of gold to our country, but also its relevance in an ever-changing technological society. “Educating the next generation is key to building a future talent pipeline and an informed community.” Urbaniak says the education of students is about investing in the future of the mining sector and the next generation of its workforce. “It’s a journey for students and CoRE is a proven pathway which delivers individuals into the resources sector who otherwise would not have considered it,” Urbaniak says. “So it’s a long-term investment, not a quick fix, and the more financial investment we have the more students we impact, the more students will be aware of a resources career.” AM

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MINING EQUIPMENT

CJD DIGS DEEP FOR MULTI-MILLION TONNE TAILINGS FACILITY FEW APPLICATIONS OR LOCATIONS ARE OUT OF REACH FOR CJD EQUIPMENT. THIS IS WHY FMR INVESTMENTS HAS PARTNERED WITH CJD TO BUILD A FOUR-MILLION-TONNE TAILINGS STORAGE FACILITY IN THE GOLDFIELDS OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

MR Investments has been in the mining game since the late 1980s as a miner and a former contractor, giving the company a history of expertise and expectations of what it takes to get a job done. For the past 10 years, FMR has maintained a strong relationship with CJD Equipment, deploying several machines to its sites for thousands of hours of smooth operation. FMR operates the Eloise copper mine in Queensland, the Gordon Sidar gold mine outside Kalgoorlie, and the Greenfields Mill at Coolgardie, also near Kalgoorlie. With CJD’s dozens of branches, dealers and service agents across Australia, FMR has no trouble consulting with the supplier to find the right equipment for its projects. For a tailings dam at Greenfields, FMR ordered a Volvo EC350D excavator from CJD as it had already experienced success with the machine at other locations. Greenfields Mill general manager John Taaffe says choosing the EC350D was an easy decision and describes why CJD is a strong supplier. “It came down to a price point, fuel economy and availability of the machine as well. CJD are really easy to deal with and we said yes pretty quickly,” Taaffe tells Australian Mining. “It’s their service support and the back-up service in the event of a breakdown; they’re very quick to come out and diagnose issues, and fix

FMR HAS ORDERED ANOTHER VOLVO EC350D EXCAVATOR FROM CJD.

problems that we have on site.” “They can help remotely, and they usually can send technicians to site within a couple of hours.” The new tailings dam will be built in four stages and cover 24 hectares, according to Taaffe. The first stage will involve moving around 1.1 million tonnes of material over the course of three to four months. Taaffe says his business requires a reliable supplier which can get the equipment on site at a moment’s notice. “The dam needs to happen quickly and when we eventually get the goahead from the regulator, we need to be ready to start immediately,” Taaffe says. Not only does Taaffe have minimal problems with maintaining the Volvos, but his team members also have no

reason to complain about the upgrade. “The operators are very happy with them, they’ve got no problem at all,” Taaffe says. “They were a bit sceptical about them at the start, obviously with a smaller machine, but pretty soon after they started using them, they found the power was good and they had no issue. They’re a very comfortable machine to drive.” Away from the Greenfields Mill, at FMR’s Eloise and Gordon Sidar mines, the company has been using three Volvo L260H wheel loaders. FMR regional sales manager for Western Australia Luke McPherson says FMR’s projects are a great example of how versatile the Volvo machines are. “FMR has the confidence that these machines can fit into a wide range

FMR HAS THREE VOLVO L260H WHEEL LOADERS ACROSS ITS MINE SITES.

AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

of their work. The versatility of the L260H and EC350D means that these machines can be used in a wide variety of work across the country,” McPherson says. “The L260H – with its reduced fuel consumption gained from an advanced hydraulic system and reduced weight through the loading frame – it’s saving fuel for us without losing any production.” McPherson believes success stories such as FMR will only continue to come to light as the strength of the Australian mining industry reaches every corner of the country. “With the current size of work in Pilbara iron ore, the confidence in gold and investment in infrastructure through Western Australia, investment in new machinery, maintenance of current machinery and long-term contracts are being rewarded,” McPherson says. On top of such optimism, FMR expects Volvo will be a mainstay in the mining landscape as the original equipment manufacturer ventures further into electric vehicles. “Businesses are always looking forward at how they can help minimise their carbon footprint. With current testing on Volvo electric machinery in Sweden, it is an exciting time to be a part of the industry,” McPherson concludes. AM

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MINING SERVICES

ELIXORE, AN IMPROVED HSE SOLUTION TO MINERS WORLDWIDE: LOW TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP AND LOW CARBON EMISSIONS ELIXORE BY TOTALENERGIES FLUIDS, A RANGE OF ALIPHATIC DILUENTS, PROPELS SOLVENT EXTRACTION AS AN IMPROVED HSE ALTERNATIVE AND FOR A POSSIBLE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE OF AFFORDABLE GREEN SOLUTIONS.

esigned as aliphatic diluents dedicated to the solvent extraction (SX) process, the Elixore range offers a choice of perfectly inert, colourless and odourless solutions. TotalEnergies Fluids global market manager Zubin Arora says Elixore typically has less than 0.03 per cent of aromatics compared with classical diluents which contain up to 20 per cent of aromatics. “Each product gives access to specification sets to reach the optimal balance between the desired level of extraction efficiency (viscosity) and the necessary level of operator safety (flash point),” Arora tells Australian Mining. Some of the Elixore product offerings are also part of TotalEnergies Fluids’ EcoLife portfolio. The EcoLife products use the principle of mass balance under the certification of ISCC+ by using a bio feedstock such as used cooking oil (UCO), sunflower oil or rapeseed oil to produce products with zero-carbon footprint (cradle to gate). Hence, Elixore potentially could

help the customers to reduce their Scope 3 carbon emissions. Primarily used for the extraction of copper, nickel, cobalt, uranium, zinc, palladium group metals (PGM) and rare-earth metals, Arora says the latest application of Elixore could be used in the primary and secondary extraction of lithium. This application extends to batteries recycling. For example, the extraction of all components of a lithium-ion battery, thus contributing to circular economy. When outlining the main benefits of Elixore, Arora says there are four main categories: environment, health, performance and total cost of ownership (TCO). “When it comes to the environmental benefit, Elixore has an ultra-low-level of aromatic, which reduces ecotoxicological risk and some of the range are readily-biodegradable,” He says. “Not only is Elixore not classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic (CMR), but it has an extremely low vapour pressure to ensure the odour and fume emissions are low, which minimises the health risk to its users.”

Speaking of performance, Elixore offers comparable extraction and stripping performance against conventional diluents, as well as excellent oxidation stability. “Because of Elixore’s lower rate of evaporation, less diluent is consumed during the lifetime of the SX cycle, thus reducing the TCO by offering up to 10 per cent of savings annually, which can be quite significant for a mine,” Arora says. TotalEnergies Fluids prioritises its customers by working with them through every step of the process. Arora says the company understands that the composition of the pregnant leach solution (PLS) for each mine is different. As a result, based upon the specifications provided by the customer, the company offers dedicated products, meeting those specifications for evaluation. He says an example of this is when the company worked with a South American mine in 2019 to offer a dedicated product following feedback from a customer. “The customer evaluated a few

TOTALENERGIES PUTS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN ALL ITS DIMENSIONS AT THE HEART OF ITS PROJECTS.

AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

products and Elixore 220 was accepted as a good balance between extraction efficiency and volatility characteristics, which was further homologated in their industrial process,” Arora says. This success followed TotalEnergies Fluids implementing the Elixore range at Southern Copper’s Peruvian copper SX mine, Toquepala, in 2015. Arora says that Southern Copper noted three major findings with Elixore: No change in performance compared to an aromatic diluent; lower crud formation, which can be linked to better oxidative stability of Elixores; and lower rates of evaporation, which lowers diluent consumption. “From the feedback received in 2021, their annual diluent consumption fell 8.35 per cent because of Elixore’s lower rate of evaporation, thus contributing to annual cost savings,” Arora says. By using its cutting-edge research and development centres around the world, TotalEnergies Fluids has a multi-skilled team of passionate and experienced scientists that work on more than 40 applications to develop and provide high-quality products. The Elixore product range is produced in three locations – Europe, North America and Asia, ensuring ability to serve customers worldwide. “Diluents for SX of metals is one the newest and fastest growing applications of TotalEnergies Fluids,” he says. “The first drop of Elixore was sold in 2014 for the application of copper and today we are proud of supplying to multi-national mines and continue to expand with double digit yearly growth.” Arora says this growth is based on the quality of the product, the health, environment and safety advantages, and the lower TCO. “With the Ecolife offer introduced in August 2021, Elixore is ready to play an active part in contributing to greener planet and healthier balance sheets,” Arora concludes. AM

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MINING SERVICES

SWIRE SHIPPING EXPANDS SERVICE OFFERINGS TO ENHANCE EFFICIENCY, REDUCE EMISSIONS SWIRE SHIPPING HAS GROWN ITS CAPABILITIES WITH A NEW DIRECT SERVICE IN NORTH WEST AUSTRALIA THAT OFFERS CUSTOMERS A CONNECTION BETWEEN PORTS GLOBALLY AND THE PILBARA REGION.

he direct service is made up of two loops from Singapore to Port Hedland and Dampier. It operates with a transit time of nine days between Singapore and Dampier, and 12 days between Singapore and Port Hedland. Swire Shipping can offer customers international shipments on the single booking to/from most safe ports globally using Singapore a transshipment hub. Swire Shipping’s commercial manager of mining and resources, Stephen Westfield says the Swiremanaged vessel, MV SOUNI, will run on a Singapore – Darwin – Port Hedland – Singapore rotation on a 20-day frequency to serve the North Western Australian markets. In addition to the new direct service, Swire Shipping has formed an agreement with Australian shipping line, SeaSwift, that has an existing service from Dampier to Singapore. “The Singapore to Dampier service will be operated by the SeaSwift vessel LC Karratha Bay on a 20day frequency between Singapore – Dampier – Singapore where Swire

Shipping will have a slot arrangement,” Westfield tells Australian Mining. “Both service vessels are suitable for containers, refrigerated containers, breakbulk and out of gauge up to 80 tonnes. “We can offer cargo shipments from most safe ports globally to and from Port Hedland and Dampier.” Specialising in niche trades, Westfield says Swire Shipping has had longstanding relationships with large mining companies across key markets in the Pacific for many years. “The new direct service aims to improve shipping in North Western Australia from a cost, sustainability, safety and community involvement perspective,” he says. Westfield adds that the new direct connections offered by Swire enable customers to better plan their inventory, manage their supply chains and reach their carbon-neutral goals up to 2040. Customers who previously relied on inland transport through the Fremantle gateway now have an additional option to transport cargo to and from North West Australia. “The new direct service to Port

Headland will also reduce the overall carbon emissions from cargo delivery compared with current modes of transport. We estimate that each container shipped direct into the Pilbara will result in a reduction of over 6000 litres of diesel consumed and two tonnes of carbon saved in the supply chain on average,” Westfield says. “For large customers shipping hundreds of containers, the carbon savings are substantial. We look forward to working with clients to reach their carbon reduction targets. “It not only reduces downtime within the supply chain, but will also reduce the amount of cargo handling and allow our customers to enjoy cost savings.” Swire Shipping has established a team which is committed to sustainability and eager to work with the industry to calculate the exact benefit of the direct service, with findings made available to share with interested stakeholders and management. Westfield says due to the company’s long track record in the mining sector, it understands the importance of mine

LAE CHIEF CALLING TOWNSVILLE CARRYING MINE SUPPLIES AND BULK COMMODITIES.

AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

supply and schedule integrity for timecritical mining cargoes. “For the past 30 years, we have worked in the mining industry with large mining contracts across Australia and the Pacific,” Westfield says. “Our bespoke services to large customers is thanks to our understanding of the importance of mine supply.” Swire Shipping operates 14 liner services that connect more than 400 ports via an extensive network in the Asia-Pacific region and globally. Through its multi-purpose fleet, Swire Shipping provides a wide range of specialist customer solutions for containerised, project, heavy lift, breakbulk and mini-bulk cargoes. With an unrelenting commitment to safety, customer service, operational excellence and reliability, Westfield says Swire Shipping is committed to saving its customers’ time. “Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, and we work closely with them to achieve mutual success – because when you succeed, we succeed,” he says. With an aim to enhance overall customer experience, Swire Shipping has also expanded its product range to offer landslide logistics services. The new services include customs clearance, inland transportation services and bespoke project cargo solutions, which will complement its existing liner shipping products. Swire Shipping global head of landside services Mike Arnold says the company provides the industry with local expertise and an integrated approach to managing and simplifying complex requirements. “Customers will be able to enjoy the convenience of end-to-end deliveries with a single partner as the company can tailor solutions to solve their logistical challenges on sea or land,” Arnold says. “We are here to take the risk and complexity out of customers’ supply chain, bringing seamless, end-to-end ocean and inland services to their logistics across Australia, the Pacific Islands and beyond.” AM

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EFFICIENCY & OPTIMISATION

INCREASE ENGINE FILTER LIFE AND MAXIMISE PERFORMANCE  SY-KLONE’S NEW VORTEX MAX POWERED ENGINE PRECLEANER PROVIDES MINE SITES WITH THE BEST OPTION TO PROTECT EQUIPMENT ENGINES FROM THE EFFECTS OF DUST AND DEBRIS-LADEN AIR, LEADING TO MORE PRODUCTIVITY, MORE UPTIME AND A MORE PROFITABLE OPERATION.

eavy mobile equipment and fixed plant machinery are critical assets to the day-to-day operations of a mine site and support the core business of mining and processing mineral resources. A machine’s engine is one of the most expensive parts of heavy mobile equipment to maintain. In addition to repair costs, engines that are performing at sub-optimal levels reduce a machine’s operating capacity, jeopardising a mine site’s ability to meet operating metrics and performance goals. A key contributor to engine failure and performance degradation is dust and debris-laden air, which can lead to contaminated engine oil and damaged exhaust and aftertreatment systems. Australia Mining sits down with SyKlone to learn more about the key threats to an engine and how best to address those threats.

Dust and debris-laden air

Dirty intake air enters the engine when small dust particles pass through the engine filter media or bypass engine filter seals. Dust can quickly load an engine

filter, resulting in more frequent filter changes and unplanned work stoppages. Downstream dust is the beginning of big problems for the engine, as it only takes one teaspoon of fine dust to permanently damage an engine.

Contaminated engine oil

Debris from the intake air makes its way into the engine cylinder, wearing down the liner and piston, and pushing down past the rings into the engine oil. Engine lubricant, instead of allowing parts to glide smoothly, acts as an abrasive when mixed with debris, and can alter the viscosity and lower the film strength of the oil. This results in lower performance and ultimately engine failure.

Damaged exhaust and aftertreatment systems

Airborne contaminants in the combustion chamber affect the efficient burning of fuel. Unburned fuel and contaminants flow downstream, damaging the exhaust, and build up in the aftertreatment system. Contaminant buildup in the exhaust and aftertreatment system impacts machine performance, including reduction in horsepower

THE SY-KLONE VORTEX MAX POWERED ENGINE PRECLEANER FILTERS OUT DUST PARTICLES.

AUSTRALIANMINING

and eventual failure of the aftertreatment system and the diesel particulate filter.

Sy-Klone removes dust and debris from intake air

By implementing the right controls at the air intake, mine equipment owners can reduce downstream dust, address the harmful issues described above, and prolong engine filter life. Sy-Klone invented a new method of precleaning with the introduction of the XLR Powered Precleaner. The company is expanding the category with the introduction of Vortex Max, a 23-cubic-metre a minute (800plus CFM) precleaner, specifically engineered and designed for higher airflow machines operating in extreme dust environments. Sy-Klone’s Vortex Max provides mine sites with a new option to protect heavy mobile equipment engines from fine particulate and microscopic debris. The patent-pending product is designed to provide clean air downstream to engines on machines, including wheel loaders, excavators, dozers, crushers and more.  Sy-Klone sales and marketing vice president Austin Browne says the Vortex Max is based on the manufacturer’s proven, powered technology, combined with highefficiency filtration, ensuring only the cleanest air is supplied to the engine. “The Vortex Max has a compact filter housing which features a durable motor to manage airflow, ejective filter ports to allow for precleaning of the largest dust and debris, and a high-efficiency filter to capture the smallest microscopic dust particles,” Browne tells Australian Mining. The system, which is available in both 12- and 24-volt configurations, is easy to maintain and designed to facilitate quick filter changes. It has a low profile and small footprint that provides installation flexibility, allowing it to be easily installed on a variety of machines. The system’s motor and fan provide continuous, clean air flow regardless

SEPTEMBER 2021

CLEAN AIR TO THE ENGINE LEADS TO BETTER-PERFORMING MACHINES, AND ON A MINE SITE, THAT EQUATES TO MORE PRODUCTIVITY, MORE UPTIME AND A MORE PROFITABLE OPERATION.”

of the machine’s operating state. An always-on airflow in the Vortex Max results in lower restriction, high-efficiency precleaning throughout a machine’s operating activities, even at idle. “The Vortex Max utilises the SyKlone Effect, a patented separation technology, that actively manages air, creating a rotating column of dirty air, ejecting the heaviest dirt and debris from the filter housing before ever reaching the filter,” Browne says. “Only the finest dust remains, which is gently landed on the selfcleaning filter, where it eventually falls off and is ejected from the filter housing, extending engine filter life and providing low-restriction air flow.”

Clean air for engines improves performance

Engine performance issues and engine failures due to dust downstream can bring a machine and a mine site operation down. Fortunately, these problems can be prevented. Ensuring that the engine is protected from dust and debris can support a long, productive, and profitable operating life. “Clean air to the engine leads to better-performing machines, and on a mine site, that equates to more productivity, more uptime and a more profitable operation,” Browne concludes. AM

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TECHNOLOGY

THE MISSING LINK IN MINING’S INDUSTRIAL NETWORKS THIS SPECIALIST IN INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING AND CYBERSECURITY IS FAST BECOMING THE GO-TO PROVIDER FOR MINING NETWORK SOLUTIONS. WHERE PREVIOUS APPROACHES COULD BE FLAWED AND CONFUSING, VERNETZEN OFFERS A STRAIGHT LINE TO SUCCESS.

o effectively serve the mining market, it’s key to assess the current holes in traditional systems. Vernetzen does just that, as it brings together all the departments, solutions and ingredients for connectivity in a mining application. With a background in consulting, Vernetzen has grown to understand the needs of its major mining clients, while providing the technical expertise required to find effective solutions to common or unique network pitfalls. Vernetzen managing director Luke King exemplifies how his company turns technical topics into digestible results. “We’ve been transitioning to a product-based business because we’ve seen that the current approach to network infrastructure in mining was just enterprise surface network techniques applied in these harsh environments,” King tells Australian Mining. “Those traditional approaches require a lot of integration and a lot of trial and error to bring that solution together because you’ve got all these different departments and projects which aren’t talking to each other about a solution. “Ours is a full turnkey solution which addresses everything from design through to operations support.” Vernetzen serves some of the world’s largest resource companies with a focus on linear networks – the kind most suited to a haul road-like context.

This linear Wi-Fi network uses leaky feeder, Wi-Fi and a number of other network technologies to distribute the connection over a long distance, King explains. “It’s a cable we run through tunnels or beside haul roads which leak the coverage out across a linear distance. Our cable is specified to support up to 500 metres of coverage – 250 metres in either direction of the appliance,” he says. “Basically, the antenna on a truck is not far from the cable at any one point and that’s why we can achieve these large distances without worrying about the angulation or change in a mine or haul road.” Vernetzen brings both data and electrical networking together to allow its customers to rely on one port-of-call. Just as voice and data networks have merged in the enterprise space, King expects the industrial space to see a trend where data and electrical networks merge into one offering. Vernetzen has simply moved ahead of the curve. “What this provides is visibility over utilisation of electrical networks – understanding what the loads are and what’s being attached – and data networking, to understand the connectivity of bandwidth and throughput,” King says. “Over 80 per cent of outages are due to power so it’s important to have visibility of both of these systems.” Without a concurrent understanding of both these networks, operations can

leave themselves vulnerable to failure or longer wait times for technical support to assess the situation. Vernetzen realises, however, that visibility and the ability to monitor operations is important to all levels of a mining company. “In the underground environment, this could serve everyone from technicians that are being told where there’s coverage issues to be fixed,” King says. “It serves remote operations who’ll have all the data to understand capacities and performance levels. “And also, management will be given a high-level view over the general operations to understand what the availability is, what the up-time is, what the biggest problems are.” These monitoring issues extend into cybersecurity and King addresses the rise in concern on the topic. It takes more than just a hobbyist to tackle cyber security in a mining environment. When a range of other new technologies are at risk, any miner would want to know their lives and jobs are in safe hands.

VERNETZEN’S TURNKEY SOLUTION BRINGS TOGETHER MULTIPLE DEPARTMENTS, STREAMLINING INSTALLATION AND MAINTENANCE.

VERNETZEN’S LINEAR NETWORK SOLUTIONS ARE PLACED ALONG ROADS IN UNDERGROUND MINES.

AUSTRALIANMINING

“You can’t just have someone who broadly knows what they’re looking for, you need someone who understands the business, the threats, the type of bad actors that could potentially be involved in a mining situation,” King says. “We’re building that capability and we see it as a high-growth area as mining starts to rely on more automation where you need cybersecurity and that domain expertise.” The final piece of the puzzle is for operations to realise how integral effective industrial network solutions really are. “It’s hard for a project team to justify the funds for a good network, but when you tie into it the criticality of all these systems like vehicle automation, ventilation and all these new technologies, networks are not just enabling them but they’re absolutely critical to the operations,” King says. “This criticality is going to increase going forward and it’s really important that an adequate investment is put towards it.” AM

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REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT

SUNSHINE STATE BEAMS EXPLORATION POTENTIAL NORTH QUEENSLAND IS SET TO BECOME A NEW MINERALS EXPLORATION HOTSPOT AFTER FUNDING WAS INJECTED INTO EXPLORATION GRANTS FOR THE REGION IN THIS YEAR’S STATE BUDGET.

ustralian spending on mineral exploration has rocketed to its highest amount in almost a decade as activity surges in key mining states like Queensland. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), total mineral exploration for the 2020 calendar year was $2.8 billion. With a keen industry tapping into demand for Australia’s resources, state and federal government funding has been offered to boost exploration even further. Australian exploration for gold and other key minerals has been dominated by brownfields prospecting in recent years, as greenfields discoveries have become increasingly rare. Queensland is a jurisdiction with potential to hold its position as a

supplier of minerals, such as gold and emerging critical minerals, from both greenfields or brownfields sites. The Queensland Government has specifically targeted the state’s north to meet this demand. The state was the second highest exploration spender behind Western Australia in 2020 with $407.4 million. In June, the Queensland Government deployed an airborne geophysical survey in north-west Queensland, covering a 6000-squarekilometre area around Kamilaroi, demonstrating its plans for the region. North Queensland includes the Weipa region, north-west Queensland mineral provinces and Charters Towers region. New Century Resources’ Century zinc mine in north-west Queensland is one of several examples of the potential that exists in the region. THE ALICE RIVER GOLD PROJECT.

The company has shipped more than 500,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate from Century since restating operations in August 2018. North Queensland has been included in the state government budget’s $5 million investment in mineral exploration. The funding includes $2.5 million for Collaborative Exploration Initiative grants, which encourage exploration in frontier areas and promote new economy mineral discoveries. More than $2 million was pledged to develop new economy minerals projects. The Australian Government has extended its support for minerals exploration with a four-year, $100 million extension to its Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive (JMEI). This ongoing initiative aims to help junior minerals exploration companies conduct greenfields mineral exploration by encouraging investors to back them using tax credits. Junior miners are also targeting the abundance of brownfields sites in North Queensland to uncover hidden mineral deposits. ABS data reveals that $488.7 million was spent on existing deposits (brownfields) across Australia from January to March 2021 compared with $246.4 million on new deposits (greenfields). Junior gold explorer Pacgold listed on the ASX in July, after closing a $6 million initial public offering, to continue work at its Alice River gold project in North Queensland. Pacgold managing director Tony Schreck says the company has the backing to make a significant

ALICE RIVER HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE ONE OF QUEENSLAND’S NEXT GOLD PRODUCERS. AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

discovery at the site. “In the current gold market, a good story that has potential and scale is something that I think is attractive,” he says. “Investors in junior explorers are looking for that big discovery and many multiples of return, so what I believe you need for a company to deliver is a big gold system to start with. “That’s what we can demonstrate now. Once you’ve got a big footprint, then you can find a big deposit and in a strong gold market, that’s what we’re bringing to the table.” Alice River comprises eight mining leases and a number of exploration permits centred on a historical goldfield in Queensland’s Cape York Region. Pacgold is one of many junior explorers that values applying new exploration methods to brownfields sites. The project sites have previously hosted underground mines that produced 3000 ounces of gold at 30 grams per tonne during the early 1900s. Decades later, they hosted open pit mining in the 1980s and colluvial and alluvial ore mining in the late 1990s. The IPO grants Pacgold with enough capital to deliver a two-year fully funded exploration program. “Historical exploration in the 80s and the 90s has given us exciting indications along the 30-kilometre gold trend,” Schreck says. With the company now listed on the ASX, Schreck expects the project to deliver exciting results as the exploration program progresses. The program will be completed across three targets covering seven kilometres of the project’s gold bearing shear zone. Pacgold will focus on its most compelling targets in the first phase of drilling, with IP geophysical surveys having already been launched in the middle of the year. “I think what Pacgold brings to the table is a new perspective – it’s a completely reinvigorated story,” Schreck says. As mineral demand climbs and is supported by government and investor funding, junior explorers like Pacgold have promising times ahead in a region like North Queensland. AM

FUTURE OF MINING

FIVE TOP TRENDS FOR MINING IN 2021 AND BEYOND ABB AUSTRALIA WEIGHS IN ON THE GROUND-BREAKING TECHNOLOGIES AND INNOVATIONS THAT THE COMPANY EXPECTS WILL INFLUENCE THE MINING SECTOR THIS YEAR AND IN THE FUTURE.

ecarbonisation, remote connectivity, predictive analytics, ventilation on demand and electrification are high on the agenda of the industry, while new technologies such as augmented reality for remote management are gradually implemented across the globe. Industry expert Stuart Cowie, head of ABB Australia’s Process Industries business, discusses how ABB is working with miners to stay ahead of the curve.

1. S ustainability and digitalisation

“Australia is in fact leading the charge on the sustainability front in mining, which is very exciting,” Cowie says. “We are seeing miners make strong commitments to the zero emissions target, including Fortescue Metals Group (Fortescue) who have brought forward their net zero target by 10 years to achieve

this by 2030. This greatly impacts decision making around technology investment and modernisation.” Cowie stresses the importance of digitalisation when it comes to supporting sustainability initiatives in this sector. “Of course, this transition towards sustainability goes hand-in-hand with digitalisation,” Cowie says. “We have seen a great acceleration of digitally connected, ‘smart mines’ in recent years. We further attribute this acceleration to the global pandemic. People are focusing more on what really matters. “Data-driven decision making in areas of safety and efficiency, as well as carbon-efficient practices have now become the focus of industry leaders.” According to Cowie, most of the mining companies are focused on achieving a completely autonomous and CO2 free target by 2050 or even earlier, while at the same time increasing their productivity and efficiency. He highlights research from

McKinsey & Company which estimates that mine digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and the industrial internet

HEAD OF ABB AUSTRALIA’S PROCESS INDUSTRIES BUSINESS, STUART COWIE.

REMOTE MANAGEMENT IS AN EMERGING ASPECT OF DIGITISATION.

AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

of things (IoT) all have the potential to save the sector an estimated $373 billion by 2025 . Cowie further cites the example of the world’s first digitally connected mine – the Boliden mine in Sweden – as that of a ‘smart mine’ in action. In 2012, the Boliden mine was the first in the world to employ wireless network technology, with 100 per cent connectivity, reaching over 35 kilometres of the mineral-rich site. Today, this network still handles all communication for Boliden, while employing Industry 4.0 technology . To sum up on this point, Cowie emphasises the push in 2021 for companies to align their digital and net-zero targets with each other to amplify the benefits of smartmine technology. “The increase in automated machinery has ensured better production control and significant increases in productivity,” he says.

2. Remote connectivity

Cowie segues to the next trend at the forefront of the mining industry: remote connectivity. “Recently, ABB has begun to implement remote connectivity across Australia for its mining customers. This has helped to streamline production, prioritise safety, and develop longer term strategies,” Cowie explains. “At both the Newcrest Telfer and Gold Fields St Ives mines in Western Australia, we have large grinding and crushing applications called Gearless Mill Drives (GMDs). “If a GMD goes down, downstream processes and ultimately production stops; hence we have implemented a remote connectivity solution, called ABB Ability Predictive Maintenance for grinding. This means we can extract data continuously around the operation of GMDs.” Cowie also stresses the importance that this technology can bring to the end user in terms of data and analytics. “The data these machines generate can be analysed and compared to other GMD data from around the world. If certain

FUTURE OF MINING

DIGITALISATION CONTINUES TO BE A KEY TREND.

characteristics are logged prior to a failure or to some sort of event, customers can be warned that there is potential for a failure in their system,” Cowie says. “It also takes it a step further in that the customer can perform predictive maintenance. This enables you to gain foresight into when something needs to be

replaced such as motors, bearings, filters, or electrical components.”

3. Predictive analytics

Cowie goes on to highlight predictive analytics as a trend for the sector. He notes how ABB Ability Operations Management System (OMS) can assist mining companies in this area, by providing

them with an all-in-one predictive analytics software solution that contains modules for augmented reality, remote maintenance, and repair support. “OMS is essentially a suite of five digital application modules that focus on everything from scheduling to tracking. It knows where people are in the mine at any

one time, which is useful should an incident occur,” Cowie says. “It uses AI for scenario modelling. For instance, it might predict what a yield might be if a different process were applied. “OMS can also send up orders for things to be done and track in real time what is happening in the mine so managers can make informed

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AUSTRALIANMINING

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FUTURE OF MINING

decisions. It’s a real game changer for mining.” Importantly, Cowie says predictive analytics will give operators the ability to allocate their resources in the “smartest way.” “OMS ensures operators can allocate the right people who have the right information at the right time. The result is strategic innovation and an estimated 5-10 per cent productivity increase,” Cowie expands.

4. Ventilation on demand

Another trend that Cowie highlights – and one which ABB has been working specifically on with mining customers, is ‘Ventilation on Demand’. It also ties in with the overarching trend towards sustainability, as this can reduce a mine’s energy consumption significantly. “Mines are constantly pumping cool, fresh air into the mine. This is quite an energy intensive process,” Cowie says. “With ABB Ability Ventilation Optimizer, ABB’s ventilation on demand application, we can switch on air only when and where it is needed. Proximity sensors will also switch on the system if someone inadvertently goes in that direction.” Cowie’s comments coincide with research that suggests up to 50 per cent of the electricity used in an underground mine is attributed to ventilation . He further used the example of Boliden’s Kankberg mine, where ABB has implemented the ondemand ventilation system. The system can be configured to three different settings to ensure a range of different ventilation

solutions for each area of operation. At Kankberg, a level 2 system was implemented that provides fresh air up to 500 metres deep underground. “During the first year of use at Boliden, ventilation on demand technology has helped to provide fresh air for workers and delivered energy savings of 54 per cent and air heating energy savings of 21 per cent,” Cowie says. “This system is getting amazing results. The health and safety of miners remains paramount, and the economic advantage is tremendous.”

5. All electric mines

Cowie states that one of the most exciting areas of innovation – and the fastest growing trend for the mining industry in 2021 – is the allelectric mines. “This is another key progress area towards net-zero emissions. ABB has been implementing electrification alongside automation and digital

solutions to assist the mining industry in better meeting their sustainability targets and gearing their operations toward carbon neutrality,” Cowie says. “One way this is happening is the shift to electric vehicles (EV) on mine sites. Diesel-electric trucks can easily be attached to a trolley line, allowing them to run at a higher speed, and reducing diesel consumption and gas emissions from transportation by up to 90 percent. “EVs not only produce zero emissions but also produce less heat, thus reducing cooling costs in underground mines.” Cowie again cites the Boliden mines as an example. Boliden has now moved on from its 700-metre trolley line trial installed at Aitik, confirming it will install an additional three kilometres of trolley line at the mine, plus 1.8 kilometres at Kevitsa (in addition to the accompanying conversion of diesel-

MORE MINING ACTIVITIES ARE BEING CONTROLLED REMOTELY.

electric haul trucks). By doing so, Boliden says it will reduce its diesel consumption by 5500 cubic metres a year when its investment is complete. “There is a big focus in the mining industry to decarbonise the whole process and we call this the ‘allelectric mine’. We’re already seeing BHP, Rio Tinto, FMG and more are investing in an electric future with an increase in electrification of their lighter vehicles,” Cowie says. “These are projects that are getting the go ahead right now – we’re excited to see how these progress over the year.”

Looking ahead

To summarise on the trends for this year, Cowie says mining operators will be speeding up their digital and electric transformations in order to prioritise sustainability initiatives and targets. “We envisage the mining industry 4.0 as a top-down digitalisation, while at the same time staying on target to reduce carbon emissions to net zero,” he concludes. “Following a year of industry disruptions due to the pandemic, operators are now required to respond more readily to diverse and complex challenges that impact their production. ABB is a key collaborative partner on these challenges. “We’re helping mining companies keep their operations up to date by implementing systems such as predictive analytics, remote connectivity, and ventilation-ondemand. We think of this as part and parcel of the global movement towards the all-electric, smart mine as a permanent solution.” AM PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS ARE IMPROVING MAINTENANCE PROCESSES.

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MANUFACTURING

LOCAL DALBY BUSINESS LEADS THE WAY ON TROMMEL TECH A FEW HOURS WEST OF THE BRISBANE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT, THOMAS MANUFACTURING STANDS FORTIFIED IN THE INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING HUB OF DALBY, POSITIONED STRATEGICALLY ON THE CUSP OF AGRICULTURAL, MINING AND OIL AND GAS INDUSTRIES.

est of Brisbane is Lockyer Valley, which is prime agricultural land and then after that the oil and gas industry reigns over. Errol Thomas is the owner of Thomas Manufacturing. He is the third generation of his family to be involved in the crushing and mining industry. Thomas started the company in 1997 after leaving the coal mining industry. As a supplier of crushing gear for the mining and recycling industries, Thomas has since expanded the business to manufacture concrete batching plants, ship loading and unloading equipment, agriculture equipment and crushing and recycling equipment. Thomas Manufacturing specialises in the design and manufacture of trommels, which are large rotating barrels for screening and mixing. The company sells trommels to large potting mixing and mulch suppliers, also suppling to the C&D Waste separation company and concrete recycling. Anywhere that material needs to be separated and sized, Thomas Manufacturing can design a trommel to suit your application by changing screen sized and barrel dimensions. Thomas Manufacturing also manufactures conveyors that feed trommels which then have discharge conveyors to stockpile sized materials. On all conveyors, there are bearing housings and gearboxes drives. Finding the right bearings solution for Thomas Manufacturing is where CBC Eagle Farm steps in.

Warren Beale, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) manager at the CBC Eagle Farm branch, has encouraged Thomas to make the switch from a mismatch of different brands of bearings to the Timken SNT range. He explains how he provided the bearing solution to Thomas after meeting to discuss his machines and end users. Timken offers the power of a single solution for rugged operations when there is a risk of bearings being breached by contaminants. The Timken SNT plummer blocks provide cover from residual materials and shield the lubricants. They have a split-design cast iron or ductile iron housing option for the outside and a high-performance spherical roller bearing inside for an integrated setup. “Before we switched them to the Timken products, we were providing Thomas with components from all over and even though the products were good quality, it made the final product look mismatched,” Beale elaborates. “Then, Timken stepped forward to supply one brand. With the SNT plummer block, five to six items from Timken go together to make one unit on a shaft. “Now Thomas has everything they need for their setup in one drop. Before, they would have to thumb through looking for all the parts. Now, everything is in one box from one brand and looks much better for his customers.” Errol Thomas has been happy with the results, especially from a technical standpoint. “We put the SNT plummer blocks

on all of our gear, from trommels to batching plants, conveyors and feeders,” Thomas says. Beale has been working at CBC for more than 30 years. Of those years, he has worked with Thomas for more than 10. He is still primarily responsible for ensuring continuity of supply for longstanding customers, such as Thomas Manufacturing. The base of CBC’s Queensland customers all work in agriculture, mining and transport. Beale’s position requires him to communicate with them frequently, manage supply flow for the right seasons and ensure stock is always ready for the season. “We did some training for the team at Thomas Manufacturing. The Timken SNT bearings must be set at a special clearance. Too tight and they THOMAS MANUFACTURING HAS BEEN SUPPLYING THE INDUSTRY SINCE 1997.

THOMAS MANUFACTURING SPECIALISES IN DESIGNING TROMMELS FOR MINING. AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

will bust; too loose and they will rattle on their shaft,” Beale says. “We created these forms that provided quality assurance to customers so that they could guarantee they were installed correctly. “This helps save Thomas Manufacturing from sending someone out to sites to repair and replace the bearings.” Speaking with him, it’s clear he loves what he does, and his pride in his work has proven results. Thomas Manufacturing remains a local family business. Most of their team has stayed on for more than a decade and there is a sense of synergy between them all that makes business operations flow seamlessly. Solid work ethic all around is what keeps Thomas’ customers coming back. AM

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MINEXPO

CATERPILLAR CONSIDERS ALL WITH SPACIOUS MINEXPO SHOW IT WILL BE HARD TO MISS CATERPILLAR’S EXHIBITION AT MINEXPO 2021, NOT ONLY FOR ITS SIZE BUT ALSO FOR THE FUTUREFOCUSED LESSONS AND EQUIPMENT THE OEM NOW OFFERS THE INDUSTRY.

overing an expansive 5124 square metres – one twelfth of the event’s exhibition floor – Caterpillar’s display will be themed, ‘Together, we’re mining better.’ This title encompasses ideas of sustainability as well as overall productivity, both of which can be controlled by the quality of equipment and technology in an operation. Through Caterpillar’s expanding portfolio, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is hoping to do most of the heavy lifting around any one mine site, while sticking to these pillars of smart and sustainable practices. To this end, the massive exhibit at the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Centre on September 13-15 will advocate three key themes: environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) and sustainability; technology and automation; and equipment lifecycle management solutions. Caterpillar Resource Industries Group president Denise Johnson says the company has plenty to show off after the industry missed out on MINExpo in 2020. “After waiting an extra year, the

mining industry is ready to reconnect at MINExpo,” Johnson says. “We are excited to show our customers and the industry the advancements Caterpillar has made not only in equipment, technology and services, but also in how we are helping customers mine more sustainably.” The OEM has gone a step further at MINExpo this year, understanding that not everyone from such a large industry can make it to the United States in 2021. “While we are eager to exhibit in Las Vegas, we recognise that many of our dealers and customers will not be able to travel to the show. Therefore, we are also creating a digital Caterpillar experience at cat.com/mining, where we will place MINExpo specific content,” Johnson says. The equipment on show will include Cat’s latest in load and haul – the R1700 XE LHD. As a fully electric mining vehicle producing less noise, the R1700 XE is just one move Cat has made to improve customers’ commitment to ESG goals and sustainability. The loader has a 15-tonne payload and a 24.19-tonne lift and tilt breakout, ensuring that no

operation is made to choose between electrification and productivity. In conjunction with the new loader, the OEM will also showcase the capabilities of its new portable Cat MEC500 Mobile equipment charger, furthering that productivity angle. The MEC500 can charge the R1700 XE in around half an hour with just one charger. Next in show will be the R2900 XE LHD diesel-electric drivetrain for reduced maintenance costs; the D11 XE dozer for “the lowest cost of bank cubic meters (BCM) ever”; and Cat’s 992 wheel loader, which improves productivity by 32 per cent. And while some companies might be content with that line up, Cat has also extended its range in the technology space. Caterpillar Resource Industries vice president Marc Cameron emphasises the need to offer both equipment and technology solutions. “Technology and automation are critical components for substantially improving machine uptime availability and productivity,” Cameron says. One such piece of technology has been Cat’s autonomous MineStar Command, which has been proven around the world. The automated technology this

year hit three billion tonnes hauled around the world, while at Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri operation in the Pilbara – touted as the world’s most advanced mine – MineStar Command has been implemented on a 777G Water truck. Further to the MineStar Command, Cat released MineStar Edge in 2020 to complement its existing MineStar technology suite. Edge allows business to assess their operations, big and small, remotely and from a distance. This introduces aspects of safety and productivity by allowing those at management level to gauge their strengths and weaknesses at any one time. Cameron says MINExpo will provide many customers with their first chance to witness and experience MineStar Edge. “Through Cat MineStar Solutions, Caterpillar offers customers scalable technologies to fit the mine’s specific needs. The exhibit’s technology and automation stage will focus on the real value that Caterpillar technology options provide customers,” Cameron says. A raft of complementary technological advantages will be on show at the Caterpillar exhibit. No mining business will want to miss out, either in-person or online. AM

THE CAT R1700 XE LHD WILL BE A STAR OF MINEXPO 2021.

AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

WHERE GLOBAL MINING LEADERS CONNECT WITH TECHNOLOGY, FINANCE AND THE FUTURE. The International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) is where global mining leaders connect with technology, finance and the future. As Australia's most influential mining event, IMARC creates a global conversation, mobilises the industry for collaboration and attracts some of the greatest leaders in the mining, investment, and technology industries for three days of learning, deal-making and unparalleled networking. Hear from more than 250 mining leaders and resource experts with a conference program that covers all aspects of the mining supply chain. From exploration, to investment, production to optimisation through to new technologies and global opportunities. Alongside discussions on health and safety, renewable energy, critical minerals, and sustainability. Furthermore, the exhibition will feature over 200 leading companies across the 10,000m2 expo floor showcasing the latest mining projects, equipment, and innovations the industry has on offer. With the world’s borders still locked down, IMARC will be a hybrid event in 2021, welcoming international attendees from more than 100 countries via our online platform. Attendees will be able to log in online to stream live and on demand conference presentations, participate in virtual meetings and interactive networking.

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SUPERSKID RANGE Robust, durable and heavy duty, the SuperSkid lighting tower is powered by a Perkins 403D-11 engine, built to withstand the most challenging and rigorous mining conditions in Australia. The SuperSkid range boasts a mast high wall capacity of 10.7m (35’), up to eighteen LED lights, hydraulic light tilt, mast rotation and extension. Optional add ons include a 1,000L base fuel tank and telemetry, meaning the SuperSkid range has all the features needed to make a big lighting impact.

MINEXPO

THE LATEST AND GREATEST IN MINING TECHNOLOGY

EPIROC’S PIT VIPER 291 IS DESIGNED TO TACKLE LARGER DIAMETER DRILLING.

AUSTRALIAN MINING LOOKS AT THE LATEST INNOVATIVE EQUIPMENT, TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICES FOR THE RESOURCES INDUSTRY BEING DISPLAYED BY LEADING ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS AT THIS YEAR’S MINEXPO INTERNATIONAL IN LAS VEGAS.

s the countdown to this year’s MINExpo International draws closer, exhibitors are preparing to show the world their latest offerings for those involved in the resources and mining sector. Considered the world’s largest mining event, the show covers the entire industry – exploration, mine development, open pit and underground mining, processing, safety, environmental improvement and more. With the event to be held in Las Vegas from September 13 to 15, Australian Mining previews the latest products that will be on display from industry giants Liebherr, Sandvik, Epiroc and Komatsu.

Liebherr

filling assistant (BFA). LPE is a specific engine and hydraulic management system which reduces fuel consumption by up to 20 per cent. Assistance systems are advanced on-board applications designed to support the operator to become more efficient through analytics and actionable insights. BFA is the first automation

Liebherr will introduce three new excavators at MINExpo with the R 9150 Generation 7, the R 9200 Generation 7, and the brand-new R 9600 Generation. All three excavators are equipped with the latest innovations including Liebherr Power Efficiency (LPE), assistance systems and bucket SANDVIK WILL SHOWCASE ELECTRIFICATION, AUTOMATION AND MORE AT MINEXPO.

AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

product of the Liebherr hydraulic excavator portfolio and allows the operator to realise the bucket filling process automatically. The T274 haul truck is a 305-tonne machine that provides fast cycle times, higher production rates, low fuel consumption and a low cost per tonne. This new truck follows the same

MINEXPO

base design as the T284, benefitting from its decades of field experience. Liebherr components for mining applications will also feature at MINExpo. Among the components is the D98 diesel engine series, which is available for both Liebherr and other mining equipment manufacturers, for new and repowered machines. Also on display will be the LRT 1090-2.1 90-tonne rough terrain crane, which is designed to deliver the highest safety level. It is fitted as standard with an outrigger monitor which automatically detects the support status and includes the crane control system. It is also delivered as standard with the VarioBase variable support base, which enhances flexibility on site and increases the crane’s lifting capacity. Liebherr has also revealed that strategic partnerships with energy and infrastructure providers will be announced at MINExpo, alongside the roadmap for the company to provide these solutions to its customers.

Sandvik

Sandvik will have several of its latest innovations on display for the first time anywhere in the world at MINExpo, including its AutoMine Concept vehicle. The first fully autonomous battery-electric vehicle (BEV) for underground mining is equipped with new sensing capabilities and artificial intelligence to help the cabinless technology demonstrator perceive its surroundings and environment in 3D and react in real time, enabling it to adapt and plan its own route and to find the most suitable paths even in continuously changing environments. In addition, Sandvik will unveil its latest battery-electric underground truck, together with a virtual introduction to new loader technology with AutoMine readiness. Sandvik will also launch the DS412iE, its first battery-powered rock bolter that rounds out the company’s first full zero-emissions offering for all underground drilling applications. Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions president Henrik Ager says the company was proud to launch the industry’s first batterydriven underground jumbo five years ago at MINExpo 2016, as well as its ongoing progress in electric equipment innovation since then. In addition to displaying its latest rock tools offering at MINExpo, Sandvik will launch a new DTH

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hammer with class-leading fuel efficiency. The company will also present a new rotary bit, new heavy-duty drill bits, a new drill bit for autonomous drilling and its latest digital rock tools solutions, all developed to increase sustainability and productivity. Sandvik will use a simulation game to introduce its new digital offering, Remote Monitoring Service, and will also showcase its smart inspection tools through interactive demonstrations. “Nothing beats meeting customers face-to-face and being able to showcase all of our latest developments in person,” Ager says. “However, we also understand that not everyone will be able to travel to Las Vegas, so that’s why we will also be providing a rich digital MINExpo experience.”

Epiroc

Epiroc’s Pit Viper 291 makes its debut at MINExpo 2021. The rig is designed to tackle larger diameter drilling in soft to medium ground conditions in both rotary and DTH drilling. The Pit Viper 291 offers more than 100 different options to configure the perfect drill rig for your specific application. With Epiroc’s Rig Control System (RCS), the Pit Viper 291 can be configured with scalable automation features, including fully autonomous drilling. With protected hydraulics, sensors and cables, Epiroc’s new AUSTRALIANMINING

Boomer M20 is the next generation in underground mining. The world’s first face drill rig with internal hydraulics, the Boomer M20 is designed to minimise unplanned stops and maximise uptime and performance even in the toughest conditions. High precision and performance are ensured with on-board automation features, tele-remote capabilities and digital drill plans which give higher reliability and quality of the full drill cycle. Through tele-remote capabilities, operators can drill from a safe distance and keep production going over shift changes. The Boomer M20 comes with a battery-electric driveline option. With the on-board charger, charging automatically happens while connected to the grid for drilling. Epiroc will also showcase its automation and information management solutions as part of the 6th Sense capabilities. The 6th Sense is Epiroc’s answer to the mining and construction industries need for digitalisation as an enabler for safety and productivity gains.

Komatsu

Komatsu’s latest haulage concepts, designed to prioritise customers’ desire to reduce emissions and for autonomous haulage solutions, will be on display; revealing its future vision for power agnostic dump trucks and autonomous haulage retrofits for existing equipment. The OEM will also preview future

SEPTEMBER 2021

capabilities for remote operation of equipment featuring hydraulic excavators and autonomous haulage. Other new Komatsu solutions designed to advance more sustainable mining methods that will be on display include the WE1850 Gen 3 surface wheel loader with proven SR (switched reluctance) hybrid drive technology and the ZR122 surface blasthole drill with automated features. Komatsu, to assist its customers’ sustainability needs, will also display its battery hauler for underground mining powered by lithium-ion battery technology, as well as its battery-tram powered ZJ32Bi jumbo drill for underground hard rock mining. Created with input from customers around the world, the company’s latest equipment, service and technology solutions are designed to simplify tasks, streamline processes and – ultimately – help optimise customers’ productivity. Komatsu mining president and chief executive officer, as well as MINExpo chairman, Jeff Dawes says the show provides the perfect opportunity for industry leaders to collaborate on new ways to extract essential minerals at this critical time. “Supporting our customers’ path forward with new solutions that leverage digitalisation, electrification and automation is crucial to our role as an essential provider to the industry, and we look forward to sharing these innovations developed in partnership with today’s mines,” Dawes says. AM

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INDUSTRY COMMENT

RESOURCES INDUSTRY COMES TOGETHER TO BUILD SKILLS IN AUSTMINE’S PREVIOUS AUSTRALIAN MINING ARTICLE WE LOOKED BACK AT THE AUSTMINE 2021 CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION AND REFLECTED ON THE INVESTMENTS THAT MINING LEADERS ARE MAKING IN THEIR PEOPLE.

inked to this discussion was the high priority being placed on developing the workforce for future mining and mining equipment, technology and services (METS) businesses, amid rapid digital transformation and technological change. While workforce optimisation remains a constant challenge for the mining industry, recent findings have shown there is significant progress being made across the sector. According to EY’s Mining & Metals Business Risks report 2021, investments in remote work and fasttracking people-focused programs as a response to COVID-19 has benefited this workforce challenge long term. EY states that “the pandemic has spurred a change in the corporate culture of mining and metals companies, creating a new opportunity for sustainable workforce transformation. “Now companies are recognising that accelerating adoption of remote working and virtual teams has the potential to add value beyond the crisis by keeping teams safe, productive and engaged.” This is certainly positive news at a business level as organisations seek to

create future-ready workforces, and these efforts are being supported by a range of initiatives at an industry level. The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) is a leading voice for skills development in mining and is coordinating the industry-led, federal government-funded Mining Skills Organisation Pilot (MSOP), which was launched in November 2019. The MSOP is focused on creating a highly skilled, resilient and adaptable workforce that is responsive to the needs of employers and industry. Industry bodies, business and training providers are heavily involved in the MSOP, including Austmine, which sits on the steering committee and provides strategic insights on workforce and skilling from the METS sector. In November 2020, the MSOP announced new mining skills hubs which have already provided exceptional results across the industry. These are: •A n apprenticeships hub with an initial goal of at least 5000 new apprenticeships to modernise trades training, beginning with diesel mobile plant mechanics. •A digital transformation hub for faster delivery of training products for automation and the application of digital technologies.

•A n attraction and retention hub to identify and test strategies that make mining attractive to those with partial or transferable skills and qualifications. Another example of the industry coming together to tackle our workforce challenge is the Queensland Future Skills (QFS) partnership, which is led by BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) and includes TAFE Queensland and CQUniversity as education partners. The partnership has worked with industry experts, community organisations and government since late 2019 to fast-track responsive co-design and delivery of training to support the implementation of autonomous technology in the mining industry. Ten new bespoke microcredentials and 12 accredited skillsets customised to METS and mining have been developed in such areas as work effectively in autonomous environments, data fundamentals in autonomous environments, networking, cyber security, geo-spatial and interoperability The Queensland Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport has committed funding to support the implementation of pilot programs, to enable existing workers, particularly

AUSTMINE WILL SOON DELIVER THE FIFTH ROUND OF ITS STEM METS CAREER PATHWAY PROGRAM.

AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

in regional locations, to acquire new skills. TAFE Queensland and CQUniversity, as education partners, are seeking expressions of interest to participate in training, including 12 accredited skillsets and 10 nonaccredited microcredentials. Delivery dates and modes will be dependent on the review and award of expressions of interest applications. For more information about this, contact Taryn Hughes at the Queensland Future Skills Partnership (taryn.hughes@tafe.qld.edu.au). Focusing on the METS sector, Austmine is preparing to deliver the fifth round of our STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) METS Career Pathway Program, supported by the industry growth centre METS Ignited. Austmine’s STEM program raises awareness of the METS sector within the next generation of employees and works to change the perception of a mining industry career from ‘oldworld’ to one filled with technologydriven, entrepreneurial opportunities. The program is designed to provide students with on-the-job experience, mentoring and soft skills training for a successful STEM career in the METS sector, through a 10-week paid internship at an Austmine member company. The program has already delivered valuable outcomes and promising results for the industry since its inaugural round in 2017, with 84 per cent of program interns indicating they would seek a METS career following graduation and a number of interns receiving ongoing employment with their host company. The 2021-2022 edition of the program will place a further 50-plus students from Australia’s leading universities with METS companies such as Komatsu, WesTrac, IMDEX, Mining3, 3ME Technology, Thiess and more. Austmine encourages its members and the broader industry to engage with these programs and help deliver the next generation of workers into the mining industry. AM For more information and to connect contact membership@austmine.com.au.

THE MINING INDUSTRY HAS MOVED TO A NEW PHASE FOLLOWING THE MINING BOOM, ONE WHERE PRODUCTIVITY, INNOVATION AND SAFETY HAVE EMERGED AS ITS KEY PRIORITIES TECHNOLOGY MINING EQUIPMENT VOLUME 113/08 | SEPTEMBER 2021

WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

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Established in 1908, Australian Mining continues to lead and inform the Australian mining industry of the latest innovations in mining technology and equipment.

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peedglas’ industryleading product evolution has culminated in the Generation 5 welding helmets, its latest collection which showcases a truly ground-breaking array of never-seenbefore features. Each helmet is designed from inception to be uniquely tailored to a specific application, from heavy-duty welding in hardwearing environments to critical precision TIG work. The result, after extensive input from professional welders, is an elite welding helmet range that manages to be both highly specialised and versatile in equal measure.

EACH HELMET CAN BE TAILORED TO SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS.

A world standard in precision viewing

The new 3M Speedglas Welding Helmet G5-02 marks a historic breakthrough in welding helmet technology, as it features the world’s first curved auto-darkening welding lens. Perhaps the most significant leap forward since the brand released the first auto-darkening welding helmet in 1981, Speedglas Curved Glass Technology maximises the user’s natural range of vision to create a 100 per cent wider field of view. While in the past a larger field of view would involve the compromise of a larger, heavier and more cumbersome helmet shell, the G5-02 lens allows the best of both worlds – wider views in an incredibly slim, lightweight helmet. The curved shape of the welding lens closely mirrors the welder’s face to increase peripheral vision, improve overall weight distribution and narrow the profile of the helmet. In addition to its ground-breaking aesthetic and 100 per cent wider views, the G5-02 creates a new world standard for precision optics with the introduction of Speedglas TrueView in combination with a light state of 2.5. Wearers will literally see the difference with a view that appears lighter, brighter and more realistic. The Speedglas G5-02 lens also delivers highly advanced electronics, with four arc sensors that will detect an arc down

to an industry-leading 1 Amp. This in turn ensures the lens can reliably react to the extremely stable arcs offered by the latest high-end inverter-based TIG machines. Finally, the Speedglas G5-02 is Bluetooth enabled, so a smartphone can be securely paired to a welding lens via the 3M Connected App. Operators can then use their phone to program up to four memory modes, each with its own settings for dark shades, sensitivity and delay. This option, when combined with the more intuitive, userfriendly control panel on the lens itself, means it has never been easier to adjust a lens setting to suit operational requirements. The app also lets the user record a maintenance log for their helmet, as well as access user manuals and parts lists.

The ultimate in heavy-duty protection

The 2017 IARC reclassification of welding fumes as ‘carcinogenic to humans’ simply confirmed what AUSTRALIANMINING

was already known – welding fumes are extremely bad for health and workplaces must protect their workers. Excessive exposure to welding fumes can cause multiple types of cancer, including lung, larynx and urinary tract. Action is required. The important point to understand is that, while the risk posed by welding fumes is serious, keeping workers safe can be straightforward. This is where the Speedglas G501VC Flip-Up Welding Helmet with Heavy-Duty Adflo Powered Air Purifying Respirator (PAPR) makes a difference. As one of the most popular respirators of its kind in the world, the award-winning Adflo PAPR has become synonymous with effective respiratory protection against carcinogenic welding fumes. With the right filters, it can consistently protect against welding fume particles, as well as a range of gases and vapours. The respirator fully complies with the Australian and New Zealand

SEPTEMBER 2021

standard for powered air respirators (AS/NZS1716) and offers a required minimum protection factor (RMPF) of 50, meaning it will supply a minimum 50 times cleaner air than a welder would otherwise breathe unprotected. The Speedglas G5-01 comes standard with the Heavy-Duty Adflo PAPR: built to offer up to 12 hours’ continuous protection for long shifts in harsh environments. This results in a constant flow of clean air directly into the breathing zone for cooler, cleaner and more comfortable welding. In addition to the respiratory protection, the Speedglas G5-01 has a range of unique and fully customisable features to offer. Based on extensive input from welders working at high amperages who need to grind frequently, the helmet has been created to be adaptable to each individual’s needs and situation. This includes TrueView in the light state, variable colour technology in the dark state, climate control to adjust the airflow in your helmet, an optional task light, and the ability to adjust settings remotely via Bluetooth. AM WEARERS WILL APPRECIATE THE COMFORT OF THE GENERATION 5 HELMET.

, D E E N U T. O Y E R R E ER N. V E F O T N A O H IS H W D IT RC A N I E F ES TH

RELY ON AUSTRALIA’S MANUFACTURING, MINING AND INDUSTRIAL HUB 70,000 monthly users can’t be wrong. Find what you’re looking for with over 12,000 business listings and 8,000 specific product listings. Access relevant information and resources, empowering you to make a qualified purchase decision. You can always rely on your industry hub.

F E R R E T.C O M . AU

FERRET GROUP OF WEBSITES

MHD Supply Chain Solutions

EVENT SPOTLIGHT

AUSIMM TO HOST IRON ORE CONFERENCE IN PERTH AUSIMM AND CSIRO ARE TEAMING UP TO DELIVER THE LATEST ITERATION OF THE IRON ORE CONFERENCE FROM NOVEMBER 8-10, HIGHLIGHTING THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS FOR AUSTRALIA’S MOST IN-DEMAND COMMODITY. Roy Hill chief executive officer Barry Fitzgerald and Fortescue director sustainability and corporate affairs Alison Terry. This year’s event revolves around the theme, ‘Sustainability in a changing world,’ following stakeholder pressure for miners to reach net zero emissions. The industry has responded with a variety of innovative solutions that add to its greener approach. For example, Fortescue produced high-purity green iron ore using 100 per cent clean energy as part of its Fortescue Future Industries renewable energy and industry initiative in July. This represents one of several ways that iron ore miners are pushing their sustainable initiatives. AusIMM chief executive officer Stephen Durkin says support for the iron ore sector is a key aspect in allowing them to continue to meet growing demand. “Australian standards of professional practice are some of the highest in the world, which contributes significantly to the strength of the iron ore industry globally,” Durkin says. “As the peak body for people working in mining, AusIMM are committed to ensuring that professional development is both current and accessible, securing the safety of workforces, the stability and sustainability of the industry and supporting innovation in iron ore best practice.” Western Australia accounts for around one-third of the world’s iron ore reserves, making Perth the ideal location to host the event.

AUSIMM AND CSIRO’S IRON ORE CONFERENCE RETURNS IN-PERSON AND ONLINE.

IMAGE: FORTESCUE METALS GROUP

he iron ore market is delivering record high prices this year as Australia continues to climb the value ladder as the world’s largest exporter of the steel-making material. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, metalliferous ore exports achieved record high revenues of $20.49 billion in June 2021. In the same month, iron ore was up by 6 per cent to deliver $17.55 billion of June’s metalliferous ore export value. Iron ore demand has soared off the back of global infrastructure expenditure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Major mining companies including BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals Group and Roy Hill operate in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and produce hundreds of millions of tonnes of iron ore each year. Fortescue surpassed its highestever iron ore shipping target in the 2020-21 financial year with a record 182.2 million tonnes after the company mined 49.3 million tonnes in the June quarter alone. With iron ore playing a critical role in the growth and stability of Australia’s economy, AusIMM and CSIRO’s Iron Ore Conference will showcase knowledge and technologies from the Pilbara region with a focus on the future of the industry. The three-day event will be hosted in Perth in-person and online, featuring a strong list of keynote speakers, including Rio Tinto head of energy and climate change centre of excellence Gerard Danckert, former

The Iron Ore Conference will focus on technical and management aspects of the iron ore industry, including discussions on the geology, exploration, mining and processing of iron ore, and how the industry can reduce its carbon footprint across mining and steelmaking. Rio Tinto is focusing on developing advanced technological solutions at some of its operations in Western Australia. The miner plans to deploy the world’s first fully autonomous water trucks at its Gudai-Darri iron ore mine, which is slated to become one of the most technologically advanced sites in the industry.

AUSTRALIA’S IRON ORE INDUSTRY HAS BROKEN EXPORT RECORDS THIS YEAR. AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

Roy Hill’s smart mine program is also aiming to convert its entire haul fleet to operate autonomously. AusIMM will make the Iron Ore Conference available virtually via its EventsAir platform to ensure delegates from other states and countries can access the event. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to engage with the conference exhibition, technological advances and technical papers, while meeting with other industry professionals in the process. AM For more information, visit https://www.ausimm.com/conferences-andevents/iron-ore/

PRODUCTS

ATLAS COPCO COMPACT BOOSTERS AMP UP PRESSURE

INCREASE SAFETY IN YOUR OPERATIONS

Atlas Copco’s Hurricane high-pressure boosters feature a versatile and efficient design that delivers maximum pressure in a compact form factor. The Hurricane range uses modular designs that ensure they can fit a wide variety of applications, allowing two-stage boosters to be used in one stage mode to increase pressure. The Hurricane range is with any air compressor in a feed air configuration. Models include the Hurricane B7-41 single-stage compressor that is powered by a Caterpillar C7 diesel engine. Its small footprint fits power that is equivalent to larger and heavier units, while enabling a high pressure, gain penetration rate for drilling applications, including exploration projects and blast hole drilling.

LSM CabSense is a driver and occupant fatigue, distraction and behavioural monitoring camera designed for mobile or stationary vehicle fleet. The device uses a unique inward facing IR camera that detects driver events such as drowsiness, distraction, identity and dangerous actions, providing real-time driver alerts, as well as tailored fleet manager alerts and insights sent to LSM FSM Fleet Safety Manager telematics system. The detection of driver state, behaviour, driver ID and camera status enable life-saving and cost-saving features to the fleet and its drivers. The device is equipped with self-monitoring capabilities to detect tampering and other malfunctions which may have an adverse effect on its operation.

• atlascopco.com/en-au

• lsm.com.au

FOR ALL YOUR DRAINAGE NEEDS

A BREAKTHROUGH IN HELMET TECHNOLOGY

Dixon’s Layflat delivery hoses, which are used extensively across mining, quarrying, construction and irrigation, are particularly popular for high-lift drainage of water. Ease of transport and handling makes these delivery hoses particularly popular in applications such as dewatering high-sided coal mining pits. Dixon provides Layflat hoses in three performance classes, including medium duty (blue), heavy duty (red) and extra heavy duty (green). It is critical that customers choose the right hose that matches their requirements to avoid costly down times. As for any hydraulic assembly, the ultimate performance of the hose depends on the couplings used for their fitting. Dixon offers a wide range of couplings, each suited to a different water pressure level.

The new 3M Speedglas Welding Helmet G5-02 features the world’s first curved auto-darkening welding lens. Perhaps the most significant leap forward since the brand released the first auto-darkening welding helmet in 1981, Speedglas Curved Glass Technology serves to maximise the natural range of vision to create a 100 per cent wider field of view. While in the past a larger field of view would involve the compromise of a larger, heavier and more cumbersome helmet shell, the G5-02 lens allows the best of both worlds – wider views in an incredibly slim, lightweight helmet. The curved shape of the welding lens closely mirrors the welder’s face to increase peripheral vision, improve overall weight distribution and narrow the profile of the helmet.

• australia.dixonvalve.com/product/LFAR150

• australianweldingsolutions.com.au

AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

PRODUCTS

LOCATE LEAKS QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY

A GREAT ALTERNATIVE TO TRADITIONAL CLEANERS

The handheld Fluke ii900 Industrial Acoustic Imager enables maintenance teams to quickly and accurately locate air, gas and vacuum leaks in compressed air systems; even in noisy environments. Specifically designed for noisy production facilities, Fluke’s new SoundSight technology is simple to learn and easy to implement. The seven-inch LCD touchscreen overlays a SoundMap on a visual image for quick leak location identification up to 70 metres away. The straightforward, intuitive interface allows technicians to isolate the sound frequency of the leak to filter out loud background noise. In a matter of hours, maintenance teams can inspect an entire plant – during peak operations.

The CRC SmartWasher Bioremediating parts washing system is a highly popular product in the mining industry. And for good reason too. By using bioremediating technology and an environmentally friendly cleaning fluid, known as OzzyJuice, the CRC SmartWasher offers a solvent-free method of cleaning greasy parts, and in that it combines multiple safety and sustainability benefits. In this solution, first contaminants and oil particles are separated from water with the help of the OzzyJuice liquid and then microbes entrapped in the filters eat the grease that leaves the tank clean and contaminant-free. The CRC SmartWasher is a great alternative to the traditional solvent-based parts cleaners.

• fluke.com

• crcindustries.com.au/smartwasher

FORGET EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT BIG

THE NEXT LEVEL IN THE PULSE PORTFOLIO

Taking big to a whole new level is AllightSykes’ mighty SuperSkid range. These robust, durable, heavy duty lighting towers are designed to meet mine specifications, withstanding some of the most challenging and rigorous mining conditions seen in Australia. The 12-metre SuperSkid range boasts a mast high wall capacity of 10.7 metres, with the option of having up to 18 450-watt LED lights The total light output is nearly one million effective lumens, which has the ability to illuminate an entire open pit. There are additional options available, including a 1000-litre base fuel tank, as well as an extra push bar, Wiggins Pressure Fast Fill system, telemetry, mobile skid base and a trailer base that can be towed behind a prime mover.

Pulse Condition Monitoring captures real-time information on monitored equipment and provides alerts via e-mail when it detects the first sign of potential problems. By constantly monitoring the accelerations of the vibration screen, Pulse CM provides a forecast of the equipment’s dynamic condition in intervals of 48 hours, five days and four weeks. The system detects anomalies that will point an operation’s maintenance team to specific areas of the equipment that may require attention. With consistent use, Pulse CM will accurately point out and predict critical issues and advise when to schedule maintenance, along with what to focus on during that planned downtime.

• haverniagara.com.

• allightsykes.com

AUSTRALIANMINING

SEPTEMBER 2021

EVENTS

CONFERENCES, SEMINARS & WORKSHOPS EVENT SUBMISSIONS CAN BE EMAILED TO EDITOR@AUSTRALIANMINING.COM.AU Australasian Exploration Geoscience Conference Brisbane | September 14-20 The third instalment of the Australasian Exploration Geoscience Conference (AEGC) will be held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre with a theme of Geoscience for a Sustainable World. The conference informs attendees online and in-person about the mineral, petroleum and water resource industries to strengthen the Australasian region in a range of areas. This event will be jointly hosted by the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia. Dedicated streams will discuss Australian basins, the sustainable energy challenge, data, innovation and technology, high-quality resources for the future, and developing the workforce. For those unable to attend the conference in person, AEGC is yet another of Australia’s industry events able to be enjoyed online from the safety of home. • 2021.aegc.com.au WA Mining Conference Perth | September 22-23 With platinum sponsor Epiroc at the helm of this year’s WA Mining Conference, the foundations of technical and digital innovation will be uncovered at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. The conference aims to outline how the Western Australian mining landscape can improve its operational deficiencies using the latest and greatest in mining equipment and management. With one-day or two-day tickets,

attendees will hear from keynote speakers from Curtin University, Minerals Council of Australia, METS Ignited, Australian Hydrogen Council, the state government and more. Themes on the agenda for this year’s event will include geopolitical and economic drivers; technology and innovation; government policy; and sustainability, climate change and the impact on the resource sector. • waminingexpo.com.au New Leaders Conference Brisbane and Online | September 28-29 AusIMM’s New Leaders Conference returns in September 2021 providing young mining professionals with an exclusive opportunity to learn from and engage with renowned mining leaders. Delivered in person and online, this outstanding conference provides access to engaging presentations and discussions on topics and issues impacting young professionals based on the thought-provoking theme, ‘Champions of Change’. Topics explored during the conference include leadership growth and development, diversity and inclusion, social and environmental impacts, safety leadership and mental health, and technology trends. Join delegates from around the world to hear from leading global experts, participate in robust discussions, see the latest mining innovations, and meet with speakers and peers at networking events. • ausimm.com/conferences-and-events/ new-leaders/

AUSTRALIANMINING

Australian Mining Prospect Awards Brisbane | October 14 The Prospect Awards will return to in-person proceedings this year, after pandemic restrictions hampered the event in 2020. The awards are the most esteemed and prestigious honours in the Australian mining and minerals processing industry. Since 2004, the Australian Mining Prospect Awards have been the only national awards program to stop, take a look at what the mining industry is doing, and reward those who are excelling and going above and beyond, recognising and rewarding innovation. Join us for an evening of celebration as we acknowledge the collective success of the industry. • prospectawards.com.au International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) Melbourne | October 25-27 After going virtual last year, IMARC is back in 2021 with a hybrid event – welcoming thousands of guests from Australia and overseas, in-person and online. More than 130 countries will participate in Australia’s most influential mining event, with over 200 exhibitors and 70 hours of networking opportunities to take advantage of. The event encompasses a threeday conference diving into topics of exploration, investment, production optimisation technology and global opportunities.

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Additionally, the expo floor will cover 13,000 square metres to accommodate the bigger-and-better machinery and equipment on show this year. Tickets range from free passes through to premium delegate passes, so visit the site below to book your spot now. • imarcglobal.com Iron Ore Conference Perth and Online | November 8-10 AusIMM and the CSIRO will hold an iron ore conference to explore the latest developments in the industry and where iron ore will look to expand into the future. Current and future challenges in iron ore will be addressed along with discussion on genesis, geology, exploration, mining and processing of iron ores. Attendees will get the opportunity to listen and learn from global industry leaders. These keynote speakers will include University of Melbourne professor of engineering Robin Batterham, Roy Hill chief executive officer Barry Fitzgerald, Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia chief executive officer Nicole Roocke, and Fortescue Metals Group director sustainability and corporate affairs Alison Terry. The hybrid event will allow attendees to view content for up to three months online at any time, while making the conference in-person will allow for important networking opportunities. • ausimm.com/conferences-andevents/iron-ore/

XYLEM

MINING SOLUTIONS PUMP RENTAL & SERVICES Whatever the Challenge, Xylem has the Solution. By partnering with Xylem, you can rent best-in-class pumping equipment, without capital expenditures. Ensure equipment is being serviced correctly with the right parts and gain access to our skilled engineers, product experts, and service technicians who will keep your operations running.

13 19 14 xylem.com/au

Australian Mining September 2021

Articles inside

EVENTS

PRODUCT FOCUS

EVENT SPOTLIGHT

REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT

FUTURE OF MINING

MINEXPO

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

MANUFACTURING

TECHNOLOGY

NEWS

WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT

ENVIRONMENT

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

UNDERGROUND MINING

INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

EFFICIENCY & OPTIMISATION

MINING EQUIPMENT