BHP WA Iron Ore has celebrated 10 years of its remote operations centre in Perth. The Integrated Remote Operations Centre (IROC) began operating from BHP’s St Georges Terrace office at the end of 2012. The IROC is responsible for operating most of BHP’s WA iron ore logistics and processes, connecting the four processing hubs and five mining hubs with more than 1,000 km of rail and port facilities in the Pilbara.
WAIO Asset President Brandon Craig said: “The remote operations centre runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and plays a vital role in ensuring we get our iron ore from pit to port in the safest, quickest and most efficient way possible. Our iron ore operations are safer, more sustainable and more cost efficient now than they were 10 years ago, and the remote operations centre has been critical to achieving that.”
He adds: “The growth in the centre has supported technological advances, career opportunities and with that has come diversification of the team – nearly half of the workforce is female and 12 per cent identify as Indigenous.” The centre operates a wide range of machinery, trains, trucks and drill rigs in the Pilbara and has recently begun the process of automating the company’s shiploaders in Port Hedland.
Automation remains a key driver – in an article in The West Australian, Craig is quoted from an anniversary tour that took place at the IROC this week. The quotes him as saying BHP would continue to pursue an automated business model into the future. While crushers and ore handling facilities are fully autonomous, about two-thirds of BHP’s truck fleet still require drivers. Jimblebar, about 40 km east of Newman, is the only BHP site that is fully autonomous. The miner has started automating its newest mine, South Flank, along with Newman and Mining Area C. “By the mid part of this decade we will be pretty close to autonomous load and haul operations across all of our operations,” Craig said. “The only one that we don’t have clear plans for at this stage is Yandi.”
But automation plans at this stage do not include BHP’s rail network, with Craig saying the miner was focusing more on technology and the replacement of track controls and signals. It has also invested in the automation of shiploaders and processing facilities and boasts the biggest autononomous drill fleet in the southern hemisphere, with 25 autonomous drills.
In its latest operational review for the half year ending December 31, 2022, BHP says WAIO delivered record production for the half year through strong supply chain performance, supported by the ongoing ramp–up at South Flank. WAIO achieved record production of 130 Mt (146 Mt on a 100% basis).
It said: “This reflects continued strong supply chain performance, including improved car dumper utilisation, and lower COVID–19 related impacts than the prior period. This was partially offset by wet weather impacts in the September 2022 quarter. South Flank ramp up to full production capacity of 80 Mt/y (100% basis) by the end of the 2024 financial year remains on track. Natural variability in the ore grade is expected as the mine progresses through the close to surface material, however this is expected to stabilise as we move deeper into the ore body and achieve full ramp up.”
WAIO production guidance for the 2023 financial year remains unchanged at between 246 and 256 Mt (278 and 290 Mt on a 100% basis) and reflects the tie–in of the port debottlenecking project (PDP1) as well as the continued ramp up of South Flank in the second half of the year.
