Tag Archives: Bis Industries

Bis to deliver off-road bulk load and haul services to Roy Hill

Bulk handling, Mine operation news, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , , ,

Bis and its innovative haulage solutions have been selected for a major contract from Roy Hill at its iron ore mine in the east Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The new contract follows a competitive tender process and includes off-road bulk load and haul and site services, the resources logistics company said.

Bis CEO, Brad Rogers, said: “Bis has more than a century of experience in mine site haulage, and we are thrilled to welcome Roy Hill as an important new customer.”

Bis’ industry-leading safety record and Zero Harm approach to people, community and environment, in addition to the company’s culture of innovation, was integral in the company being awarded the contract, it said.

Rogers added: “This award highlights Bis’ strong reputation and capability across mining projects in Australia and Indonesia. We look forward to building strong relationships with the Roy Hill team and supporting their iron ore operation and delivering the contract efficiently and safely.”

Mobilisation to site will commence shortly, with a contract start date in September 2020, Bis said.

Roy Hill has an integrated mine, rail and port facilities and produces 55 Mt/y of iron ore, with approval to increase to 60 Mt/y.

Bis gets firm handle on GFG Alliance Whyalla contract

Bulk handling, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , , , , ,

Bis says it will become the single materials handling contractor for GFG Alliance in Whyalla, South Australia, as of October 1.

As part of GFG Alliance’s strategy to maximise efficiency at its Whyalla-based operations ¬– incorporating its Liberty Primary Steel and SIMEC Mining businesses (which includes a 10 Mt iron ore mine in the Middleback Ranges of South Australia) – several materials-handling work packages were consolidated into a single contract to be operated by a single contractor partner.

The contract will see Bis deliver a range of site services to Whyalla including steel services, scrap processing and handling, slag processing and handling, and bulk materials handling.

The award comes as Bis celebrates 60 years in Whyalla this year, where it currently employs 170 people. Bis will bring on another 80 employees as part of the expanded scope of works.

Liberty Primary Steel Acting Executive Managing Director, Jason Schell, said: “GFG Alliance is looking forward to partnering with Bis to help drive our continuous-improvement culture and turn our business around for a sustainable, long-term future.

“This consolidated contract will result in significant cost savings for our business, while providing greater opportunities to optimise Bis’ assets and workforce across multiple work-fronts.”

Bis Chief Executive Officer, Brad Rogers, said the announcement showed the strength of the company’s relationship with GFG Alliance, as well as Bis’ track record of safely and reliably delivering flexible, efficient solutions for its customers.

Hadyn Shepherd, Bis General Manager Mining Services South East, meanwhile, said the win was great recognition for Bis and the team in Whyalla.

Innovations in mine site haulage on show at Truck & Shovel

Mining equipment, Mining events, Mining services, , , , , ,

Bis has been causing a storm in the open-pit haulage sector with its innovative Rexx truck. Fitted with 20 wheels, the machine combines the distance capacity of a traditional off-road haulage solution with the ability to go out of pit.

Virginie Hannah, Group Manager Innovation and Product Delivery, Bis Industries, will be talking all about this innovation at the Truck & Shovel Conference, in Singapore, September 19-20, during her presentation, ‘Innovations in mine site haulage‘. Attendees will be looking forward to hearing all about the mine site trial success stories the company has had with Rexx at Gold Fields’ Granny Smith mine in Australia and Glencore’s Murrin Murrin operation, also in Australia.

Bis has a culture of customer-driven innovation, with a strong focus on innovation in mine site haulage for reduced costs, improved productivity and better community and safety outcomes. Its game-changing truck, Rexx, was introduced to the market late last year.

The company explained: “The idea for Rexx came about when Bis leaders recognised a problem in double handling product when it was being moved from pit to processing. The solution was a 20-wheeled, long range, out-of-pit hauler that would combine the distance capacity of a traditional off road haulage solution with the ability to go out of pit.”

Bis says Rexx offers a range of competitive advantages, moving resources more efficiently and delivering greater profitability for customers.

The company’s culture of curiosity and innovation has driven the business from its early days, and has recently seen it listed as one of Australia’s most innovative companies by The Australian Financial Review.

To hear Hannah speak at this International Mining Events conference – along with 17 other speakers – click here to register.

Truck & Shovel conference gains Singapore Mining Club support

Automation, Careers in mining, Communications in mining, Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mining consumables, Mining equipment, Mining events, Mining maintenance, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The inaugural Truck & Shovel conference is now just over seven weeks away and the stage is set for an exciting event looking into the future of the global loading and haulage industry.

With topics such as automation, digitalisation, fleet management, and tyre and fuel optimisation on the agenda, there will be much to discuss at the 1.5-day event, taking place at the InterContinental Singapore, Middle Road, on September 19-20.

In addition to gaining the support of Komatsu Mining (Platinum Sponsor), Zyfra Mining (Gold Sponsor) and Mining Industry Professionals (Media Sponsor), IM Events is pleased to announce that the Singapore Mining Club has backed this global event.

Truck & Shovel 2019 will now be held in association with the Singapore Mining Club, an influential group that exists to promote development of Singapore as the pre-eminent regional hub for the management and financing of mining enterprises.

We chose Singapore for this global event for several reasons, including:

  • Many of the big mining companies have procurement and marketing hubs in this Asian metropolis;
  • It acts as a gateway through to key mining hubs such as Australia, India, China and Indonesia, and;
  • It has good transport links and an excellent reputation for event hospitality.

Taking place in Ballroom I and II of the InterContinental Singapore, this event has attracted a number of high-profile speakers that have masses of industry knowledge to share with delegates.

We plan to kick off the day with a keynote from Komatsu Mining’s Jason Knuth (Senior Manager – Data Solutions) and Simon Van Wegen (Product Manager – Data Solutions) on ‘Data-driven designs for dynamic mining environments’.

The duo, who have spoken at many high profile conferences around the world, are set to reveal how advanced mining original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are leveraging the plethora of data nodes on smart equipment to adapt equipment and design solutions for the modern mine environment.

Mikhail Makeev, Global Business Director, Zyfra Mining, is set to continue this digitalisation theme during his catchily-titled ‘How to make your mine “rock”’ presentation. The company has automation and fleet management expertise that it has applied across many mine sites, with Makeev keen to share details on these experiences.

Automation

For those focused on surface mining automation, Truck & Shovel tackles the concept from three different angles.

Drew Larsen, Director of Business Development, ASI Mining, will provide a business case for haulage automation with a presentation titled: ‘Autonomous Mining – more feasible than you might think’. The company, 34% owned by global mining OEM Epiroc, began work on a project with Barrick Gold to retrofit and automate a fleet of Komatsu 930-E Ultra Class haul trucks at the Arturo joint venture operation in Nevada, last year, and is expecting to issue news on projects with other miners in the near future.

Tony Cutler, Principal Consultant, OTR Global, will be tackling automation from a different stance in his ‘Factoring tyres into autonomous haulage’ presentation. Research from the leading mining OEMs offering autonomous haulage systems (AHS) indicates these systems have the potential to prolong tyre life, a claim Cutler will interrogate up on stage.

And Steve Russell, Director – Mining, Scott Technology Ltd, will be looking at autonomous refuelling in his talk. With a title of ‘Robofuel Robotic Refuelling – A safety and productivity initiative for the 21st Century Mine’, he will highlight case studies that showcase just how effective this process is in an open-pit mining context.

Equipment design and innovation

The look and feel of loading and haulage equipment hasn’t changed dramatically over the past few decades, but with mining companies and OEMs now receiving data in real time about how trucks and excavators are operating and interacting with each other, one would expect these design blueprints to, in the future, be altered in some way – for example Komatsu’s cabless haul truck concept.

Taking on this topic at the event will be Christopher B Althausen, Director of Sales & Marketing for Pioneer Solutions LLC, and Brad Rogers, CEO of Bis Industries.

Althausen’s presentation, ‘Mining truck design and development: challenges, hurdles and solutions’, looks at his and his company’s experiences approaching haul truck design over many decades. Rogers’ talk, meanwhile, focuses on ‘Innovation in minesite haulage’. With Bis Industries now having successful trials of its revolutionary Rexx haul truck in its back pocket, delegates will look forward to hearing all about the proven productivity benefits of using this 20-wheel machine.

Maximising payload

The first day of the event will finish with a packed session on truck bodies and excavator buckets where four speakers will highlight just how effective customised solutions can be in the open-pit mining environment.

Carl Samuelson, Global Business Support Manager, Metso Haul Truck Solutions, will talk about successes the mining OEM has had with its hybrid haul truck tray, the Metso Truck Body, while David Pichanick, Global Manager Market Development & Innovation, Austin Engineering, will reveal how thinking ‘outside the box’ and changing the way the company uses materials in dump bodies and buckets has had an impact on safety and productivity. Tom Smith, Engineering Manager at DT HiLoad, rounds out the truck body talk, presenting, ‘HERCULES: The Strongest Tray in Earth’.

Ian Cornfoot, Managing Director of G&G Mining, has the honour of closing day one with a presentation on the use of customised excavator buckets titled, ‘Moving Rocks Not Steel – “Productive innovations in earthmoving buckets”’.

Fuel efficiency and management

As has been well documented, fuel efficiency is key when it comes to open-pit mining, with optimised fuel selection and management often keeping the cost per tonne down.

This topic kicks off day two of the event, with Kevin Dagenais, CEO of Blutip Technologies, looking at the use of predictive modelling techniques to target mining inefficiencies in this space. Sean Birrell, Group Product Officer, FluidIntel, follows closely behind him on ‘Analytics opportunities in fuel and lubricant management – unseen risks & untapped value in your supply chain & operations’, with Joao Silveirinha, Chief Technology Officer of Banlaw, rounding out the fuel talk with a talk titled, ‘Digital Transformation and Automation as it relates to the management of Hydrocarbons in Mining’.

Safety and training

The last session of the conference is all on safety and training, with two speakers keen to talk up the benefits of these in open-pit mining where accidents can cost lives and machines.

Daniel Bongers, Chief Technology Officer of SmartCap Technologies, will present, ‘Zero fatigue incidents achieved – moving to alertness monitoring’ in his 30-minute slot, with Graham Upton, Director of Business Development at simulator specialist, Doron Precision Systems Inc, following him with ‘Shovel and Truck, side-by-side Coordinated Training’.

For details of how to register for this event, or access the full program, please visit the website: https://im-mining.com/truck-and-shovel/

Please note, all company delegations of two or more people are entitled to a discount. Get in touch with Editorial Director, Paul Moore ([email protected]), or Editor, Dan Gleeson ([email protected]), for more information.

Bis’ Rexx 20-wheel dump truck impresses at Glencore’s Murrin Murrin mine

Automation, Equipment maintenance, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining safety, Mining services, , , , , , , , ,

Bis Industries says its “revolutionary” new mining haul truck has delivered outstanding results in trials at Glencore’s Murrin Murrin nickel mine in the north-eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

Known as Rexx, the dual powered 20-wheel dump truck has been designed with a range of features specifically incorporated to deliver savings to Bis customers, the company said. Rexx has more than four times the range of conventional dump trucks, outstanding manoeuvrability, operator comfort and maintainability plus on demand power that lowers fuel consumption, according to Bis.

Bis CEO Brad Rogers said the testing at Murrin Murrin mine has been carried out in `real-life’ operating conditions and the results to date indicated Rexx had the capacity to deliver up to a 30% reduction in operating costs compared with conventional dump trucks. These savings will be delivered to miners as part of Bis’ integrated haulage solution, it added.

Rogers said one area of the savings that could be passed on to Bis customers in haulage costs was average fuel use by Rexx, which was around half the fuel consumed by equivalent competing dump trucks.

“The fuel savings are a direct consequence of Rexx being designed with patented on-demand power that lowers fuel consumption,” the company said. “The vehicle has the capacity to carry enough fuel for at least two 12-h shifts, eliminating downtime needed for refuelling.”

Rogers said Rexx had been designed in-house by the Bis engineering team while the construction had used the talent of Western Australian tradespeople.“In Rexx we have a game changing work horse that showcases Australian innovation,” he said.

For example, the steering system enables an industry leading turning circle of just 13.5 m, allowing Rexx to manoeuvre easily in smaller spaces, the company said.

With an eye to industry trends, Rexx had also been designed and built to be easily retrofitted for autonomous operations with features including steering sensors, stability control sensors and a futuristic in-cab console, Rogers said. The console provides the operator with real-time data including pressure monitoring on all tyres and sensors for detecting bin tipping, engineering operation and payload.

Mining Manager at Murrin Murrin, David Ayres, said: “We were thrilled to be involved with Bis on this exciting project. Outside of autonomous systems, there haven’t been many major fundamental design changes in the rigid-frame off-highway game in a long time.

“The Bis design offers the ability to haul directly from pit-to-plant from a much longer distance, without the need for the re-handle step, which should save costs and reduce ore loss/dilution. Rexx solves a niche haul-distance equation,” he said.

Rexx has sparked significant interest from major miners both internationally and within Australia and a series of demonstrations are now being staged with interested customers, Bis said.