Tag Archives: contract mining

Thiess to deliver mine planning and engineering services to Tata Steel

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Thiess says it has entered into a business cooperation agreement to deliver mine planning and engineering services to Tata Steel.

Under the agreement, the contract miner will also collaborate with Tata Steel to deliver competitive integrated business solutions to the global mining industry.

Tata Steel is one of the world’s most geographically diversified steel producers, providing fully integrated steel operations – from mining to the manufacturing and marketing of finished products.

Thiess Executive Chairman & CEO, Michael Wright, said: “With a shared focus on value creation and sustainability, this agreement is the foundation for a strong partnership and complements our efforts to diversify our services and accelerate our growth across commodities and geographies.”

Tata Steel Vice President (Raw Materials), D.B Sundara Raman, said: “We have been in the mining business for more than a century providing various exploration and mine planning services to our captive mines for sustainable mining. We are pleased to start offering our mine technical services commercially through Tata Steel Industrial Consulting to the mining industry outside Tata Steel.

“This agreement with Thiess will complement our capabilities and capacities to raise the standards of such services in India in particular and internationally in general for more scientific and sustainable mine development.”

Tata Steel will work closely with the Thiess India Engineering Hub, which provides technical support to Thiess’ global operations, including geotechnical and mine engineering, technology service delivery, business process automation and learning & development services.

Thiess wins three-year extension at Harum Energy’s Mahakam Sumber Jaya mine

Coal technology, Explosives and blasting, Mine operation news, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , ,

Thiess says it has been awarded a three-year contract renewal to provide mining services at Harum Energy’s Mahakam Sumber Jaya coal mine in East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Under the contract extension, commencing from April 1, 2023, Thiess will continue providing mine design and planning, drill and blast, overburden removal, load and haul, asset maintenance and management, rehabilitation, water management and haul road maintenance services.

Thiess Executive Chairman & CEO, Michael Wright, said: “Thiess is proud to continue its longstanding relationship with Harum Energy at MSJ, where we’ve worked with our client to deliver sustainable mining services since the mine was developed in 2008.

“This contract enables us to continue our record of delivering certainty for our client, with a clear focus on safe and sustainable production and rehabilitation.”

Thiess Executive General Manager – Asia, Cluny Randell, added: “This contract renewal is great recognition of our team’s ability to partner and grow together with our client and deliver long-term performance and productivity gains for Harum Energy.

“We look forward to continuing our strong relationship with our client and the community of Kutai Kartanegara, where we’ve worked together during COVID-19 to provide vaccinations for the local communities.”

Thiess to deliver mining services to Mount Holland lithium mine JV

Energy minerals, Explosives and blasting, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining services, , , , , , , , ,

Thiess says it has been awarded a four-year contract by Covalent Lithium to deliver mining services at the Mount Holland lithium mine in Western Australia.

Covalent Lithium is a joint venture between Wesfarmers and Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM), one of the world’s largest lithium miners.

Under the contract, Thiess will deliver drill and blast services, mining of overburden and ore, and equipment maintenance with a strong focus on community development and environmental protection, it said. Thiess commenced mobilisation and early mining operations in January.

Thiess Executive Chairman and CEO, Michael Wright, said: “We are very pleased to be selected by Covalent to undertake mining at the Mount Holland mine. This award recognises our team’s ability to deliver sustainable mining solutions and deliver enduring value for our clients across diverse commodities.

“We look forward to working with Covalent Lithium to safely position their operations for optimal efficiency, productivity and cost performance, and contribute strongly to a clean energy future.”

The Mount Holland Mine produces lithium-bearing ore that is concentrated and refined to produce lithium hydroxide, a mineral used to enable electric vehicles and battery-based energy storage systems. EPC contractor, Primero, is currently constructing the Mt Holland concentrator to process ‘run of mine’ ore at a rate of circa-2 Mt/y and produce an output of circa-400,000 t/y of spodumene concentrate to feed the company’s integrated lithium hydroxide conversion refinery situated in Kwinana.

Metarock Group transformation takes shape with new coal contracts

Coal technology, Mine operation news, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , ,

Australia-listed Metarock Group has banked two contract wins this week, one at the Cook Colliery in Queensland and one at the Maxwell underground coal project in New South Wales.

The former has seen its Mastermyne subsidiary become the contract operator at Cook for Constellation Mining, a subsidiary of QCoal Group. The contract term of four years comes with a further two-year option and the company will see work commence immediately under the Mining Services Agreement.

The Cook Colliery was purchased by QCoal in July 2020 and has been maintained under care and maintenance since the acquisition. In July 2021, Mastermyne was selected to carry out a package of work to prepare the mine to re-commence production. This work included recommissioning of existing underground infrastructure, overhauling of mining equipment, establishment of production panels and other associated administrative and procurement works. This first tranche of work has been completed and the mine is now ready to commence production.

Mobilisation underground is already well progressed with the first Joy (Komatsu) miner underground and cutting coal as it forms up the production panels that will see the next Joy machines start production mining using a low-risk place changing methodology, Metarock said.

The project will produce approximately 4 Mt of run of mine coal over four years across three production panels.

At Maxwell underground, Metarock’s PYBAR Mining Services has been named the preferred contractor for the Maxwell Underground Project Access Drifts as part of an executed letter of intent with Malabar Resources. The contract term of 12 months will commence later this year following the execution of a binding Alliance-style mining services pact.

The scope consists of twin parallel drifts around 1.3 km in length, which will provide access to the targeted coal seams. Excavation of the drifts will be carried out with metalliferous-style drill and blast equipment and methods, modified for operating within a coal mining lease.

Having only recently completed the acquisition of PYBAR and the renaming of Mastermyne to Metarock, MD Tony Caruso said: “Mastermyne’s transformation from an underground coal contractor to a diversified mining services provider is taking shape and the awarding of this project (Maxwell) is a major vote of confidence from customers in the new larger business.”

He added: “This project is quite unique in that it brings together the combination of the Mastermyne and PYBAR skill-sets, which is a real differentiator for the Metarock Group.”

NRW to leverage MaxMine tech platform at Dalgaranga gold mine

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NRW Holdings’ mining division has entered into an agreement with MaxMine to install its technology across the A$300 million ($216 million) Dalgaranga gold mine contract in Western Australia.

The MaxMine platform harnesses cutting-edge hardware, digital automation, advanced artificial intelligence-based analytics and human-powered coaching to empower mine sites to increase environmental efficiency and operationally productivity, according to the company.

NRW was seeking a mining technology provider who could provide reliable data-driven, automated optimisation of its operations on site, leveraging the existing teams and fleet to further its data and broader technology leadership ambition within the mining industry.

The Dalgaranga gold mine is owned by Gascoyne Resources. NRW reach agreements with Gascoyne to keep providing services at the mine back in 2020 after the miner’s successful A$125 million recapitalisation process.

NRW has invested in building out its internal data analytics capabilities and was ready to step up its approach to partnering with service providers that supply to industrial data quality and help solve big data analytics challenges, it said.

Additionally, a tight domestic labour market has increased operator turnover at all mine sites and is an especially challenging issue for the mining contracting segment.

MaxMine’s technology automatically captures, enhances and contextualises up to 10,000 times more data at open-pit mining operations, relative to the industry standard fleet management system products, according to the company. Its data processing pipelines automatically contextualise all equipment, operator, and site data relative to each other, and dynamically to the conditions within the shift, such as weather, or other external factors.

This contextualised site data (a digital twin) is translated, in tandem with implementation coaching, to generate tangible increases in asset productivity and reliability of equipment, through three primary improvement states. These are: (1) Get in control; (2) Optimise Performance; and (3) Ramp up production rates.

These outcomes are evidenced by existing customers who experience, on average, an 11% payload increase and halve tyre costs after implementing MaxMine, the company said.

NRW Operations Manager, Adam Harper, said continuous innovation and intelligent use of data is core to NRW mining division’s future, and another way NRW is consistently adding value for its customers beyond moving tonnes.

NRW General Manager Mining Division, Tim Abrahams, added: “NRW emphasises good data as a critical enabler of our operational effectiveness and partnering with MaxMine, who are a leader in fleet operations data, allows us to continuously improve our performance for our customers.”

MaxMine Chief Executive Officer, Coert Du Plessis, said the two companies were aligned in pursuing a more sustainable and reliable mining industry.

“The benefits from this cooperation extend beyond MaxMine or NRW; the global challenge of ‘Net Zero’ by 2050 cannot be achieved without an order of magnitude change in mining efficiencies. Working with NRW is another fantastic example of great partnerships helping transform a critically important industry into a safer, more efficient and environmentally-friendly component of the world’s economy.”

The announcement of the agreement with NRW comes one month after MaxMine officially launched MaxMine Carbon, a technology offering that, the company says, will enable mining operators to reduce their carbon emissions by 5-20%, depending on their existing efficiencies, with limited or no additional capital expenditure.

Redpath to take on underground mining work at Aurelia’s Hera operation

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Redpath Australia has been awarded the underground mining services contract at Aurelia Metals’ Hera gold-lead-zinc mine in New South Wales.

The project will see production activities continue at Hera from January 2022 with a primarily NSW-based workforce.

While Hera produced 4,650 oz of gold in the September quarter, Aurelia is working on a feasibility study at the Hera-Federation Complex (including Hera and the Federation discovery), due in mid-2022, that could see production increase.

Redpath Australia has also been selected as the contractor for the exploration decline at this project.

Altaley Mining engages MGA Contratista Minera SA as Tahuehueto mine contractor

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Altaley Mining Corp has engaged MGA Contratista Minera SA de CV as the underground mining contractor for the soon-to-be-operating Tahuehueto gold mine, in north-western Durango state, Mexico.

MGA is, Altaley says, a prominent mining contractor located in Durango city with over 20 years of underground mining  and civil engineering experience. Its clients have included Newmont (Goldcorp), Pan American Silver, Endeavour Silver, Grupo Mexico, Fresnillo, First Majestic Silver, Omega and others.

MGA is now mobilising its mining equipment (including a Caterpillar R1300G LHD and a Komatsu Joy DR-1SB hydrualic jumbo drill) to Tahuehueto to continue underground drift and stope development to advance the mine into production. Previous underground development during 2018 and 2019 completed between 70-80% of required development for the initial one to two years of mine production.

MGA will complete the development work required to initiate mine production and continue as the project’s primary underground mining contractor in the initial years of Tahuehueto’s production.

First production through the mill, which is at an advanced stage of construction, is anticipated near the end of 2021 when the first ball mill is to be commissioned. In the March quarter of 2022, the second ball mill will be installed and brought online to, thereafter, ramp up production to the mine’s anticipated 1,000 t/d capacity.

Altaley said construction at the Tahuehueto mine site is on time and budget, and management is not expecting any cost overruns at this point in time.

Ralph Shearing, CEO and President, stated: “MGA is a highly qualified professional underground mining contractor which ensures that mill feed tonnages will be available to sustain continuous milling operations on an ongoing basis. Altaley is pleased to have secured MGA as Tahuehueto’s underground mining contractor and is counting down the weeks remaining to reach production near the end of this year.”

Thiess to continue mining at PT Wahana Baratama Mining coal mine in Indonesia

Coal technology, Mine operation news, Mining services, , , , , , , ,

Thiess says it has secured a three-year A$220 million ($164 million) contract renewal to continue providing mining services at PT Wahana Baratama Mining’s coal mine in South Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Having operated at the project since 2007, Thiess will provide full mining services for Wahana, which is owned by Bayan Resources, including mine planning, environmental and water management, drill and blast, and mining and pit hauling services, it said. The contract renewal commences from November 2021.

Thiess CEO and Executive Chairman, Michael Wright, said: “This extension builds on our long-term partnership with Wahana and recognises Thiess’ ability to deliver sustainable and competitive mining solutions tailored to their operational needs.”

Thiess Executive General Manager Asia, Cluny Randell, said: “We’re proud to continue delivering value at Wahana, a unique operation where Thiess has mined two adjoining mines for two different clients. Our team is focused on continuing to optimise resource recovery and extending the mine’s reserves to deliver long-term value for Wahana.

“Alongside this, we’re looking forward to building on our COVID-19 vaccination efforts, extending our employee and family vaccination program into the community next month.”

Bayan Resources says the Wahana Baratama mine currently produces around 1-2 Mt/y of high calorific value bituminous quality coal.

DEVELOP’s new Underground Services division sets sights on Bellevue Gold project

Mineral project development, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , , , ,

DEVELOP, formerly Venturex Resources, has implemented what it says is another key plank of its growth strategy by establishing the company’s Underground Services division.

DEVELOP Underground Services will specialise in providing a range of underground mining services to cater to both DEVELOP’S own requirements at the Sulphur Springs copper-zinc-silver project in Western Australia and to service other Australian projects on a contractual basis.

In line with its strategy of also providing services on a contractual basis, DEVELOP has been invited to tender for the mining contract at Bellevue Gold’s Bellevue project in Western Australia.

Bellevue Gold’s stated commitments on environmental, social and governance initiatives, which includes a plan to become Australia’s “greenest gold miner”, and its project’s credentials, makes this tender a great opportunity aligned to DEVELOP’s own core beliefs, DEVELOP said.

DEVELOP Managing Director, Bill Beament, said DEVELOP Underground Services would enable the company to leverage the extensive underground mining skills and experience of its world-class underground DNA.

“We have quickly built an exceptional team, many of whom have worked together at some of the most successful and productive mines and companies across Australia,” Beament said.

“We are delighted to be given the opportunity to tender for the mining contract at Bellevue, which is clearly on the path to joining this list of world-class Western Australia projects. With a resource grade of 6 g/t and forecast production of 200,000 oz a year (years 1-5) at an all-in sustaining cost of just A$922/oz ($692/oz), Bellevue is about to join an exclusive global club of gold miners.”

He added: “There are only seven other mines in tier-one locations that can boast these metrics.”

Beament said Bellevue’s recently-released Stage Two Feasibility Study was testimony to the remarkable achievements of the Bellevue team.

This study outlined a 1 Mt/y asset with forecasted greenhouse gas intensity of 0.202 t CO2e/oz, with planned integration of renewable energy.

The DEVELOP Underground Services team and former Northern Star Resources head, Beament, will be helped in its pursuit of this contract by the additions of Paul Nilsson and Aaron Armstrong.

Nilsson, an alumni of Northern Star Resources and Barminco, has become Manager Mining Underground, while Aaron Armstrong, another ex-Northern Star Resources employee, has become Maintenance Manager Underground.

Centric partners with SFTP Mining to unlock key mining metrics

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SFTP Mining, a Côte d’Ivoire-based mining contractor, has partnered with Centric Mining Systems, part of the Datamine family, to, it says, provide efficient access to key project metrics not only for SFTP but also for its mining clients.

Centric Mining Systems has now been implemented at two SFTP projects, with plans for continued expansion. Further partnerships and integrations are planned, as existing Centric mining clients, including Perseus Mining (part of the fleet at the Sissingue mine pictured here), look to collaborate with their contractors to further access and share data.

“Working with Centric Mining Systems on this project is not only beneficial to SFTP given Centric’s demonstrable track record of success across Africa, but also to the wider contract mining services sector as it continues to develop in Africa,”  Hendrik Kruger, Country Operations Manager at SFTP Mining, says.

Centric’s data collection and management solutions eliminate inaccurate reporting and wasted time. Instead of hours of paperwork, unreliable spreadsheets and uncertainty in data accuracy, Centric helps bring mining operations into the 21st century, the company says.

Chris Novak, CEO of Centric Mining Systems, says: “SFTP knows that productive mines and projects depend on proven solutions that standardise workflows, ensure accountability and improve collaboration. We are confident that Centric will unlock significant value for SFTP Mining by ensuring end-to-end visibility of the entire production process and the ability to adapt faster to changes and opportunities.”

With a focus on health and safety, production metrics, and equipment utilisation, staff at the project site can accurately track and report all production-related activities, anticipate risk and foresee opportunities to enhance performance, Centric says.

Novak added: “In today’s mining industry, access to information is essential to achieve operational excellence. The value of a digital mine lies in the wealth of data available across the value chain and the insight to make decisions that will affect the short-term and long-term future of your business.”

Centric is a global software solution provider that specialises in data acquisition, systems integration, data warehousing, knowledge generation and decision support solutions specific to the mining industry.