Tag Archives: EPC

thyssenkrupp wins semi-mobile-crushing-plant contract in India coal hub

Bulk handling, Coal technology, Comminution of minerals, Mine operation news, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining software, Power supply for mines, , , , , , , , ,

thyssenkrupp has been awarded a contract to supply three semi-mobile-crushing-plants (SMCP) to a major open-pit coal mine in the Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh, India, namely the Jayant mine of Northern Coalfields Ltd, a division of state compay Coal India. The plants will be used for a new 15 Mt/y coal handling plant (CHP).

Looking to boost production from 10 Mt/y to 25 Mt/y, the miner is implementing an in-pit crushing and conveying system utilising the in-pit SMCP for the CHP, which will, thyssenkrupp says, make the production process more efficient and stable.

thyssenkrupp won the contract from an India-based engineering procurement and construction contractor, SK Samanta. It involves the complete design, engineering, manufacturing and supply, and “TAG services” for the three semi-mobile crushing plants.

The plants consist out of three separate modules. The receiving hopper module comes with a 2.2 m wide and 10.5 m long, heavy-duty apron feeder, which can be fed by trucks and has a capacity of around 150 tons (136 t).

The heart of each plant is the crusher module, which uses a RollSizer DRS 1,000 x 2,250 (centre distance x length of the roller) for a maximum feed capacity of 1,900 t/h.

The third module is the electrical building with the operator room. By separating this module from the crusher module, the operators and electrical equipment are not exposed to any vibrations from the crushing process. This ensures the plants meet all requirements from a health and safety perspective, while guaranteeing a long life of the electrical equipment, thyssenkrupp said.

“Compared to stationary crushing plants, SMCPs are more flexible and can be relocated when the distance between the mining area and the crushing plant increases and, thereby, can reduce the cost for transport of the run of mine material significantly,” thyssenkrupp said.

“thyssenkrupp can look back on a long history of supplying fully-mobile, semi-mobile, and stationary crushing plants, which makes the company a leading partner for the engineering, construction and service of industrial plants and systems for the coal industry.”

Piedmont locks in Primero for lithium concentrator development

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Piedmont Lithium has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Primero Group that could see the Australia-based engineering firm deliver the planned spodumene concentrator at the Piedmont lithium project in North Carolina, USA.

Piedmont says it and Primero have partnered since early 2018, with Primero having been the lead engineering consultant for Piedmont’s scoping studies, concentrator design, and metallurgical test work management.

“Building on this strong relationship, Piedmont and Primero have entered into the MoU to work together on an exclusive basis to agree binding documentation relating to the definitive feasibility study (DFS), front-end engineering design, EPC (engineering procurement and construction) delivery, commissioning, ramp-up and contract operations of the spodumene concentrator,” Piedmont said.

Referencing previous work of Primero’s, Piedmont said the engineering firm’s EPC and contract operations services at Alliance Minerals’ Bald Hill mine, in Australia, notably achieved nameplate capacity within two months of plant commissioning.

Cameron Henry, Managing Director of Primero, commented: “Piedmont is a world-class project surrounded by infrastructure and ideally located near potential customers in the USA’s auto alley.

“We look forward to applying our specialist expertise in project implementation and operations to assist Piedmont in advancing the only spodumene project currently under development in the United States.”

Keith D Phillips, President and CEO of Piedmont, said the MoU represented a key milestone as the company builds out its project execution team, “with an emphasis on working with proven processes and experienced professionals”.

The EPC and operations contract models contemplated by the MOU provide incentives for Primero to achieve safety, schedule, budget, process performance, production, and recovery targets, Piedmont said.

“The arrangements contemplated by the MoU create a delivery framework which significantly reduces technical, operational and commercial risks associated with the concentrator,” it added.

“The company continues to evaluate other strategic partnerships that could enhance performance in the design, construction and operations of other aspects of Piedmont’s integrated lithium hydroxide business.”

The prefeasibility study on the Piedmont lithium project, released earlier this year, envisaged two options – a “Merchant” project and an “Integrated” project. Both included an annual average lithium hydroxide production (steady-state) of 22,720 t, but only the latter included 160,000 t/y of 6% Li2O spodumene concentrate production over the 25-year mine life.

DRA to design, supply and construct SOP processing plant for Kalium Lakes

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DRA Global says it has been awarded the engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Kalium Lakes-owned Beyondie sulphate of potash (SOP) project in Western Australia.

The scope of work will be the design, supply, and construction of the 90,000 t/y SOP processing plant, with a provision for future expansion to 180,000 t/y, the company said.

“As a total solutions partner, the awarding of the Beyondie EPC contract highlights the confidence in DRA’s specialised expertise,” Greg McRostie, Executive Vice President of DRA Global in APAC, said. “We are excited to be partnering with Kalium Lakes Limited on this innovative Australian project.”

DRA was already involved with the purification plant at Beyondie, having been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction management contract last year.

Paterson & Cooke floats new port concept by Zanaga Iron Ore

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Zanaga Iron Ore says a concept study on the viability of using a floating dewatering, storage and offloading (FDSO) port facility shows the potential for a $184 million reduction in capital costs for the 12 Mt/y Stage One development at the Zanaga iron ore project in the Republic of Congo.

Following an approach in 2019 from a leading engineering procurement and construction (EPC) company specialised in the development of floating mooring and operating facilities, in recent months the Zanaga project team has been actively investigating the potential to use an offshore floating port instead of the transhipping solution envisaged in the 2014 feasibility study, the company said. This transhipping solution involved Zanaga’s slurry pipeline terminating at the coast of the Republic of Congo, whereby the slurry material would be dewatered in a coastal based location north of Pointe Noire.

Zanaga is planned as a large scale iron ore mine, processing and infrastructure operation to produce 30 Mt/y of high-grade iron ore (pellet feed) concentrate over a 30-year life of mine, to be developed in two stages. Stage One consists of 12 Mt/y of pellet feed, with the Stage Two 18 Mt/y expansion to 30 Mt/y of pellet feed.

The feasibility study envisaged a slurry pipeline for transport of iron ore concentrate from the mine to the port facilities, with the port facilities and infrastructure for dewatering and handling of the iron ore products located within a proposed third-party constructed port facility.

According to the latest concept study, the floating port solution could provide a number of advantages both technically and economically over previous solutions.

“The solution involves extending Zanaga’s slurry pipeline straight out into the ocean, with significantly reduced land-based facilities,” the company said. “The pipeline would run along the ocean floor to a fixed mooring point where the pipeline would connect to the FDSO vessel.”

The slurry would be processed onboard by a dewatering plant and the pellet feed concentrate would be stored within the vessel. Offloading facilities would be built into the vessel to allow the FDSO to load cape size vessels directly. By utilising the FDSO, Zanaga’s materials handling steps would be reduced to only three phases, providing significant efficiencies and a more seamless operation, the company said.

The FDSO evaluation process has been led by Paterson & Cooke, leading experts in slurry pipeline design and engineering. P&C has completed a concept level report involving a comparison of the three port solutions available for the Zanaga project, namely transhipping, deep water port, or the new FDSO port, Zanaga said.

“The results of the investigation have been very positive from a technical and economic perspective,” the company said. “Potential has been indicated for a $184 million reduction to total capital costs of the 12 Mt/y Stage One project, resulting in a reduction of total capital cost from $2.219 billion to $2.035 billion.”

While the study was conceptual in nature, it compared favourably with the transhipping and deep water port options the company had previously weighed for the project, it said. The capital cost associated with the FDSO was $111 million, compared with $295 million for the transhipping option and $899 million for the deep water port.

On top of this, operating costs are expected to be maintained at around $6.50/t due to previously high transshipping costs being substituted by a lease cost to the EPC contractor providing the solution, it said.

Clifford Elphick, Non-Executive Chairman of Zanaga Iron Ore, said: “This evaluation exercise demonstrates the clear potential of a floating port facility to enhance significantly the economics of the Zanaga project through the reduction of upfront capital costs and enhanced internal rate of return.

“In addition, there is potential to achieve significant ancillary technical benefits such as reduced environmental impact, elimination of dredging, and significant flexibility on coastal route selection.”

On top of this development, Zanaga said the project team had made progress on evaluating the early production project (EPP) potential of the asset.

Having ditched plans to explore a logistics route through Gabon, it said the team was now evaluating a range of capacities from 1-5 Mt/y involving optimising process plant design and reviewing in-country logistics solutions for an upgraded truck and rail solution using upgraded road and rail infrastructure within the Republic of Congo.

“In terms of power supply, heavy fuel oil is available in RoC in sufficient quantities to support such a project and pricing has been obtained from the national oil company allowing the project team to evaluate the viability of such an option to support the EPP’s power consumption requirements,” the company said.

“In addition, potential hydropower sites have also been identified in the area of the future mine. One site located 70 km to the north on the Ogooué river site seems promising, with a potential capacity of 20 MW to 40 MW.”

A detailed study is underway to further evaluate the potential of the site, it added.

“The project team continue to evaluate the potential for the EPP to operate as a standalone project, or as an initial pathway to production during the construction period of the 30 Mt/y staged development project,” it concluded.

Monadelphous engineering and maintenance divisions hit by COVID-19

Energy minerals, Mine operation news, Mining maintenance, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , ,

Engineering company Monadelphous Group says both its Engineering Construction and Maintenance divisions have been hit by measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

In reaction to this, it said its Chairman, Managing Director and Non-Executive Directors had agreed to a 30% reduction in salary and fees for the next six months, while the Executive and General Management teams would take 10-20% salary cuts over the same period.

In a market update issued last week, Monadelphous said COVID-19 operational impact measures taken by governments and industry across the world to prevent further spread of the virus had impacted the economy, resulting in the delay, suspension, deferral or reduction of services across a range of the company’s projects and worksites, as well as materially disrupting productivity levels.

“Monadelphous continues to take all necessary measures required to proactively manage the business through this unprecedented period to ensure the safety of its employees and sustain business continuity,” it said.

In the Engineering Construction division, which recently secured major contracts on BHP’s South Flank, Rio Tinto’s West Angelas (pictured) and Albemarle Lithium’s Kemerton projects, Monadelphous said it had experienced supply chain issues causing delays on large resources construction projects currently in progress. It had also witnessed several temporary deferrals to potential new construction contract award dates.

In its maintenance division, the company has experienced a material reduction in activity levels, particularly in fly-in-fly-out operations with customers reducing non-essential work, delaying discretionary maintenance spend and deferring shutdowns, it said.

On top of this, and following several water projects approaching completion recently experiencing an escalation in contract disputes and “disappointing levels” of profitability, Monadelphous said it planned to discontinue its Water Infrastructure business operations in New Zealand, plus consolidate its east coast engineering construction operations into a single Eastern Australian business unit. This followed a strategic and operational review of the business in Australia and New Zealand.

Rob Velletri, Monadelphous Managing Director, said: “We will continue to work closely with our customers during these challenging and uncertain times. Our disciplined and prudent management, loyal workforce and strong balance sheet mean that we are well positioned to deal with the challenges ahead, and the opportunities that will arise in time. I am confident that the actions we have taken to refocus the Water Infrastructure business will deliver more profitable and sustainable pipeline of opportunities over the longer term.”

Black & Veatch scales up environmental and sustainability offering

Environmental, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , , , ,

Engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company, Black & Veatch, is expanding its global environmental capabilities and services as businesses respond to increasingly complex demands from regulators, shareholders and consumers, it said.

The expansion comes as companies, utilities and governments navigate a range of COVID-19 related operational challenges and a recent wave of ambitious sustainability commitments. Meeting environmental demands and delivering on sustainability targets, however, requires new levels of innovation and expertise, the company says.

“Black & Veatch’s environmental team includes nearly 200 dedicated scientists, consultants and specialised compliance and permitting experts capable of providing direct service to clients of various scale,” it said. “The team’s vast experience can help stakeholders overcome complexity and reduce program costs by making it easier to integrate environmental considerations at every phase of the infrastructure lifecycle.”

Dave Johnson, co-Leader of the Environmental Services team, said: “Every industry is embracing environmental stewardship, and companies that fail to integrate the right expertise at the right time carry significant business and reputational risks. By collaborating across Black & Veatch, clients will benefit from our dedicated in-house environmental experts, who uniquely understand their environmental risk and opportunities.”

Advances in technology, consumer behaviour and economics are also transforming infrastructure development, according to the company. “The rise of distributed infrastructure programs, which bring data analytics, electricity and other new services closer to the end user, is a major trend influencing new thinking and approaches to environmental risk and compliance strategies.”

Lisa Fewins, co-Leader of the Environmental Services team, said Black & Veatch’s clients want innovative, dependable solutions to better operate in a dynamic global environmental landscape.

“With many clients seeking to more effectively address traditional operating issues, as well as emerging challenges tied to COVID-19, our ability to work across Black & Veatch’s world-class engineering, procurement and construction teams on a daily basis lets us offer faster, more integrated solutions,” she said.

Black & Veatch says it offers more than 80 existing environmental services across five prominent categories including: environmental air quality, remediation, management, compliance and science.

Fewins said: “We are taking a leading role in partnering with innovative technology providers to support our clients with cutting-edge solutions, as well as helping clients plan, scale and manage environment requirements.”

In addition to traditional environmental services across air quality, site remediation and advanced water solutions, Black & Veatch says it is an industry leader in the development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and renewable solutions, including solar photovoltaic and wind energy.

“The company is also helping advance sustainability and environmental goals for mining companies, data centre providers and many more industries,” it said.

Nordgold asks China’s SUMEC to power up Lefa gold mine

Environmental, Mine operation news, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Precious metals, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , ,

Nordgold Group is looking to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions with the construction of a new 33 MW power plant at its Lefa mine in Guinea.

The gold producer has signed an engineering, procurement and construction agreement with China manufacturing service group SUMEC, a key member of China National Machinery Industry Corporation (SINOMACH), to design and construct the plant.

The new heavy fuel oil facility will replace the existing power plant, in turn reducing both fuel consumption for electricity production by 15% and engine oil by 30%, according to Nordgold. This will result in a 17,000 t/y reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the company said, which is in line with Nordgold’s climate change objectives as well as its commitments to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilding company and leading manufacture of heavy industry machinery, is providing the power plant’s main generating equipment.

Nordgold said: “The power plant will enable a significant reduction in operating costs, in addition to enhancing the stability of the electricity supply for over 15 years of Lefa’s life of mine. Moreover, the installation of the latest fire detection systems will increase employee safety.”

The design and construction of the project is expected to cost around $23 million, with the power plant expected to be completed by the end of 2021.

During construction, hundreds of additional jobs will be created and essential construction materials including sand, cement, gravel amongst others will be sourced locally from Guinean suppliers, according to Nordgold.

Nikolai Zelenski, CEO of Nordgold, said: “Even during these challenging times, we remain committed to investing in Guinea. The new power plant is an important investment as it enables us to both decrease greenhouse gas emissions and provide sustainable power generation for our Lefa mine. We are looking forward to working with SUMEC and Hyundai to achieve this project.”

Nordgold acquired the Lefa mine in 2010, with annual gold output almost trebling since, according to the company. The mine, a conventional modern open-pit operation with three major mining areas and several smaller, higher grade satellite pits providing additional ore feed for the mill, produced 189,800 oz of gold in 2019.

Last year, Nord Gold the company did its climate change objectives no harm after entering into an exclusive agreement with Total Eren, an independent power producer specialised in renewable energies, and Africa Energy Management Platform, its strategic development partner, to construct a 13 MW solar photovoltaic power plant for its Bissa and Bouly gold mines in Burkina Faso.

Dargues gold mine on the road to production: DRA Global

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DRA Global says it is in the final stages of the implementation of the engineering procurement and construction (EPC) of the gold concentrate plant for Diversified Minerals’ Dargues gold project, in New South Wales, Australia.

The engineering company was awarded the EPC contract back in January 2019 after detailed design for the project commenced in March 2018. At this point, first ore was expected to be processed in early 2020.

As of March 2020, the plant construction and wet commissioning has been completed, DRA said. Hot commissioning is planned to take place soon and expected to be completed in early April. After this, the DRA team will hand over the 330,000 t/y plant to the client’s operations team, it said.

Dargues, owned by Diversified Minerals, an associated company of PYBAR Mining Services, was previously expected to have a 355,000 t/y capacity gold processing facility comprising crushing, milling, flotation and filtration circuits to produce a sulphide concentrate for export. This could see Dargues produce an average of 50,000 oz/y of gold in the first six years of production.

The mine, which will be operated by PYBAR, is also set to incorporate tele-remote loading. In December, Diversified Minerals took delivery of a second new Cat R1700 underground LHD following commissioning of the first loader during August.

The new machines are equipped with Caterpillar’s next generation Command for Underground technology, giving them automation capabilities that will allow them to be driven via tele-remote from the surface from early-2020. This will realise significant productivity, efficiency and safety gains, according to PYBAR.

Members of the Austmine Board were recently invited to a tour of the Dargues gold mine (pictured).

GR Engineering awarded with Abra EPC contract

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

GR Engineering Services has been awarded a conditional engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to deliver a 1.2 Mt/y lead sulphide flotation process plant and ancillary infrastructure for Galena Mining’s Abra Base Metals project in Western Australia.

The award, worth some A$74 million ($50 million), follows work carried out by the ASX-listed engineering company on the feasibility study and at the preliminary design stage of Abra.

The work will be undertaken on a guaranteed maximum price basis, according to GR Engineering, which confirmed that the contract remained subject to GR Engineering being issued with a full notice to proceed. This is dependent on Abra Mining Pty, Galena’s operating subsidiary, achieving financial close on its proposed project financing facilities. Galena, which owns 86.16% of the project through Abra, has said it will require A$170 million of pre-development capex to get the mine up and running.

GR Engineering has already commenced early engineering works up to an agreed capped amount, it said.

Geoff Jones, Managing Director of GR Engineering, said: “We are pleased to have been awarded the contract for the delivery of the Abra Base Metals project, which has followed GR Engineering’s involvement to date in the project’s feasibility study and preliminary design work.”

Galena completed a definitive feasibility study on Abra last year for development of a mine and processing facility with a 16-year life producing a high-value, high-grade lead-silver concentrate containing around 95,000 t/y of lead and 805,000 oz/y of silver after ramp-up.

Earlier this month, the construction of the Abra box cut commenced (pictured).

Black Rock Mining recruits China Railway Seventh for Mahenge graphite build

Energy minerals, Mineral project development, Mining services, , , , , , , , ,

Black Rock Mining says it has signed an agreement with China Railway Seventh Group Co Ltd (CRSG) that could see the major Chinese infrastructure contractor help build the Mahenge graphite project in Tanzania.

The project is envisaged as a graphite development that would gradually ramp up to its ultimate 340,000 t/y capacity through the addition of four production modules. In order to reach the start-up module one rate of 85,000 t/y, the company forecasted an initial capital requirement of $116 million. First production is targeted in 2020 or 2021 depending on financing.

This is not Black Rock’s first Chinese agreement for Mahenge. In September 2018, it signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Yantai Jinyuan Mining Machinery Ltd, part of the larger Yantai Jinyuan Group, that committed both parties to work together with a view to Yantai supplying process plant machinery and related infrastructure for Mahenge.

Black Rock says CRSG is part of a large contractor group with significant operations and experience in Africa. CRSG’s parent company, China Railway Group, is a state-owned enterprise and among the largest construction businesses globally.

The non-binding cooperation framework agreement (CFA) outlines the key terms under which Black Rock and CSRG plan to progress to execution of a binding engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the module one process plant and non-process infrastructure at Mahenge. It provides for a coordinated EPC approach between CRSG and Yantai, Black Rock’s existing strategic build partner.

It also provides for the development of a conventional EPC arrangement containing customary performance warranties and typical risk allocation structures (guarantees, bonding) required by project financiers, Black Rock said.

Key agreed terms include a staged approach to the development of a final EPC contact price and a deferred, performance-based payment structure. This deferred payment structure results in over 30% of the total EPC contract value being payable only after completion of final plant performance tests to requisite levels, it said.

Black Rock Managing Director and CEO, John de Vries, said: “This framework agreement is a big step forward for Black Rock and our Mahenge graphite project. To have Black Rock aligned with a project execution partner as large, established, Africa-proven and financially robust as China Railway Seventh is materially significant. Our discussions have been highly collaborative to this point, as reflected directly in the specific framework agreement terms.

“In short, the agreement delivers us greater certainty on our project execution. It has been deliberately structured to deliver a final EPC contract that maximises both partner alignment and appeal to potential project financiers.”

According to de Vries, CRSG and Yantai have also agreed to provide assistance in relation to Mahenge project financing, including any related financing based on Chinese content.

He concluded: “We now look forward to advancing rapidly with CRSG and Yantai towards a final EPC contract for development of the world-class Mahenge graphite project.”

Black Rock and CRSG/Yantai are now targeting the execution of a binding term sheet by March 31, 2020.