Tag Archives: First Quantum Minerals

Sandvik retaining the platform approach for load & haul electrification

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Sandvik’s aim to electrify the underground mining space have been gaining traction over recent years, with single machine trials and deployments that typified the early stages of its mission now replaced by fleet-wide agreements that, if not already in operation, will be starting up underground in the years to come.

As with all transitions, the electric one has not been easy. There have been teething issues along the way; whether that is equipping batteries for the harsh nature of an underground mines, educating employees about best practice maintenance and operations of this equipment, or facing an onslaught of questions about potential battery fires witnessed in passenger vehicles via YouTube.

Just how much traction the company has been gaining was made clear late last year during its Capital Markets Day event.

Here, the company outlined that battery-electric vehicles accounted for 15% of all load and haul orders in the year to the end of October. On top of that, it displayed an impressive pie chart showing that, from January-October 2023, Sandvik had won more than 75% of orders for battery-electric equipment.

These numbers do not factor in the cable-electric loaders the company has been selling for decades, plus the underground battery-electric drilling equipment that trams on battery power at mining operations across the globe.

For all this positive momentum, battery-electric does not make sense for everyone…yet.

IM has documented a series of both diesel-electric and hybrid diesel-electric LHD sales in Australia recently, with at least one of these sales following the trial of battery-electric equipment.

Sandvik has made clear that it will have something in store for miners in transition between diesel and fully-electric operation, stating last year that it was developing diesel-electric trucks and loaders for the industry.

Unlike some of its peers, Sandvik is deliberately building this offering with fully-electric operations in mind.

“Currently we are developing diesel-electric solutions both for trucks and loaders,” Juha Virta, VP Sales and Marketing for the Load and Haul Division within Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, told IM. “We aim to maximise the customer value by utilising modular design in our equipment: battery and diesel-electric equipment will have commonalities eg in drivelines, hydraulics, electrics and spare parts.”

This approach will make it easier for customers to transfer from diesel-electric equipment to battery-electric equipment, Virta says. The “commonalities” could also prove beneficial in developing the skill sets required from service personnel.

“Energy storage elements are also included in our development portfolio, enabling, for example, hybrid solutions, delivering positive results in the area of fuel consumption and the equipment performance,” he added.

This is all part of an increasingly diverse offering from the OEM that Brian Huff, Vice President of New Technologies for the Load and Haul Division within Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, mentioned during the Capital Markets Day.

He said: “We’re taking the technology of our battery-operated drills, loaders and trucks, and expanding that with diesel-electric using the same motors, inverters and componentry in a modular approach that allows us to offer diesel solutions with the same electrified driveline from our battery-operated equipment.”

The developments the company is making as part of this project are being displayed on the TH66X diesel-electric demonstrator – a Toro diesel-powered truck that has been retrofitted with an electric driveline – that customers first saw in Turku, Finland, in 2022. This machine is currently in factory tests, according to Virta, saying that component validation and a variety of simulations were also being run.

“The program also includes a significant amount of testing in a real underground mine environment,” he added. “Developing new technology and ensuring its performance takes some time, and sufficient and careful tests are extremely important – we are in a very good progress with that currently.”

For this, Sandvik is using not only its Test Mine in Tampere, Finland, but also the Pyhäsalmi mine. Sandvik is using the latter operation – owned by First Quantum Minerals – as part of its involvement in the Callio consortium: a group of companies focused on developing ‘FutureMINE – the future digital test mine project’.

One of the other participants in this consortium is Byrnecut, who has been partnering with Sandvik based on a recent LinkedIn post by Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions.

“We have long traditions with working in close collaboration with different customers, and that will continue to be Sandvik approach also going forward,” Virta said when asked about this partnership. “Byrnecut is one of our customers and a very important partner for us, and, along with Barminco, will be one of the first companies to test the TH66X in the field.”

Considering the majority of the team focused on this diesel-electric demonstrator are based in Turku, one would expect this facility to have significant influence on the commercial offering that follows.

The facility is undergoing an expansion focused on incorporating an additional 7,000 sq.m of production and storage space previously occupied by Tunturi, a manufacturer of bicycles and fitness equipment. The whole of the plant for load and haul equipment is also set to be enhanced and modernised.

Petri Liljaranta, Supply Director for the Load and Haul Division within Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, says the expansion is progressing as planned with all but a few of the company’s finishing functions relocated according to its plans. “This final part of the project is expected to be finished in the June quarter,” he added.

One of the expansion project’s targets was to increase the manufacturing space at its facilities, and this target has already been achieved, with the company well equipped to respond to growing volume needs in the coming years, according to Liljaranta.

“Based on current views, the battery-electric vehicle manufacturing capacity is expected to meet expected market demand during 2024,” he said.

Lantania to extend water treatment facilities at FQM’s Cobre Las Cruces

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Lantania says it has strengthened its position as a leading company in industrial water treatment with a contract to expand the permanent water treatment plant (PWTP) of the First Quantum Minerals-owned Cobre Las Cruces mining complex, in the province of Seville, Spain.

The company has been awarded the contract for the drafting of the project, the design of the treatment lines, construction and start-up of the development of this infrastructure, for a contract sum of €5.2 million ($5.6 million).

The PWTP expansion is part of the preliminary work for the start-up of the company’s new mining and metallurgical project, which will allow it to continue operations through switching to a polymetallurgical processing route and developing an underground mine. With the expansion of the treatment plant, the volumes to be treated have increased by more than 50%, which represents an important reinforcement of Cobre Las Cruce’s water management, Lantania said.

The water will be treated in a process line consisting of a physical-chemical pretreatment by decantation, filtration, ultrafiltration and finally reverse osmosis with minimum recovery yields of 90%, achieving, in all cases, water with a quality similar to that of drinking water.

Lantania has been responsible for the operation of the mining complex’s water treatment plant since its construction in 2010.

Production at Cobre Las Cruces began in 2009 for the extraction and processing of copper. It has one of the most advanced and sustainable hydrometallurgical plants in the world, producing copper cathodes of the highest quality (99.999% purity, Grade “A” by the London Metal Exchange).

Exploitation of the current secondary copper sulphide resources will be completed during 2023, but work is underway to continue mining additional polymetallic primary sulphide mineral resources containing copper, zinc, lead and silver. This new underground mine and polymetallic refinery project is called PMR (Poly Metallurgical Refinery). This refinery will produce four metals (copper, zinc, lead and silver) through the application of an innovative technology created and patented by Cobre Las Cruces.

First Quantum to add to Liebherr T 284 fleet at Sentinel copper mine

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First Quantum Minerals is in the process of bolstering its fleet of Liebherr T 284 trucks at the Sentinel operation in Zambia, in line with a redistribution of loading equipment to better suit working areas at the copper mine.

In the company’s March quarter, Sentinel reported copper production of 36,232 t, 37,177 t lower than the previous quarter due to the intense rainy season, resulting in the accumulation of water in the Stage 1 pit.

Saturated ground conditions significantly impacted mining rates due to poor road conditions and water in the pit prevented access to working faces, particularly in the lower benches of Stage 1, First Quantum said in its March quarter results.

Despite the challenges encountered during this quarter, copper production for 2023 remains unchanged at 260,000-280,000 t as higher feed grades are expected in the second half of the year, with grades showing improvement already in April.

“The current focus on deploying additional dewatering capacity in Stage 1 to regain access to the high-grade ore is already yielding results early in the second (June) quarter,” it said.

The mine plan has been rescheduled, even if total volumes remain substantively the same and higher grade zones will be dispatched across the remaining three quarters of the year, the company noted. This is to be complemented by a change in location of the in-pit ramps to liberate high-grade ore by mining the saddle zones between Stage 1 and Stage 2.

There will also be a redistribution of loading equipment to better suit working areas and truck fleet capacity is planned to increase in the June quarter with the commissioning of an additional Liebherr T 284, followed by two more in the second half of the year.

Sentinel is a leader in electric mining as a long-term user of trolley assist technology with its Komatsu 960E and Liebherr T 284 trucks, which run under trolley using pantographs.

At MINExpo 2021, Liebherr confirmed it would supply a further 11 T 284 trucks to operate on trolley lines at First Quantum Minerals’ Sentinel and Cobre Panama mines with the miner claiming, in the process, the title of the world’s largest ultra-class truck fleet on trolley. Three of these 363-t-payload machines were planned to be deployed at Sentinel, with the remainder at Cobre Panama.

Two Liebherr T 284 trucks with the Trolley Assist System were commissioned at Sentinel copper mine all the way back in 2016 and testing of the trolley solution began in February of 2017, with 12 months allotted for FQM to evaluate the trucks, the trolley and the customer service.

At the end of the trial period, FQM expressed it was pleased with the results of the Trolley Assist System and the performance of the T 284, leading to an order for six more trolley-capable T 284 trucks at Sentinel mine, along with 30-trolley-capable T 284 trucks for Cobre Panama copper mine in Panama, Liebherr explained.

NextOre’s in-pit sorting advances continue with development of mining truck sensor

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NextOre and its magnetic resonance (MR) technology have made another advance in the ore sorting and material classification game with the development of a new “open geometry” sensor that could enable mines to scan mining truck loads.

The company, in the last year, has surpassed previous throughput highs using its on-conveyor belt solutions, accelerated the decision-making process associated with material sorting viability with its mobile bulk sorter and made strides to branch out into the in-pit sorting space via the development of these open geometry sensors.

NextOre’s MR technology is the culmination of decades of research and development by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), with the division spun out from the organisation in 2017. Since then, NextOre has gone on to demonstrate the technology’s viability across the globe.

NextOre’s MR analysers were first fitted on conveyor belts, yet interest in solutions for in-pit equipment predates the company’s inception.

“A significant portion of the time when CSIRO would show people the technology, they were working on for fitting on a conveyor belt, many would ask: ‘could you possibly put it around a truck somehow?’,” Chris Beal, CEO of NextOre, told IM.

After workshopping many ideas and developing increasingly large prototypes – commencing at the start with an antenna made up from a copper loop and a couple of capacitors – two in-pit solutions leveraging CSIRO’s open-geometry sensor have come to the fore.

The first – a 3-m-wide sensor – underwent static and dynamic tests using chalcopyrite copper ore grade samples in a material feeder setup in 2022, in Australia.

This test work, observed by several major mining companies, laid the groundwork for a bigger installation – a 7-m-wide ruggedised antenna that weighs about 5 t. This can be positioned over a haul truck and manoeuvred using a crane supplied by Eilbeck and guidance systems developed for NextOre by CSIRO and the University of Technology Sydney.

The advantage of MR in a truck load scanning scenario, just as with a conveyor, is the ability to make accurate, whole-of-sample grade measurements at high speeds. Yet, to operate effectively, this system requires significant amounts of power.

“The truck system we are building is between 120 kW and 200 kW,” Beal said. “For people in the radio frequency space, power of that magnitude is hard to comprehend; they’re used to dealing with solutions to power mobile phones.”

For reference, a NextOre on-conveyor system rated up to 5,000 t/h has around 30 kW of installed power. And conveyor systems above 5,000 t/h have 60 kW of installed power.

The idea is that this new MR truck sensor station would be positioned at an ex-pit scanning station to the side of the main haul road at a site and trucks will be directed to ore or waste as a result. The test rig constructed in NextOre’s facility has been built to suit the truck class of the initial customer, which is a major copper mine using 180-t-class and 140-t-class haul trucks.

The first prototype has now been built (as can be seen by the photo) and is awaiting of shipment to the mine where a one-year trial is set to commence.

While pursuing this development, NextOre has also been increasing the scale of its conveyor-based installations.

Around nine months ago, IM reported on a 2,800 t/h MR ore sorting installation at First Quantum Minerals’ Kansanshi copper mine in Zambia, which had just shifted from sensing to sorting with the commissioning of diversion hardware.

Now the company has an ore sensing installation up and running in Chile that has a capacity of 6,500 t/h – a little over 50% higher than the highest sensing rate (4,300 t/h) previously demonstrated by the company at Newcrest’s Cadia East mine in New South Wales, Australia.

Beal said the unit has been up and running since December, with the copper-focused client very happy with the results.

For those companies looking to test the waters of ore sorting and sensing, another big development coming out of NextOre in recent years has been the construction of a mobile bulk sorter.

Able to sort 100-400 t/h of material on a 900-mm-width conveyor belt while running at 0.3-1 m/s, these units – one of which has been operated in Australia – is able to compress the timeline normally associated with making a business case for ore sorting.

“As people can now hire such a machine, they are finding it either resolves a gap in proving out the technology or it can be used to solve urgent issues by providing an alternative source of process feed from historical dumps,” Beal said. “They want to bring a unit to site and, after an initial configuration period, get immediate results at what is a significant scale.”

Such testing has already taken place at Aeris Resources’ Tritton copper operations in New South Wales, where the unit took material on the first surface stockpile taken from an underground mine.

While this initial trial did not deliver the rejection rate anticipated by Aeris – due largely to rehandling of the material and, therefore, a reduction in ore heterogeneity ahead of feeding the conveyor – Aeris remains enthusiastic about the technology and Beal is expecting this unit to be redeployed shortly.

“We now know thanks to results from Kansanshi, Carmen Copper Corp/CD Processing, this new Chilean site and Cozamin (owned by Capstone Copper) that this in-situ grade variability can be preserved, and that mixing impacts directly on sorting performance,” Beal said. “Even so, we have seen really good heterogeneity persist in spite of the unavoidable levels of mixing inherent in mining.”

He concluded: “People want this type of equipment not in a year’s time, but next month. Capitalising the business to put more mobile units out in the world is a priority.”

First Quantum and AES sign renewable energy deal for Cobre Panama

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First Quantum Minerals’ majority-owned Cobre Panama operation has signed a long-term contract with AES Panama for the supply of renewable energy, starting in January 2024.

The agreement establishes that the energy supplied by the electricity generation company to the copper mine will be certified renewable energy from solar, wind and hydroelectric sources.

The CEO of First Quantum Minerals, Tristan Pascall (right), and the President of AES Panama, Miguel Bolinaga, gathered to sign the contract (pictured).

“As a responsible mining company, we recognise our obligation to contribute to the management and mitigation of climate change and part of our contribution is through a transition to clean energy sources in our operations, including Cobre Panamá,” Pascall said.

“The global need to accelerate the transition to the use of cleaner energy will require an increase in the production of minerals and metals, such as copper, used in solar panels, wind farms and electric vehicles. This agreement for the energy transition of our operations is also a logical step to increase the sustainability of our production.”

Miguel Bolinaga, President of AES Panama (left), said: “One of the main goals of AES at a global and local level is to lead the energy transition, which is why for us offering cleaner energy solutions to our clients is a priority.”

The Operations Superintendent of the Panama Copper Power Plant, Boris Batista, said the agreement with AES would cover the plant’s need for more power, and that all this additional power – 64 kW – would come from renewable energy sources.

Other steps would follow in the process of reducing carbon emissions at Cobre Panama. By 2025, 30% of the energy used in Cobre Panama’s operations is expected to come from renewable sources. For its part, the First Quantum Minerals group plans to reduce its carbon emissions in its global operations by 50% by 2030.

Metso Outotec to deliver world’s largest Premier grinding mills to Kansanshi copper mine

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First Quantum Minerals (FQM) has awarded an order to Metso Outotec for two very large horizontal grinding mills for the company’s copper mine expansion at Kansanshi in Zambia.

Metso Outotec’s delivery includes two Planet Positive Premier™ grinding mills with a total installed power of 50 MW – the largest Premier grinding mills Metso Outotec has delivered to date.

To meet the need for efficient and fast replacement of the lining systems, as well as ensuring a long wear life, the ball mill will be equipped with the Metso Outotec Megaliner™ and the SAG mill will be equipped with Metso Outotec metallic mill lining and a high-performance discharge system, it explained.

FQM’s Kansanshi mine, located near Solwezi in the North-western Province of Zambia, is among the largest copper mines in the world and the largest in Africa.

First Quantum Minerals is currently working on its further expansion (the Kansanshi S3 Expansion), which includes a standalone 25 Mt/y processing plant that will increase copper production substantially.

Once the expansion is completed, copper production from Kansanshi is expected to average approximately 250,000 t/y for the remaining life of mine to 2044.

The Premier horizontal grinding mills are customisable solutions built on state-of-the-art grinding mill technology, process expertise, and design capability, Metso Outotec says. The Premier horizontal grinding mills are engineered to “excel and create vast possibilities” for customers and applications.

Earlier this week, Metso Outotec was awarded what it says was a major contract for the delivery of sustainable crushing, screening and grinding technologies to a greenfield iron ore project in South America.

NextOre, First Quantum fully commission ‘world’s largest bulk ore sorting system’

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A 2,800 t/h MRA ore sorting installation at First Quantum Minerals’ Kansanshi copper mine in Zambia is now fully commissioned and using diversion hardware, Chris Beal, CEO of NextOre, told RFC Ambrian and Stonegate Capital Partners’ Copper Pathway to 2030 webinar on Tuesday.

Presenting alongside speakers from RFC Ambrian, Oroco Resource Corp and First Quantum Minerals, Beal revealed that the diversion process on what he said was the highest capacity bulk ore sorting operation in the world had now commenced, some 16-17 months after the magnetic resonance (MR) based system was installed and testing commenced.

“After a one year sensing-only trial, Kansanshi has now gone forward and commissioned and tested diverting hardware in May that has allowed them to fully transform into an inline bulk sorting system,” he said.

“With the validation of that having just gone by, this now represents the highest capacity sorting plant in the world.”

NextOre was originally formed in 2017 as a joint venture between CSIRO, RFC Ambrian and Worley, with its MR technology representing a leap forward in mineral sensing that, it said, provides accurate, whole-of-sample grade measurements.

Demonstrated at mining rates of 4,300 t/h, per conveyor belt, the technology comes with no material preparation requirement and provides grade estimates in seconds, NextOre claims. This helps deliver run of mine grade readings in seconds, providing “complete transparency” for tracking downstream processing and allowing operations to selectively reject waste material.

The installation at Kansanshi is positioned on the sulphide circuit’s 2,800 t/h primary crushed conveyor belt, with the system taking precise measurements every four seconds for tonnages in the region of 2.5 t to a precision of +/- 0.028%.

“Magnetic resonance technology, in particular, is very well suited to high throughput grade measurement – it is measuring all of the material that is going through,” Beal explained. “And these sensors like to be filled with more material.

“We hope to go larger from here. And we, in fact, have projects ongoing to do that.”

This wasn’t the only reveal Beal provided during the webinar, with the other announcement slightly smaller in scale, yet no less significant.

Seeking to address the lower end of the bulk ore sorting market, the company has come up with a mobile bulk sorting plant that is powered by MR sensors.

This solution, coming with a capacity of up to 400 t/h, has now found its way to Aeris Resources’ Murrawombie mine in New South Wales, Australia, where it is being used for a trial.

At Murrawombie, the setup sees an excavator feed a mobile crusher, with the crushed material then passed to the mobile ore sorting installation (the conveyor, the sensor, the diverter and supporting equipment). The system, according to Beal, provides bulk ore sorting results in a cost- and time-efficient manner.

It has been designed to suit small mines and those seeking to monetise historical dumps, or to provide a rapid test method for bulk sorting to support a potentially much larger bulk sorting plant, Beal explained.

The fully-diesel setup is destined for copper operations globally and potentially some iron ore mines, he added.

First Quantum board signs off development of Kansanshi S3 Expansion, Enterprise nickel project

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The First Quantum Minerals Ltd Board of Directors has signed off on the S3 Expansion at the Kansanshi mine and the Enterprise nickel project, both in Zambia.

The approval will lead to work on both projects starting immediately, with the company re-commencing detailed engineering works for the S3 Expansion to determine purchase orders for key long-lead items, including the SAG mill, ball mill and in-pit crushing station; and a mining contractor being mobilised for the Enterprise nickel project in order to commence pre-stripping of the pit in June 2022.

This could see Kansanshi’s life pushed out to 2044 with the introduction of new electrical loading and drilling equipment along with the extension of the current electric trolley assist infrastructure, with Enterprise contributing some 30,000 t/y of nickel concentrate in upcoming years.

“First Quantum has been working constructively with the Government of Zambia’s New Dawn administration as part of their efforts to reform the mining sector, attract investment and increase Zambia’s copper production,” Tristan Pascall, Chief Executive Officer, said. “The approval of the projects reflects First Quantum’s increased confidence in the investment climate in Zambia.”

The S3 Expansion and the Enterprise nickel project are a key part of the company’s brownfield growth strategy, according to Pascall.

“The Kansanshi mine has been a cornerstone asset for First Quantum for 15 years and the S3 Expansion will expand production and extend the mine life for another two decades,” he said. “The low-cost, high-grade Enterprise nickel project is well placed to supply the rapidly growing electric vehicle battery sector.

“The approval of these two projects is an important milestone for the company’s path towards responsible production growth of the metals needed for the global green energy transition.”

The approval of the projects follows the efforts of the New Dawn administration to enhance both the investment climate for mining and to seek commitments from the mining sector to contribute to the national economy and to corporate social responsibility, First Quantum says. These initiatives will help establish a platform for more stable, durable and responsible mining in Zambia.

The Government of Zambia’s commitments address the ease of doing business in Zambia, covering areas such as expediting immigration procedures in exchange for commitments for local employment levels, competitive pricing of power transmission and power procurement from independent sources which in turn will support renewable energy projects, and measures to ensure the ease of importing and exporting goods.

The approvals follow the re-introduction of the deductibility of mineral royalties for corporate income tax assessment purposes that became effective in January. This measure realigned Zambia with international best practice, according to First Quantum. The government’s commitment to improve the predictability of the mining fiscal regime also provides the certainty needed to support large capital investments in Zambia.

“Furthermore, First Quantum and the government have successfully resolved all points of contention that have been stumbling blocks to progress on the S3 Expansion and Enterprise nickel project,” it said. “This includes reaching agreement in respect to the outstanding value-added tax receivable sum and an approach for repayment based on offsets against future mining taxes and royalties.”

The S3 Expansion is expected to transition the current selective high-grade, medium-scale operation to a medium-grade, larger-scale mining operation that will be more appropriate for the higher proportion of primary, lower-grade sulphide ores at depth, First Quantum said. As outlined in the NI 43-101 Technical Report filed in September 2020, the S3 Expansion, when completed, will comprise of a standalone 25 Mt/y processing plant with a new larger mining fleet that will increase Kansanshi’s total annual throughput to 53 Mt/y.

Once the expansion is completed, copper production from Kansanshi is expected to average approximately 250,000 t/y for the remaining life of mine to 2044.

A significant portion of the initial construction works for the S3 Expansion have been previously undertaken with much of the civil and structural work on-site completed, First Quantum said. The remaining work includes completion of the remaining engineering design works, procurement and installation of equipment, electrics, controls and infrastructure. The S3 processing train will comprise of a 28 MW SAG mill and a 22 MW ball mill. The open-pit mine will be expanded to increase the supply of sulphide ore from the Main Pit and extend into the South East Dome deposit. The expanded mining fleet will use similar ultra-class equipment as First Quantum’s other key mines and will benefit from new electrical loading and drilling equipment along with the extension of the current electric trolley assist infrastructure, First Quantum said.

In parallel with the expansion of the mine and processing facilities, the company plans to increase the throughput capacity of the Kansanshi smelter from 1.38 Mt/y to 1.65 Mt/y of concentrate. This will enable the smelter to produce over 400,000 t/y of copper anode.

The total capital expenditures associated with the S3 Expansion is expected to be $1.25 billion, which includes $900 million on the S3 plant and mine fleet and $350 million for pre-stripping of the South East Dome pit. Approximately $800 million of this spending is included in the company’s current three-year guidance released on January 17, 2022, with the balance falling beyond the guidance period. First production from the S3 Expansion is expected in 2025.

The Enterprise nickel sulphide deposit is located 12 km northwest of the Sentinel copper mine. As outlined in the NI 43-101 Technical Report, filed in March 2020, proven and probable reserves at Enterprise total 34.7 Mt of ore at 0.99% Ni.

The Enterprise nickel project will consist of a single, main open pit and one extension to the southwest. It will use the existing 4 Mt/y nickel circuit that was previously built as part of the original Sentinel processing complex. The main workstream to bring the project online will be the pre-strip of waste. The development timeline for Enterprise is expected to be approximately 12 months. At full production, Enterprise is expected to produce an average of 30,000 t/y of nickel in high-grade concentrate.

The total capital expenditures associated with the Enterprise nickel project is expected to be approximately $100 million. Pre-stripping of the Enterprise pit of $60 million is included in the three-year guidance provided earlier this year along with $40 million related to infrastructure and plant commissioning. Expected first nickel production of 5,000-10,000 t of nickel in 2023 is included in the company’s three-year guidance.

Tristan Pascall to take the First Quantum reins in May 2022

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First Quantum Minerals has announced that its Board of Directors will appoint Tristan Pascall, currently the company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), to the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

The appointment will take effect at the Annual General Meeting to be held in early May 2022, at which time Philip Pascall (Tristan’s father), the company’s current Chairman and CEO, will retire from the CEO role and will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board. The company will nominate Tristan Pascall for election as a director at the AGM.

The appointment of Tristan Pascall represents the culmination of a succession planning process led by independent directors on the Board’s Nominating and Governance Committee, comprised of Robert Harding, Andrew Adams and Kathleen Hogenson.

Robert Harding, Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee and Lead Independent Director, said: “After a thorough search process, we are very pleased to appoint Tristan Pascall as First Quantum’s next Chief Executive Officer. Tristan has demonstrated impressive leadership in his current role as COO as he navigated the successful ramp-up of our largest asset through the challenging environment presented by the global pandemic.

“Tristan’s previous hands-on leadership experience of eight years in Zambia and four years in Panama has given him a deep knowledge of our assets, operating teams and local partners. His practical, on-the-ground experience with our people and projects, combined with lessons learned from the countries where we operate, embodies the company’s culture and makes Tristan the right leader for First Quantum.

“We believe Tristan’s combination of operational, strategic and capital markets experience, as well as the strong stakeholder relationships he has developed, are fundamental to the continuity of our unique core capabilities, namely industry-leading project execution and operational excellence.”

Tristan Pascall joined First Quantum in 2007 and held progressively senior operational roles in Africa and Latin America until 2020 when he served as Director of Strategy and later became Chief Operating Officer in January 2021. Prior to assuming his executive leadership roles, he was a key member of the teams that delivered on several major greenfield and expansion mining projects which now collectively represent most of the company’s net asset value, FQM said. His responsibilities from 2009 to 2015 included the initial development, construction and operating the Sentinel mine in Zambia. Starting in 2015, he led the development of the Cobre Panama mine (pictured), now the company’s largest copper mine with the world’s largest single-throughput copper concentrator plant, and built the operations team which now stands at more than 5,000 people.

Prior to joining First Quantum, Tristan spent eight years in corporate finance and investment banking with a focus on resources and heavy industry in Australia, Europe and Asia.

Tristan Pascall said: “I am very excited to continue to build upon the momentum we have established at First Quantum. It is deeply humbling to be selected to lead such a highly talented team, all of whom have contributed to establishing a unique entrepreneurial culture. As we enter our next stage of growth, I look forward to building on First Quantum’s accomplishments of the past two decades.”

Philip Pascall co-founded First Quantum Minerals in 1996 and has served as its CEO and Chairman ever since. He retires as one of the longest-serving CEOs among the world’s major mining companies. Over the course of his stewardship, the company has grown from the construction of the Bwana Mkubwa project in Zambia designed for 10,000 t/y of copper production, to become the world’s sixth largest copper producer. First Quantum has operations on five continents, employing more than 20,000 people and producing over 800,000 tonnes of copper annually.

Harding said: “On behalf of the entire company, I would like to thank Philip for his extraordinary leadership. Over the span of a quarter century as CEO, Philip has demonstrated a capacity to solve problems others could not and to bring unique solutions to complex project issues. The Board believes his ongoing involvement as Chairman will be a significant competitive advantage and form a uniquely complementary combination with Tristan’s hands-on, collaborative leadership style.”

NextOre’s magnetic resonance tech up and running at First Quantum’s Kansanshi

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Australia-based NextOre is onto another ore sorting assignment with its magnetic resonance (MR) sensing technology, this time in Zambia at First Quantum Minerals’ Kansanshi copper mine.

NextOre was originally formed in 2017 as a joint venture between CSIRO, RFC Ambrian and Worley, with its MR technology representing a leap forward in mineral sensing that provides accurate, whole-of-sample grade measurements, it says.

Demonstrated at mining rates of 4,300 t/h, per conveyor belt, the technology comes with no material preparation requirement and provides grade estimates in seconds, NextOre claims. This helps deliver run of mine grade readings in seconds, providing “complete transparency” for tracking downstream processing and allowing operations to selectively reject waste material.

Having initially successfully tested its magnetic resonance analysers (MRAs) at Newcrest’s Cadia East mine in New South Wales, Australia, the company has gone onto test and trial the innovation across the Americas and Asia.

More recently, it set up camp in Africa at First Quantum Minerals’ Kansanshi copper mine where it is hoping to show off the benefits of the technology in a trial.

The MRA in question was installed in January on the sulphide circuit’s 2,800 t/h primary crushed conveyor at Kansanshi, with the installation carried out with remote assistance due to COVID-19 restrictions on site.

Anthony Mukutuma, General Manager at First Quantum’s Kansanshi Mine in the Northwestern Province of Zambia, said the operation was exploring the use of MRAs for online ore grade analysis and subsequent possible sorting to mitigate the impacts of mining a complex vein-type orebody with highly variating grades.

“The installation on the 2,800 t/h conveyor is a trial to test the efficacy of the technology and consider engineering options for physical sorting of ore prior to milling,” he told IM.

Chris Beal, NextOre CEO, echoed Mukutuma’s words on grade variation, saying daily average grades at Kansanshi were on par with what the company might see in a bulk underground mine, but when NextOre looked at each individual measurement – with each four seconds representing about 2.5 t – it was seeing some “higher grades worthy of further investigation”.

“The local geology gives it excellent characteristics for the application of very fast measurements for bulk ore sorting,” he told IM.

Mukutuma said the initial aim of the trial – to validate the accuracy and precision of the MRA scanner – was progressing to plan.

“The next phase of the project is to determine options for the MRA scanner to add value to the overall front end of processing,” he said.

Beal was keen to point out that the MRA scanner setup at Kansanshi was not that much different to the others NextOre had operating – with the analyser still measuring copper in the chalcopyrite mineral phase – but the remote installation process was very different.

“Despite being carried out remotely, this installation went smoother than even some where we had a significant on-site presence,” he said. “A great deal of that smoothness can be attributed to the high competency of the Kansanshi team. Of course, our own team, including the sensing and sorting team at CSIRO, put in a huge effort to quickly pivot from the standard installation process, and also deserve a great deal of credit.”

Beal said the Kansanshi team were supplied with all the conventional technical details one would expect – mechanical drawings, assembly drawings, comprehensive commissioning instructions and animations showing assembly.

To complement that, the NextOre team made use of both the in-built remote diagnostic systems standard in each MRA and several remote scientific instruments, plus a Trimble XR10 HoloLens “mixed-reality solution” that, according to Trimble, helps workers visualise 3D data on project sites.

“The NextOre and CSIRO teams were on-line on video calls with the Kansanshi teams each day supervising the installation, monitoring the outputs of the analyser and providing supervision in real time,” Beal said. He said the Kansanshi team had the unit installed comfortably within the planned 12-hour shutdown window.

By the second week of February the analyser had more than 90% availability, Beal said in early April.

He concluded on the Kansanshi installation: “There is no question that we will use the remote systems developed during this project in each project going ahead, but, when it is at all possible, we will always have NextOre representatives on site during the installation process. This installation went very smoothly but we cannot always count on that being the case. And there are other benefits to having someone on site that you just cannot get without being there.

“That said, in the future, we expect that a relatively higher proportion of support and supervision can be done through these remote systems. More than anything, this will allow us to more quickly respond to events on site and to keep the equipment working reliably.”