Tag Archives: Gabrielle Iwanow

Perenti banks ~A$420M of contract works with Gold Fields, AngloGold and Roxgold

Perenti Limited’s underground mining businesses have been awarded contract extensions valued at circa-A$420 million ($276 million), in three separate projects across Australia and Africa, the company says.

The contract extensions include:

  • A 12-month, circa A$125 million contract extension to continue underground development and production works at the Gold Fields Agnew underground gold mine in Autsralia;
  • A 12-month, circa-A$180 million contract extension at AngloGold Ashanti plc’s Obuasi underground gold mine in Ghana; and
  • A two-year, circa-A$115 million contract extension of existing underground development and production works at the Roxgold Inc Yaramoko underground gold mine in Burkina Faso.

Mark Norwell, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Perenti said: “We pride ourselves on our enduring relationships, so we are especially pleased to be continuing our relationship with these long-term clients. Our Contract Mining division is now led by Gabrielle Iwanow and will continue to focus on safely delivering for our clients and on our strategic objectives. I look forward to providing an update on the business, including the excellent progress we have made on the integration of DDH1, as part of our 1H23 results which will be released to the market in February.”

Gabrielle Iwanow, President Contract Mining, said: “In my first few weeks at Perenti, I have been very impressed with the team’s technical capability and the operational performance that they deliver to our clients. I believe that it is these factors that underpin the strength and depth of our relationships.

“With these contract awards combined with those previously announced, namely circa-A$360 million related to the Sandfire Resources A4 project in Botswana and a further A$111 million related to three Australian surface and underground contract awards, the team has secured nearly A$900 million of revenue for the business. I am very proud to be leading and supporting the Contract Mining team as we collectively work towards delivering our 2025 strategic objectives.”

Gabrielle Iwanow to head up Perenti’s Contract Mining Division

Gabrielle Iwanow has been appointed President of Perenti’s Contract Mining Division, replacing Paul Muller, who will be taking up a new role within the Perenti Group Executive Committee, following a short period of study leave between January and May 2024.

Iwanow is, Perenti says, one of Australia’s leading mining executives with extensive experience working at senior operational and executive levels within the resources sector.

She was also named as one of the Top-100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining in 2020. Her career includes time in senior management positions at ASX 100 listed mining companies OZ Minerals and Rio Tinto, and most recently she was the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Mincor Resources.

Mark Norwell, Perenti Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, said: “A key strategic focus for the group is managing and developing our senior talent across the organisation, ensuring we have robust succession plans in place and continue building capability and capacity within our senior leader cohort, including within the Group Executive Committee.

“Gabrielle’s addition to our Group Executive Committee provides the business with additional depth in talent as we continue to build on our record finanicial year 2023 financial results, transformative acquisition of DDH1, ongoing execution of our 2025 strategy and development of our 2030 strategy.

“I would like to welcome Gabrielle to Perenti and thank Paul for his ongoing contribution to Perenti. This is an exciting time for the business as we continue to deliver on our purpose of creating enduring value and certainty for our clients, investors, our people and the communities in which we operate.”

Byrnecut, OZ Minerals and Sandvik achieve teleremote drilling first

Contract miner Byrnecut Australia has become the first underground operator in the world to successfully use a new automation and teleremote package for Sandvik development drills.

Byrnecut introduced a Sandvik DD422i development drill featuring the package to OZ Minerals’ Prominent Hill gold-copper mine, southeast of Coober Pedy, South Australia, in March.

With COVID-19 travel restrictions preventing Sandvik staff from attending site, Byrnecut, OZ Minerals and Sandvik experts collaborated via phone, teleconference and email to complete remote commissioning of the rig.

The two-boom rig, which can be monitored and controlled from the surface and features a sophisticated boom-collision-avoidance system, has now been in operation for three weeks, according to the companies.

Byrnecut Australia Managing Director, Pat Boniwell, says the new automation features allow for enhanced drill operation across shift changes – a period when, historically, development drilling has stopped or been significantly reduced.

“We’re conservatively looking at a 10% increase in productivity with this machine through being able to drill extra holes and the machine being used more consistently,” he said. “It picks up on the deadtime, and if it does stop for any reason we’re able to remotely reset it.”

The new boom collision avoidance system means both of the rig’s drill booms can be left in operation during shift change – something that was previously not possible. In the first few weeks of operation, the drill has been able to drill 60-70 holes while being operated autonomously and remotely from surface, the companies said.

General Manager of OZ Minerals Prominent Hill operations, Gabrielle Iwanow, says when Byrnecut approached her about trialling the upgraded development drill, she was immediately interested.

“OZ Minerals is a modern mining company,” she said. “We’re interested in innovation and looking for safer, faster, and more efficient ways of doing our work.”

Iwanow said the commissioning of the drill in such trying times is a true credit to all those involved and the positive working relationship between OZ Minerals, Byrnecut and Sandvik.

Byrnecut Drill Master, Noah Wilkinson, says a solid working relationship with Sandvik and good communication contributed to the success of the commissioning.

“People from the Sandvik factory in Finland were able to remote into the machine over the internet and adjust settings that were stopping some of the functions from working,” he explained.

Sandvik’s Global Account Manager for Byrnecut, Andrew Atkinson, paid credit to Byrnecut’s openness to adopting autonomous technologies in areas including development drilling, loader operation, production drilling and ore trucks, which are all engineered for compatibility with Sandvik’s AutoMine® and OptiMine® products.

In addition to the collision avoidance and teleremote capabilities of the DD422i, the new automation package allows for semi-autonomous bit changing.

Another handy feature of the setup during the current period of social distancing has been the virtual network computing capability that allows the control panel of the drill to be viewed remotely on a tablet. This means that during operator training, the instructor need not be in the cabin with the operator.