Tag Archives: IGO Ltd

Barminco to drive underground exploration plan at Spartan’s Dalgaranga gold project

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

Perenti Limited says its Barminco business has been awarded a new development contract with Spartan Resources Ltd and extensions to four existing projects.

The scope of the Spartan Resources contract includes the construction of an underground exploration drill drive at the Dalgaranga gold project in the Murchison region of Western Australia. The drive has been designed to run in parallel and adjacent to the mineralised gold zones of Never Never, Pepper, Four Pillars and West Winds, to facilitate underground exploration and subsequently support future production plans.

Construction of the drive is due to start in the current quarter and is expected to take 10 months to complete. It will use a combination of existing capital equipment and an additional A$5 million ($3.3 million) of new growth capital.

The Dalgaranga project includes a fully-developed gold mining operation (currently on care and maintenance) and an extensive exploration landholding with outstanding opportunities for new discoveries, Spartan says. The open-pit mine was initially commissioned in 2018 and comprises a fully established gold mine, circa-2.5 Mt/y carbon-in-leach processing facility, modern camp accommodation and air strip. Dalgaranga produced 71,153 oz of gold for the 2022 financial year before being placed on care and maintenance in November 2022 to facilitate the implementation of a new strategic operating plan and a financial restructure. It was previously mined by NRW Holdings under an arrangement with mine owner Gascoyne Resources.

In February 2022, Spartan announced the details of a new 18-month exploration and strategic plan, underpinned by the Never Never gold deposit, targeting:

  • A -plus-300,000 oz reserve at a grade exceeding 4 g/t at Never Never;
  • A plus-600,000 oz resource at a grade exceeding 5 g/t at Never Never; and
  • The development of a five-year mine plan aimed at delivering 130-150,000 oz/y.

In addition to the Dalgaranga project, Perenti says extensions to contracts have also been signed for the following project:

  •  Siou and Wona underground at the Mana gold mine for Endeavour Mining plc in Burkina Faso;
  • An existing copper and gold underground mining project in Canada;
  • Spotted Quoll nickel mine for IGO Ltd in Australia;
  • Mt Colin copper mine for Aeris Resources Ltd in Australia.

In combination, these projects are expected to contribute approximately A$160 million of revenue to FY25. The project extensions do not require new growth capital, Perenti says.

Mark Norwell, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Perenti said “The greenfield underground at Dalgaranga project is an exciting opportunity. The resource has the potential to grow into a high-grade gold mine
and we look forward to supporting Spartan Resources to achieve their targets during the months ahead.

“In addition, the four contract extensions are another example of the 90%+-plus success rate the Contract Mining division has in extending and renewing contracts. Maintaining client relationships is critical to our long-term success, so we always strive to find ways to deliver value to our clients when possible.”

Gabrielle Iwanow, President of Contract Mining at Perenti, said: “We are pleased to be working with Spartan Resources on the new underground Dalgaranga gold project in Western Australia. Barminco has a long history of working with Western Australian gold producers and we look forward to building an excellent relationship with their team as they advance towards production.

Electric mine study points to the future, says IGO’s Carr

Environmental, Mine operation news, Mine ventilation, Mining equipment, Mining events, Mining safety, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , ,

Planned electrification of the Cosmos underground nickel mine in Western Australia had no bearing on owner IGO’s decision earlier this year to shelve redevelopment due to low metal prices and project cost escalation, The Electric Mine 2024 heard this week.

Acting COO of the diversified Australian miner, Chris Carr, said at the conference in Perth a study on the economic feasibility of switching from diesel equipment to battery-electric that ‘presented a compelling case to us’ for electrification highlighted current challenges and opportunities in the industry’s push to transition to new generation mobile equipment.

In parallel with the electrification study by mining contractor Perenti and engineering major ABB, IGO completed a project review that cut Cosmos’ expected mine life and pushed up capital and operating costs. Lower nickel prices have negatively impacted most Western Australian sulphide nickel mines.

IGO put Cosmos into care and maintenance at the start of 2024. “Electrification was not a factor in that decision,” Carr said at the The Electric Mine 2024, hosted by International Mining Events. “But electrification will be considered in any future Cosmos operation.”

A whitepaper summarising the study results was posted this week by IGO. ‘Making electrified underground mining a reality: Lessons from the Cosmos Electrification Study’ concluded replacing diesel underground mining vehicles with a battery-electric fleet was now technically feasible and will increasingly be a key technological enabler for mining companies to achieve their decarbonisation goals.”

Perenti and ABB said a combination of actual and projected battery-electric vehicle cost and performance data indicated BEV fleet available to the Australian market could match the productivity of mature diesel equipment.

They also found estimated costs to electrify Cosmos’ modest underground fleet was not prohibitive over the planned mine life, ‘even based on conservative productivity and cost assumptions.’ IGO wasn’t going to obtain full benefits from optimised ventilation and other infrastructure design due to sunk investment in the mine prior to its acquisition of the asset in 2022, Carr said.

The study identified gaps in available BEV operating and maintenance direct and indirect cost data due to the formative stage of equipment, battery, charging and support system development relative to entrenched diesel models.

It also highlighted significantly longer delivery times for battery-electric equipment than diesel models. “We hope this is not prioritising diesel units to make more money Carr said. “This is slowing adoption.” However, Carr said at the conference none of this would stop the march of EVs into traditional diesel territory.

The improving cost profile of EVs and the market pull created by industry decarbonisation goals were not the only drivers.”In five-to-10 years we’ll all be electric and be wondering what all the fuss was about. The cost differential of an all-electric mine presented a compelling case to us. We also believe the decision to electrify should include the safety case and the harder to quantify but nevertheless real benefits of the ESG case. The decision to electrify should be made on the combined basis of safety, ESG and economics. The economics is the hardest one right now. But safety ought to be enough on its own.”

Stricter standards for airborne diesel particulate matter (DPM) emissions in Australia and elsewhere would ‘push electrification a lot harder,’ Carr said.

MasterMined Innovation CEO, Tony Sprague, told The Electric Mine 2024 DPM, and specifically nano-DPM, was ‘the elephant in the room’ and the ‘real driver of getting diesel out of the underground mine and to achieve the electric mine.’ Sprague, the former Group Manager of Directional Studies and Innovation with gold major Newcrest, said modern underground mine equipment diesel particulate filters regenerated carcinogenic nano-DPM in underground work environments.

“It can’t easily be measured…but we do know it’s more easily absorbed into the human body, through the skin, through the lungs, and it’s recirculated through the body, through the blood, and it impacts the body on a cellular level. Really we’re flying blind when it comes to the hazard of DPM and nano-DPM. There is a new [emission] target that is coming from Safe Work Australia that is not far away. When it’s going to land we’re not too sure, but if it does land it’s going to be very problematic for the industry.”

This story was written by Richard Roberts of InvestMETS, one of The Electric Mine 2024 Supporting Partners

Barminco acquires two battery-electric Integrated Tool Carriers from BME

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As part of its commitment to investigate opportunities to accelerate decarbonisation, Barminco has invested in two battery-electric Volvo L120H Integrated Tool Carriers from Batt Mobile Equipment (BME), with the mining services provider set to deploy the machines later this month at IGO Ltd’s Nova and Cosmos mine sites in Western Australia.

The machines were provided by New South Wales-based BME, which has developed this battery-electric retrofit platform on the back of the TRITEV project, an initiative developed under Project EVmine with the help of METS Ignited.

The BME220 is a 20 t Integrated Tool Carrier battery-electric retrofit system that replaces diesel components in favour of an electric motor and battery pack. The resulting machine eliminates emissions, handles well, and maintains the same weight and capacity, according to Barminco. New South Wales-based 3ME provides BME with the Electric Vehicle Engine packages for these vehicles.

BME estimates its generation 3 machines will save over 81 t of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, when compared with the diesel equivalent.

The BME220s form part of Barminco’s electric vehicle trials that are taking place in partnership with IGO over the following six months.

The Electric Mine Consortium and EPCA to run Cat 777 electric truck trial

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The Electric Mine Consortium is looking to bridge the gap between the testing of electrified ultra-class haul trucks and continued rollout across industry of battery-electric underground trucks with a project to develop and trial a retrofitted 100-ton (91 t) haul truck as part of its consortium work in Australia.

It has teamed up with Electric Power Conversions Australia (EPCA), an Indigenous electric battery conversion company in Australia, to run a Caterpillar 777 haul truck electric vehicle demonstrator project.

The consortium explained: “The Electric Mine Consortium are focused across all fleet sizes when it comes to electrification. In our recent work, we have uncovered that in the area of larger surface in-pit trucks, there are some trials underway, however there is a lack of focus on the smaller trucks. Making sure we understand and trial electric technologies in smaller fleets is important to our members, and we were recently presented with an opportunity to do so by Electric Power Conversions Australia, an Indigenous electric battery conversion company in Australia.”

The conversion of the vehicle – one of the most commonly used surface trucks across the Tier 2 and Tier 3 mining company market, according to the consortium – will see the 750 kW diesel motor switched out with a 1,000 kW electric motor and 2 MWh of batteries, according to Clayton Franklin, founder and CEO of EPCA.

Franklin said he was expecting this configuration to allow for an eight-hour average run time, providing 30% more power than the diesel equivalent and the ability to move material quicker. He also predicted a 50% reduction in total cost of ownership on the battery-converted truck when compared with the diesel truck.

EPCA was founded in 2021 with the vision of providing a practical solution to the growing environmental impact of the Australian mining industry. Franklin himself was the lead engineer on a 220-t hydrogen-battery hybrid mining truck and also for an Epiroc D65 drill rig that was electrified.

The Electric Mine Consortium is a growing group of leading mining and service companies. These companies are driven by the imperative to accelerate progress towards the fully electrified zero CO2 and zero particulates mine. Mining companies Gold Fields, South32, OZ Minerals, IGO Ltd, Evolution Mining, Iluka Resources, MMG and Sandfire Resources are among the participants.

In the short time since the establishment, the consortium’s membership has grown almost two-fold, with over 40 ongoing equipment trials in 15 different locations having been mobilised.

IGO awards Cosmos electrification study to Perenti, ABB collaboration

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Perenti and ABB, in collaboration, have been awarded an inaugural contract by IGO Ltd to undertake a study for the full underground electrification of IGO’s Cosmos Nickel Project in Western Australia.

The electrification study is a significant step in IGO’s commitment to continuously improving its sustainability performance by trialling new technologies and decarbonising its operations, helping to create a green energy future, it said.

In November 2022, Perenti signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with global technology company ABB to collaborate to develop a service offering that combines Perenti’s mining expertise and technical capability with ABB’s electrical and technological expertise.

The study will see experts from Perenti and ABB work side by side with IGO to provide a pathway for the optimum design of mine electrification at Cosmos. All aspects of electrification will be considered in the study including:

• Mine design optimisation for electric operations
• Production and operating philosophy
• Fleet selection
• Power distribution and electrical infrastructure design
• Electrification system and battery management
• ESG and safety impact analysis, and
• Cost modelling of both Capex and Opex.

“At IGO we believe in a green energy future, and that extends to our underground mining operations where the electrification of our fleets will create a safer, greener, and more productive operation. We are excited about this future and our collaboration with Perenti and ABB to make this a reality,” Chris Carr, IGO Head of Technical Services, said.

“Valuing the environment and enabling the energy transition is one of Perenti’s three key sustainability imperatives and this study demonstrates the capabilities of our electrification collaboration with ABB,” Raj Ratneser, Executive Sponsor of Decarbonisation at Perenti, added.

“Decarbonisation and electrification are critical to the future of mining, and we are privileged to be working with our client IGO on this pioneering study.”

“Congratulations to IGO on taking on such an ambitious project, which combined with their renewable power project will largely decarbonise their Cosmos mining operations,” Max Luedtke, Vice President and Business Line Mining Manager, ABB, said.

“The progress between ABB and Perenti is advancing every day and this study is an ideal opportunity to advance our efforts and collectively drive towards providing electric solutions that effectively decarbonise the mining industry.

“At ABB, we take pride in sharing our eMineTM approach for electrification and automation, spanning from pit to port, through such effective collaborations within the industry.”