Tag Archives: infrastructure

John Holland keeps Rio Tinto and Fortescue iron ore projects on track

Infrastructure and rail specialist, John Holland, is currently mobilising advanced specialist railway fleet to carry out maintenance and service support across the Western Australia rail network.

The mass assembly of equipment involves the refurbishment and service of multi-million dollar machinery at John Holland’s Welshpool Plant Operations Centre including Tampers, Regulators, Mobile Flashbutt welders and the New Track Construction Machine (NTC, pictured).

In August, this specialised rail construction equipment will be shipped to the Pilbara for projects owned by Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group. John Holland still maintains a significant rail specialised plant presence at its South West based operations, including a maintenance contract with the Public Transport Authority and project works with Arc Infrastructure, the company said.

“As it’s only used every few years, there’s always a buzz with rail enthusiasts when the NTC is unpacked from storage,” John Holland Plant Operations Manager, Anne Williams (also pictured), said. “It was most recently used to lay 350 km of railway at Roy Hill and, prior to that, it was used in the construction of the Perth to Mandurah Rail Line.”

John Holland Plant Services has been in operating in Western Australia for 22 years and at the current Welshpool location for six years. According to Williams, her local team of 26 are proud to do their bit in supporting the Australian economy.

“John Holland own the largest privately owned specialist railways maintenance fleet in Australia, which includes fully equipped service vehicles. We also manufacture and carry out modification of specialised rail track machines,” she said.

“It’s well known that Western Australia’s mining industry is playing a significant role in the economy and our role is to provide this industry with much-needed infrastructure to keep it moving forward.”

Valmec extends stay at Tanami expansion project

Valmec has been awarded A$23 million ($14.9 million) worth of new projects across Australia, including another works package from Newmont for its Tanami gold mine in the Northern Territory.

The contract with Newmont Mining Services Pty is for an additional package of infrastructure works at the Tanami Expansion 2 (TE2) project, Valmec said.

The energy services company was awarded the original A$6 million TE2 contract back in June 2019, with the majority of the works expected to be completed by November 2019.

Newmont’s board signed off on the TE2 project in October 2019. The project is expected to exceed the company’s required internal rate of return with profitable production and mine life extending beyond 2040. The expansion includes construction of a 1,460 m shaft, additional capacity in the processing plant, and supporting infrastructure to enable profitable recovery of ore at a depth of 2,140 m below surface.

Valmec, meanwhile, said the group’s current order book totalling circa-A$65 million remains “robust”, with several larger upstream energy and infrastructure projects also expected to be committed before June 30, 2020.

Valmec’s Managing Director, Steve Dropulich, said: “Together with Valmec’s current suite of services in onshore gas infrastructure, our latest awarded projects and service contracts are testament to the resilience of our market offerings, even within these challenging COVID-19 economic conditions.”

Canada, NWT governments invest in Slave Geological Province access

The Government of Canada, this week, announced it would invest C$5.1 million ($3.8 million) in two projects to support resource development in the Slave Geological Province (SGP) of the Northwest Territories (NWT).

Paul Lefebvre, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources, on behalf of Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for CanNor, was joined by Wally Schumann, GNWT Minister of Infrastructure and Industry, Tourism and Investment, to make the announcement this week during the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada annual convention, in Toronto.

Funding will go towards the planning of an all-season access corridor into the SGP as well as aerial geophysical surveys of the region, the government said. “The surveys will lead to the development of mapping products used by mineral exploration companies to target their activity,” it added.

Bains said: “Knowing where mineral deposits exist and being able to access them is the first step in attracting investment and growing the resource development sector. We know that similar projects in NWT in the past have led to significant economic development activity. These projects are building on that success.

“The Government of Canada is committed to the creation of more good jobs, more economic growth and long-term sustainable development in the North.”

CanNor is investing C$2.7 million in a two-year SGP access corridor project, with a further C$678,000 investment from the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Infrastructure. Total funding for this project is almost C$3.4 million.

CanNor, meanwhile, is investing C$2.4 million in a two-year project to develop exploration in the region, with a further C$280,000 commitment from the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, and C$749,000 from industry partners. Total funding for this project is C$3.43 million.

The SGP has significant untapped mineral potential including several defined large base metal deposits (eg IZOK – 15 Mt and Hackett River – 82 Mt) and hundreds of base metal and gold showings (372 along current proposed route alone), according to the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Three diamond mines (Ekati, Diavik and Gahcho Kué) produced 20 Mct, C$2 billion in revenue and employed over 3,000 people (FTE) in 2017 and contribute C$1.1 billion to GDP directly, representing 28% of the NWT economy, the government added.