Tag Archives: Iron ore

Decmil wins A$61 million Marble Bar Road upgrade works from HanRoy

Mining maintenance, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , ,

Macmahon Holdings Limited subsidiary, Decmil, has been awarded the A$61 million ($42 million) Marble Bar Road Upgrade project in Western Australia.

Decmil received a notice of award from HanRoy Iron Ore Projects Pty Ltd (HanRoy) for approximately 23 km of road construction upgrade works to Main Roads Western Australia standards on Marble Bar Road. Works are expected to commence in October 2024.

HanRoy is part of Hancock Prospecting, which is currently developing the McPhee iron ore project in the northeast Pilbara region of Western Australia, some 100 km north of Roy Hill Mine and 30 km north of Nullagine, with an expected production rate of approximately 9.5-9.7 Mt/y (wet). Primary crushed ore will be hauled via road train from McPhee to Roy Hill for processing, transport to the port and shipping. The Marble Bar Road is part of this route.

MacMahon CEO and Managing Director, Michael Finnegan, said: “I am pleased to see Decmil continue their great start of securing new, strategically aligned work. We look forward to delivering the Marble Bar Road upgrade project and continuing to build our relationship with HanRoy.”

LKAB selects Hardox 600 for wear steel at iron ore operations

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Looking at a typical mining site, wear steel is used as liners in hoppers, feeders and chutes, as well as for hammers in crushers or in screens for sorting.

Hardox® 600 is, SSAB says, a wear steel that performs well across a surprisingly wide range of abrasive materials, operating requirements and types of equipment, including for iron ore miner LKAB.

Hardox 600 has a nominal hardness of 600 HBW. Despite its hardness, it has a toughness that is rare for such a hard wear steel, according to the company. This gives it outstanding wear resistance, while enabling it to resist impact damage from rocks and other heavy loads. It is also through-hardened, with a minimum core hardness of 90% of the guaranteed minimum surface hardness.

As a major iron ore company, LKAB can’t afford any loss in productivity. Unscheduled downtime can severely impact throughput and, in turn, financial performance. It ships around 30 Mt of iron ore each year from its harbour in Narvik, above the Arctic Circle in Norway.

When LKAB started to experience too many unplanned shutdowns – and unwanted associated costs – it looked for a more durable wear steel for its skips and chutes. That’s why it chose Hardox 600, one of the hardest grades of Hardox steel. Before its decision, LKAB collaborated with SSAB on a performance optimisation project, which ultimately gave it the green light to go ahead with Hardox 600.

Due to the many factors influencing wear life in mining operations, SSAB says it always recommend a thorough assessment by wear specialists. For LKAB, a 600 HBW steel was the best choice. In most wear situations, there is a sweet spot where the wear rate drops significantly if the steel’s hardness is high enough relative to the severity of the abrasive material.

Rio Tinto ships four billionth tonne of iron ore to China

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Rio Tinto has today celebrated the shipment of 4 billion tonnes of iron ore from the Pilbara in Western Australia to China.

The shipment was loaded at Dampier Port on July 19, bound for China Baowu Steel Group, the world’s top steel producer by output. This milestone comes 51 years after the first shipment of almost 22,000 t of Pilbara iron ore was sent from Dampier Port to China’s Shanghai No.1 Steel Mill, which has since become part of China Baowu.

Over more than half a century, China has grown to become Rio Tinto’s largest customer with about 250 Mt/y of iron ore shipped.

Four billion tonnes is enough iron ore to produce the steel needed for about 45,000 Sydney Harbour Bridges, or more than 23,000 Beijing National Stadiums (Bird’s Nest), Rio Tinto says.

Rio Tinto partnered with China for the country’s first ever investment in a foreign mining project, and its largest ever foreign investment at the time, by forming the Channar joint venture in 1987. That jv in Western Australia laid the foundation for many projects to follow, and for decades of mutual growth and prosperity between Rio Tinto, China and Australia, the company says.

Western Range, Rio Tinto’s newest mine, is the latest joint venture partnership with China Baowu. Production from the mine is expected to commence in 2025, with an annual capacity of 25 Mt of iron ore.

Rio Tinto Iron Ore Chief Executive, Simon Trott, said: “China has been a critical partner for Rio Tinto and for Australia’s mining industry for more than five decades. China’s strong demand for high-quality minerals such as iron ore has generated substantial opportunities for investment and trade between the two countries.

“Every time I visit China and see the skyscrapers, the high-speed rail, and all the infrastructure that has helped improve the lives of 1.4 billion people, it makes me proud to think that most of what I see contains steel that was made with Rio Tinto iron ore.

“We look forward to continuing our relationship with China well into the future as we continue to deepen our strategic partnership.”

Rio Tinto to invest A$8 million in Pilbara conservation programs

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

Rio Tinto says it will invest A$8 million ($5.3 million) over five years in a partnership with Western Australia’s Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) on a new project to enhance conservation land management and support Traditional Owner ranger programs in Karijini and Millstream Chichester National Parks.

The Pilbara Conservation Project will protect areas of high conservation value and integrate Traditional Owners’ knowledge of the land into conservation land management. This includes weed management, feral animal control and bushfire management at Karijini, Millstream Chichester and other high conservation value Pilbara sites, through implementation of the Pilbara Conservation Strategy.

The project will also support ranger training and fee for service work for Aboriginal Ranger Groups.

Rio Tinto, DBCA and Traditional Owners have been partnering to protect the Karijini and Millstream Chichester National Parks since 2015.

The new project adds to a range of partnerships Rio Tinto has with Traditional Owners to support Aboriginal Ranger Programs in the Pilbara, including the Pilbara Ranger Network and partnerships with Aboriginal Corporations to deliver various ranger programs.

Rio Tinto Vice President, Health, Safety, Environment & Communities, Cecile Thaxter, said: “This project will enable DBCA and Traditional Owners to continue caring for Country and importantly put Traditional Owner knowledge at the heart of conservation management for this environmentally, culturally and economically significant region.

“Maintaining Pilbara biodiversity is critical not only for our business today but also for future generations within the region, and we recognise our responsibility to understand and effectively mitigate our impacts on nature through collaborative partnerships.

“Partnerships like the Pilbara Conservation Project are crucial to delivering nature-positive outcomes, with collaboration, resource sharing, innovation, local engagement and collective effort needed to address the complex challenges with environmental conservation and restoration.”

Western Australian Environment Minister, Reece Whitby MLA, said: “Conservation is a shared responsibility, and this new partnership demonstrates how Government, industry and Traditional Owners can work together to manage biodiversity values through practical on-ground actions.

“The Pilbara is a special place – its habitat is home to some species of animals and plants you can’t find anywhere else in the world.

“Karijini National Park is the Pilbara’s key tourist attraction, with over 300,000 visitors annually. This project will do wonders for its conservation into the future.”

FLSmidth wins multi-year contract to service HPGRs at Chile mines

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A leading Chile-based iron ore miner has awarded FLSmidth with a multiple year contract to service its five high pressure grinding rolls (HPGRs) across three of its mines in Chile, with the key focus for the customer to enhance productivity and extend the lifetime of its HPGRs.

HPGRs are subject to significant wear and tear. Consequently, keeping them in operation is key to securing a mine’s productivity and throughput as well as reducing customers’ operational costs. To facilitate to this, having a strong service setup around HPGRs is paramount.

The new service order on these five HPGRs, which originally have been installed by another equipment provider, proves that FLSmidth’s HPGR service offerings are among the most attractive in the market, the company says. All assembly works as well as repairs on shafts are included in the contract.

The service contract will be managed and executed by FLSmidth’s Chilean service centre, which is in close proximity to the three mines, thereby reducing logistic costs to customer and providing best in class services, it added. FLSmidth’s service centre is fully equipped to manufacture large HPGR parts and allows all work to be performed in a clean environment and using best in class tools.

Prior to winning this new service contract, FLSmidth has previously delivered HPGR roll tyres to the customer, which have proven to last more than three times as long as the originally installed roll tyres as well as increased operational availability and significantly reduced recirculation, the company says.

Joshua Meyer, Service Business Line President at FLSmidth, says: “For long our HPGR solution has been regarded among the best in the industry. The fact that we can win a large service contract on a non-FLSmidth HPGR platform proves that we have the service concept to back up the technology, securing enhanced productivity and extended lifetime.”

Kumba’s Sishen and Kolomela iron ore mines achieve IRMA 75 accreditation

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Kumba Iron Ore, majority owned by Anglo American, has announced that its Sishen and Kolomela mines in South Africa have been assessed against the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance’s (IRMA) comprehensive mining standard, achieving the IRMA 75 level of performance.

This reflects Anglo American’s integrated approach to sustainability and its commitment to transparency in striving for the highest levels of responsible iron ore production, the company said.

Mpumi Zikalala, Chief Executive of Kumba Iron Ore, said: “We are proud of our teams’ efforts and the outstanding progress made across both of our operations to promote responsible mining practices. As part of our commitment to leading in ESG practices, we are dedicated to delivering premium quality iron ore products that help to reduce carbon emissions in the steelmaking process, while helping our customers meet the growing demand for responsibly sourced materials in an efficient and independently verified way. Through the IRMA assurance process, we have been able to evaluate our sustainability performance at Sishen and Kolomela mines, identify areas for improvement and ensure that we strive to adhere to the highest standards of responsible mining.”

Themba Mkhwanazi, Anglo American’s Regional Director – Africa and Australia, said: “We are pleased that Kumba is the first iron ore producer in Africa to complete the IRMA audit, providing stakeholders with a way of accounting for sustainability practices that is transparent, verifiable and comparable. Launched last year, our digital traceability platform Valutrax™ is available to customers purchasing Anglo American mined products, helping them to trace metals and minerals through a tailored selection of key provenance and sustainability indicators, including third-party assurance such as IRMA. The IRMA results demonstrate further progress on our Sustainable Mining Plan commitment of having all our operations undergo third-party audits against responsible mine certification standards by 2025. IRMA improves our ability to build an understanding of areas where we can continue to improve our ESG performance.”

Aimee Boulanger, Executive Director of IRMA, said: “Through detailed IRMA audit reports, mining companies, communities and companies that purchase mined materials can gain the information they need to decide what’s going well — and what may require more attention — at specific mines. The Sishen and Kolomela reports demonstrate that these mines can point to transparent, independent evaluations of their environmental and social performance.”

The IRMA scoring system recognises four levels of performance: IRMA Transparency, in which a mine is third-party-assessed and publicly shares its scores; IRMA 50, 75 or 100, signifying that a mine meets a core set of critical requirements together with at least 50%, 75% or 100% of the requirements in each of the four sections of the Standard for Responsible Mining being met respectively.

IRMA’s Standard for Responsible Mining has been developed over a decade through a public consultation process with more than 100 different individuals and organisations, including mining companies, customers and the ultimate downstream users of mined products, NGOs, labour unions and communities and is considered to be one of the most rigorous certification processes, IRMA says.

Sishen and Kolomela join other Anglo American operations such as Minas Rio, Barro Alto, Mototolo and Unki in gaining IRMA 75 accreditation.

Cummins and China’s NHL commission diesel-hybrid haul truck at Baiyun iron mine

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Cummins Inc says it has commissioned its diesel-hybrid solution in partnership with one of China’s leading rigid mining truck manufacturers, North Hauler Joint Stock Co., Ltd. (NHL), demonstrating progress in decarbonisation for industrial customers.

The hybrid NHL NTH260, a 220-t payload mining truck, rolled off the production line in January and is headed to Baiyun iron mine of Baogang Group, China, to begin field testing in March. As a power solutions provider, Cummins’ optimised hybrid system allows the truck engine to be downsized from the previous 2,500 horsepower QSK60 to the current 2,000 HP two-stage QSK50.

“We’re excited to share this significant milestone in our journey to advance bridge technologies and provide our mining customers with innovative, practical decarbonisation solutions,” Jenny Bush, Cummins Power Systems President, who joined key leaders from Cummins Power Systems China for the commissioning ceremony in the NHL industrial park in Bautou, China, said.

The truck is expected to provide a leading total cost of ownership based on initial cost advantages, fuel efficiency and extended service life of the engine, Cummins says. Improved fuel efficiency directly correlates to emissions and greenhouse gas reductions. Advanced hybrids have the potential to improve fuel efficiency up to 30% dependent on the mine profile and advanced battery technology and controls integration, according to the company.

Haiquan Guo, General Manager, NHL, said: “Our partnership with Cummins spans 40 years and advancing the hybridisation of our equipment is another demonstration of what we can accomplish together for the benefit of miners globally.”

NHL produces trucks with payload range from 35 t to 360 t, with Cummins as the standard engine configuration.

Molly Puga, Cummins Power Systems Executive Director of Strategy, Digital and Product Planning, added: “We are intent on enabling multiple pathways to carbon neutrality for industrial markets, including both first-fit and retrofit solutions. It’s partnerships with our customers like NHL and Baiyun iron mine that will accelerate product availability in the market and make both near- and long-term carbon reduction goals attainable.”

In 2023, Cummins announced approval of unblended renewable diesel use in all industrial high-horsepower engines.

Red Hawk Mining plots Blacksmith iron ore project haulage path with MGM Bulk

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Red Hawk Mining says it has entered into a strategic partnership with MGM Bulk Pty Ltd (MGM Bulk) for the haulage of iron ore from the company’s 100%-owned Blacksmith iron ore project, in Western Australia, to the Utah Point bulk handling facility in Port Hedland.

The haulage agreement enables Red Hawk and MGM Bulk to work collaboratively through the prefeasibility study (PFS) and definitive feasibility study (DFS) phases to develop and optimise the transport and logistics strategy, focusing on maximising productivity and reducing unit operating costs, the company says.

Following completion of the studies, MGM Bulk has the exclusive right to enter into a haulage services agreement on terms equivalent to those contained in the DFS. MGM Bulk will be responsible for providing a fleet of 150 t ultra-quad trucks and drivers plus associated loading and other equipment and infrastructure.

In a February presentation deck, Red Hawk Mining claimed over 200,000 m of drilling has defined the largest direct shipping ore (DSO) resource of any ASX-listed junior iron ore company (excluding magnetite) at Blacksmith with 174 Mt at 60% Fe. It said there was potential for thee project to be a long-term supplier of at least 3 Mt/y of 60.5% Fe DSO for over 20 years.

Red Hawk’s Managing Director, Steven Michael, said: “We are excited to work with the team at MGM Bulk to establish a haulage strategy optimised for the Blacksmith project. MGM Bulk’s operations in the Pilbara, centred around delivering iron ore into the Utah Point, are second to none. Their fleet size, quality, operational performance and safety record are critical factors in ensuring the success of the Blacksmith project.

“Our PFS team is working closely with MGM Bulk’s commercial and operations team to deliver operating and capital cost estimates with a high degree of certainty, which can easily be translated into an operational haulage contract.”

MGM Bulk’s CEO, Michael Giacci, added: “We are immensely proud to be forging a long-term partnership with Red Hawk Mining on the mine-to-port haulage solutions for their Blacksmith iron ore project.”

Grange Resources plots underground move at Savage River with electric mining equipment

Automation, Environmental, Mine operation news, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Power supply for mines, Steel and iron ore, , , ,

A completed definitive feasibility study looking at the potential for underground mining below the North Pit and its integration with Grange Resources’ current open-pit mine at Savage River, in Tasmania, Australia, has showcased not only “robust financial outcomes”, but the potential for reducing carbon emissions by 80% at the mine, with the application of electric mining equipment and material handling systems underground.

This DFS development is in line with company’s environment, social and governance (ESG) initiatives to develop Green Pellet Production from the mine.

The study, according to Grange, presents a technically achievable and financially favourable underground mine at Savage River, with integration with the current open-pit mining operation to deliver “excellent” projected financial returns and sustains a mine life of 15 years. In line with this, the Savage River ore reserve is increasing by 12.5 Mt to 109 Mt with integration of the underground operation.

The new life-of-mine-plan will deliver a substantial reduction of 30% in operating costs with underground mining costs at an average of A$13/t ($8.4/t). It also delivers an internal rate of return of 34% based on an average product price of approximately A$177/t. The ore delivery of 64 Mt of ore produces 28 Mt of concentrate with an iron grade of over 66% over 15 years, Grange said.

A sub-level caving (SLC) transition mine to recover ore left in the walls of the North Pit provides early access to ore and contingency production during the establishment and ramp-up of the block cave mine. Over 2 km of exploration decline has been completed, which reduces the risk for many technical and cost elements of the project, with a further commitment for additional decline development and geotechnical investigation drives in 2024, the company said.

The prefeasibility study for this project considered several haulage options with associated underground configurations and underground and surface infrastructure. The underground crushing and inclined conveying option was chosen as the go forward case for DFS for the following reasons:

  • Significant reduction in emissions and ability to meet the long-term requirements of the updated Safeguard legislation;
  • Lower operating costs by the removal of production trucks and significant reduction in diesel;
  • Better future proofing with higher ore production levels possible allowing the option of higher concentrate production;
  • Improvement to the underground operating environment with improved air quality;
  • Increased options for future automation.

In addition, the single gyratory crusher that was presented in the prefeasibilty study has been replaced with two eccentric roll crushers, which provides redundancy in the material handling system. Crushed ore is transferred to the inclined conveyor system via apron feeder and conveyors.

Another PFS change saw the extraction level layout changed from ‘El Teniente’ diagonal to an offset herringbone to enable the use of tethered electric loaders and to mitigate effects of potential inrush events.

A board decision for Grange to move forward with execution planning and permitting will occur over 2024 with final construction decision in the second half of 2024, the company said.

The Government of Canada awards Rio Tinto’s IOC funding for decarbonisation project

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The Government of Canada has awarded C$18.1 million ($13.4 million) from its Low Carbon Economy Fund to Rio Tinto’s Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC) to support the decarbonisation of iron ore processing at its operations in Labrador West, the mining company says.

The funding will enable IOC to reduce the amount of heavy fuel oil consumed in the production of iron ore pellets and concentrate, according to Rio Tinto. The company will install an electric boiler to displace emissions from the usage of the heavy fuel oil boilers, as well as instrumentation and fuel-efficient burners to further reduce heavy fuel oil consumption from induration machines.

Over the lifetime of this project, IOC will see a cumulative reduction of about 2.2 Mt of greenhouse gas emissions.

Installation of the new equipment will begin in the June quarter of 2024 and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025. The project will create more than 100 jobs during the construction and implementation stages in Labrador West.

IOC President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike McCann, said: “Rio Tinto IOC has a plan to decarbonise and continue producing some of the lowest carbon-intensity high-grade iron ore products in the world, right here in Canada. This project alone will eliminate approximately 9% of IOC’s greenhouse gas emissions. We look forward to collaborating with the Government of Canada and other partners towards our goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.”

Labrador Member of Parliament, Yvonne Jones, said: “By working with organisations across Canada, such as IOC, we can help the community save money on monthly operating costs and grow the economy, all while fighting climate change. Through the Low Carbon Economy Fund, the Government of Canada is partnering with climate leaders nationwide to cut emissions. I applaud the leadership shown by IOC for helping to keep our air clean and build resilient communities in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

The Government of Canada’s contribution represents approximately 25% of the total cost of the project, with IOC funding the remainder of the investment, Rio Tinto clarified.