Tag Archives: Macraes

Chrysos to supply PhotonAssay tech to OceanaGold Macraes mine under new deployment model

Chrysos Corp has signed a new customer contract under its standard terms and conditions with OceanaGold Corporation to lease a PhotonAssay™ unit at the Macraes Operation in New Zealand for three years with a potential two-year extension.

The Macraes Operation on New Zealand’s South Island is the country’s largest active gold producing mine, having produced over 5 Moz of gold since 1990.

Expected to be installed in the first six months of 2025 and representing Chrysos’ first deployment in New Zealand, the Macraes unit will be operated by existing Chrysos customer SGS;  representing the first PhotonAssay unit to be leased by a miner and operated on-site by a laboratory.

Chrysos says it views this working model to be of significance to its business as it affords the company operational flexibility in how it approaches the market and executes its global expansion plans.

Once deployed, the Macraes unit will be the second PhotonAssay unit outside of Australia, and the fourth unit overall, to be operated by SGS.

Chrysos Managing Director and CEO, Dirk Treasure, said: “We are pleased to be working with OceanaGold on this new deployment model; not only does it grow PhotonAssay’s footprint in the Asia-Pacific region, but it increases our relationship with one of the world’s leading laboratory companies.

“Our best-fit leasing approach not only demonstrates the evolution of our miner and laboratory relationships, but also supports the variety of operating models being used by customers across the world. This operational breadth provides Chrysos with flexibility in how it approaches the market and executes its global expansion plans.”

SGS recently said it was expanding its Chrysos PhotonAssay offering, confirming it will be able to offer analysis using this technology at its Orange laboratory in New South Wales, Australia, from December.

OceanaGold on the benefits of data-driven transformation

With a Vancouver-based headquarters and operational mines in the Philippines, the US and New Zealand, access to – and sharing of – data for decision making is critical for the optimisation of OceanaGold’s various operations and processes. It is also proving equally important for the company’s pursuit of recruitment and upskilling.

OceanaGold’s vision is to be a company people trust, want to work and partner with, supply and invest in, to create value. This vision comes alongside a plan to grow its gold production from 460,000-480,000 oz, to 580,000-600,000 oz in 2025, all while lowering its all-in sustaining costs.

Data is playing an increasingly important role in achieving this vision, with the company having invested heavily in digital and networking technology in the last few years.

For example, the company has made investments in industrial Wi-Fi across its operations – at the Golden Point underground mine (part of the Macraes operaton in New Zealand), Didipio (Philippines) and Haile (USA) – to improve access to data and company systems.

Michelle Du Plessis, Chief People & Technology Officer, told IM: “This investment is improving operational efficiency by reducing the need for people to leave operational areas of the mine to access data and systems.

“This also enables more of our equipment to be operated more safely and remotely.”

And remote operation of equipment has been growing with the installation of these network backbones, with teleremote underground drilling, loading and hauling in place at Golden Point with Sandvik fleets, plus teleremote loading and hauling – with Sandvik AutoMine®-equipped LH517is and TH551is – occurring at Haile.

There are also plans to switch to teleremote operations from a surface cabin at the Didipio underground mine.

The company is completing the real-time data process loop, with tablet-based mine operation control software – Digital Terrain’s Simbio solution – being implemented at all of its underground operations to, Du Plessis says, more accurately and effectively control underground mine planning based on what is happening in the mine at that time.

At the Horseshoe underground mine at Haile, the newest underground mine within the group, the company is also using digital and data platforms for its mine planning and short interval control systems, with the API-enabled integration coming into the Snowflake cloud-based ecosystem.

Du Plessis says these platforms are fully integrated with shift plans uploaded onto tablets and updated digitally if plans change through the shift.

On surface at the Macraes open-pit operation in New Zealand, the company is also working on the effective digital transfer of data, having recently migrated away from an older version of the Cat® MineStar™ Fleet FMS to MineSense for Miners’ (MS4M) FMS. “The main benefits were more accurate management of the fleet in terms of efficiency and maintenance planning,” Du Plessis explained of this change.

On surface at the Macraes open-pit operation in New Zealand, OceanaGold is now using MineSense for Miners’ (MS4M) FMS

Data access and availability is having a positive impact on operational productivity at OceanaGold’s operations, as well as enabling the company to confront the skills shortage it and every mining company is facing at the moment.

Du Plessis said: “At OceanaGold, we are taking a systematic and multi-pronged approach to skills development across the talent lifecycle. This guides the way we prepare our workforce for the future opportunities by building the data and technology capabilities across the company.

“We also have a distributed operational footprint, which allows us to draw on, and foster, talent in multiple jurisdictions and we can take advantage of workforce mobility between the operations.”

Some of the company’s operations are in regions where mining is not the major employer, and there are plenty of people with skills but no mining-specific experience. With OceanaGold prioritising a residential workforce and local employment over fly-in, fly-out options, skills development is crucial for resourcing its operations.

“To help us develop these skills and provide people an opportunity to build a career and have sustainable employment in mining, we partner with experienced training providers and contract mining companies,” Du Plessis explained.

For example, in the Philippines, OceanaGold has partnered with Site WorkReady (Philippines) Pty Ltd to use the Site Skills Training Center in Clark Pampanga. This facility allows the company to train new employees to work in an underground mining environment, with a focus on safety. “We are also looking at the opportunity to extend this partnership to include additional skills, such as automotive and heavy diesel mechanics, to continue to upskill our local workforce,” Du Plessis said.

In South Carolina, where the company has recently commenced mining from the new Horseshoe underground mine, OceanaGold has engaged Redpath Mining Inc in a similar skills development role.

“In addition to their mining contract, Redpath provide training and resources to develop the underground mining skills of the local workforce, allowing us to transition to a full owner-operator model over time,” Du Plessis explained.

The company has also invested in an underground training simulator at the operation, offering potential recruits exposure to the underground environment and building the operating skills of new trainees.

RCT Line of Sight solution lowers operational risk at OceanaGold’s Macraes mine

RCT’s ControlMaster® Line of Sight dozer solution has another customer reference to hand, following a recent deployment at OceanaGold’s Macraes operation in New Zealand.

The operation installed and commissioned a RCT solution to its Cat D10T2 dozer, allowing the machine to be remotely operated in higher-risk areas of the open-pit operations, OceanaGold said.

RCT confirmed the project included its Line of Sight solution, which forms part of its ControlMaster automation and control product range.

“We have quite an extensive history working on dozers, including Cat D10Ts, so the installation went smoothly thanks to the collaboration of RCT’s Customer Service team and OceanaGold​’s site team,” a spokesperson told IM. “Our international technicians provided site personnel with remote support during the installation and commissioning process.”

Over 49 years in business, RCT says it has successfully provided more dozer control solutions than any other company in the world.

The Macraes operation on the South Island of New Zealand is the country’s largest active gold producing mine, having produced over 5 Moz of gold since 1990, OceanaGold said. The operation consists of an open-pit mine, an underground mine, and an adjacent process plant inclusive of an autoclave for pressure oxidation of the ore. The operation produced 144,487 oz gold in 2020.

OceanaGold and Beca come up with decarbonisation pathway for Macraes

OceanaGold has enlisted the help of independent advisory, design and engineering consultancy Beca to reduce emissions at its Macraes gold mine in Central Otago, New Zealand.

Beca developed an Energy Transition Acceleration (ETA) study to provides a pathway to a greener future at the mine, which produced over 172,000 oz/y of gold and employs more than 600 people. Macraes is New Zealand’s largest mine.

“As participants in the New Zealand government’s ETA program, OceanaGold are focused on reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at their Macraes site to not only improve the sustainability of their product, but also reduce their energy costs,” Beca said.

“That’s where Beca entered the picture. As program partners with the ETA, our industrial sustainability and engineering teams worked closely with OceanaGold management to develop an Energy Transition Accelerator study that identified a practical emissions reduction pathway for their business.”

The Macraes operation consists of a large-scale surface mine, an underground mine, and an adjacent process plant inclusive of an autoclave for pressure oxidation of the ore. Its annualised gold production is split approximately 75% to open-pit production and about 25% underground production.

Key opportunities for reducing the GHG emissions include harnessing waste heat recovery; fuel switching; solar lighting towers; electric elution hot water heating; battery-powered electric haulage trucks; and electrification of excavators.

“Taken together, these practical abatement measures can reduce emissions from the Macraes gold mine by a substantial 37%, whilst additional measures – such as the use of renewable energy sources on site – could increase this figure to 59%,” Beca said.

With the study now complete, Beca says it is ready to support OceanaGold in implementing the identified recommendations over coming years – with some of these options also applicable to its Waihi mine on the North Island of New Zealand.

Sandvik equipment starts to arrive for OceanaGold’s Macraes expansion

OceanaGold Corp has received the first of three new Sandvik machines at its Macraes gold mining operation on the South Island of New Zealand.

The company has taken delivery of a 17-t payload Sandvik LH517i underground loader (pictured), Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions confirmed.

A Sandvik TH551i truck and DD421 development drill will also be delivered this year as Macraes prepares to extend its mine life to 2028, the mining OEM said.

The LH517i is a matching pair with the Sandvik TH551i truck. It features the Sandvik Intelligent Control System and My Sandvik Digital Services Knowledge Box™ on-board hardware as standard.

In December, OceanaGold received approval to extend the mine life of the Macraes operation to 2028. This is expected to involve the development of the Golden Point Underground Mine, the Deepdell North Stage III open-pit extension, and the Frasers West expansion.

These projects are forecasted to produce 1.1 Moz of gold over an eight-year mine life, with open-pit and underground operations expected to produce, on average, 150,000-170,000 oz/y of gold.