Tag Archives: Rag Udd

BHP and JX Metals partner on GHG emission reduction plan for copper supply chain

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JX Metals Corporation (JX Metals) and BHP have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to pursue the development of a “Green Enabling Partnership” aimed at supporting both parties’ ambitions of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the copper supply chain and making the copper supply chain more sustainable.

Through the Green Enabling Partnership, JX Metals and BHP aim to support the continued development of a responsible copper supply chain through enhancing traceability and material origin verification across industry, from producers to downstream consumers such as copper product manufacturers, as well as the semiconductor, information technology and automobile industries.

In addition, the Green Enabling Partnership proposes to advocate for circular economy and GHG emissions reduction through copper concentrates and sulphuric acid supply between both parties, promote knowledge sharing in areas of estimating and reducing carbon footprint of electrolytic copper, and engaging in research and development to support improved material processing and energy efficient smelting operations.

JX Metals and BHP have a long-standing relationship dating back to 1985 with the commissioning of Escondida, BHP’s largest copper mine. This relationship has been strengthened in recent years through various collaboration opportunities – for example, BHP has supplied copper concentrates extracted from its mines in Chile to JX Metals’ smelters in Japan, and in turn, utilised sulphuric acid produced in JX Metals’ smelting processes for solvent extraction in its mines.

“JX Metals’ partnerships in the downstream copper supply chain are expanding in scope,” JX Metals Director and Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Kazuhiro Hori, said. “Our efforts to produce more sustainable copper are centered on green hybrid smelting at the Saganoseki Smelter and Refinery, and partnerships with upstream sectors are essential to reduce our Scope 3 GHG emissions reported by JX Metals in copper concentrate production and transportation. We will respond to our stakeholders’ needs by enhancing our ESG efforts in upstream sectors through this partnership with BHP, a vital responsibility for JX Metals.”

In 2022, Pan Pacific Copper (a member of JX Metal’s group), partnered with BHP and Norsepower, a global manufacturer of wind propulsion equipment for shipping, in an effort to reduce carbon emissions from the marine transportation of copper concentrates and sulphuric acid.

BHP’s Chief Commercial Officer, Vandita Pant, said: “At BHP, we pride ourselves on identifying and implementing innovative sustainability. We recognise that solutions are not developed in silos, and partnership and collaboration with our customers and partners across the value chain often bring about the best and most sustainable outcomes in pursuit of these goals. We look forward to working with JX Metals on the Green Enabling Partnership that aims to support further GHG emissions reduction in the supply chain for copper, one of the most critical minerals in the journey towards global net zero ambitions.”

President of BHP Americas, Rag Udd, said: “In a world in which the demand for copper is on the rise, improving the sustainability of producing processes is a non-negotiable. The copper of our mines produced in Chile are fundamental for decarbonising the value chain and for providing the resources the world needs to enable the energy transition. BHP has made significant progress in increasing the sustainability and ESG standards of its copper production, and we always aim to deliver high-quality and responsibly produced copper. I’m sure that this partnership will benefit our customers and will allow us to go even further in our effort to decarbonise through innovative production processes.”

Escondida, Spence and Olympic Dam production practices recognised with Copper Mark

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BHP’s Chilean operations Escondida and Spence, and Olympic Dam in Australia, have been awarded the Copper Mark, recognising responsible production practices after an independent assurance process, the miner says.

The Copper Mark is an assurance framework specific to the copper industry, developed to ensure value chain participants demonstrate best practice in responsible production and contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Copper Mark is a voluntary program that independently assesses participants in 32 critical areas including environment, community, human rights and governance issues for mining, smelting and refining operations.

The Copper Mark uses the Risk Readiness Assessment (RRA) of the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) and the Joint Due Diligence Standard for Copper, Lead, Nickel and Zinc, as the basis for evaluating participants’ performance.

BHP submitted Letters of Commitment for Escondida (pictured), Spence and Olympic Dam to the Copper Mark Responsible Production Framework on October 31, 2020. The Copper Mark was awarded to Olympic Dam on September 21, 2021, while Spence and Escondida were each awarded theirs on November 2, 2021.

BHP’s Group Sales and Marketing Officer, Michiel Hovers, said: “Long-term sustainability credentials are important to our customers and increasingly important to end consumers of copper products, such as buyers of electric vehicles and copper intensive consumer durables.”

BHP’s Mineral Americas President, Rag Udd, added: “Copper Mark is a step forward in developing an industry-wide approach to transparency and standards for the copper value chain and reinforces the value BHP places on responsible, sustainable production.

“Copper is a future-facing commodity and our operations have an important role to play in providing high quality and sustainable copper that is essential to the energy transition. Escondida, the largest copper producer in the world, operates 100% with desalinated water and, along with Spence, is aiming to achieve 100% renewable power by the mid-2020s.

“It is important to our customers, investors, employees, communities and governments to ascertain the ethical and sustainable production of copper along the value chain.”

BHP Olympic Dam Asset President, Jennifer Purdie, said the team was thrilled that Olympic Dam has become the first site in Australia to be awarded the Copper Mark.

“Olympic Dam is a multi-generational orebody and one of the world’s most significant deposits of copper, gold, silver and uranium,” she said. “The Copper Mark accreditation provides an industry-wide approach to transparency and sustainability in the copper value chain and provides our customers with confidence in the copper they purchase. Award of the Copper Mark will help us to keep sustainably delivering jobs, investment and economic and social value.”.

The Copper Mark’s Executive Director, Michèle Brülhart, said: “We are delighted to welcome Escondida, Spence and Olympic Dam among the recipients of the Copper Mark. We are particularly pleased to see the first Australian site to receive the Copper Mark with Olympic Dam while we continue to grow our footprint in the world’s main copper producing country, Chile. We congratulate the three sites for their achievement and their commitment to responsible production practices.”

BHP consolidates digital project offering with new Brisbane facility

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BHP, to more effectively ramp up its use of digital technologies, has opened the first of its ‘digital factories’ in Brisbane, Australia.

Instead of having digital projects delivered by multiple parts of its business, the factory will create a unified ‘community of practice’ among technical roles, according to Rag Udd, BHP Acting Chief Technology Officer.

“The new hubs will abandon the traditional hardware-centric approach to innovation and will help us maximise the use of cloud technologies for rapid digital development in an enhanced digital environment,” he said.

An example of that comes from the company’s coal business where it is launching its “first digital factory”.

Udd explained: “The coal mined from Caval Ridge needs to go through a processing plant. Typically, for every 100 t that enters the plant, around 58 ts of sellable product comes out the back-end. In our digital factory trial, we set the team a challenge of improving this yield using just 12 months’ worth of historical data.”

The team quickly created an algorithm that told the company what the optimal setting for the plant was, based on the blend of coal coming from the mine, according to Udd.

“There is more to do, but this will help us improve our yields and increase the utilisation of our processing facility,” he said. “This is the very definition of productivity: a low cost way to markedly improve an output.”

In the future, BHP hopes to see much more of this type of innovation, according to Udd.

“Our sites are expected to benefit from the rapid deployment of reliable solutions that make their lives easier, minimising variability and unplanned outages,” he said. “The factory will focus on projects that can be delivered quickly, where minimal onsite infrastructure is required and where the return on investment is many multiples of the initial outlay.”

While BHP has started in coal in Brisbane, it plans to also launch digital factories in Chile, North America and Western Australia, according to Udd.

“They will partner with our operations to help solve asset-specific problems,” he said. “Struggling with a well performance issue in the Gulf of Mexico? Speak to your local factory and see if machine learning can provide some insight. Conveyor belt reliability issues in Chile? Let’s see if your ‘digital foreman’ can run some advanced analytics over data from the sensors.”

He concluded: “Other industries have shown us that this model works. With the right people and the right operating model set up, I am confident that we can bring an exciting new element to the way we solve operational problems, and in doing so rapidly create real and lasting value for BHP.”

Southern Innovation extends minerals analysis agreement with BHP

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Technology company Southern Innovation says it has entered into a multi-year collaboration agreement with BHP to further research applications of the METS company’s radiation-based minerals analysis technology.

Under the agreement Southern Innovation will provide BHP with technical expertise to uncover solutions to specific challenges BHP faces in mineral exploration and extraction, the company said.

Southern Innovation and BHP have worked together since late 2015 to develop and commercialise technology to improve the performance of radiation-based analysis in mining applications, using a complex signal-processing algorithm developed by Southern Innovation Founder Paul Scoullar at The University of Melbourne.

BHP Vice President of Technology Global Transformation, Rag Udd, said: “Our continuing engagement with the METS sector ensures that our industry successfully adapts to technological change while creating and sustaining global technological and skills leadership in key areas of mining and our supply chain.

“An internationally competitive, appropriately skilled and innovative METS sector is critical to help maintain Australia’s leading position in the global resources sector.”

Southern Innovation’s CEO and Managing Director, David Scoullar, said: “We are delighted to formalise our ongoing relationship with BHP to further research applications of our radiation-based minerals analysis technology to meet challenges across BHP’s domestic and international commodity portfolio.

“Our engagement with BHP over the last three years has successfully developed new-to-world METS technology and products in Australia and enabled us to double our workforce. With this new research and ongoing product development work, we will be adding even more employees dedicated to this task with a view to redoubling our workforce over two years.”

Industry body for the METS sector, Austmine, has been supporting Southern Innovation since 2015 through the Australian Technologies Competition and the Accelerating Commercialisation Program with the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, and more recently with grant funding via the Entrepreneurs’ Programme.

Austmine CEO, Christine Gibbs Stewart, said: “It’s critically important that emerging METS companies can access customers, funding, expertise and networks to enable the development and commercialisation of disruptive technologies in the METS sector.

“Southern Innovation is a great example of how small, agile innovators can help big businesses like BHP solve previously intractable challenges.”

BHP looking at Australia-wide deployment of Supply Innovation program, Udd says

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Following the successful introduction of a Supply Innovation program in Chile, BHP is now piloting this same platform at its Olympic Dam copper-gold-uranium mine in South Australia, Rag Udd, VP Technology Global Transformation at BHP, told delegates at the AustMine 2019 conference in Brisbane, Australia, this week.

Speaking at the packed event – reported to have broken past attendance records – Udd said BHP was looking to local suppliers to “solve challenges and, in turn, stimulate innovation” and could potentially expand the use of this platform throughout Australia.

He said the company needed to work differently to achieve its new procurement goals, which included “removing barriers to doing business with us”.

Udd pointed to the company’s Supply Innovation program, which originated in Chile, as evidence of the company’s progress in this space.

“This program has seen us create an open platform to connect our unique mining challenges with local suppliers and innovators,” he told delegates.

Rather than ask for a specific service or equipment – as has often been the way in the past – the platform enables suppliers to bring their innovations to the mining major, he said.

It was this platform that led to BHP introducing a new Trommel Maintenance Robot at its majority-owned Escondida copper operation, in Chile. Developed collaboratively by FLSmidth and local Chilean supplier MIRS, the robotic arm has benefits for safety and productivity, according to BHP.

Udd said the company is now piloting this program at Olympic Dam, with a view to establishing the platform on a national basis.

Austmine 2019 to showcase global mining innovations

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“Mining Innovation – The Next Horizon” is the tag line for the fast-approaching Austmine conference in Brisbane, Australia.

Taking place at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre from May 21-23, the program for Austmine 2019 has been developed specifically for those driven by innovation and working within mining companies, mining equipment, technology and services (METS) companies, as well as relevant academia and government, according to the event organisers. Over 800 attendees are expected at the bi-annual event.

“The Next Horizon for the industry will see fundamental shifts in mining technology which will alter the entire value chain, placing an emphasis on current planning decisions to ensure optimal future outcomes,” Austmine’s organisers said.

The three-day program contains over 40 presentations featuring more than 50 experts drawn from six continents, as well as hands-on workshops, panel discussions, and networking opportunities, held in conjunction with the sold-out exhibition, featuring over 90 of the industry’s foremost companies.

Austmine Chief Executive Officer, Christine Gibbs Stewart, said: “This is now the leading mining innovation conference in the world; there are a lot of conferences out there, but nobody is as sharply focussed on innovation as we are.

“We have brought together the premiere thought leaders around innovation, which is quite exciting for us; the fact that we have so many international speakers and attendees is a credit to our previous conferences.

“It demonstrates that overseas miners are interested in what is happening in Australia, and they see Australia leading the way with some of the new innovations and technologies that are entering the market.”

Current confirmed speakers include Rag Udd (Vice President, Global Transformation, BHP), Natascha Viljoen (Global Head of Processing Operations, Anglo American), Marco Orellana (CIO, Codelco), Rob Labbé (Director of Information Security, Teck Resources), Rafael Estrada (CIO & Manager of Information Systems, Telecommunications and Process Control, Antamina Mining), John Welborn (Managing Director & CEO, Resolute Mining), and Frans Knox (Head of Production, BMA Coal, BHP).

The conference themes range from new machinery technology and techniques, including automation and artificial intelligence, as well as the human element of mining, the use of analytics and big data, digital connectivity in mining, and finally sustainability for the industry, encompassing renewable resources and resource management.

The event features the Austmine Industry Leaders’ Dinner and Awards on May 22, which will also celebrate the association’s 30 years of advocacy for the Australian METS sector.