Tag Archives: Rod Henderson

Ampcontrol expands Western Australia presence on mine site electrification demand

Environmental, Mining equipment, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , ,

Ampcontrol says it has significantly expanded its presence and skilled workforce in Western Australia, relocating to larger facilities in Kewdale to meet industry demand for mine site electrification.

In addition to moving to a new 9,500 sq.m manufacturing site, Ampcontrol has expanded its services to include a cable workshop, bringing more than 20 years of cable service and management experience to customers in Western Australia.

The expansion of Ampcontrol services in Western Australia follows the company announcement on September 27 of a new company vision to lead the global energy revolution with strategic plans for growth and expansion into new markets, geographic locations, and innovative energy transition solutions for the resources sector.

Ampcontrol is focused on diversifying and growing the business with a key focus on renewable energy manufacturing and how it can support customers in decarbonisation and mine site electrification.

Rod Henderson, Ampcontrol Managing Director & CEO, said: “We want to collaborate with our customers to help them solve their most complex problems in energy. With an industry-wide push towards decarbonisation, it is a natural progression in the growth of our business to extend our service offerings to support mine sites in Western Australia to meet both customer and industry needs.”

Local access to cable products and services from Ampcontrol will support surface applications and underground applications with decarbonisation efforts, with a fully stocked store of spare parts and consumables for cables, the company says. With the industry-wide push in Western Australia seeing machines becoming electrified, additional engineering designs and functions need to be used.

Customers in Western Australia will have local access to Cable Track, an Ampcontrol product that provides a full lifecycle of cables from new to grave, which will assist mine sites with forward planning their assets and future-proofing their business.

From the sale and repair of power cables to the development of transportation solutions and predictive and preventative maintenance programs, Ampcontrol says it can devise a custom cable systems management approach to suit any site, including mining, tunnelling, defence and industrial applications.

Henderson added: “Ampcontrol has been working with cables for more than 20 years; we bring an abundance of domain expertise on cable management systems which will be applied locally in Western Australia. We have the people, the equipment, the cable management expertise using the latest repair techniques and philosophies as we collaborate with customers to aid their decarbonisation efforts.”

Ampcontrol to provide iMAC conveyor control systems to BHP at Jansen potash project

Bulk handling, Energy minerals, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining services, , , , , , ,

Ampcontrol says it has been named the supplier for conveyor control systems for Stage 1 at the BHP Jansen potash project in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The Ampcontrol iMAC monitoring and control system has achieved Canadian Standards Approval and will be used for conveyor controls on site, the company said, adding that this marks the first time an Ampcontrol product has been used in Canada.

Ampcontrol Managing Director & CEO, Rod Henderson, said: “We have a solid history of working with BHP in Australia for over 50 years. We are looking forward to furthering our relationship by participating in the Jansen potash project and are eager to share our world-class electrical solutions with the broader Canadian market.”

Designed to maximise productivity while maintaining the highest level of safety, the Ampcontrol iMAC system is customised to the unique requirements of sites and provides features such as high integrity emergency stop, broadcast messaging, and belt hazard identification functionality, with remote interface capabilities.

Jamie Scheffer, Integrated Project Team Manager Underground BHP, said: “Ampcontrol was selected from a number of different vendors to supply conveyor control signal line equipment for the underground conveyor systems, consisting of upwards of 35 km of conveyor belts.

“The Ampcontrol iMAC was the successful solution because it provided a remote interface which gave us the ability to link in remotely and help fault find should issues occur. This is particularly important for this site due to our remote location.”

BHP has announced an investment of $5.7 billion in the Jansen Stage 1 project, which is 140 km east of Saskatoon.

Work will start on the conveyor system in late 2022 with the current project expected to be completed by 2025.

WHSP completes acquisition of ‘net zero’ focused electrical engineering firm Ampcontrol

Environmental, Mining mergers and acquisitions, Power supply for mines, , , , , , ,

Washington H Soul Pattinson and Company Limited says it has completed the acquisition of 100% of Ampcontrol in a deal that should help accelerate the privately owned electrical engineering company’s ambitions to help facilitate a net-zero carbon environment.

WHSP has held a major shareholding in Ampcontrol since investing in the company in 2005 and has now acquired the remaining shareholdings.

The acquisition comes as Ampcontrol accelerates its strategy to be at the forefront of developing and supplying advanced technology for the net-zero age. This was evidenced recently when Ampcontrol and its technology partner Tritium were announced as a winner in the Global “Charge on Innovation Challenge” launched by BHP, Rio Tinto and Vale to accelerate the commercialisation of effective solutions for charging large electric haul trucks.

The Ampcontrol and Tritium solution selected by the challenge was an end-to-end ultra-fast modular recharging station that is fully automated, relocatable, scalable and cell agnostic for mining haul truck battery swapping. Drive-in/drive-out, an autonomous transfer robot swap batteries in 90 seconds, significantly reducing safety risks and increasing productivity by excluding personnel from the swap process, according to the partners.

Todd Barlow, Managing Director of WHSP, said: “Ampcontrol is uniquely positioned to capitalise on the significant investment in resources, infrastructure and energy solutions, as the world transitions to a lower carbon economy. Ampcontrol is a high-quality platform upon which we can continue to invest and grow a world-class business, taking advantage of strong industry tailwinds and their talented people, technology and engineering excellence.”

Ampcontrol Managing Director & CEO, Rod Henderson, said: “The acquisition marks a remarkable new era for the Australian manufacturing business and the next chapter in its growth story. The increased ownership of WHSP will provide us with the stability and resources to take advantage of the organic and inorganic growth opportunities that the decarbonisation thematic presents.”

LAVO, Ampcontrol and Boundary Power to investigate hydrogen storage solutions

Environmental, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , , , ,

A new strategic partnership and collaboration agreement between LAVO, Ampcontrol and Boundary Power is expected to deliver a range of solutions to regional and remote power users such as mine sites, along with data centres and other energy intensive industries.

The agreement between emerging hydrogen company LAVO, electrical, electronic and control system specialists Ampcontrol and standalone power system company Boundary Power will see the parties work together over the next two years to identify the use of LAVO’s hydrogen storage solutions and other zero-carbon products in different demonstration sites, they said.

Potential applications include:

  • Standalone hybrid power supplies;
  • Containerised solutions for small and utility scale wind and solar projects; and
  • Packaged power and battery solutions for data centres, industrial and mining applications.

Alan Yu, LAVO’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “LAVO’s hydrogen storage technology is ideally suited for integration with remote standalone power systems and for other containerised and mobile power solutions. We’re thrilled to be working with Ampcontrol and Boundary Power to explore the options for wider use of our products.”

Ampcontrol CEO and Boundary Power Director, Rod Henderson, said: “Ampcontrol has a long history in the development of innovative products and Boundary Power possesses industry leading experience in utility-grade stand-alone power solutions. Our partnership with LAVO is the continuation of our commitment to finding the best solutions to the energy challenges facing remote areas and energy intensive industries.”

Earlier this year, Macarthur Minerals has signed a strategic partnership and collaboration agreement with LAVO Hydrogen Technology Holding that could see the mine developer use LAVO’s hydrogen energy battery system on site at its flagship Lake Giles Iron project in the Yilgarn region of Western Australia.