Tag Archives: Sustainable Mining Plan.

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.

Anglo American to recycle tyres, conveyor belts with Novum Energy’s help

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

Anglo American says it is moving towards a sustainable “zero-waste future” at its five metallurgical coal operations in central Queensland, Australia, through a new collaboration with Novum Energy Australia that will see rubber waste products transformed into useable raw materials.

Used mining truck tyres and conveyor belts from the mine sites will be supplied to Novum, who will convert the rubber into industrial products including heavy and light oils, carbon black, syngas and steel.

Today, the Assistant Minister for Local Government, Nikki Boyd, and Banana Shire Mayor, Nev Ferrier, officially opened Biloela’s Raedon Street Industrial Estate where Novum will begin construction of its thermal recovery processing facility.

Anglo American Metallurgical Coal CEO, Tyler Mitchelson, said the partnership would create regional employment opportunities as Anglo American shifts towards pursuing circular economy initiatives.

“The new facility is located in the Banana Shire where our Dawson metallurgical coal mine is located,” Mitchelson said. “We have the opportunity to play a role in reshaping the economy towards a more sustainable path and contribute to creating new industries in the region.”

Novum Energy Australia Managing Director, Rowan Kendall, said the new plant at Biloela would be the first of its kind to be constructed in Australia and would employ up to 25 full-time employees once fully operational.

“Our partnership with Anglo American has enabled Novum to construct this industry-leading technology in regional Queensland which will be able to process up to 8,000 t of waste tyres and conveyor belts each year from 2022,” Kendall said.

“By applying a thermo vacuum technology, we aim to use the gas recovered from recycling the rubber to generate electricity to supply power to the processing plant and surplus electricity to electric vehicle charging stations to be built on-site.”

Anglo American says its Sustainable Mining Plan sets out ambitious targets to improve the sustainability of its operations across the world.

Water treatment plant starts up at Anglo American’s Aquila met coal project

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Anglo American’s Metallurgical Coal business says it is now operating the first of two state-of-the art reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment plants at its Aquila project in the Bowen Basin, Queensland.

The aim of the RO plants is to reduce the use of fresh water in its mining operations.

Chief Executive Officer of Anglo American’s Metallurgical Coal business, Tyler Mitchelson, said the A$5 million ($3.9 million) water treatment system was currently treating two megalitres of mine affected water (MAW) a day and supporting construction of the Aquila Mine, near Middlemount in central Queensland.

“A key target in Anglo American’s global Sustainable Mining Plan is to reduce our reliance on fresh water by 50% by 2030 across our mine sites, and I’m pleased to say Aquila is currently sourcing recycled water during construction of the mine,” Mitchelson said.

“A planned second RO plant will to be used to recycle a further 2.4 megalitres of MAW – once Aquila becomes operational in early 2022, more than doubling capacity and helping to reduce the reliance on water from local sources during times of drought.

“Aquila will be one of the world’s most technologically advanced underground mines and will showcase our innovation-led approach to sustainable mining. The project is currently supporting 500 jobs.”

Aquila, owned 70% by Anglo and 30% by Mitsui & Co Ltd, will extend the life of Anglo’s existing Capcoal underground operations by six years and continue to use the associated infrastructure at the Capcoal complex as its nearby Grasstree Mine approaches end of life, Anglo says. The mine will also continue to adopt Anglo American’s FutureSmart Mining™ program, which applies innovative thinking and technological advances to address mining’s major operational and sustainability challenges, the company said. One of the initiatives the company is working on as part of this is remote operation of the longwall; a process the company has trialled at some of its other Bowen Basin coal mines.

Aquila’s Project Director, Tony Willmott, said the A$240 million Aquila Mine was committed to awarding contracts locally.

“Our Aquila project is progressing well, with support from its Queensland-based workforce and contracting partners. More than 90% of our Aquila contracts have been awarded to Queensland-based suppliers,” Willmott said. “Aquila’s integrated network of pipes and pumps is securing the distribution of high-quality water which is necessary in metallurgical coal mining for equipment cooling and coal cutting operations.”

Anglo American commits to Aquila coal development with >A$240 million of contracts

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Anglo American has invested more than A$240 million ($175 million) with suppliers for its 70%-owned Aquila metallurgical coal project in Central Queensland, Australia, which, the company says, will be one the world’s most technologically advanced underground mines.

Aquila will extend the life of Anglo American’s existing Capcoal underground operations near Middlemount by six years and continue to use the associated infrastructure at the Capcoal complex as its nearby Grasstree Mine approaches end of life, Anglo says.

Anglo American has awarded nearly A$200 million to six longwall equipment suppliers to deliver a “walk-on, walk-off system” using two complete longwalls, a A$20 million overland conveyor system and more than A$20 million in civil works, it said.

The project, which is scheduled for first longwall production of premium quality hard coking coal in early 2022, includes a A$5 million reverse osmosis water treatment system to increase the use of recycled water and reduce the reliance on fresh water at the mine – a key target in Anglo American’s Sustainable Mining Plan.

Chief Executive Officer of Anglo American’s Metallurgical Coal business, Tyler Mitchelson, said: “Our Aquila project is progressing well, with support from its Queensland-based workforce and contracting partners. More than 90% of our Aquila contracts have been awarded to Queensland-based suppliers, and we currently have around 500 people working on the project in engineering, surface construction and underground development.

“Aquila will be a breakthrough project, designed to set a new standard of safety and performance by leveraging technology and focusing on operational improvements. The mine will showcase our innovation-led approach to sustainable mining, with a remote operating centre on the surface of the mine, proximity detection systems underground to alert machine operators to pedestrians, and the continued digitisation of our operations, using new technologies such as our Australian-first intrinsically safe underground electronic tablets.”

In addition to the aforementioned construction contacts, Anglo American awarded a A$95 million mining development contract to Mackay-based mining company, Mastermyne in 2019.