Tag Archives: Western Australia

MinRes takes delivery of Hitachi EX3600 excavator for Onslow Iron

Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , , ,

Mineral Resources Ltd has taken delivery of a Hitachi EX3600 hydraulic excavator at its Ken’s Bore mine site, set to support its Onslow Iron project in Western Australia.

The brand new excavator was transported via four trucks, travelling 1,350 km from Perth, and will be used to construct haul roads, run of mine pad and mining broken stocks.

It made the trip along with a haul truck and drill – just some of the 15 haul trucks, three excavators and four drills that will work on site when the mine is fully operational.

MinRes’ A$3 billion ($2 billion) Onslow Iron project is, MinRes says, set to redefine mining in Western Australia, shipping around 35 Mt/y of iron ore from mid-2024. It is owned through the unincorporated Red Hill Iron Joint Venture, which is 40% held by MinRes, who will manage the project, with the other partners being Baowu, AMCI and POSCO.

Liontown awards Kathleen Valley wet plant lithium contract to Monadelphous

Energy minerals, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining services, , , , , ,

Liontown Resources says Monadelphous has been awarded the wet plant structural, mechanical, piping and electrical & instrumentation contract for the Kathleen Valley lithium project in Western Australia.

This appointment, valued at approximately A$100 million ($64 million), enables a vertically integrated approach to construction of the critical path wet plant, according to Liontown, providing efficiencies and underpinning confidence in the schedule to first production in mid-2024. It also signifies the final major construction contract award for Kathleen Valley.

The contract scope includes installation of 1,200 t of structural steel, 20,000 m of piping, 600 mechanical equipment items, 200 platework items, the SAG mill, magnetics circuit, flotation circuit, tantalum recovery circuit, concentrate dewatering and tails treatment.

Monadelphous commenced work under a Letter of Intent and began mobilising to site in August under a staged contractual award approach.

By deploying lessons learned from industry peers, the wet plant has been designed to a high specification with quality and hard-wearing materials, including polyurethane-lined steel piping and ceramic lined high-wear areas, designed to reduce future maintenance requirements, Liontown said. In addition, the adoption of the lessons learned will be applied during the commissioning and ramp up of the plant.

Liontown’s Managing Director and CEO, Tony Ottaviano, said: “The vertically integrated approach of combining the SMP and E&I packages enables Monadelphous to efficiently deliver both programs of work to a very high standard and played a large part in its successful tender.

“Monadelphous has a large resources pool, experience in the hard-rock lithium sector, and a proven track record of delivering large-scale multi-disciplinary projects in Western Australia, which came through strongly throughout the evaluation process. Their demonstrated skills, capability and professionalism reflects Liontown’s expectations of a partnership. There is a clear line of sight to first spodumene production mid-next year.”

The Kathleen Valley operations have been optimised for an initial 3 Mt/y, producing approximately 500,000 t/y of spodumene concentrate with a 4 Mt/y expansion planned in Year 6, to deliver approximately 700,000 t/y of spodumene concentrate. Mining will predominately be underground, allowing direct access to higher grade mineralisation while minimising waste and the environmental footprint of the project. Mined ore will be processed through a whole-of-ore flotation circuit which will provide an estimated recovery rate of 78% across the mine life and an estimated site recovery for tantalum concentrate of 42%.

Australia’s first Liebherr R 9300 mining excavator starts work at Karlawinda gold mine

Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , ,

Liebherr-Australia has recently delivered an R 9300 mining excavator to long-term customer MACA at the Karlawinda gold project, in Western Australia, with the machine becoming the first such excavator commissioned in the country.

After a successful launch – with five of these excavators already sold in Indonesia – the commissioning of the first R 9300 in Australia further demonstrates the strength of the machine’s reputation, the OEM says.

The mining excavator was commissioned in late August at Karlawinda, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. MACA, a global contractor that works within the mining, construction and process engineering sectors and is owned by Thiess, is excited to welcome this machine to its growing Liebherr excavator fleet, it says.

It joins three Liebherr R 9200 excavators operating on the site, owned by Capricorn Metals, expanding MACA’s already extensive Liebherr fleet, totalling over 20 excavators.

The R 9300 was chosen not only for its capacity to assist in meeting the production targets of its client, but also for the excavator’s fuel efficiency; its state-of-the-art technology, such as Liebherr’s Assistance Systems; and its operational effectiveness, Liebherr says.

Liebherr-Australia completed the assembly, testing and commissioning of the R 9300 in a matter of four weeks. The company will continue to support the machine and MACA from both its Perth and Newman branches, as well as from the factory for Liebherr mining excavators in Colmar, France.

The R 9300 was launched to the global mining market in June of this year. It is the second Generation 8 excavator within the Liebherr Mining portfolio and comes with the most advanced Liebherr Mining innovations as standard. The R 9300 will replace the R 9250 as the 250-tonne mining excavator in Liebherr’s portfolio in 2024.

You can find out more about the R 9300 in this video interview here.

Iron Ore Company of Australia selects Rapid Crushing for Hancock crushing and screening ops

Comminution of minerals, Mineral processing, Mining equipment, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , ,

Alien Metals Ltd’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Iron Ore Company of Australia Pty Ltd (IOCA), has selected Rapid Crushing & Screening Contractors Pty Ltd as its preferred supplier to undertake the crushing and screening operations at the flagship Hancock iron ore project in the Pilbara of Western Australia.

IOCA says it has conducted a competitive market engagement over the previous six months to identify commercially and technically-adept contractors to undertake works as part of the Hancock development and operations. This process has involved pre-qualified and targeted proponents, submitting bids for specific scopes of works and agreeing to key commercial terms.

Rapid Crushing is a market leader in iron ore, having previously worked with Fortescue Metals Group and being the incumbent contractor at Galaxy Lithium for the past six years, with that work continuing. The selection of Rapid Crushing for crushing services reinforces the assumptions made within the scoping study to deliver a C1 cost of approximately $60 per tonne, Alien Metals says.

The 2021 scoping study on Hancock showcased a 1.25 Mt/y production profile that would sustain an eight-year life of mine with current resources. The company has said it plans to make its first shipments in 2023, leveraging its direct shipping ore options.

Earlier this month, IOCA named REGROUP Australia as its preferred primary contractor to undertake the construction works, mining operations and haulage services for Hancock.

The selection of Rapid Crushing – which remains subject to the completion of a positive definitive feasibility study – paves the way to finalise the updates to the financial model as the IOCA continues to progress the remaining studies and regulatory workstreams required for a final investment decision for the Hancock project, it says.

Troy Whittaker, Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are pleased to announce that Rapid Crushing has been selected as the preferred tenderer for crushing and screening operations at our Hancock project. Rapid Crushing’s significant hard-rock mining knowledge and experience, particularly in iron ore, will be of great benefit to our overall operations.

“We will be working closely with Rapid Crushing to finalise optimisation activities that support the accelerated DFS work streams related to price opportunity as we prepare and execute the contractual documents.

“The selection of Rapid Crushing finalises the material procurement efforts for the project. This will result in a high level of validated and secured costing for the Hancock project.”

Barminco wins extension at Regis Resources’ Rosemont, Garden Well operations

Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , ,

Barminco says it is further extending its relationship with Regis Resources Ltd, securing a A$70 million ($45 million), six-month extension at the gold miner’s Rosemont and Garden Well operations in Western Australia.

With both gold mines in close proximity, it allows Barminco to continue to be agile with resourcing and equipment to provide comprehensive underground mining services to our client, it says.

Regis recently opened the Balkau Decline at its Garden Well South underground mine, which is an underground extension of the Garden Well open-pit mine: a key production source at Regis’ Duketon gold project, located in the Goldfields region.

Rosemont, meanwhile, includes the Rosemont open pit and underground mine, as well as Baneygo open pit. The Rosemont and associated surface deposits are mined using conventional open-pit mining truck and shovel methods. The Rosemont underground produces approximately 600,000 t/y and is mined using mechanised open stoping.

Compass Group wins ~A$71M contract from Albemarle for Kemerton Expansion Project

Energy minerals, Mining services, , , , ,

Albemarle has awarded a major contract to Compass Group Remote Hospitality Services to operate and maintain the Paris Grove workforce accommodation precinct in Australind, near Bunbury in Western Australia.

The A$140 million ($90 million) Paris Grove village is now under construction and will provide accommodation during rosters for up to 800 people working on the A$2 billion expansion of Albemarle’s nearby Kemerton Lithium Hydroxide Processing Plant.

The contract to operate and maintain Paris Grove is valued at just under A$71 million and spans three years with extension provisions. Compass Group’s ESS Support Services Worldwide arm will be responsible for the contract and is highly experienced in operating modern workforce accommodation in a variety of settings in Western Australia and across Australia.

Around 70 people will be employed by the company on a rolling roster with the company seeking to employ as many local people as possible.

Albemarle’s Paris Grove Operations Manager, Grant Barrow, said the village was being developed as a sustainable, long term accommodation precinct specifically to support Kemerton plant expansion.

“Paris Grove will be a modern, high-quality and purpose-built village accommodating around 800 rostered workers and taking pressure off existing rentals and short term accommodation in the South West,” he said.

“Albemarle is setting out to positively change the approach to village management and operations and Compass Group will help us implement a healthy and safe culture for our workers – in line with recommendations of the recent WA Government resource sector inquiry.”

The village design is landscape-led and is being built by Grounded Construction Group. Compass Group’s ESS will roll out and maintain all onsite catering, accommodation, cleaning, security, health and lifestyle programs, grounds services and facilities management.

“A local leading interior designer has also been working on the village dining area to be a harmonious backdrop to what will be diverse and rotating high quality menu, prepared in a state-of-the-art commercial grade kitchen,” Barrow said.

“Recreation facilities and personalised and group health and wellbeing programs, including fitness activities will be very important and Albemarle is working closely with Compass Group on a range of measures to support psychosocial health at Paris Grove.”

The Compass Group contract award follows the recent Albemarle announcement of two other major Kemerton expansion contracts including a A$330 million contract to UGL, part of the CIMIC Group, and a A$200 million-plus contract to Monadelphous.

Albemarle’s Kemerton Expansion Project will see construction of processing trains three and four with plant capacity set to double at full capacity to up to 100,000 t/y of lithium hydroxide.

Albemarle’s VP, Capital Projects Australia, Josh Rowan said the contracts were among the largest ever awarded by Albemarle and that the Compass Group/ESS Contract was the first workforce accommodation contract ever awarded by the company in Australia.

“We are Australia’s largest producer and manufacturer of lithium and our Kemerton plant is about to get a whole lot bigger,” Rowan said. “Construction of trains 3 and 4 is set to create over 1000 new jobs across all of our major contractors and Albemarle has recently launched an intensive three-month recruitment drive in support of our major Kemerton contractors.

“We are particularly pleased that Compass Group is seeking to employ as many local people as possible to run and manage Paris Grove with the variety and flexibility of roles set to be very attractive to local job seekers.”

IMDEX joins Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct, plans for Dirt Lab

Automation, Explosives and blasting, Mining equipment, Mining safety, , , , , ,

IMDEX says it has become a major industry partner of the new Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct in Perth, Western Australia.

The partnership with the state government-owned precinct will allow IMDEX to accelerate testing and demonstration of technology including its BLAST DOG™ at a site close to its Balcatta headquarters

IMDEX BLAST DOG is a commodity-agnostic blasthole sensing and physical measurement technology that provides near real-time blasthole physicals and orebody knowledge, and a 3D view into the bench.

The 51 ha automation and robotics precinct 40 km north of the Perth Central Business District was purpose-built for testing, research and development, and training in autonomous, remote operations, and robotic systems and equipment.

Launched in October 2021, the Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct currently provides extensive test beds, freehold lots and an onsite office for industry use. It is being developed into a facility for innovation, with a state-of-the-art Common User Facility operation building, research and development facilities such as laboratories and design co-labs, and advanced test beds with multiple areas and roadways for physical testing.

IMDEX has signed on as an industry partner for an initial period of two years and will build and maintain a common user drill pad as a critical part of a 22 ha Dirt Lab, which will enable various commercial and collaborative opportunities as an innovation mine test and development site.

IMDEX Chief Executive Officer, Paul House (pictured on the right with IMDEX Chief Strategy Officer, Michelle Carey (centre) and Stuart Nahajski, DevelopmentWA General Manager Regional (left)), said having a purpose-built, robotics research and development site so close to the company’s headquarters was ideal.

“While we operate globally and have an unrivalled presence on all major mining operations, Western Australia is home to some of the world’s major mining companies so having the opportunity to develop and promote our technology locally is an additional benefit,” House said.

“BLAST DOG won’t be the only technology we will test at the site. We have plans for testing a range of IMDEX tools and technology developed by our research and development team.”

IMDEX has recently signed deals with two tier-one mining companies for further commercial testing of BLAST DOG.

The company achieved its first commercial contract with BLAST DOG in August 2022, at Iron Bridge in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, with the agreement providing for the staged use of up to three units together with associated products, software, data analysis, reporting and support.

Six commercial prototype trials were planned for the 2023 financial year under the first phase of BLAST DOG development.

BLAST DOG has been developed in collaboration with Universal Field Robots and IMDEX industry partners Teck Resources and Anglo American.

WesTrac to deploy Palantir Technologies’ Foundry across Component Rebuild Centres, Inventory Management teams

Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining services, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Palantir Technologies and WesTrac, one of the world’s largest Caterpillar dealers and leading provider of heavy mobile equipment and aftermarket services to the Australian mining and construction sectors, have announced a multi-year enterprise expansion of their partnership, which first began in 2021, to deploy Foundry across core operations.

The expanded partnership will initially focus on deploying Foundry across WesTrac’s Component Rebuild Centres and to Inventory Management teams, to drive greater overall efficiency and customer delivery for WesTrac, Palantir says.

Palantir’s Foundry operating system is being used to help increase throughput of WesTrac’s Component Rebuild Centre at its headquarters in Perth, Western Australia, and is being expanded to the Company’s Tomago facility, in New South Wales. Foundry is used daily by workshop planners and supervisors to improve task scheduling decisions, manage upcoming part constraints, and increase labour efficiency through proactive alerting on task performance and schedule adherence. Foundry will also be leveraged by WesTrac’s Inventory Management teams to identify deficits in available inventory that may block workshop progress, enabling the team to make more proactive ordering decisions, Palantir says.

Jarvas Croome, CEO at WesTrac, said: “In the current technology-rich era, WesTrac has a strong focus on incorporating enhanced data-driven decisions across our business as we look to drive our own digital transformation and improve delivery of Cat® products in Australia. Implementing Foundry has delivered a strong initial return on investment, and we anticipate the five-year expansion of our partnership with Palantir will enhance return on investment and enable more data-driven decisions. The Foundry platform has been a leading feature within WesTrac, with rapid uptake, high usability and widespread acceptance by users across the business.

“As we expand the scope of Foundry, including to new applications like artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, we expect uptake of Palantir’s products to increase. WesTrac is committed to providing world-class products and services to our customers by ensuring operations are supported by the latest technology, which is why we are pleased be extending our partnership with Palantir.”

Ashwin Rajan, Head of Commercial for Australia at Palantir, said Foundry is now serving as the digital twin for WesTrac’s core operations, delivering tangible business benefits.

“The suite of software in Foundry help front-line Component Rebuild Centre & Inventory Teams improve overall efficiency and customer delivery,” he said. “For example, in just the last six months, Foundry has identified a significant number of constrained parts blocking work order progress – and suggested remediation strategies to ensure continued operations. WesTrac predicts these outcomes alongside improvements in inventory management will drive overall throughput up by at least 5% over the next five years, with additional benefits expected in other areas such as reduced working capital requirements and improved time to invoice.”

In addition to Foundry, WesTrac plans to explore AI solutions leveraging a suite of software including Palantir’s new Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP). AIP, Palantir says, can allow WesTrac to better connect sales to operations, by enabling sales functions to ask questions of workshop operations, to inform sales strategy and improve the accuracy of information provided to customers.

Fortescue kicks off battery-electric truck testing in the Pilbara

Environmental, Mine operation news, Mining equipment, Power supply for mines, Steel and iron ore, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fortescue Metals Group has started testing a battery-electric truck at its operations in the Pilbara of Western Australia as part of its latest decarbonisation efforts.

Having floated the idea of a battery-electric haul truck some three years ago – and started a physical build process 12 months ago – the company is now testing a battery-electric converted MT4400 AC truck at its Christmas Creek iron ore operations, Fortescue confirmed last week.

WAE and Fortescue Future Industries, part of Fortescue’s newly branded Fortescue Energy division, have been spearheading developments on this truck, referred to as the “Roadrunner” (pictured). The 221-t payload vehicle is fitted with a 1.4 MWh battery from WAE. It has already been run through more than 20 hours of dynamic testing that has included, among other things, downhill recharging scenarios, Fortescue said last week.

The vehicle is thought to be the largest battery-electric haul truck running in Pilbara operating conditions.

The converted MT4400 AC is expected to be joined by a 3 MW charger prototype – developed by WAE and a third party – by the end of the year. “This will help us to understand and develop haul truck duty and charging cycles,” Mark Hutchinson, CEO of Fortescue Future Industries, said in a conference call last week.

In June, Fortescue, through WAE, announced the expansion of its battery and electric powertrain production operations in the UK with an additional state-of-the-art facility in Oxfordshire. The facility, which will open in 2024, will focus on the production of a wide range of zero emission products for the off-road sector, including trucks and trains.

Alongside these battery-electric developments, Fortescue said it will have its first “green hydrogen fuel cell haul truck” on site for similar testing next year. This truck is being delivered through the company’s partnership with Liebherr and will be based off a 240-t-payload T 264 haul truck.

In June 2022, Fortescue announced a partnership with Liebherr for the development and supply of green mining haul trucks for integration with the “zero emissions power system” technologies being developed by FFI and WAE. Under the partnership, Fortescue agreed to purchase a fleet of 120 haul trucks from Liebherr; a commitment that represents approximately 45% of the current haul truck fleet at Fortescue’s operations.

In answer to an analyst question last week, Christiaan Heyning, FFI’s Head of Decarbonisation, said: “We are…putting both battery-electric trucks as well as a fuel cell electric trucks on-site this calendar year to do extended testing to figure out the ramp-up efficiency of both battery-electric and fuel cell. We will use those insights to make the final decisions about what our fleet will be.

“As you appreciate, it’s really dependent on whole routes and, therefore, we need to do more testing before we can make up our mind.”

A 100-day “sprint” FFI project focused on converting a legacy 221-t class Terex Unit Rig MT4400 AC electric drive, diesel-powered haul truck to run on a ‘green’ hydrogen 180 kW fuel cell system and a 300 kW/h battery was previously completed and run at Fortescue’s Hazelmere facility in Western Australia.

Hexagon, MinRes to ‘transform mining’ with autonomous road train developments

Automation, IoT, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining services, Mining software, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hexagon AB has signed a major agreement with diversified mining company Mineral Resources (MinRes) to provide an autonomous haulage solution for a fleet of road trains to run at the Onslow iron ore project in Western Australia, which, the companies say, will transform safety, productivity and sustainability in the region.

The world-first, fully autonomous road trains are a full-site, truck-agnostic solution, leveraging positioning, onboard autonomy and by-wire, fleet management, collision avoidance, world perception and autonomous mission management solutions from Hexagon.

These solutions will be added to Kenworth 330 t road trains (coming with three trailers each), which will run autonomously on MinRes’ 150 km private haul road.

This agreement builds on two major milestones the companies achieved over the last two years in anticipation of rolling out the fully autonomous road trains at Onslow.

In late 2021, Hexagon and MinRes signed an agreement to develop an autonomous road train solution as part of a plan to unlock “stranded tonnes” in the Pilbara of Western Australia. Then, in April 2022, the companies announced a world-first had been achieved with the successful demonstration of a triple-trailer, automated road train platoon in the Yilgarn of Western Australia – each autonomous road train, in this case, hauling 300 t of iron ore.

Andrew Crose, Vice President, Autonomous Mining, Hexagon’s Mining division, told IM that the speed of adoption of this automated solution – from agreement to demonstration, to planned commercial deployment, in a little over two years – was aided by the abilities and efforts of a global team of Hexagon experts.

“Hexagon has staffed a large multi-national team across the Hexagon technologies stack across Perth (Australia), United States, Brazil, Switzerland and Canada to deliver this technology,” he said.

The companies also worked within the framework of the established Code of Practice for Safe Mobile Autonomous Mining in Western Australia to gain the necessary regulatory approvals to move the project forward at such a pace.

Mike Grey, Chief Executive, MinRes, said in the press release: “Automation will remove the risk of driver fatigue, lower operating costs and reduce fuel use and emissions. There’s enormous potential for these vehicles to transform mining across the world.”

Commissioning of the autonomous road trains is expected to fall in line with the go-live date for Onslow – currently estimated for the first half of 2024.

The road trains form an important part of the 35 Mt/y project, ensuring this tonnage is moved from the mine to the Port of Ashburton.

MinRes has said previously that the autonomous road train technology will initially be adopted for its own mining operations, with a view to offering the solution to its Tier 1 customer base as it grows its Mining Services division.

Hexagon recently expanded its autonomy offering with the acquisition of HARD-LINE; a deal that, Nick Hare, President, Hexagon’s Mining division, says allows the company to provide a scalable automation platform that all mining companies can use and grow with.