Tag Archives: Western Australia

More gas for APA Group in Goldfields region of Western Australia

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APA Group has executed an agreement to extend and expand gas services to an existing customer in the Goldfields region of Western Australia.

Under this agreement, gas will travel over 1,200 km across the energy infrastructure business’ West Coast Grid.

The expansion contract is expected to generate some A$45 million ($32 million) of revenue, of which A$21 million is renewal revenues, over the five-year agreement period, starting in November.

APA said the contract is the most significant of three it has entered into to support the expansion of the Murrin Murrin Lateral, a transmission pipeline located in south Western Australia that is 84 km in length and has a capacity of 45.6 TJ/d. It connects the Goldfields Gas Pipeline to the Eastern Goldfields Pipeline, which then connects to the Sunrise Dam, Tropicana and Granny Smith gold mines in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia.

The APA Group is also currently constructing the Yamarna Gas Pipeline, which it expects to use to link the Murrin Murrin Lateral to a new APA Group-owned Yamarna Power Station. The Murrin Murrin Lateral is part of the Eastern Goldfields Pipeline System, which also includes the Eastern Goldfields Pipeline, Gwalia Lateral, Mt Morgans Lateral and Yamarna Gas Pipeline.

Panoramic looks to RCT teleremote solution for quick wins at Savannah North

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Panoramic Resources has looked to RCT’s Guidance Automation system to increase productivity at its soon-to-be-producing Savannah North nickel project in Western Australia.

Already familiar with RCT’s Smart Technology – having implemented the company’s teleremote function on its machines at the previously-operating Savannah mine – Panoramic is aware of the safety aspects of the technology and looked towards an upgrade to further drive productivity and profitability, according to RCT.

RCT’s ControlMaster® Guidance Automation, Point-to-Point and G-Dash will soon be installed on the site’s existing CAT R2900 LHDs; allowing operators to safely control the machines from the comfort of an Automation Centre on the site’s surface.

In this instance, RCT will be retrofitting the site’s existing Telecabins, to make use of existing infrastructure.

These cabins will undergo a full refurbishment and be fitted out with the latest control chairs, Laser Guard containment and communication hardware features.

“Guidance Automation and Point-to-Point features will increase productivity by allowing for ‘hot-seat’ during shift changes, significantly reduce unexpected downtime associated with machine damage, and increase overall machine utilisation which will in turn increase profitability,” RCT says.

RCT will also provide specialised training for operators, to make them more self-sufficient on site to further reduce downtime.

Delivery of this project is underway, while Panoramic is due to start mining at Savannah North this quarter.

The project is expected to ramp up to full production over 15 months to a forecast life of mine average annual production rate of 10,800 t of nickel, 6,100 t of copper and 800 t of cobalt metal contained in concentrate.

Westgold loses HBJ mining contract as it hits first ore at Big Bell

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Westgold Resources’ wholly-owned mining contractor, Australian Contract Mining (ACM), has had its mine development and production services contract at the HBJ operation in Western Australia cancelled.

The ASX-listed company was advised by HBJ owner Northern Star Resources (NST) that it will terminate the contract on a “without cause basis” effective December 23.

ACM continued to provide complete mine development and production services to NST at HBJ following the A$80 million ($58 million) sale of the South Kalgoorlie operations by Westgold to NST earlier this year.

Westgold was under the impression most of the equipment currently employed at HBJ could be placed into immediate use at project expansions within Westgold’s existing operations. It hopes to continue to offer employment to the majority of both fly-in, fly-out and residential personnel employed at the mine.

Related to this, Westgold announced it had just hit first ore at its Big Bell underground mine (pictured), which is a milestone for the ramp up in its Cue gold operations in the Murchison Region of WA. Westgold has been dewatering and refurbishing the Big Bell underground mine for over two years.

The base load for the Cue 10-year development plan is based around the Big Bell underground mine – which is expected to provide 10.1 Mt at 3 g/t Au from the company’s 2020 financial year.

Sheffield signs up GR Engineering for Thunderbird mineral sands project

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Sheffield Resources has awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the building of a 7.5 Mt/y mineral processing plant and associated facilities at its Thunderbird mineral sands project in Western Australia to GR Engineering Services.

The contract sum is around A$366.3 million ($264 million) with commencement of work subject to GR Engineering being issued with a full notice to proceed. This, in itself, is dependent on Sheffield satisfying remaining financing conditions ahead of a final investment decision being made to pursue the development of the project.

GR Engineering’s award comes after it was engaged as preferred tenderer in October 2017 to progress early works on the project. The company has substantially progressed detailed design and procurement activities during this time, GR Engineering said.

Delivery is scheduled to occur over approximately two years from the date of site mobilisation, which is anticipated in the June quarter of 2019, following the wet season.

GR Engineering’s scope of work under the contract extends to the engineering design, procurement, construction, commissioning and testing of all process and non-process infrastructure for the project, including a wet concentrate plant, mineral separation plant, low temperature roasting plant, administration buildings, bore fields and high voltage power distribution in addition to all civil scope items. It will also provide operations support for a six month term post-completion.

Sheffield also secured a A$240 million seven-year loan from Taurus Funds that will be used to reduce the miner’s operating costs by at least A$7.5 million every year over a 42-year life of mine, it announced. This means it has been able to accumulate A$335 million of loan facilities to enable the project to proceed.

Sheffield says its bankable feasibility study shows Thunderbird is a technically low risk, modest capital expenditure project positioned to generate strong cash margins from globally significant levels of production over a mine life of 42 years.

The company is targeting initial production in the December quarter of 2020.

Newcrest Mining after Telfer profitability jump with ore sorting technology

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Newcrest Mining has confirmed ore sorting technology is one of several innovations it is currently investigating at group level to increase profitability and build on its substantial resource base.

The gold and copper miner’s technology and innovation team spoke at length at the company’s recent investor day about how new developments could enable the miner to produce more, lower costs, increase mine lives and improve safety across the group.

Next generation caving and hydrometallurgical processing, plus robotic mining, was part of the company’s five breakthrough strategies target by 2020, as was selective processing and what it called “sustainable mines”. The latter could see an increased focus on mine electrification and the use of renewable energy.

X-ray ore sorting tests carried out by TOMRA on the company’s Telfer operation in Western Australia had already shown impressive results, according to Executive General Manager of Gosowong and Telfer, Phil Stephenson.

Results to date indicated ore sorting could triple the grade and recover nearly 80% of the gold in the scats stream, according to Stephenson.

Over three months from August, 100,000 t of feed had been tested in a >160 t/h pebble sorting circuit at an average gold and copper feed grade of 0.18 g/t Au and 0.04% Cu. Some 79% of gold and 60% of copper had been recovered with a mass recovery to product of 26% and product grades of 0.56 g/t Au and 0.08% Cu, according to Newcrest.

Following these results, feasibility work had already commenced to design and install a full-scale plant at the scats stream expected to increase overall gold recovery at Telfer by 2-4%, Newcrest said.

And, Stephenson admitted the company is already weighing up the use of this technology on Telfer ore, with a sample from the West Dome open pit recently sent off for testing.

Stephenson didn’t want to say too much on the results, but indicated they had “exceeded our expectations”.

“If we can get this to work at the front end, we could go from two [processing] trains to one,” he told investors last week, adding this would take a big chunk out of the operation’s cost base.

The ore from the Telfer mining operations is processed by a large, dual train, communition circuit followed by flotation and cyanide circuits, which produce gold doré and a copper-gold concentrate. In the financial year ending June 30, 2016, Telfer produced 462,461 oz of gold and 18,940 t of copper.

Should the technology prove worthwhile at Telfer, expect Newcrest to look to apply it elsewhere across its operations.

Barminco and Independence Group establish Technology Development Committee

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Barminco Holdings and Independence Group have established a Technology Development Committee at the same time as the two agreed to extend the services contract at the Australian miner’s Nova nickel-copper-cobalt operation in Western Australia.

The committee’s aim is to identify and implement innovative methods and technologies to advance safety and productivity in underground mining. According to Barminco Chief Executive Officer, Paul Muller, this will initially target projects such as the early stage development of electric vehicles, enhanced mine control systems, machine vision and proximity detection.

In the meantime, a four-year contract extension for underground mining services at Nova will see Barminco pocket some A$240 million ($170 million). There is an option for a two-year extension within the contract.

Muller said Nova was an important project for the company, with Barminco delivering 29 km of development and extracting 2.4 Mt of ore since development started in 2015.

“Barminco has supported the Nova project’s transition from development, starting with excavation of the box-cut on Australia Day 2015, to production, delivering a successful first year of commercial production in the 2018 financial year.” The 2018 financial year saw the operation produce 22,258 t of nickel and 9,545 t of copper.

Muller added: “We now look forward to working closely with IGO under a formal arrangement to drive further productivity and safety improvements at Nova.”

Peter Bradford, IGO’s Managing Director and CEO, said: “Barminco has been an important partner in the development of Nova. With the majority of the capital development completed at Nova there is a focus on incremental operational and productivity improvements associated with stope mining activities.

“The four-year term, with the option to extend by two years, allows us to work together to unlock this value.”

He added that both companies are committed to mapping and implementing these productivity improvements through new technologies, with the establishment of the technology committee representing an important step towards this objective.

Just last week, Barminco, which is in the middle of being taken over by Ausdrill, was awarded two four-year contracts at Gold Fields’ Agnew gold mine in Western Australia.

On the same day the Nova contract extension was announced, Ausdrill confirmed its shareholders had signed off the deal for Barminco. The offer values Barminco’s equity at A$271.5 million. The deal is now expected to be completed by the end of the month.

Barminco gets another four years at Gold Fields’ Agnew mine

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Barminco Holdings has been awarded two four-year contracts at Gold Fields’ Agnew gold mine in Western Australia, extending its existing underground mining services and diamond drilling agreements through to 2022.

The contracts are worth some A$335 million ($238 million) and include options for a further 12-month extension. They cover underground mining services at Agnew, including development and production activities and associated services at the Waroonga mine, and diamond drilling at both Waroonga and New Holland.

Barminco CEO Paul Muller said the contracts extended Barminco’s long-standing relationship with Gold Fields to 12 years, having commenced operations at Agnew in 2010.

“Over that time, we have completed approximately 50 km of development and 2.5 Mt of production,” he added.

Gold Fields Executive Vice President Australasia, Stuart Matthews said: “The Agnew mine continues to be a strong performer in the Gold Fields group, exceeding both production and cost guidance last year, whilst also increasing revenues.

“We are committed to ongoing investment to maintain its life and production profile, with a further $25 million exploration programme underway at Agnew this year, and investment in key infrastructure projects, including the new accommodation camp for our employees and contractors.”

Agnew regularly produces over 250,000 oz of gold a year.

Barminco is currently in the middle of being taken over by Ausdrill in a deal that values Barminco’s equity at A$271.5 million.

NRW Holdings ready to blast at Greenbushes, South Flank

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NRW Holdings Ltd’s Action Drill & Blast subsidiary has announced new contracts at two of the biggest development projects in Australia.

It has been awarded a 15-month extension by Talison Lithium for services at the Greenbushes mine, in Western Australia, which is currently in the process of going through an expansion to boost lithium carbonate equivalent production to more than 160,000 t/y.

The contract extension is for blasthole drilling, grade control and blasting services and builds on the relationship from 2011 when the original contract was awarded. The contract, which incorporates an increased scope of works, has an estimated value of A$13.5 million ($9.6 million), according to NRW.

The subsidiary has also been awarded a sub-contract for drill and blast services at the South Flank iron ore project, also in Western Australia, which is owned by BHP.

The contract is valued at some A$11 million and will have a duration of eight months, NRW said.

South Flank is a $3.6 billion development, involving construction of an 80 Mt/y crushing and screening plant, an overland conveyor system, stockyard and train loading facilities, procurement of new mining fleet and substantial mine development and pre-strip work. It is expected to result in first ore coming out from the new mine in 2021.

GR Engineering gets the Abra lead-silver DFS gig

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Galena Mining has retained Australia-based GR Engineering Services to carry out the bulk of the definitive feasibility study (DFS) on its Abra lead-silver project in Western Australia.

The engineering company will undertake key portions of the DFS related to plant design, capital and operating cost estimation, and process and non-process infrastructure evaluation.

The commencement of the study comes following an “excellent” prefeasibility study for Abra, according to Galena. This envisaged a 1.2 Mt/y underground mine and conventional flotation concentrator for the project, producing a high-grade lead-silver concentrate containing some 91,000 t/y of lead and 760,000 oz/y of silver over a 14-year mine life.

GR Engineering Managing Director, Geoff Jones said: “GR Engineering was involved in the Abra PFS and we are pleased to have been engaged to deliver key aspects of the DFS and to assist Galena to realise the significant potential of the Abra base metals project.”

The DFS is targeted for completion in mid-2019. In the meantime, Galena expects to make progress on a number of other milestones including an updated resource, a review of the Abra ore reserve and underground mine design/schedule, permitting, and continuation of discussions related to offtake and project finance.

Galena is targeting commencement of construction at Abra in 2019, followed by initial production in 2021 and the first full year of steady-state commercial output in 2022.

During the past 11 years, GR Engineering has completed more than 40 design and construction projects and over 160 feasibility studies including a number of Australia base metals projects, Galena said.

Altura Mining ships first lithium concentrate to Chinese offtake partner

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The first shipment of spodumene concentrate from Altura Mining’s lithium project in Western Australia has set sail from Port Hedland.

The vessel, ‘MV Clipper Tenacious’, was loaded with approximately 5,000 t of concentrate and is headed for Altura’s offtake partner Lionergy in China.

The focus for Altura is now the ongoing ramp-up of production to the nameplate capacity of 220,000 t/y of 6% LiO2 concentrate and regular shipments, Altura said, with the next shipment expected to depart in late October.

Altura Mining Managing Director James Brown said the company was now part of the “lithium-ion battery revolution”.

“A little bit of the Pilbara will now be found in the car, mobile phones and static storage batteries of the future.”

It was only in July, Altura declared first concentrate output from its mine, 16 months after the company broke ground on the project and two months since crushing operations began.