The Queensland Government has recognised the importance of vanadium as a new economy mineral with plans for a processing plant in Townsville.
The mineral is used in large-scale grid batteries called redox flow batteries. These batteries store the charge in liquid form, enabling larger capacities.
Queensland Treasurer and Minister for Trade and Investment Cameron Dick said vanadium would play a significant part in the state’s transition to clean energy.
“We want regional Queensland to be a global leader when it comes to everything that’s part of the renewable energy revolution,” he said.
“Australia has the world’s third largest deposits of vanadium resources, but right now we don’t produce a single kilogram of processed vanadium.
“The mining companies looking to process vanadium at an industrial scale don’t have the capital necessary to make that jump. That’s where our government can step in.”
The government will put at least $10 million towards the common-user facility, sourced from the $520 million Invested in Queensland program.
The Treasurer said it was still in the process of tendering for construction contracts and selecting the location.
“Once producers can see for themselves how processing occurs, they will have the confidence to invest in more manufacturing infrastructure and more jobs,” he said.
“Mining companies will be able to transport ore from their mine site to Townsville, enabling them to begin producing mineral samples at scale.”
Earlier in 2021, the mineral made headlines for Queensland’s mining industry when Multicom Resources announced the go-ahead for the $250 million Saint Elmo vanadium mine, 250 kilometres east of Mount Isa.
This mine and the new Townsville processing facility will ramp up concurrently, as both begin construction in 2022 with first production expected in 2023.
Queensland Minister for Resources Scott Stewart said these developments were only the start of Queensland’s vanadium industry.
“Saint Elmo is just the beginning, with other companies progressing other potential vanadium mines in what could become a world-class vanadium hub in the northwest, so having this processing facility in Townsville will ensure locals reap the benefits,” Stewart said.
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(2)North Star BlueScope 公司:该公司于1996年在美国俄亥俄州成立,是北美最高效的钢厂之一。公司的双电弧炉每年利用废金属、生铁和合金生产约200万吨的热轧卷。公司大约90%的产品在美国中西部地区销售,其终端客户群组大致为50%的汽车制造商、35%的建筑公司、10%的制造公司、以及5%的农业公司。
(5)新西兰和太平洋业务部门(NZPI):该部门业务包括Waikato North Head矿、新西兰钢铁公司、太平洋钢铁公司、以及太平洋群岛业务。新西兰钢铁公司是新西兰唯一一家一体化的钢铁生产商,公司使用当地的铁砂,每年生产约67万吨的钢坯。NZPI生产一系列供国内和出口使用的扁钢和长钢产品,拥有约2000名员工。
公司看点(1):BlueScope在21财年末时,其订单和发货量均保持强势。北美的现货钢价也高于2021财政年度下半年和长期的平均水平。因此,公司当时预计,22财年上半年的基准息税前利润将在18亿至20亿澳元之间。公司本周发布公告提升了该预期,即22财年上半年的基准息税前利润预计在21亿至23亿澳元之间。其中,North Star BlueScope公司的业绩提升最为明显。此外,澳大利亚钢材产品部门的产量也有所增加,尤其是高附加值产品的增长,出口焦炭的贡献也超过了预期,以及北美涂层产品需求持续旺盛。
BHP has officially opened its $4.6 billion South Flank iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, celebrating the completion of the project’s five-year journey on time and budget.
In 2016, the company began planning for a new operation to potentially replace its ageing Yandi iron ore mine, with environmental documents opened to the public in June of that year.
South Flank began gathering pace in 2017 when Decmil secured a $13 million contract with BHP for initial works at the proposed development.
The project scope included civil and enabling works at the Mulla Mulla village, which required expansion to support operations at Mining Area C and the South Flank project.
Contract mining and earthworks provider MACA (https://www.maca.net.au/our-business/crushing/crushing-and-screening/) secured a three-year contract to become a crushing and screening provider for BHP in May the following year.
BHP turned the first sod at the site a year later in July after the project received approval from the Western Australia Government.
In December, 2019, Mammoet started transporting the first heavy components for BHP’s South Flank iron ore project in the Pilbara region, Western Australia.
BHP used Mammoet trailers to move approximately 1900 items, including prefabricated and modular mine processing plant units across 340 kilometres from Port Hedland to the new site.
BHP contractor Fluor Corporation commenced the construction of the ore handling plant in the South Flank project at the start of January 2020.
Six months later the company held off a portion of mine development in June due to its impact on cultural heritage sites belonging to the Banjima people.
By August last year the company had developed more than three quarters of the South Flank project.
The company advanced its development projects and delivered strong results during the 2020 financial year despite the impact of COVID-19.
First ore was delivered at the site in May this year ahead of this week’s official opening with the development creating 9000 direct and indirect jobs during construction, and will sustain more than 600 permanent ongoing jobs.
The opening celebrations were attended by Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan, Banjima Traditional Owners and joint venture partners, ITOCHU and Mitsui.
The 80 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) site is the largest iron ore mine Australia has seen in over 50 years and combines with BHP’s Mining Area C to be the largest iron ore hub in the world – producing a combined 145Mtpa.
BHP Western Australia iron ore (WAIO) asset president Brandon Craig said South Flank is BHP’s most technically advanced mine.
“It will sustain more than 600 ongoing jobs, plus opportunities for hundreds of local businesses and billions of dollars in royalties to Western Australia,” Craig said
“South Flank’s product has high lump content and increases the quality of BHP’s blended products for steelmaking customers, improving blast furnace efficiency and supporting decarbonisation efforts.
“South Flank’s premium iron ore will be shipped to global steel producers to build electricity, transport and urban infrastructure around the world over the next 25 years.”
BHP has produced the first nickel sulphate crystals from its Kwinana nickel sulphate plant south of Perth in Western Australia.
Nickel sulphate is a key material in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs), with more than 85 per cent of BHP’s current production sold to the future-battery supply chain.
The production follows an announcement in July that BHP will supply Tesla with nickel from its Nickel West assets in a collaboration which will aim to make the battery supply chain more sustainable.
According to BHP, the nickel sulphate plant is an Australian-first and will produce 100,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate per year when fully operational.
Nickel from BHP’s mines is processed at the Kalgoorlie nickel smelter, before it is transported to the Kwinana nickel refinery and refined into nickel metal in the form of powder or briquette.
The powder is then processed through the new sulphate plant to make nickel sulphate and will be exported to global battery markets from Fremantle port.
BHP Nickel West asset president Jessica Farrell said the plant is expected to produce enough premium nickel sulphate to make 700,000 EV batteries each year.
“The plant will create 80 new direct jobs and support 400 new indirect jobs, in addition to the 200 construction jobs that were created during the construction phase,” Farrell said,
“High quality and sustainable nickel is essential for our customers, and we expect demand for nickel in batteries will increase by 500 per cent in the next decade.
“Our investment to upgrade the refinery to produce high purity nickel sulphate, along with nickel powder and briquettes, will enhance Nickel West’s position as a supplier of choice for the growing global electric battery market.”
Over half of the plant was fabricated in Western Australia using local skills and suppliers including the steel work, fibreglass leach vessels and stainless steel tanks.
The plant consists of leaching tanks, purification technology, a crystalliser and dryer, and an automated packaging system.
BHP’s Nickel West employs over 2500 people and its operations include a fully integrated mine-to-metal business.
This includes open cut and underground mining operations in Western Australia; concentrators at Mt Keith, Leinster and Kambalda; a smelter at Kalgoorlie that produces nickel-in-matte; and the Kwinana refinery.
Advances in digital technology are set to transform safety in the mining industry and equip remote operating centres with better tools and leading-edge analytics to improve the safety of workers in high risk locations.
Smart mining operators are replacing paper-based systems with new cloud-based technology to improve safety and predictability by overseeing people and equipment on site from back office locations, accessing real-time data for incident prevention and even using facial recognition and geo fencing alarms to safeguard isolated workers.
New safety challenges require a new approach
Although health and safety in mining has improved significantly in recent years, serious injuries are still regularly occurring, and COVID-19 has brought a new range of new health and safety challenges to the forefront.
Distributed and remote workforces remain critical to mining operations and a safe working environment is vital. Improved safety requires higher levels of communication, greater visibility of safe work practices and earlier identification and mitigation of potential hazards to maintain work operations and enforce safety controls during tough times.
High-tech solutions that improve safety while maintaining privacy
Leading asset and work management systems, such as Lumada Field Service Management, are using the latest technology to enable asset-intensive industries to be more insightful, adaptive, predictive and prescriptive, allowing to operate safely, efficiently and effectively.
The risk of incidents can be dramatically reduced by enabling a regional control centre to monitor the location of vehicles and the safety of people, in near real time.
The use of video insights, Internet of Things (IoT), analytics and artificial intelligence technologies is enabling a new world of more granular data and offers continuous operational insights without breaching personal privacy expectations.
Employees and contractors on site can also receive, review and execute work enabled by digitalised workflows, which improves data capture and can help identify and prevent future asset failures that may pose safety risks and result in downtime.
Special features such as the ability to create safety geofences that raise alerts when people enter defined locations of risk and assessments verifying that the environment is safe prior to workers commencing, greatly improve situational awareness and reduce onsite incidents.
Should an incident occur, analysis using worker replay can show the prior movement of onsite field workers and identify areas where compliance or safety controls need to be reviewed and improved.
The Lumada Field Service Management solution also integrates and builds on existing technologies, without sacrificing software investments that have already been made. Manual processes, such as the transfer of data to upstream systems, is eliminated, improving accuracy and freeing resources to focus on higher value work.
A holistic approach to asset management is key
Smart mines are embracing high-tech solutions to holistically and cost effectively manage the performance of workforces and assets. Advanced enterprise software is becoming essential for not only achieving best practice safety management by allowing managers to react in real time, but also for minimising asset downtime, maximising efficiency and reducing operating costs.
LumadaEnterpriseAsset Management is a solution for mining organisations looking to gain efficiencies in managing their asset portfolio and establishing best practice processes.
For mining companies with aging assets, Lumada Asset Performance Management enables the prevention of critical failures while minimising asset lifecycle costs.
Predictive, condition-based maintenance can ensure employees are working in a safer environment and in the right place at the right time, to cost-effectively address asset performance issues.
Predictive maintenance can extend the remaining useful life of assets and optimise utilisation to increase return on investment.
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