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S11D making progress including positioning of first of seven large fully mobile IPCC rigs

Some key milestones for Carajás S11D Iron, one of the largest projects in Vale’s history, have been reached recently. The mine, located in Canaã dos Carajás in southeast Pará, has now been powered up. Along the 101 km railway branch line that links the mine to the Carajás Railway, all the ties and rails have been installed, permitting the movement of construction locomotives to finalise the last details. In turn, at Ponta da Madeira Maritime Terminal in São Luís, Maranhão, to where S11D’s iron ore will be taken by the Carajás Railway, the assisted operation phase of the port’s onshore expansion work has begun.

The onshore part of the S11D logistics project consists of building port infrastructure on land to receive and store the ore from the mine in southeast Pará. This includes two rotary car dumpers, a set of conveyor belts, a stacker and two reclaimers. The stacker is one of four installed at the port, and they are the world’s largest. These machines are 45 m tall, equivalent to a seven-floor building, and they are each able to move 16,000 t/h of ore. Working together, the reclaimers and stackers have the function of arranging cargo in the stockyard and moving the products to be loaded onto ships.

“This next stage will allow the operation and maintenance teams, together with the project teams, to work in harmony to ensure flawless, full operations, until we reach 100% reliability of the onshore equipment,” says operational readiness team leader, Evalton Sena.

The S11D project, which includes a mine, plant, and railway and port logistics, is now 79% executed, and it will start up in the second half of this year. The mine and plant are 90% complete, while the logistics part (including the railway branch line) is at the 70% mark. Considering just the branch line, the work is 92% complete. Total investment amounts to $14.4 billion – $6.5 billion used to implement the mine and plant, and $7.9 billion spent on constructing the branch line, double-tracking the Carajás Railway, and expanding Ponta da Madeira Maritime Terminal.

The first large machine will be positioned at the mine in the coming days: a Sandvik PF200-9500 mobile crusher that is 54 m long, 15 m tall and 17 m wide and equipped with a hybrid crusher that has elements of both the sizer and double roll crusher. This is the first of a group of seven crushers that will be part of the mine’s “truckless” system, and includes four of these Sandvik rigs along with three smaller ThyssenKrupp rigs. This technology, never before used in iron mining, will make it possible to replace off-highway trucks in operations, thereby cutting diesel consumption by 70% and greenhouse gas emissions by 50%.

The truckless system is made up of 29 large machines. Seven hydraulic and electric excavators will collect the ore at the pit faces and deposit it into seven mobile crushers. Inside this equipment, the blocks of ore will be broken up into smaller parts and then dropped onto conveyor belts, which will take it to the processing plants. Another 15 machines are part of the crushing system, tasked with transporting the material from one pit face to another as the activity progresses. “This system will revolutionise iron mining, generating major environmental benefits, without using diesel, and without the risk of soil contamination,” says the truckless system’s implementation leader, Ronaldo Maluf.

The S11D mine has been energised thanks to the completion of the main 230 KV substation, which will supply all the power needed to commission and operate the unit’s equipment. The substation will also run the whole communication interface between the plant and mine, and online monitoring from the project’s operations centre will be possible. In all, there are more than 10 km of power transmission lines in the mine’s system.

In addition to the main substation, another 69 secondary substations are part of the electrical system. The construction model adopted brought about environmental gains. The substations are made off-site and delivered ready to be interconnected and powered up, making it possible to eliminate brick structures and so drastically reducing the amount of construction waste. The substations also feature dry-type transformers, eliminating the need to use mineral oil, containment basins and water-oil separators, thereby reducing the risks of leakages into the environment.

Major hurdles cleared in Terex and Konecranes deal

THE proposed sale of Terex’s Material Handling and Port Solutions (MHPS) business to Konecranes has just cleared two major hurdles, with sales completion still expected to occur in early 2017.

The deal, worth US$820 million ($1.12 billion) to Terex along with 19.6 million Konecranes shares, has now been given approval by the European Commission should Konecranes divest its Stahl CraneSystems business.

While Konecranes has said it will start this split immediately, the US Department of Justice has granted Terex early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger waiting period. This is part of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, which governs notification of larger mergers and acquisitions along with the following wait for government review.Terex CEO John Garrison the clearances by the European Commission and the US Department of Justice were “an important step towards the completion of the planned divestiture of our MHPS segment”.Earlier, Konecranes signed EUR$1.5 billion ($2.18 billion) in unsecured financingfacilities to fund the acquisition of Terex’s MHPS business.

Iot platform revenues will grow to $3 billion worldwide by 2021

By Sam Murden 09 August 2016

Editorial

According to a new research report from the M2M/IoT analyst firm Berg Insight, the global third party Internet of Things (IoT) platform market increased 36 percent to $610 million in 2015.

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.8 percent, revenues are forecasted to reach $3.05 billion in 2021. There is a wide range of software platforms available, intended to reduce cost and development time for IoT solutions by offering standardised components that can be shared across many industry verticals to integrate devices, networks and applications.

Most IoT platforms available on the market today can be categorised as being a connectivity management platform, a device management platform or an application enablement platform, although there are many products that offer overlapping functionality or other unique features.

Many enterprises and organisations have already been involved in various machine-to-machine (M2M) deployments that have typically been characterised by customised solutions deployed within single industry verticals, or by one company, to improve existing business operations. IoT puts more emphasis on integration of sensors, devices and information systems across industry verticals and organisations to transform operations and enable new business models. “IoT furthermore aims facilitate a better understanding of complex systems through analytics based on data from diverse sources to assist decision making, improve products and enable entirely new services”, said Andre Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight.

Whereas connectivity and device management platforms have already reached comparatively high adoption, the market for application enablement platforms (AEPs) is in an earlier phase. AEPs typically provide functionality such as data collection, data storage and analytics.

Fully featured platforms also provide tools, frameworks and APIs for creating business applications featuring data management, event processing, automated tasks and data visualisation.

Many platforms also provide tools and ready-made libraries and UI frameworks that facilitate modelling and creation of interactive applications, workspaces and dashboards with little or no need for coding. “The AEP segment is seeing considerable activity in terms of acquisitions and new market entrants”, said Mr. Malm.

After PTC acquired ThingWorx and Axeda, other major software and IT companies have followed. Examples include Amazon that acquired 2lemetry, Autodesk that acquired SeeControl and Microsoft that acquired Solair. Other leading IT companies that are extending their service offerings to include IoT platforms – often focusing on analytics and machine learning – include IBM, SAP and Oracle. “As a group, AEP vendors primarily face competition from system integrators and companies that develop similar functionality in-house”, concluded Mr. Malm.

Rio Tinto reinvesting in the Pilbara

Rio Tinto has announced it will invest $338 million to complete development of its existing Silvergrass iron ore mine.

The miner first announced plans for an investment decision in its half yearly reports earlier this year.

“The brownfield expansion of the high-grade Silvergrass mine offers attractive returns, with an expected internal rate of return for this investment will in excess of 100 per cent and a payback of less than three years,” Rio Tinto said.

The project is key for the miner to maintain its higher grade iron ore blend, whilst also adding ten million tonnes of capacity.

“We are committed to disciplined capital allocation and the approval of the final phase of the Silvergrass development, which is one of the most value-accretive projects across the mining industry, delivers high-quality, low-cost growth that will underpin future returns to shareholders,” Rio Tinto CEO J-S Jacques said.

He reiterated the importance of the project in maintaining Rio’s Pilbara blend grades.

“The additional low-phosphorous tonnes that Silvergrass delivers will sustain the long-term viability of our Pilbara blend, ensuring continued premium pricing, whilst also lowering our operating costs through infrastructure improvements,” Jacques said.

These improvements include replacing road haulage with an overland conveyor system linking Silvergrass to its existing processing plant at Nammuldi.

Lycopodium wins gold plant contract

Lycopodium has been awarded a $68.5 million EPC processing plant contract from Toro Gold.

The contract sees Lycopodium provide EPC services for a processing plant and other facilities at Toro’s Mako gold project in Senegal.

The win is a continuation of the company’s work with Toro, following the completion of its work on the pre-feasibility and definitive feasibility studies for the project.

Results reflect “a company in transition”: Terex CEO

TEREX has made second quarter revenue of US$109.6 million ($145.44 million), reflecting what company CEO John Garrison is calling “a company in transition”.

Overall, Terex’s net sales for the quarter ending 30 June was US$1.298 billion ($1.720 billion), down about 10% from the same time last year. Garrison said Terex “continued to face challenging markets in the second quarter”.

“The North American market for many of our AWP andCranes products was lower than last year, as expected, which was reflected in both our sales and orders in the quarter,” he explained. “We grew AWP sales in Europe and parts of Asia, but not enough to offset the softness in North America. Our Materials Processing segment executed well and improved upon last year’s performance.”He said Terex will “remain focused on what we can control”.“The steps we took earlier in the year to reduce [selling, general, and administrative expenses] helped offset some of the impact of soft markets and competitive pricing, but more is needed,” he outlined. “In the second quarter, we took additional steps to simplify our manufacturing footprint and lower our cost base. After the sale of MHPS, Terex will be a smaller company. We are committed to reducing our cost structure accordingly.”

New global mining code developed

A new mining code has been launched by the World Initiative of Mining Lawyers (WIOML) to aid countries in both attracting investment and securing benefits for their own economies.

“The code provides a good starting point for countries without a code in place yet,” Andrew van Zyl, a partner and principal consultant at consulting engineers and scientists, SRK Consulting said,according to IM Mining.

“It also provides a useful benchmark against which a country could compare its existing code.”

Aspects of the code include licence allocation, work-it-or-lose-it, the right to mine, and social licences.

“Clearly, the transparent awarding of exploration licences is a key starting point for any national effort to promote mineral development,” van Zyl said.

He went on to say under the code miners should be given longer lead times for exploration, raising the potential of making economically viable discoveries – given that the average period for economic discovery is around eight years – followed by right to mine permissions, based on objective criteria free of discretion.

“So this should be done on an objective basis with free and open access – although there may be circumstances under which tendering could be considered.”

Van Zyl added that in the current investment strained market, clearer and more reasonable codes will aid in attracting investors, and should be used to build a constructive collaboration with mining stakeholders.

“There is little appetite or ability right now to raise the billions of dollars needed to develop large mining projects,” he said.

“But there is the time to invest much smaller amounts in the vital but neglected process of forging agreement and trust between miners, governments, communities, NGOs and other interested parties.”

“When it comes to stakeholder engagement, miners have traditionally found themselves between the proverbial rock and hard place,” Deloitte explained.

“Reconciling the often competing needs of government, local communities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), employees, and regulators – whilst still delivering return on shareholder investment – has become a balancing act of huge proportions.”

Researchers found that mining projects with expenditures of between US$3 billion to US$5 billion can incur weekly losses of roughly US$20 million due to delayed production caused by community opposition, according to Rachel Davis and Daniel Franks’ Harvard Kennedy School report, Costs of Company-Community Conflict in the Extractive Sector.

“Too many projects are rushed into construction when commodity prices are buoyant, and are consequently hampered by a lack of local buy-in and insufficient clarity about each player’s respective roles, responsibilities and benefits,” van Zyl said.

“In many cases, the process becomes fraught with mistrust and brinkmanship, which delays or even threatens the project altogether.”

He went on to state: “It is vital for mining companies to take the initiative in setting up these meaningful discussions, rather than waiting for governments to impose solutions that may not be as effective,” he said.

“There is a danger that the industry is perceived as often being on the back foot and reacting defensively to the demands of other parties; goal-driven communication between these groups will help ease that perception.”

The code was launched at the recent WIOML conference.

China aims to top global workforce automation rankings

China aims to increase its robots from 36 per 10,000 workers to 150 per 10,000 workers by 2020, to become one of the top countries in terms of workforce automation.

Currently, China is ranked just 28^th globally in terms of workforce automation, despite having the world’s largest manufacturing sector, employing around 100 million people. The Chinese government seeks to “modernise” the industry.

A statement by China’s National Development and Reform Commission cited the ageing population and rising labour costs as the two main reasons the government is encouraging the development of the robotic industry and modernisation of the manufacturing sector. According to the 2016Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index, the nation’s labour force costs in 2015 were five times that of 2005.

According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), China aims to increase sales of domestically produced industrial robots to 100,000 per year and boost the share of the domestic market held by Chinese robotic manufacturers. The IFR predicts that by 2020, China will have more robots per person than any other country.

Embrace innovation or suffer, Deloitte tells miners

Cost cutting and incremental improvements aren’t enough to lift mining, and the industry must embrace innovation or else, a Deloitte report says.

In its recent Innovation in Mining report, Deloitte explained that the industry understood the innovation concept but it is failing to implement it effectively, and the current focus on driving down capex and opex through cost cutting measures, as well as chasing incremental efficiencies to lift productivity, are no longer enough.

“Innovation is not only key to protect the future of the mining sector,” Deloitte said, “but that of the entire mining system, from the country in which the resources are harnessed to the people in its workforce, government, and the broader mining community.”

Nicki Ivory, Deloitte’s Australian national mining leader, explained that the industry has endured a difficult market marked by commodity price volatility, diminished Chinese demand tied to a slowdown in the country’s economic growth, capital and investment access issues, and ongoing environmental issues, according to The Australian.

“However to remain globally competitive, Australian miners must decide if they are willing to go beyond the basics and incorporate a structured approach to innovation,’’ Ivory said.

This research echoes statements made by METS sector lobby group Austmine.

“Most in the sector are agreed that for Australia to remain competitive in the years to come, the way we do things needs to change – dramatically,” Austmine CEO Christine Gibbs Stewart said.

“This is where innovation comes in. When we refer to innovation, we’re not simply referring to the next big invention, we are also encompassing incremental innovation, or a re-thinking of how we use equipment, technology or processes that we already have in place.

“This concept of re-thinking is key for innovation to succeed in the mining and METS sector. We must change how we think about innovation, about how we partner to achieve innovation and what innovation looks like.”

The Australian report added that while innovation is viewed overwhelmingly positively, most miners prefer to chase operational excellence and continuous improvement programs rather than make a huge leap technologically – as well as in mindset – and invest in transformative innovation.

“The tide for taking innovation seriously as a business imperative has come in,” Deloitte’s Africa Energy & Resources leader said in the African division of the report.

“While talk of this had drummed on for years, often constrained to the boardroom, now is when mining houses will succeed or falter based on whether innovation strategy is brought to life and whether it is integrated across departments.

“It is now critical for companies to push beyond what these reports term Core innovation.”

Caterpillar experiences 2nd quarter profit drop

CATERPILLAR has released its second quarter results, showing a drop in both profit and revenue.

Compared to 2015, profit declined to US$10.342 billion ($13.82 billion) from US$12.317 billion while profit per share, excluding restructuring costs, declined from US$1.40 to US$1.09.

However, Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman said he was pleased with his company’s financial performance and focus on its long-term strategy “given the difficult economic and industry environment we’re facing”.“For the quarter, our decremental operating profit pull through was better than our target range. Together with our dealers, we’re having success managing through the downturn in industries like mining and oil and gas, and in sluggish economic conditions in much of the developing world,” he explained. “In what is likely to be our fourth down year for sales and revenues, we’re proud of what we’re accomplishing – our machine market position has increased, including in China, product quality continues to be at high levels, and the safety in our facilities is world class.”However, Oberhelman said the company was cautious entering the second half of 2016. He explained there was no expectation of an upturn in important industries like mining, oil and gas, and rail.“Amidst these very challenging market conditions, our balance sheet remains strong, and our employees are delivering better performance on everything from safety, quality and cost management to machine market position. I’m inspired by our people as they’re the primary reason we’re weathering this downturn as successfully as we are,” he explained.