Simulation equipment to train truckless system operators

 

S11D1

Vale’s S11D iron ore project in Canaã dos Carajás, Pará, Brazil is a truckless mine due to start production this year. S11D will be one of the biggest mines in the world and this new production method requires an advanced solution for operator training. Immersive will provide high-tech simulators for mining equipment and customized virtual training environments for loading machine operators, enabling the incorporation of new procedures to ensure a safe and productive operation.

So, unlike traditional mines, S11D will be a truckless operation that will use Immersive Technologies simulators to train operators in a more productive and safely way in a unique environment.

“This simulation tool is extremely powerful, because besides empowering people in the equipment operation with high performance and low cost, it also provides training in situations of high risk of accident which would be inadvisable in a real operation,” said José Carlos Ramos – Mining Operations Specialist, Vale Ferrous.

The truckless system represents a significant change in the role and expertise of the loading equipment operators. This required a custom Immersive Technologies training solution, the company reports. “In conventional mining operations, the trucks are positioned carefully to suit the loading equipment, but when operating with mobile crushers it requires auxiliary equipment to move the crushers, which remain static during the loading operation. Through advanced training methods using the latest technology simulators, operators will be prepared for the new challenges of productivity and safety.”

“Truckless mining is definitely something the industry is paying attention to and just like any new method the training element is a large consideration of the deployment. We’ve worked closely with customers and the leading OEM’s for 20+ years building our capability to be in a position to deliver the best solutions. This is a unique development and we are pleased to partner with VALE to prepare the safest and most productive operators at S11D,” says César Guerra, Regional Vice President – Latin America, Immersive Technologies.

With customized scenarios, simulators used by Vale facilitate the development and implementation of correct procedures for truckless system excavators loading, adequate positioning and effective management, where through the capture and data analysis it will be possible to develop and optimize new operator skills and competence.

PEPPERTREE QUARRY A ‘GENERATIONAL INVESTMENT’

Eight storage silos for the base materials are fed by a complex 3D maze of conveyors from multiple crushing and screening plants.

Eight storage silos for the base materials are fed by a complex 3D maze of conveyors from multiple crushing and screening plants.

PEPPERTREE QUARRY A ‘GENERATIONAL INVESTMENT’

In 2014 Boral commissioned an advanced processing plant for Peppertree Quarry, south of Sydney. This facility – featuring crushers, screens, conveyors and processing systems – has set new benchmarks in environmental management, safety, production and quality.

As you approach Boral’s Peppertree Quarry, a two-hour drive from Sydney, it’s immediately obvious this is no ordinary quarry operation.

There are no stockpiles of different products, no loaders and dump trucks moving material around, no lines of tip trucks collecting material for delivery to building and construction sites back in Sydney – and very little noise.

Instead, eight gleaming stainless steel towers soar into the sky – storage silos for the base materials that combine to make up the numerous different product mixes the site can produce.

These silos are fed by a complex 3D maze of conveyors from the multiple crushing and screening plants housed in an array of structures – which in turn are fed from a single, massive stockpile bringing in the raw crushed material from the quarry pit itself.

The quarry’s entire output leaves the site by train – four trainloads a day, every day – with multiple product mixes in every trainload. Not a single kilogram of product leaves the site by road.

And yet a single person can control this entire processing operation.

The whole site has just 30 people running it across a 24/7 operation; compare this with equivalent output conventional quarry operations, which typically require more personnel than that, along with multiple items of mobile equipment.

‘Generational investment’

So what was behind Boral’s decision to go far beyond anything that had been done in Australia previously and build a world’s best practice operation?

A unique combination of history, geography, geology and environment – along with some equally unique challenges – has resulted in the company’s new Peppertree processing plant.

David Bolton, Boral Construction Materials’ general manager of quarries for New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, said for many years the company had known it would need to replace its Penrith Lakes Scheme quarry, on the western outskirts of Sydney.

“Penrith Lakes supplied Sydney with construction materials for over 100 years but was exhausted by 2015,” he said.

Quarrying at Penrith Lakes officially ceased in July 2016 after almost 130 years of extraction.

Boral needed a replacement quarry close enough to Sydney to economically transport product to the metropolitan region and to the demanding standards of its customers – from homeowners, small tradespeople and builders to multinational civil and building contractors and their clients.

While 30 personnel run the whole site, a single person can control the entire processing operation.

While 30 personnel run the whole site, a single person can control the entire processing operation.

“We identified a large deposit of granodiorite adjacent to our existing limestone quarry near Marulan, south of Sydney,” Bolton said.

Granodiorite is a very hard and durable rock, making it ideal for concrete and asphalt applications.

“Our Peppertree Quarry is a generational investment, and will secure Boral and the Sydney construction materials market for many, many years to come,” Bolton said.

“We were granted consent to extract and process 3.5 million tonnes a year. This consent is for an initial period of 30 years, but the resource at Peppertree will last significantly longer than that.”

One issue Boral faced in the move from Penrith Lakes to Peppertree was the fact the new site had no sand resources.

Accordingly, the company decided to develop its own manufactured sand products, combining granodiorite from the new Peppertree Quarry mixed with product from its adjacent limestone quarry.

In fact, 40 per cent of the output from Peppertree is manufactured sand – and it has proven to be a product of such outstanding characteristics that demand for it is growing.

Transport by rail

Bolton said another major challenge for Boral was getting its product to Australia’s largest city, almost 200km away. The quarry’s target output would have meant a steady stream of trucks travelling up and down the Hume Highway, and into an already very congested city road network.

“The need to ensure that all aggregates were railed from the site rather than truck presented a number of challenges to Boral and to Sandvik in developing the systems and infrastructure to accommodate such large volumes of diverse products by rail,” he said. “The rail loading infrastructure that was developed by Boral and Sandvik for this project, I believe, is one of a kind in this industry.

“It combines the ability to load multiple products, doing this at high capacity, similar to large scale mining operations.

“However, in large scale mining operations you are dealing with just a single product that’s going onto a train, whereas the system we have developed in conjunction with Sandvik allows us to deal with multiple products at very high rates, thus maximising our rail utilisation.”

To maximise the plant’s efficiency and productivity, minimise ongoing operating costs and ensure a high degreeof flexibility to meet changing market demands well into the future, Boral adapted the principles of “lean manufacturing” at its Peppertree operations.

The exterior of one of the crushing stations at Peppertree Quarry.

The exterior of one of the crushing stations at Peppertree Quarry.
Boral project manager Kai Kane (left) with Sandvik Construction’s Glenn Cooper.

Boral project manager Kai Kane (left) with Sandvik Construction’s Glenn Cooper.

“The entire design of Peppertree incorporates a number of lean manufacturing initiatives to reduce material transport requirements and material movements, as well as excess stocks of materials on-site,” Bolton said. “Products from Peppertree and the way that these products were delivered to our markets drove us to design a plant based on what our customers truly valued.“From these customer requirements, the original project specification was developed, and Sandvik and Boral then designed and built the plant and equipment to meet those needs.”

Fully integrated plant

From the earliest specification and design stage, Boral worked closely with Sandvik Construction to develop a fully integrated processing plant that met the highest standards of production reliability, product quality and safety.

Once the raw quarried material leaves the pit, Sandvik-supplied conveyors, crushers, screens, air classifiers and surge bins, along with sophisticated control and quality monitoring systems, manage every aspect of production until the final product is loaded onto the train.

A key element of this process has been to ensure products out of Peppertree meet specifications, and achieve market acceptance.

According to Peppertree Quarry manager Angus Shedden, the quality of Peppertree products has exceeded all expectations.

“The feedback from our customers has been exceptional, far better than we expected,” he said. “Our secondary crushers, the Sandvik cone crushers, are really delivering fantastic shape.”

Shedden said this shape straight off the cone crushers was of such high quality the operation had been able to reduce the feed going through its quaternary vertical shaft impactor (VSI) crushers.

“We are also getting excellent consistency of our aggregate,” he said. “We are able to produce the same product consistently, first time, all the time. The biggest success here, from my point of view, has been the quality of the aggregates. The quality has just been exceptional.

“Since production out of Peppertree started, we have supplied a number of high profile infrastructure projects in Sydney – including Barangaroo – with customers very happy with the high quality aggregates that we are producing.”

Shedden is proud of the high degree of automation at Peppertree, and the benefits it has in terms of safety and efficiency.

“Because of the automation in the plant, not only can we operate the plant with one person, but it also means that we don’t have lots of vehicles, and we don’t have huge numbers of people on site,” he said.

“Our standard operating team per production shift is four people – and I defy anywhere else to have those sorts of numbers to produce the output we are achieving.

“For us, from an occupational health and safety (OHS) point of view, that has huge implications. A lot fewer people around and a lot fewer vehicles takes away a huge amount of risk. And, from an operational cost, we don’t have all that maintenance to carry out on mobile plant and equipment.

There are very few tipper trucks that visit the Peppertree Quarry site.

There are very few tipper trucks that visit the Peppertree Quarry site.

“As well, not having a lot of vehicles moving around the site really helps with our environmental controls.”

EHS solutions

Boral has taken the opportunity in developing a greenfield operation to introduce highly innovative environmental and OHS solutions, as Sharon Makin, stakeholder and environmental manager at Peppertree, explained.

“I had the privilege of actually starting here back when work on the site began in July 2011, and have stayed on to do health, safety and environment through operations,” Makin said.

An important element of the Peppertree site from the start was the “safety and design” concept.

“What that has meant in terms of operation is an OHS management system which ties in with all the physical, mechanical safeguards that we have put in place here,” Makin said.

“Some examples of what came out of this safety and design process is that everything is guarded – and all guarding is bright yellow in colour, so you can pick when something might be missing.

“There are no underground conveyors or underground tunnels; everything is above ground. Access is down the side of each conveyor and confined spaces, as much as possible, have been removed. Ladders have been almost eliminated from the operation, and wherever we can, access is by stairs.”

From an environmental point of view, Makin described the plant as “a dry process”.

“The site doesn’t have a water supply – apart from what falls out of the sky – so Boral and Sandvik also looked at what we needed to do in regard to environmental performance,” she said.

“So, for example, all conveyors are covered, all operations are within buildings, and we have minimal water usage to control dust.”

Because of the restricted water supply at Peppertree, Boral and Sandvik worked closely from the earliest stages of the design process to eliminate all haul trucks from the operation.

“Material comes out of the pit by conveyor, it goes through all the processing operations via conveyor,” Makin said.

“We are also the first quarry in Australia to put our product into silos, so we don’t have on-ground stockpiles that need to be watered and, again, we don’t need the trucks to haul them off-site.

A glimpse inside the main screening building.

A glimpse inside the main screening building.
High speed camera monitors ensure the product passing through the stations meets specifications.

High speed camera monitors ensure the product passing through the stations meets specifications.

“And as Peppertree has 100 per cent of its dispatch by rail, the silos feed the conveyor direct into the wagons, and so we minimise the need for water through that process as well.”

‘Extensive benchmarking’

One of the key people in helping Boral develop its vision of a highly automated, extremely safe site with the highest environmental standards has been Kai Kane, the project manager for Boral’s Sydney Aggregates Project, which covers the Peppertree Quarry, its adjacent limestone manufactured sand plant, rail infrastructure and the Maldon rail terminal that services the site.

“The criterion that we used in developing our concepts for Peppertree was extensive benchmarking of leading international sites,” Kane said. “We spent several months benchmarking various sites by Sandvik, in particular Perrier TP’s Mions Quarry in France, which became the reference point for this particular project.

“These reference plans were then used to consolidate our designs and use them for benchmarking to get world’s best practice in our design process, and then develop our safety and design requirements, as well as Australianising all those European designs.

“The safety and design process between the Boral and Sandvik teams was very iterative and collaborative. Our processes included extensive risk assessments, going through each of the existing designs and then through our new design to make sure that we captured the earnings from the ones that we benchmarked.

“The plant we now have is world standard in terms of safety and quality, and has produced an exceptionally ergonomic and maintainable operation.”

Kane highlighted Peppertree’s train loading system and its “reject stockpile” concept as particularly innovative solutions to significant challenges.

“Our train loader, which was a collaboration between Boral and Sandvik, has resulted in a world class rail loading system, which operates at 2000 tonnes per hour,” Kane said. “It is the most efficient loading system that Boral currently operates.

“It is unique in that it is capable of loading multiple products – in our case, multiple different products and recipes – something that is unique in the quarrying industry.”

The site’s reject stockpile system is what Kane calls an “elegant solution” to the challenge of dealing with out-of-spec products coming from the silos to the train loader.

Product comes out of the silos at 2000tph, and before going to the train loader goes through a sampling station, where a high speed camera monitors to ensure the product passing through the stations meets specifications.

“Any out-of-spec materials are picked up within five seconds as they go past the camera detection systems, then the chute changes direction and diverts the material to a radial stacker and our reject stockpile,” Kane said.

“These materials that come out of our radial stacker are then recirculated by a front-end loader, back into our screening and crushing plants for recovery.

Peppertree Quarry’s entire output leaves the site by train, with multiple product mixes in every trainload.

Peppertree Quarry’s entire output leaves the site by train, with multiple product mixes in every trainload.

“Comparing it with the plants we benchmarked when designing and specifying Peppertree, this is now in a superior state to all of those, particularly from an automation perspective.”

David Bolton said customer acceptance of Boral’s product out of Peppertree, in both concrete and asphalt operations, was even better than the company had hoped. He reiterated the development of Peppertree as “a generational investment” for Boral.

“It’s been a once in a lifetime opportunity to be involved in something of this scale,” he said. “It’s also been a pleasure to work with a great team at Boral Peppertree and a great team at Sandvik.

“What these two teams have been able to achieve working together has really opened our eyes to opportunities for improving our existing operations, as well as learnings we can apply to future greenfield and brownfield developments.”

Source: Sandvik Construction

企业发展记分卡

What’s your Business Growth Score?

1. Planning for Growth

Is your industry in a growth cycle?
Are you regularly acquiring new clients/customers?
Are you introducing new products or services in the next 12 months?
Do you have strategic alliance partners who can help increase your growth?
Do you have plans for capital expenditure in the next 12 months?

2. Business Structure and Management

Do you know what your Key Business Metrics are?
Do you feel you have a tax effective business structure?
Do you always consider your business structure when making business decisions?

Do you hold regular board or management meetings?

Do you discuss business matters with an external advisor on a regular basis?

3. Cash Flow

Do you have a current cashflow forecast and budget?
Have you identified your sources of funding for future growth?
Do you feel you have the right mix of debt and equity in your business?
Are your debt repayment terms appropriate given the current finance market and low interest rates?
Are you meeting your cash flow commitments including your taxation obligations?

4. Exit Strategies

Do you have a clear end goal in mind for your business eg: sell, hand over to the next generation or wind it up when you retire?
Can your business run without you?
Are your systems, processes, policies and procedures documented and ready for your exit?
Do you understand how your business is valued?
Have you developed a strategy to maximise the value of your business asset at exit?

Visual Capitalist outlines “how coal from hero to zero” in only five years.

There was a time in the not so distant past that coal was the unquestioned all-star of the energy mix.

Just over a decade ago, coal-fired power generated more than 50% of U.S. electricity. Coal is cheap and found almost everywhere, but it’s also extremely easy to scale with. If you need more power, just burn more coal.

However, the decline of coal has been swift and unprecedented. That’s why it is expected that by 2020, only 22% of electricity will be generated from the fossil fuel.

WHAT’S BEHIND THE DECLINE OF COAL?

While there is obvious environmental pressure on miners and utilities in the coal business, the number one coal killer is an unlikely source: hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.

These two technologies have led to a natural gas supply boom, making the United States the top natural gas producer in the world. From 2005 to 2010, natural gas mostly traded in a range between $5-10 per mcf. Today, excess supply has brought it to a range between $2-3 per mcf, making it extremely desirable for utilities.

This year, for the first time ever, natural gas has surpassed coal in use for power generation in the United States. The EIA expects natural gas and coal to make up 33% and 32% respectively in the energy mix for 2016.

HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN

Not surprisingly, shrinking demand has led to a collapse in coal prices.

The decrease in revenues have slashed margins, and now equity in some of the biggest coal miners in the world is almost worthless. Similar to some oil and gas companies, many coal miners accumulated major debt loads when prices were high and demand seemed sustainable.

Now major US coal miners such as Peabody Energy and ArchCoal have been obliterated:

2011 2014 2016
TOTAL $44.6 BILLION $10.6 BILLION $0.045 BILLION
Peabody $19.7 billion $7 billion $0.030 billion
Arch Coal $6.0 billion $1 billion $0.006 billion
Alpha Natural $10.7 billion $1.6 billion $0.003 billion
Walter Energy $8.2 billion $1 billion $0.006 billion

The top four miners have lost over $44 billion in market capitalization from their recent peaks in 2011.

That’s an astonishing 99.9% decrease in value, and possibly exemplifies the decline of coal better than anything else.

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

Innovations from other industries will enable a more sustainable mining industry

As mining company profits continue to be pressured by the uncertainty that remains in the global economy, the industry is on a quest for innovation to help increase productivity.

The mining industry tends to be slow in adopting new technology, but given the state of the industry – change is paramount in order to survive. By employing new technologies used by other industries, mining companies can better manage their businesses and their bottom line.  As such, we can learn from other industries use of innovative technology to improve mining.

By looking to other industries, the mining industry can incorporate new applications into existing technology for improved productivity. More advanced simulation and 3D technology, as well as big data and the interoperability of systems, must be used at each stage of the mining cycle to improve productivity and output levels. Bold moves are needed to propel the industry forward.

To understand where mining can look for innovation, it is useful to examine what has led to successful transformations in other industries. Take, for example, Toyota – it became the world’s largest and most successful producer of automobiles by becoming an agile business – one that rapidly adjusts itself in light of changing demand and economic conditions. In essence, it put the framework in place to become a much more sustainable business. It started at the very bottom of its business by establishing operational stability to gain better control over manufacturing processes.

To become agile and sustainable, mining companies need to achieve operational stability – the predictability of expected mine production, costs, and performance levels. This requires mining and plant processing activities to function at higher levels of productivity and efficiency so that conformance to plan is always realized.

The quickest avenue to improved operational stability begins with reducing the variability in the planning and execution of mining and processing, which requires comprehensive planning, optimised scheduling, and disciplined work management.

Stability increases throughput, reduces waste and associated costs, and ensures production and quality targets are met. The key lies in harnessing operational data.  While “big data” may be produced in mining in terms of volume, it must become visible, analysable, and it must be made actionable to executives, mine management, and frontline workers. If it is, the path to mining execution excellence, and eventually business agility, is paved. Enabling technology from other industries is one of the most important requirements to begin the journey.

Establishing predictability in operations is the first step towards transforming mining businesses in a meaningful way. Without control over operations, attempts at becoming agile may not deliver the desired value. If mining businesses do not understand how healthy their operating processes are (including their inputs, plans, equipment, labor, and supporting activities), and how well they are functioning in the now, they will continue to waste resources (capital, equipment, labor, and even the mineral assets).

Decades ago, the manufacturing industry established processes and systems to support operational stability, setting a foundation for agile decision-making and dramatic transformations. Today, companies from a wide variety of industries can design, simulate, and manage their businesses by leveraging seamless collaborative environments, connecting their operations, employees, suppliers, and even their customers. This technology exists today for mining companies, if they choose to embrace it.

One of the most significant challenges mining operations face is conformance to mine plan. Achieving it often requires scrambling to make up shortfalls and increasing expenditures. Significant productivity benefits can be gain by reducing instability.

If planning and operational data is used effectively, it can provide rapid insight into how well activities are performing, enabling fast adjustments as operating conditions change. The analytics operational data enables will also drive continuous improvement.

Mining Execution Management Systems (MES) / Mining Operations Management (MOM) platforms, which integrate data from every mining data source on the site, enable superior work management through increased visibility and control over performance. Companies can expect up-to-the-minute tracking and management of: mining and processing activities; equipment; maintenance; labor; support; and other inputs and outputs.

Mining companies can update activities and tasks between scheduling cycles; gain real-time visibility into capacity, availability, and performance; and better manage activities, tasks and/or priorities to account for changes in production and unexpected events. In addition, they can instantly communicate new and updated work orders wherever they are required, provide efficient handover of incomplete activities and tasks between shifts, and obtain assurance that activities and tasks are completed to specification (sequence, time, duration, tons, grade, maintenance, safety, regulatory compliance, etc.).

When connected to scheduling systems, the benefits of MES/MOM in mining are amplified: linking to scheduling ensures continuous feedback loops are part of the scheduling process for production, blending, waste, maintenance, and support schedules. This allows for adjustments to be made rapidly, within shift, which keeps production on track.

While MES/MOM systems are not yet widely employed in the mining industry, manufacturing and other industries have used them for decades. In these industries MES/MOM has played an enabling role in conformance to plan by reducing variation in processes. We understand how 3D technology from other industries can be applied to the mining industry, and how it can enable operational stability by reimagining how productivity is addressed through next-generation technologies. Some of the results of borrowing technology from other industries include a 2-4 per cent increase in operating margins and reduced variation to plan by 20 per cent or more. One mining company, alone, has improved mine production output by 44 per cent and doubled mine production.

Another aspect of achieving stability is improved collaboration to drive planning. Bombardier, an Aerospace company, provides an illustration of how significant improvements can be made to engineering. We partnered with global aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Aerospace to develop more innovative aircraft in response to intense competition and changes in the aviation industry. 3D models became the central source of all product information for Bombardier, integrating internal teams and worldwide development partners. Bombardier rolled out a global platform that enabled geographically dispersed teams to collaborate anytime and anywhere, with each contributor able to access up-to-date information in the cloud. The results were a 62 per cent drop in the time taken to develop multiple iterations of existing designs, 95% less time for engineering calculations and 80 per cent less time to locate design information.

Advanced simulation also has a role to play in aiding the mining industry. Sydney-based mining consultancy, Coffey, has used our SIMULIA software, widely used in automotive, oil and gas and other industries, to improve both open pit slope stability for their rock mechanics analysis and underground safety.

There is plenty of opportunity for innovation in the mining industry, and numerous proven technologies used in other industries that can be deployed today. The examples presented here are just but a few of what is available.

How machines destroy and create jobs

“There’s just doesn’t seem to be many blacksmith jobs these days.”

At first glance, this would be a ridiculous thing to say. Of course there aren’t many blacksmiths around. We live in a modern society and machines do a way better job of making things from metal anyways.

However, it also raises an important point.

What if machines are better at driving long-haul trucks? What if machines are better servers at McDonald’s? What if robots did your taxes for you?

While some of these ideas are contentious today, in the future we may look back thinking that our fears were ill-placed. The truth is that the job landscape is constantly in flux as technology changes.

Some of today’s jobs with high automation potentialmay be the future “blacksmiths”, and we should not be surprised if they go away. The best thing that we can do is to understand these trends and build a set of skills that will be in demand in any market.

THE TREND IS YOUR FRIEND

The following graphics from NPR shows the evolution of jobs over time in the United States.

The first divides jobs into four main categories: white collar, blue collar, farming, and services. It shows how the composition of the overall job market has changed over the last 165 years:

graph2graph1

This second graph shows the same information, but plotted by the total number of jobs.

There were 10 million farmers in America in the early 20th century.

Now there’s closer to one million, and yet those farmers produce way more food. Technology may have “killed off” the majority of farm jobs, but at the same time new technology created jobs in the service, blue collar, and white collar industries.

We may now be at a similar inflection point for other careers – this interactive graphic shows some of the jobs that have been on the decline in recent years.

graph 3

In 1960, a whopping 11% of the workforce was employed in factories. Today only 4% are employed in factories.

In the late 1970s, almost 5% of the workforce was secretaries. Today, we’re at about half that, but professionals can be just as productive without a secretary thanks to better computer software.

Yes, there are globalization issues at play here as well, but even a modern domestic factory such as the Tesla Gigafactory (which has the largest building by footprint in the world) will only employ about 6,000 people. The majority of the work will be done by robots.

And while it seems scary to think about the rise of machines and a faster pace of technological advancement, it’s important to recognize that these types of sweeping changes to the job market have happened throughout history.

The point is, try not to be the 21st century version of a “blacksmith”.

This article appears courtesy of Visual Capitalist. To read more industrial and financial infographics, click here.

国际钢丝绳制造商合并

Rope businesses merge to form Bridon-Bekaert Ropes Group

tiger-bigt-bristar_x

The Bridon-Bekaert Ropes Group began operating yesterday, following the successful merger of Bridon with Bekaert’s rope business. Thenew business employs some 2,500 people in 17 countries combining unrivalled industry expertise, portfolio, scale and global reach.

The new Bridon-Bekaert CEO Bruno Humblet, said: “We are delighted that the merger is now complete. The new group combines Bekaert’s existing strength in the regions of Americas and Australia and Bridon’s strong market position in Europe and the USA.

“Bridon-Bekaert Ropes Group (BBRG) will offer a broad range of additional services, as well as strengthened expertise to customers, buildingon the proud history of both businesses in providing quality products and services.

“This combination will leverage the scale and complementary strengths of Bekaert and Bridon and will pursue value creation for our customers.”

With worldwide manufacturing operations, sales and distribution centres, BBRG will ensure accessibility and services within close reach, customized to specific local demands and challenges. It is a “global technology leader in the manufacture of wire and fibre rope solutions for the world’s most demanding applications.”

“We are looking forward to building the group. Our primary focus will be to deliver the very best performing products, accelerated innovation programs and unrivalled services,” added Humblet.

Newmont divests $1.3bn Indonesian mine

Newmont-seeks-outside-help-on-Indonesian-export-tax-655075-l-370x270

Newmont Mining has entered an agreement with PT Amman Mineral Internasional (PT AMI) to sell its interests in PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PTNNT), which operates Indonesia’s Batu Hijau copper and gold mine.

Newmont’s 48.5 per cent interest in PTNNT is valued at $1.3 billion; with the deal seeing $920 million paid at closing and $403 million in contingent payments.

Nusa Tenggara Mining Corporation is also selling their ownership stake to PT AMI.

The company’s president and CEO Gary Goldberg said, “Selling our stake in PTNNT for fair value is aligned with our strategic priorities to lower debt, fund our highest margin projects and create value for shareholders.”

The move is set to close following regulatory approvals in the third quarter. It is also subject to other conditions including government approval of the transfer and resolving all tax matters.

Newmont has generated $1.9 billion from the sale of non-core assets and since 2013 has decreased their debt by 37 per cent. In 2015, they acquired the Cripple Creek & Victor gold mine in the US, and added five million ounces of gold reserves.

Its projects in Australia, USA, and Suriname are set to add nearly one million ounces of profitable production over the next two years.

The sale follows BHP divesting its 75 per cent stake in Indonesia’s IndoMet Coal, exiting the country completely.

2016年矿山发展趋势3

Tracking the 2016 Trends – Part 3

china_3.jpg

The third of a ten part series examining the trends that will drive the mining industry in 2016.

3.     China’s economic transition

“If you believe that China is one of the most significant factors in the global mining market – whether it be capital, consumption, stockpiling, project construction or its announced infrastructure initiatives – then it’s imperative to pay attention to the economic and political issues shaping the country’s future,” Deloitte Canada’s global leader for mining M&A advisory, Jeremy South, stated.

Because of this China and its demand still remains at the heart of the global resources industry.

China once consumed 60 per cent of all seaborne iron ore, and despite its waning appetite it still has the largest influence on many metals due to its overwhelming demand for raw materials – relative to other nations.

However, unlike many other nations China has a highly interventionist government, which dictates market controls.

“Beyond interfering with the free movement of markets, the government’s fiscal intervention may threaten its ability to fund new programs designed to spur future growth,” Deloitte reports.

In particular, the mining industry has been keeping a close on three primary initiatives: the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), created to fund a range of commodity intensive energy, transport and infrastructure projects across Asia with a capital pool starting at what the Financial Times believes is US$100 billion; the One Belt, One Road program designed to spur trade between China and its neighbouring countries along the Silk Road; and the megacity project, which aims to link Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei into a single city of 130 million people.

Despite these transparent plans, China’s trade regime remains opaque, with Deloitte stating that “without access to transparent official data, miners remain in the unfortunate position of making forecasts based on potentially flawed information”.

The 13th five year plan released in March has given some clarity on the nation’s direction.

Some small steps have been taken in the country to address glaring oversupply issues – which many majors are now addressing by focusing on lowering output guidance – by shutting underperforming or low quality operations.

An official at China’s human resources and social security ministry said the nation’s coal and steel industries expect to cut around 1.8 million workers as it seeks to reduce capacity, and address the growing stockpiles in the country.

The latest plan to slash the country’s coal and steel workforce came only days after Chinese coal companies pushed the government to set a price floor for coal to protect against bankruptcy and stem job cuts.

The country plans to reduce around 500 million tonnes of coal production over the next three to five year, mainly by closing more than 5000 coal mines around the nation and relocating around one million workers, setting aside 30 billion yuan ($6.5 billion) to aid relocation of the workers.

China also has also announced it will not approve any new coal mines for the next three years.

These swift, if brutal, movements appear to already be paying dividends for the nation.

New data by Citigroup predicts the coal price may rise by 20 per cent on the back of these changes, as coal production falls around nine per cent, more than offsetting the predicted 3.4 per cent decline in demand.

In terms of iron ore, the rallies seen in the first half of 2016 have lifted the price out of the doldrums experienced in late 2015 to settle around the US$55 per tonne watermark, which provides a stronger foundation for continued growth in the market, although it does put the industry at risk of more marginal players returning to the sector and adding to the oversupply issue.

A national focus on copper intensive industries as part of its six strategic industries is also boosting the base metal’s future.

According to Wood Mackenzie, China’s plan to generate 15 per cent of its total GDP from industries such as IT hardware, energy storage and distribution, and new energy vehicles (which according to BHP Olympic Dam asset president Jacqui McGill uses three times as much copper as conventional vehicles) all bode well for copper.

This may drive reinvestment into its own coal and base metals industry later in the year, however most pundits believe China will focus its investment efforts outside its borders, spurred by long-term currency weakness driving them to invest in foreign assets before the yuan is further devalued and they lose purchasing power.

“This may lead to a short-term increase in outbound direct investments from Chinese state owned enterprises interested in both mining companies at the later stage of the production cycle and fixed asset investments in infrastructure that improves over time,” Deloitte said.

This has been evidenced by China’s Zijin US4298 million cash investment made in Barrick Gold’s subsidiary, and China Molybdenum’s recent spree – acquiring Anglo American’s Brazilian niobium and phosphates operations for US$1.5 billion and Freeport McMoRan’s holdings in the world’s largest copper and cobalt resource, the Tenke Fungurume mine, for US$2.65 billion in cash – only further vindicating market forecasts.

This short term resurgence is unlikely to be the new normal, with Goldman Sachs stating, “We find that the likelihood of a sustained improvement in Chinese demand during 2016-17 is low, and we remain strongly of the view that the structural bear market drives that have contributed to metals declining 20 per cent over the past year and 50 per cent over the past five years remain intact.”

However Deloitte has outlined a number of ways in which miners can prepare for upcoming incipient shifts.

One of the major methods to right the downturn is to not expect a return to double digit growth rates in China.

“Companies seeking to navigate the new normal must now plan for scenarios in which China is unable to return to its previous levels of importing and consuming commodities,” Deloitte’s report stated.

“Capital allocation, economic feasibility studies and even cost management programs will all need to be recontextualised in anticipation of more limited Chinese growth rates.”

Following from this, it encouraged miners to develop plans relative to China’s investment initiatives such as the AIIB; One Belt, One Road, and the megalopolis, playing a role in the development of these programs.

拉斗铲维护技术

Dragline maintenance optimisation

Dragline Support

Ryan Sharp and Arnold Williams at BMT WBM, a subsidiary of BMT Group, believe that a sustained increase in production can only be truly realised when robust maintenance procedures are in place. Taking a closer look at draglines, they consider the current maintenance challenges and highlight how technological innovations can help optimise and in some cases, reduce maintenance and inspection workloads.

Recently, much of the focus has been on devising upgrades to existing machinery to help improve production capacity through increasing payloads and reducing cycle times.

However, increasing payloads and reducing cycle times often have the effect of reducing the service life of machine components and structures due to increased duty. With resistance to ‘avoidable’ downtime, too often payloads are increased and cycle times reduced without the required machine upgrades being installed, based on the expectation that the increased maintenance cost and effort required would be more than justified in consideration of the increase in production.

The approach towards maintenance has often been ad-hoc and ‘conventional’ with maintenance plans for a piece of equipmentoften simply put together on the basis of recommendations or instructions obtained from the OEMs for the operation in the original machine configuration. As a consequence, certain preventative maintenance tasks have become standardised, remaining somewhat unchanged and unreflective of the change of duties or increased loads handled by the upgraded plant and machinery.

With strong emphasis on mining machinery availability and the continuing trend towards operating at increased rates of production, this ‘conventional’ approach is no longer sustainable and mining companies must now look at using every available tool and technique to improve maintenance practices. Although the OEMs will provide maintenance departments with guidelines for servicing plant based on the specification on which it left the factory, what many operating companies do not consider is the effect that increasing the machine’s capacity or duty cycle will have on reliability and the required maintenance.

Often, machines will be upgraded to operate significantly above their original design loading. Such upgrades create specific issues that cannot necessarily be dealt with in the traditional way, i.e. when something breaks, you simply replace it, or when it cracks you weld it. This approach simply does not work when a machine has been pushed beyond the original design specifications as it leads to an unacceptable ‘Mean Time Between Failures’ (MTBF). When increasing the load, it’s important that the implications of this change are duly considered and thought is put into how you ensure the original design reliability is maintained to avoid further issues in the future. Otherwise failure rates will increase and availability will begin to fall away. A smarter approach to maintenance is certainly needed.

Advances in technology are noteworthy and have certainly impacted the way in which maintenance departments operate.  The tools that are available for engineers are getting faster and more accurate.  Whilst in the past, if there was a structural failure, it may have taken two to three weeks before a decision could be made as to whether to shut down production to fix the problem or continue operating the machine, with today’s structural modelling and analysis tools such as ANSYS, Femap, IDEAS, LS-DYNA and Abaqus, these decisions can be determined much more effectively and efficiently.

BMT WBM has been involved with dragline maintenance issues and improvement strategies for over 40 years. Key areas of failure include boom, mast and roller circle. A more sophisticated approach to maintenance can, in some cases, reduce maintenance and inspection workloads and extend the fatigue life of these structures. BMT WBM has completed numerous Finite Element Analyses identifying high stress and fatigue prone areas of dragline structures. A map can then be created to guide maintenance inspectors on where to focus their attention, ultimately reducing the time needed for the inspections.

While maintenance planning in mining has been systematised for many years, techniques such as Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) which have been used over the last 40 years in other industries, including aerospace, are being increasingly applied to mining machinery maintenance. RCM techniques can help identify the component failures that impact availability most significantly and thereby, enabling appropriate solutions to be devised.

One recent example where RCM principles have been followed to significantly improve the reliability of mining machine operation on a Marion 8200 Dragline is where a substantial revolving frame floor upgrade was carried out in order to design out ongoing structural cracking issues. The cracking originated from large floor penetrations and propagated across the machine. The maintenance effort required to keep up the repairs were onerous. The problem stemmed from a pre-existing deficiency of the OEM design in this area and the accumulation of fatigue damage through a long service for the machine. Further, in an effort to increase production, the mine was intending to increase the suspended load and was concerned about further exacerbating the problems in this area. BMT WBM used a combination of field measurements to obtain the actual working stresses and analysis to propose a substantial design upgrade for the floor. The upgrade was implemented during a major maintenance shutdown for the machine. Currently, this upgrade has been in place for approximately six months.

Working closely with Westmoreland Coal Co, BMT recently deployed its innovative DuraCluster modification and repair scheme which dramatically improves the fatigue performance of cluster joints on existing tubular dragline boom designs. This involved replacing a number of fatigued boom clusters with DuraCluster to demonstrate both ease of installation and operational suitability.

Once implemented, this modification for tubular boom draglines significantly reduces maintenance and inspection workloads and dramatically reduces the problem of long-term fatigue cracking associated with the existing cluster design. BMT was able to offer both reduced downtime and outage costs. Once installed, DuraCluster also reduces the risks to operators and maintenance teams in having to lower the boom and carry out complicated weld repairs with limited access. Installation for Westmoreland was successfully completed in the allocated time frame and the dragline returned to duty.

The long booms of draglines comprise a number of tubular chords with interconnecting lacings welded to the chords at cluster joints. Stresses are concentrated at the cluster joint weldments and over time, fatigue cracking becomes endemic. This methodology prevents the need to cut and replace windows in lacings by removing the problematic design detail and improving load paths. Furthermore, DuraCluster can dramatically extend the fatigue life of dragline booms by reducing the stress concentrations.

A boom replacement can cost in the region of $20 million and would require a three-month machine outage. With BMT’s modification and repair, the cluster design can be upgraded in around one week per cluster, depending on the extent of chord repair required, while multiple clusters can be modified simultaneously. With equivalent repair costs reduced to approximately $2 million, this is an extremely attractive incentive for mining companies. While DuraCluster provides a step change in life to cracking for tubular boom construction, it is equally applicable to tubular masts.

The innovative design allows lacings to be cut away from the chord, providing easy access to remove damaged or previously-repaired material. The exposed chord can then be inspected and fully weld repaired before installing the plate. Full patent rights for the DuraCluster design have been granted in Australia, South Africa, India and North America and discussions are taking place with potential clients in all these territories.

Another area of significant technological advances made over the past 15 to 20 years is the dragline slew bearing, also known as the roller circle. The roller circle and the supporting structures immediately above and below are vital mechanical and structural component of the dragline. Installation and maintenance activities in these areas carried out to a poor standard can lead to large amounts of cracking in the tub and the revolving frame and very poor bearing life. BMT WBM has developed supporting and repair techniques ensuring that the welding and machining of the upper and lower rail pads are done to a very high standard resulting in good bearing load distribution and long roller circle service life.