Author: yinghui

Approximately 580, 000 people from 200 countries attended bauma, highlighting continued strength in the global mining industry.

This attendance figure is an increase of more than nine per cent compared to previous years, with a total of 3423 exhibitors from 58 different countries showcasing their developments, innovations, and products. They presented over a record exhibition space size of 605 000m2, while 63 per cent of exhibitors came from outside of Germany, higher than previous fairs.

Chairman and CEO of Messe München, Klaus Dittrich said, “The response from the participants this year was amazing. The visitors at bauma always come looking to invest, but this year the exhibitors’ order books filled up much faster than expected.”

“Many exhibitors are talking about a record level of demand at bauma 2016; that is an extremely positive sign in this current uncertain climate.”

Managing partners in the Wirtgen Group, Jürgen and Stefan Wirtgen, saying, “Bauma as the leading trade fair has always been a kind of barometer for the industry and from the start it had a very special significance for our company. Our presentation at this year’s bauma is the most successful so far in the history of the company.”

The fair is also a major platform for debuting the latest innovations for a worldwide trade audience.

The VDMA Association for Construction Machinery and Building Material Machines chairman Johann Sailer said, “Bauma is the ideal platform for presenting innovative new developments, because it has a big impact in the industry around the world. Again in 2016 the world’s largest show of construction machinery will deliver impetus for further growth in our sector.”

Managing Director and CEO of Komatsu Europe Masatoshi Morishita said, “We make use of the attention bauma attracts to present our innovations. This event is a milestone for the industry. It’s not only Komatsu that tries to get certain machines ready in time for bauma. This trade show really drives the entire industry forward.”

The next bauma will be held in Munich between April 8 and 14 in 2019.

Suppliers to Rio Tinto will be waiting twice as long for accounts to be resolved after the company announced it would extend it’s terms of payment to 90 days.

The West Australian suggested the move would give the company’s balance sheet a boost ahead of the departure of CEO Sam Walsh in July.

It is understood tens of thousands of suppliers and contractors around the world will be affected, who are outraged over the problems the move could introduce to a sector already under significant price pressure.

This is the second change to terms of payment dictated by Rio Tinto in nine months, when Rio Tinto shifted the goalposts from 30 to 45 days for payment of accounts.

In some cases time for payment could be blown out to 120 days, given that Rio Tinto only pays its bills at the end of the month of receipt of invoice.

A spokesman for Rio Tinto said the change was intended to “free up cash and reduce working capital so that we can preserve and maintain jobs and suppliers in tough global environment for commodities”.

BHP changed their terms of payment shortly after Rio’s last change, from 30 days to 60 days, leaving FMG the most prompt paying iron ore major in the Pilbara, keeping their terms at 30 days.

A spokesman for FMG said the company had no plans to change their terms.

Downer’s contract at Fortescue Metals‘ Christmas Creek mine will not be renewed as the miner moves to a an owner-operator model.

The contractor made the announcement yesterday, stating it has been in discussions with FMG about the transition of the mine to Fortescue following the expiry of the current mining contract.

“Over the course of the next six months it is Downer’s intention to provide a safe and orderly handover of the Christmas Creek mine to Fortescue,” Downer said in a company statement.

Fortescue Metals added: “A comprehensive change management plan has been developed. Production from Christmas Creek is not expected to be impacted during the transition.”

FMG CEO Nev Power thanked Downer for its work at the site.

“The Downer team have been involved with mining at Christmas Creek since the outset and have played an important role in Fortescue’s development of our facilities in the Chichester Hub.

“Adoption of an owner operator model will further reduce Fortescue’s costs through ongoing improvement of the efficiency and productivity of our Christmas Creek mining operations.”

It is unknown how the move will affect the approximately 900 workers at the site.

Downer has been working at the mine since 2010, and was handed Macmahon’s former contract last year after FMG merged two service contracts into one, creating a contract worth $500 million for Downer.

Despite the move off Christmas Creek, Downer does not expect the transition to have an effect on its 2016 financial results.

A major international quarry plant supplier has opened a new global parts facility that could have flow-on benefits for Australian quarry customers.
Terex Materials Processing Systems recently invested more than $USD7.2 million ($AUD9.4 million) to establish a state of the art facility in Dungannon, Northern Ireland.

Terex Materials is a global division of the Terex Corporation that encompasses the Powerscreen, Terex Minerals Processing Systems, Terex Finlay, Terex Washing Systems and Terex Environmental Equipment brands.

The new Terex Materials facility includes a 957m2 office space, where a team of parts experts will field technical and sales inquiries.

The facility is expected to be able to house more than 86,000 live inventory parts. In addition to having a warehouse capacity of 5463m2, the facility has a 650m2 external canopy that can provide overhead storage for larger product.

The facility has also been fitted with “leading edge” technology to help the company “expedite all orders efficiently”. This includes three Hanel Lean-Lift automated storage and retrieval systems, which will operate with the facility’s 168 bays of high-bay racking; three dock levellers designed to improve ease of access for deliveries and container shipments of large-scale parts; and a range of Linde electric material handling equipment, including an order picker and aisle masters capable of working at a height of 9m.

Australian distribution
Within Australia, Terex quarry equipment is distributed through four dealers: OPS Screening and Crushing Equipment, Finlay Screening and Crushing, Terex Minerals Processing Systems (MPS) and Lincom Group.

Terex Finlay mobile plant and Terex Washing Systems products are available through OPS in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and through Finlay on the east coast of Australia, including South Australia and Tasmania. OPS is also the local distributor for Terex Environmental Equipment.

Terex MPS is responsible for the provision of fixed and modular crushing and screening plant to the Australian market and Lincom is the local distributor for Powerscreen.

Terex parts for each of the brands are available through their respective local distributors, and a Terex Materials spokesperson confirmed this would continue to be the case with the introduction of the new global parts facility.

However, the spokesperson noted the new facility would increase the inventory available to Australia’s local dealers, and improve Terex Materials’ response time to those local distributors, which could result in benefits for quarry customers further down the supply chain.

Galaxy Resources has officially begun production at its Mt Cattlin mine.

“Production has commenced, with both mining and processing operations having started up,” Galaxy said in a company statement.

“An initial 5-week program will sequentially recover and stockpile spodumene and tantalum concentrates from the fines circuit ahead of crusher and HMS (coarse circuit) commissioning in the June quarter,” the miner stated.

“Given the quantities of ore already mined and available for processing, the immediate focus at restart through to May 2016, is on the processing circuit. This work shall including progressive commissioning of the primary and secondary feed preparation circuits, thickener, fine and coarse circuit screens, mica removal screens, the tantalum spirals and tables, as well as the fines reflux classifiers and filter belt.”

As part of this restart of production, mining of blasted ore in the Dowling Pit has also begun and will be stockpiled, with feed for the processing circuit sourced from existing stockpiles.

Galaxy is aiming to reach a throughput rate of 800,000 tonnes per annum by the end of June.

First delivery of concentrate is on target for July/August.

Sandvik has unveiled a new business division, Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology.

The division was formed through the merging of the Sandvik Mining and Sandvik Construction divisions.

According to Sandvik, the new division “will be organised in a de-centralised business model with separate product areas based on the product offering”.

“Each product area will have full responsibility and accountability for its respective businesses.”

Bjorn Rosengren, Sandvik’s CEO, explained the reasoning behind the merger.

“Products developed for the customer segments mining and construction are based on common technologies with a similar aftermarket offering,” Rosengren said.

“In addition, manufacturing units are already largely shared with to some extent shared front line resources. By joining the operations into one business area we achieve a leaner and more efficient structure. The decentralised business model enables an even clearer focus and faster response to our customers.”

The new structure will begin operation in July.

Current head of Sandvik Mining, Lars Engstrom, has been appointed president of the new division, while current president of Sandvik Construction, Dinggui Gao, will leave the company on 1 July.