Author: yinghui

Northparkes – 洛阳栾川钼业集团在澳的铜金矿

Northparkes is a copper and gold mine located 27 kilometres north west of Parkes in the Central West of New South Wales, Australia. Northparkes is a joint venture between China Molybdenum Co., Ltd (CMOC) (80%) and the Sumitomo Groups (20%).

The majority of our employees and their families live in the Parkes Shire, a diverse municipality centered in the town of Parkes, a thriving country town of about 12,000 residents. Parkes’ primary industry is agriculture but growth over recent decades from industrial, transport and mining sectors now means there is a diverse economic base in the town.

Northparkes operates underground block cave mines on its mining leases. Northparkes was the first in the country to use a variation of the cost-effective block cave mining technique in its underground operations. Underground block cave operations include the E26 Lift 2 and Lift 2 North (Lift 2N) block caves as well as the E48 block cave project. Open cut mining campaigns have been undertaken in the E26, E22 and E27 pits

Northparkes’ ore is processed on site to produce a high-grade copper concentrate which is then transported by road train to the Goonumbla rail siding approximately 13 kilometres from the mine. The containers are then placed on to a train and transported to Port Kembla, south of Wollongong, where the concentrate is then shipped to customers primarily in Japan, China and India.

Northparkes Mines owns 6000 hectares of land around the mine, of which the mining lease covers 1630 hectares. The remaining land is actively farmed using best practice farming methods developed and adopted to maximise productivity and quality while conserving water and soils.

As of 1 December 2013 the majority owner of Northparkes Mines is CMOC. Northparkes is CMOC’s first international asset. For more information on CMOC please read the factsheet below.

CMOC-Factsheet-(2)

注：该矿山与Sandvik Mining & Construction已合作20年。

以智能制造为主导的第四次工业革命

工业4.0。德国学术界和产业界认为，未来10年，基于信息物理系统（Cyber-Physical System，CPS）的智能化，将使人类步入以智能制造为主导的第四次工业革命。产品全生命周期和全制造流程的数字化以及基于信息通信技术的模块集成，将形成一个高度灵活、个性化、数字化的产品与服务的生产模式。
“工业4.0”为我们展现了一幅全新的工业蓝图：在一个“智能、网络化的世界”里，物联网和务联网（服务互联网技术）将渗透到所有的关键领域，创造新价值的过程逐步发生改变，产业链分工将重组，传统的行业界限将消失，并会产生各种新的活动领域和合作形式。
首先，工业4.0将使得工业生产过程更加灵活、坚强。这将使得动态的、适时优化的和自我组织的价值链成为现实，并带来诸如成本、可利用性和资源消耗等不同标准的最优化选择。包括在制造领域的所有因素和资源间形成全新的循环网络、智能产品独特的可识别性、个性化产品定制以及高度灵活的工作环境等。
其次，工业4.0将发展出全新的商业模式和合作模式。这些模式将力争确保潜在的商业利润在整个价值链所有利益相关人之间公平地共享，包括那些新进入的利益相关人。同时，工业4.0“网络化制造”、“自我组织适应性强的物流”和“集成客户的制造工程”等特征，也使得它追求新的商业模式以率先满足动态的商业网络而非单个公司，这将引发一系列诸如融资、发展、可靠性、风险、责任和知识产权以及技术安全等问题。
再次，工业4.0将带来工作方式和环境的全新变化。全新的协作工作方式使得工作可以脱离工厂，通过虚拟的、移动的方式开展。员工将拥有高度的管理自主权，可以更加积极地投入和调节自己的工作。同时，随着工作环境和工作方式的巨大改变，可以大幅度提升老年人和妇女的就业比例，确保人口结构的变化不会影响当前的生活水平。
最后，工业4.0将促进形成全新的信息物理系统平台。全新的信息物理系统平台能够联系到所有参与的人员、物体和系统，将提供全面、快捷、安全可靠的服务和应用业务流程，支持移动终端设备和业务网络中的协同制造、服务、分析和预测流程等，如图2所示。

Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0

Whitehaven Coal

Our operations are currently underpinned by our new Narrabri underground operation which commenced longwall production in October 2012, and our three existing open cut mines – all situated in NSW’s Gunnedah Basin.

Construction has commenced at our Maules Creek project and and approval is being sought for our Vickery project, also located in the Gunnedah Basin. These projects are expected to provide significant and exciting career opportunities across a wide range of mining-related professions.

Maules Creek is one of the last major undeveloped and significant multi-seam coal deposits in New South Wales and is expected to sustain a potential project life in excess of 30 years, with average saleable coal production of 11.0 Mtpa.

The Narrabri mine is a modern, technologically-advanced underground operation with its new longwall already exceeding initial design production rates after only one year of operation. The mine will produce over 6.0 Mtpa with an expected life in excess of 25 years.

The company also operates a Coal Handling and Preparation Plant (CHPP) and rail loader near Gunnedah.

WhitehavenCoal_Asset_Portfolio

Whitehaven has an 11% interest in the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) which recently completed the construction of the final stage of a new coal export terminal at the Port of Newcastle. This is in addition to its port allocation at Port Waratah Coal Services.

Mount Gibson Iron

Mount Gibson is a leading independent player in the Australian iron ore industry.

Established in Perth in 1996 and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in 2002, the Company owns and operates:

  • Tallering Peak – a 3-million tonnes per annum iron ore mine in the Midwest region of Western Australia, approximately 175 kilometres east of the port city of Geraldton, which commenced production in late 2003.
  • Koolan Island – a 3-million tonnes-plus per annum iron ore mine off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia, acquired through Mount Gibson’s successful takeover of Aztec Resources in 2007 and commissioned the same year.
  • Extension Hill DSO (Direct Shipping Ore) – a 3-million tonnes per annum iron ore mine in the Mt Gibson Range, 260km southeast of Geraldton, where production commenced in late 2011.
  • Geraldton Port – Mount Gibson’s established export base at Geraldton Port in Western Australia is a key asset, which gives the Company a significant competitive advantage, and a highly strategic role in the long-term development of the Mid West iron ore industry. Mount Gibson has long-term user and access agreements in place with the Geraldton Port Authority, including 50-year leases, and owns two storage facilities with a combined ore storage capacity of 360,000-tonnes. Mount Gibson also has long standing rail access agreements in place under which it transports ore from its Mid West mines to Geraldton for export. In May 2012, a major upgrade of the rail unloading facilities was completed at the port, which effectively doubled the Company’s export capacity from Geraldton Port to approximately 6-million tonnes per annum.

Crunch time for $5 billion steel project

Euroa Steel Plant Project
Euroa Steel Plant Project

CRUNCH time is coming for a proposed steel plant in Gladstone steel project, with a key group of Malaysian investors to visit next month in the hope they will commit $5 billion to the project.

Director Ross Johnson and CEO David Simpson told the audience at the Gladstone Engineering Alliance Major Industry Conference they wanted to be ready for construction in January 2016.

“We’re envisaging local companies will take the lead and they may bring in others with skills they don’t have themselves,” he said.

With 1800 operational jobs up for grabs, Mr Johnson said he wasn’t sure Gladstone could provide all the numbers, so they envisaged there may be a “camp” situation to begin with until any employees from out of town could be settled.

“Our work situation is such that we’d like to think we can provide jobs for two partners of a family, and one thing we’re conscious of is childcare, so we will also be incorporating childcare facilities on or off site,” he said.

The Malaysian investment team will visit in November for 10 days to review the project.

“It’s crunch time for us. You may never see us again after Christmas or you’ll see us all the time,” Mr Simpson said.

He also defined how the company structure would now work, following some confusion in the community.

“Boulder is the name that many people will be familiar… it’s just going to float off into the distance and do something else not involved in the project,” he said.

He said the new major shareholder of Boulder Steel was essentially the former Boulder Steel Rescue Group, now known as Gladstone Steel Pty Ltd, and there were arrangements between the three groups that would take Boulder out of the project.

The plant has been designed to produce five million tonnes per annum of high quality steel in bloom and round billet form for export to overseas finishing plants.

No appetite to invest

TWO projects that would see 2200 permanent jobs come to Gladstone have struggled to get financial backing.

The developers say it’s because of the poor Australian investment attitude towards manufacturing.

Speakers from the Euroa Steel Plant Project (formerly known as Boulder Steel) told the audience at day two of the Gladstone Engineering Alliance Major Industry Conference that Australian investors didn’t believe manufacturing could be done efficiently.

CEO David Simpson said he believed there wasn’t “any appetite in this country for large-scale manufacturing”.

“They get scared for labour costs, but… it’s really not an issue for us,” he said.

Mr Simpson said the rest of the steel project was all local, “but you won’t get people to move on their money easily on a project of this scale”.

Queensland Energy Resources operations manager Chris Anderson said his company had had a similar experience.

OUTLOOK POSITIVE FOR THE GLOBAL AGGREGATES INDUSTRY

By Stephanie Chan • Staff Journalist

The world aggregates industry has enjoyed steady growth over nearly three decades, according to a new international report.

The XXV World Stone Report, authored by World Stone Magazine editor Professor Carlo Montani, showed that between 1990 and 2013, the volumes of aggregate globally increased 180 per cent from 46 million to 130 million tonnes, with consumption levels also rising 185 per cent during this period.

The growth trend continued in 2013 with the volume of quarried and processed materials increasing five per cent to 265 million tonnes compared to 2012.

During this time – a period the report labelled “another year of consolidation” – five countries dominated more than two-thirds of the world’s quarrying output. In order, these were China, India, Turkey, Brazil and Italy, with Asian countries accounting for more than 60 per cent of production.

“Since the 1960s, the balance of power has changed radically, with the top four producers – China, India, Turkey and Brazil – expanding from 30 per cent to 61 per cent global production,” Montani said in a press release.

In 2013, there was a 2.8 per cent rise in import/export volumes, highlighting a larger proportional expansion on domestic markets, although the export volume for China – the world’s largest producer – fell to 12.1 million tonnes, a four per cent downturn of 500,000 tonnes.

Global trade of unhewn and processed stone materials equated to more than 770 million equivalent square metres (m2) in 2013, with unhewn materials proving more popular. The unhewn material sector’s market share increased to 52.7 per cent, which indicated a “strategy that tends not to give priority to finished products”, according to the press release.

The report also found that more marble and granite had been used in the past five decades than in any previous era.

“In recent years, marble and stone have stood out for expansion better than the world economy [sic] and have suffered from the international crisis less than other sectors,” the press release stated. “Long-term trends seem to confirm this. Over the past decade, net production increased on average by seven per cent per year and global trade grew on average by more than 10 per cent in total.

“It should also be added that the use of marble and stone grew to a greater extent than ceramics, from 12 per cent in 2000 to 15 per cent today.”

Prices in the main markets remained generally stable, with some regions reporting growth.

With regards to the world stone industry’s outlook, Montani commented, “Stone boasts an extremely long history and will have an equally long future by combining technology, aesthetics and professional values. In a word – quality. Translated into numbers, prospects through to 2020 indicate a total output of at least 170 million tonnes, equal to 1.8 billion m2 equivalent.”

The annual World Stone Report has endeavoured to act as an analytical and informative tool for the global quarrying and aggregates industries for 25 years.

The full 2013 report – in Italian only – is available via www.worldstonemagazine.com

PYBAR wins contract to mine Vivien gold project

Underground mining contractor PYBAR has won the contract to develop and mine Ramelius Resources’ Vivien gold project.

The contract will start in January with a peak workforce of 49 people.

The mine, 15km west of Leinster in Western Australia, was recently bought by Ramelius from Agnew Gold Mining Company.

A feasibility study showed it would cost $20 million to develop the Vivien mine.

The project is expected to produce 109,000 ounces over an initial 30-month mine life.

The company said the underground mine would take eight months to build and have an all-in operating costs of $890 per ounce.

PYBAR chief Paul Rouse said he was delighted to have won the Vivien contract.

“We achieved this in an extremely competitive environment on the back of our ability to demonstrate flexibility, scale and safe performance,” Rouse said.

“Our track record proves that there is room to reset performance benchmarks and to deliver value by doing more with less and without compromising safety and quality, which is absolutely critical in today’s market.”

The Vivien announcement follows the extension of PYBAR’s contract at Saracen’s Red October gold mine, also in WA.

The two year extension will see PYBAR continue development and production at the mine until June 2016.

New bauxite mine in Tasmania of Australia

Tasmania will see the development of its first bauxite mine in over 30 years after approving Australian Bauxite Limited’s Bald Hill project in the state’s north.

Minster for Resources Paul Harriss said the new mine was an “exciting project” that would create jobs and economic activity.

The project is expected to create around 45 jobs, with operations expected to begin later this year.

More than 1.6 million tonnes of bauxite is expected to be mined for domestic and international markets from three pits on the site.

The ore will be shipped through Bell Bay.

ABX chief Leon Hawker said the mine will introduce a new bauxite supply to the seaborne market.

“We look forward to continuing and further developing the relationships that have been  built in Tasmania. I particularly wish to acknowledge the work undertaken and the  support of the Mineral Resources Tasmania, a division of the Department of State Growth  and the EPA and recognise the strong community support we enjoy.”