Category: Mines and Quarry

Terex India has entered into a strategic marketing agreement with Chinese equipment manufacturer Lonking. It has also used the bC India exhibition to launch a new backhoe loader on the local market.

Under the terms of the branding and distribution agreement with Lonking, Terex will sell dual branded Terex-Lonking Chinese-made wheeled loaders through its distribution network in India. The agreement also allows for Terex to sell Lonking-made equipment in other selected south-east Asian markets.

In a reciprocal agreement, Lonking has the rights to sell Terex’s Indian-made backhoe loaders through its worldwide distribution network.

At this stage, the agreement is focussed on branding and distribution. Terex said that if market volumes were great enough, it would consider a joint venture arrangement for equipment manufacture.

The two Lonking-made wheeled loaders on display at the bC India exhibition are the 3 m3/5tonne capacity CDM 856 and 1.8 m3/3.5 tonne capacity CDM 835. They are branded in Terex-Lonking and are painted in yellow livery, as opposed to Terex’s characteristic white.

Also at the show, Terex took the wraps off a new backhoe loader for the Indian market, the TLB740SE. This features a curved excavator-style boom on the digging end, as opposed to the straight boom of other Indian Terex backhoes. Other innovations include a new hydraulic system which the company says helps reduce fuel consumption, a new loader front end with double-acting cylinders and a large cab.

Oil industry service provider Patrick has reached a new agreement to acquire Apache Energy’s Dampier Floating Deck (DFD) platform.
The DFD is currently under construction at the Port of Dampier in Western Australia, and is due for completion in March 2015.
The DFD will service oil and gas support vessel operations and provide an additional two berths and a range of on-berth vessel provisioning /support services not previously available in the area.
Patrick Bulk and Automotive Ports Services director Murray Vitlich said the acquisition will expand Patrick’s existing oil and gas services capabilities in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
“The Port of Dampier is positioned well to provide ongoing services to vessels supporting oil and gas projects as they transition from construction to operations over the coming years. This platform will strengthen our existing regional port operations servicing the oil and gas sector in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.”
A spokesperson for Patrick said the company had declined to reveal the cost of the deal.
Patrick will operate the DFD as an open access facility, and Apache Energy will become a foundation customer.

It is widely reported that a consortium of China’s Shenhua Energy, Japan’s Sumitomo and Mongolia’s Energy Resources (a subsidiary of Mongolian Mining Corp) has won the tender to develop the 7,400 Mt Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit in Mongolia, though none of the companies’ websites currently carry any announcement. The consortium is said to have beat bids from US-based mining company Peabody Energy and Japan’s Itochu. Steel First says the tender that has been won is “for the right to develop both East and West Tsankhi blocks of Tavan Tolgoi.”

The Government of Mongolia will retain full ownership of the mine, which is reported to be one of the world’s largest known untapped coking and thermal coal deposits. It is situated in the Ömnögovi Province and located around 240 km north of the Chinese border.

It is thought that, under the contract, the consortium will have to produce 30 Mt/y of coal at Tavan Tolgoi and deliver into at least two export markets.

The massive resource is divided into six sections: Tsankhi, Ukhaa Khudag, Bor tolgoi, Borteeg and southwest and eastern coalfields.

Energy Resources is already engaged in open-pit mining at the Ukhaa Khudag (UHG) deposit located within the Tavan Tolgoi coal formation in the Southern Gobi, some 560 km from the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. The UHG mine is also strategically located about 600 km from Baotou, China, an important railway transportation hub providing access for Mongolian coal to the largest steel producing provinces in China.

Energy Resources holds mining license MV-11952 for the UHG coking coal deposit. Covering a licensed area of approximately 2,960 ha in size, the UHG deposit had around 701 Mt of JORC-compliant Measured, Indicated and Inferred resources as of 30 June 2012 and 315 Mt of ROM coal reserves as of 31 December 2012. According to Wood Mackenzie, the vast majority of the reserves falls within the highest quality parameters and is ideal for manufacturing needs at markets across the world. The company says that “due to its low stripping ratio, favorable geological conditions and proximity to its target market in China, MMC has lower operational costs than the majority of its competitors around the world.

The company commenced commercial mining operations at UHG in April 2009 and has steadily ramped up the ROM coal production at UHG from 1.8 Mt in 2009 to 3.9 Mt in 2010, 7.1 Mt in 2011 and 8.6 Mt in 2012. ROM coal production from UHG mine reached 9.2 Mt in 2013.

中国交通建设股份有限公司近日从豪赫蒂夫公司的一家子公司手中收购了一家大型澳大利亚承包商.

该交易价值7.7亿欧元，豪赫蒂夫公司（Hochtief）子公司礼顿控股公司（Leighton Holdings）同意将约翰荷兰（John Holland）出售给中国交通建设股份有限公司（中国交建）。

将该澳大利亚承包商出售给中国交建的金融部门的举措适逢总部在德国的豪赫蒂夫公司更广范围的业务组合的瘦身运动。

10月份，该承包商决定剥离其海外资产，将其出售给海洋工程公司 GeoSea，并出售了其地产公司 Format 与 Aurelis。

约翰荷兰的出售有待澳大利亚外国投资审查委员会（Australian Foreign Investment Review）的审批。它将涉及将4100名员工转移给新企业。出售以后，礼顿的年销售额将减少约25亿欧元。

豪赫蒂夫和礼顿控股公司的CEO Marcelino Fernández Verdes说，“2014年6月，我们宣布作为我们战略评估的一部分，我们在对我们的服务、地产和约翰荷兰等企业的退路进行分析，包括将这些企业剥离，或者给他们引入新的合作伙伴的潜在可能性。

“约翰荷兰的剥离支持我们聚焦于减少举债经营，以及加强我们的收支平衡表，这样我们就可以维持我们的竞争力。”

该交易所得也将被用来投资于增长，尤其是公私合营伙伴关系方面。”

John Holland Group Pty Limited, founded in Australia in 1949 and headquartered in Melbourne, ranks currently one of the top three construction enterprises in Australia with excellent reputation in the industry. It has three primary businesses, namely construction work, special engineering service and transportation service. John Holland has core technologies, mainly including railway system, tunneling, water service and sewage treatment, environmental protection, oceanographic engineering, and oil refining infrastructures. It’s worth mentioning that John Holland boasts the most powerful capabilities of railway construction and operation management in Australia, and can supply related services throughout Australia as the only company with both railway operation and infrastructure management licenses in Australia. Its total annual revenue in 2013 is 4.55 billion Australian dollars, and its uncompleted contract sum is approximately 5.51 billion Australian dollars at present.

中国交建是世界500强企业，主要从事公路、桥梁、港口、码头、航道、铁路、隧道、市政等基础设施的勘察、设计、建设、监理，港口和航道的疏浚，海洋重型装备与港口机械、筑路机械的制造，以及交通基础设施投资、城市综合体开发运营和房地产开发业务等，拥有50家全资、控股子公司，业务足迹遍及世界120余个国家和地区，员工人数100535人。在2014年7月7日美国《财富》杂志最新公布的2014年世界500强排行榜中，中国交建以546.1亿美元的营业收入位列第187位，比上年提升了26位，继续保持在世界500强企业的中前列位置.
中国交建是中国最大的港口设计及建设企业，设计承建了建国以来绝大多数沿海大中型港口码头；世界领先的公路、桥梁设计及建设企业，参与了国内众多高等级主干线公路建设；世界第一疏浚企业，拥有世界最大的疏浚船队，耙吸船总舱容量和绞吸船总装机功率均排名世界第一；全球最大的集装箱起重机制造商，集装箱起重机业务占世界市场份额的78%以上，产品出口86个国家和地区的近200个港口；中国最大的国际工程承包商，中国交建（CCCC）、中国港湾(CHEC)、中国路桥(CRBC)、振华重工(ZPMC)等标志性品牌享誉全球；中国最大的设计公司，拥有13家大型设计院、8个国家级技术中心、18个省级技术中心、5个交通行业重点实验室、8个博士后科研工作站；中国第三大高速公路投资运营商，投资高速公路里程已超过2000公里；中国铁路建设的主力军，先后参与了武合铁路、太中银铁路、哈大客专、京沪高铁、沪宁城际、石武客专、兰渝铁路、湘桂铁路、宁安铁路等多个国家重点铁路项目的设计和施工；创造诸多世界“之最”工程，公司设计承建了全球10大集装箱码头中的5 个、世界10大斜拉桥中的5座、世界10大悬索桥中的4座和世界10大跨海大桥中的5座，上海洋山深水港、苏通长江大桥、杭州湾跨海大桥，以及正在实施的港珠澳大桥等工程，均代表了世界最高水平。

Metso states: “Operational uptime plays a key role in today’s crushing operations, where maximising productivity and reducing the cost per tonne are paramount.” To meet these challenges, the company has developed its new Orange Series Rotor for vertical shaft impact (VSI) crushers. With the new rotors, Metso states that productive uptime can be increased substantially through longer parts lifetime and faster service. Barmac VSIs are widely used in mines, especially as tertiary or quaternary stage crushers.

The new Metso Orange Series Rotor components have been reconfigured with a built-in possibility for easy interchange and maximising of wear life. The change-out of primary components through the service door has also been improved. “With the Orange rotors, maintenance is made easy by reducing the total number of wear parts by 30% and the total number of components by 25%. This is achieved by integrating several components and using less fixing points. Hard-facing during maintenance is no longer required.”

Tuomas Takalo, Metso’s Product Manager for Barmac VSI crushers, describes the increase in wear parts life achieved with the Orange rotor as significant: “We have tested the new primary components in real quarry operations, achieving in most cases greatly enhanced wear life. For example, the tip life was increased by 30-50%. In quarry operations, the extended lifetime will provide the operator significantly increased operational uptime. Fewer intervals between wear parts changes will clearly increase the total capacities produced.”

The change-out of primary components for the Orange rotor through the service door has been improved greatly. “In tip and cavity wear plates replacement, the actual servicing time can be cut by more than half, due to simplified retaining bar fixing,” says Takalo. According to him, similar time savings can be achieved with other wear parts replacements.

The Orange Series Rotor was designed with the operators of the older models of Barmac VSI crushers in mind. The Orange Series Rotor can be fitted, without any modifications, to all VSI models that accept the following rotors: 690 DTR, 840DTR and 990DTR.

Zest WEG Group says it is showcasing its full suite of products and manufacturing capabilities at a flagship infrastructure and iron ore mining project in Liberia. This follows group company EnI Electrical winning two major contracts for ArcelorMittal at Buchanan Port in Liberia as well as at the Tokadeh iron ore mine near Yekepa in Nimba County.

“These projects will serve as a vehicle for the Zest WEG Group product portfolio to arrive on site,” Trevor Naude, Managing Director, EnI Electrical says. One of Africa’s largest electrical construction companies, EnI Electrical forms a significant part of the Zest WEG Group’s value addition and total service package for the African mining industry.

“While the Zest WEG Group is well known as an importer and distributor of WEG electric motors from Brazil, one of the largest ranges of its kind in the world, our full product line up includes transformers, switchgear, variable speed drives, motor control centres, gensets and renewable energy solutions. We also have three fully fledged manufacturing facilities in South Africa that we are in the process of expanding as we increase our footprint in Africa,” Louis Meiring, CEO, Zest WEG Group, says.

ArcelorMittal is currently mining and shipping 5 Mt/y of iron ore a year from its Phase 1 operations in Liberia. A Phase 2 expansion project will boost shipments to 15 Mt/y, with first production earmarked for end-2015. The first contract focuses on a ship loading facility at Buchanan Port, where EnI Electrical will construct 6.6 kV overhead power lines in addition to all medium voltage infrastructure, electrical infrastructure and instrumentation works.

The second contract relates to mine infrastructure at the Tokadeh mine, which has a rail link to Buchanan Port. “We are responsible for all overhead line infrastructure from medium voltage to all the electrical work and instrumentation,” Naude explains. “This flagship project represents what EnI Electrical has been striving towards since its inception. “We are positioning ourselves as the electrical infrastructure construction team within the Zest WEG Group.”

EnI Electrical’s roster of successful flagship mining projects completed since 2012 include the Beira Coal Terminal in Mozambique, the Konkola North Copper Project in Zambia, Nantou Mining in Burkina Faso, the Samancor Meyerton furnace upgrade, the Gold Fields South Deep Expansion, Xstrata’s Tswelopele sinter and pelletising plant in Rustenburg, Petra Diamonds’ Cullinan DMS plant and two gold mine expansions for Barrick Gold in Tanzania. EnI Electrical has also completed projects in Uganda, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Mali, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Head of finance at Rio Tinto said the falling price of iron ore, coal and oil has come as a surprise to most in the industry.

Iron ore is battling losses of nearly 50 per cent while oil has lost around 40 per cent of its value.

Coking and thermal coal have also seen price falls of close to 15 per cent.

Rio’s finance chief Chris Lynch said the price slips have been lower than anticipated.

“Is it lower than where I thought it would be right now? Well I don’t try and predict where it is near term but it is probably lower than where I think anyone saw it would be immediately,” Lynch told Fairfax Media.

“But you could also say the same is true for oil – and coal probably.”

The price of iron ore has once again slipped below $US70 a tonne, and it sitting close to five-year lows.

Oil is also struggling at five-year lows of $US68 a barrel.

Rio and BHP Billiton have been blamed for the iron ore price falls as they push more supply into an already flooded market.

This week a former Rio executive said junior miners struggling to deal with the drop in price should publicly ask the ACCC to investigate.

Lynch denied the two majors were working to keep prices subdued.

“We can always choose to run our assets as we choose to run them but the concept of deliberately trying to manipulate the market isn’t something we would ever contemplate,” Lynch said.

“There are always going to be slight mis-matches whenever you’ve got a long term view of what demand looks like and supply will come at various rates. At times it will come a little more than immediate demand, at others it will come too slow. But eventually it will work its way out in the market.”

Lynch said Rio was focused on cost savings as it ramps up production at its Pilbara operations to 360 million tonnes of iron ore per annum.

The company has said it would aim to cut a further $US1 billion of annual operating costs, on top of annual cost savings of $US3.2 billion achieved since 2012.

“As much as we’d like it to be different, it’s still a cyclical industry. During the really hot market years, costs were being bid up fairly heavily,” Lynch said.

“Now those costs are hard to get out but once you have the opportunity to do that you need to take advantage of that opportunity and I think we are in that mode now. There is a lot more competitive pitching in bids and costs are coming down.”

Coal has had a tumultuous 12 months but will 2015 be any better?

Coal prices declined steadily in the first months of 2014 in response to a combination of in-creased supply and lower import demand from China.

Australian benchmark contract prices for high-quality metallurgical coal settled at $US120 in the September quarter, a price that left many coal operations unprofitable.

Thermal coal fared even worse, with Newcastle free on board spot prices averaging US$73 a tonne in the first eight months of 2014, down 16 per cent year on year.

The price glut mean something had to give, and 2014 was the year the coal industry decided to restructure its workforce leading to massive job cuts.

Australian Mining estimates that more than 2500 jobs in the coal sector were cut as mining companies either downsized their operations or shut them down completely.

The Integra coal complex in the Hunter Valley was an early victim of coal’s fall from grace, as Vale announced in May that it would close the operation, taking 500 with it.

Isaac Plains in Central Queens-land also went into care and maintenance, with 300 jobs cut.

And in news that came as a shock to many, Glencore decided to close its coal operations for three weeks over Christmas.

The company said the move was a “considered management decision given the current over-supply situation”.

Glencore said this will reduce the need to push incremental sales in the weak commodity price environment.

And herein lies the problem with the coal price and its chance of recovering much-needed ground in 2015.

The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE) said Australia exported 181 million tonnes in 2013-14 of metallurgical coal in 2013-14, with this expected to increase to 185 million tonnes in 2014-15.

While thermal coal exports are tipped to top 196 million tonnes in 2014-15.

However it’s the values that are important. Metallurgical coal is expected to remain steady at around $23.2 billion.

Thermal coal’s value is expected to decline by 9 per cent to $15.1 billion.

This is because there is an oversupply of both products on the world market, and countries like China are not willing to pay close to previous highs of $180 a tonne.

“Globally, production over-took demand in 2012-13, resulting in a strong drop-off in the world prices for steaming and coking coal,” IBISWorld explained.

Making matters worse for miners in Australia is the supply coming online from other competitors such as Indonesia, Colombia and South Africa.

At the same time, rising natural gas production in the United States means thermal coal will be diverted from domestic American markets, where it is used as an energy source, to export destinations.

This will all work to keep a lid on prices, especially if China can get a handle on its production capacity and costs.

IBISWorld said this means the focus on cost structures will continue, with wages and employment to come under pressure as the capital-intensive industry seeks additional productivity gains.

It said employment is expected to decline at a compound annual rate of 3.9 per cent over the next five years as other areas of the industry’s cost structure are less flexible.

Companies are also assessing their place in the market, the consultant firm said, with many mine stakes thought to be on the market and assets like Clermont coal mine in Queensland.

However, despite the gloom Australian producers who can restrain their costs are expected to remain competitive in the global market as the local currency continues to weaken against the U.S dollar.

BREE said a rapid price rise in coking coal prices was unlikely, and forecast the commodity to decline by 2.6 per cent to an average US$123 a tonne in 2015.

But there is an upside.

From 2016, the market balance is expected to tighten as China’s real estate sector begins to recover and a prolonged period of oversupply comes to an end through the closure of high-cost operations. The metallurgical coal contract price is projected to rise modestly to US$130 a tonne (in 2014 dollar terms) by 2019.

However thermal coal is expected to remain weak and decline by 6 per cent to settle at US$77 in 2015.

But exports of steaming coal to key markets in Asia are expected to expand over the next few years as new coal-fired power stations come onstream.

BREE said from 2016 the market balance is expected to tighten as more mines close and availability tightens.

This will result in contract prices rising to US$86 a tonne by 2019.

While the price rises are not dramatic, and are nowhere near the highs seen at the peak of the boom, they will work to ease a little pressure for mining companies.

Especially the ones making hard decisions now on how to remain viable until the upshot comes to fruition.