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Alcoa Corporation has received A$10.3 million of funding from Australian governments to conduct pilot trials on a new carbon reduction technology that supports Alcoa’s Refinery of the Future initiative. Alcoa of Australia has received support to test electric calcination with A$8.6 million from The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and A$1.7 million from Western Australia’s Clean Energy Future Fund (CEFF). Calcination is the final stage in the alumina refining process and uses fossil fuels, primarily natural gas, to heat alumina hydrate crystals. Electric calcination, when powered with renewable energy, has the potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, electrification of calciners would allow significant amounts of residual energy, currently lost in the atmosphere as steam, to be captured and reused,...

A powerful hoist that can carry nearly 40,000kg of ore to the surface will be installed at Prominent Hill in South Australia as part of OZ Mineral’s ongoing $600m shaft expansion of the mine. ABB will design and supply its highest payload Koepe production hoist (winder), which has a capacity of 39,400kg, and its strongest ever drivetrain in Australia. Whilst the hoist ensures safety, efficiency, processing performance and a long service life, ABB will also deliver associated infrastructure and safety systems as part of the installation and commissioning. OZ Minerals’ gold, silver, and copper mine began operations in 2009 as an open pit mine, but it is now an underground mine producing 4.5Mtpa, increasing to between 4.5-5 Mtpa from 2022...

The Eriez story began in 1942 when founder O.F. Merwin installed a permanent magnet in a grain mill. The company today, built of a workforce of more than 900 individuals located throughout 12 wholly owned international subsidiaries on six continents, is a world leader in magnetic separation, flotation, metal detection and material handling equipment technology. Over eight decades, Eriez has worked diligently to advance the mining, processing, packaging, food, recycling, aggregate and metalworking industries it serves. Company process engineers and scientists have developed countless product breakthroughs in the areas of rare earth magnets, superconducting technology, flotation, vibratory feeders, metal detection, auto scrap recycling equipment, suspended electromagnets, eddy current separation, and proprietary manufacturing techniques. Eriez is proud to be a family-run...

Liebherr has signed an agreement with BHP to integrate Liebherr engines into the global miner’s existing R 9600 600-tonne excavator fleet at South Flank mine in Western Australia. Liebherr-Australia executive general manager customer service Tony Johnstone and BHP general manager South Flank Steve Campbell recently met in Perth to mark the signing of a deal to repower the South Flank R 9600 fleet with D9812 Liebherr engines and the strong ongoing partnership between the OEM and the miner. Repowering the R 9600 fleet enables reduced maintenance and standardised parts capability. The integration will mark an important step in the partnership, while helping the customer to reduce maintenance and standardise parts capability. The integration follows intensive factory and field validations on...

Red 5 Limited (ASX: RED) remains on track for first gold production in the current quarter at its 100%-owned 2.4Moz, 16-year life-of-mine King of the Hills (KOTH) Gold Project, after achieving further key construction and operational readiness milestones during March 2022. Construction and Commissioning Key construction progress for March included: Commissioning of the crushing circuit has been completed; Commissioning of the gas pipeline has been completed; Commissioning of the power station has been completed to the stage where it is ready to power the process plant; Installation of the solar panels has been completed and wiring is being finalised; and Commissioning of the SAG mill has commenced, with the current critical path to first gold being the commissioning of the...

The board of Iluka Resources (ASX:ILU) has approved the Eneabba Rare Earths Refinery (Phase 3) development in Western Australia. The decision followed the achievement of two central milestones associated with the project: completion of the feasibility study, demonstrating solid economics and significant potential for growth; and agreement of a risk sharing arrangement with the Australian Government, including through a non-recourse loan under the Australian Government’s $2 billion Critical Minerals Facility, administered by Export Finance Australia (EFA). Phase 3 will deliver a fully integrated refinery for the production of separated rare earth oxides at Eneabba, north of Peth. The refinery will be capable of processing rare earth feedstocks sourced from both Iluka’s portfolio and from a range of potential third party...

Weir Minerals has announced a new partnership with XMPro, a leading digital twin platform. The partnership will enable intelligent equipment and services and support miners to achieve higher performance while also reducing the environmental footprint of their operations. The XMPro platform – as a part of the Synertrex digital ecosystem – will facilitate the delivery of event intelligence, predictive analytics, and real-time insights. It allows for data orchestration and value creation from multiple sources, including sensors, miners’ digital ecosystems, and data only available to Weir Minerals as an OEM, like maintenance data and 3D engineering models. The platform identifies critical events by applying AI and predictive analytics, which will provide Weir Minerals’ customers with the next generation of predictive services...

Below is some Budget Commentary from some mining industry leaders Andrew Dinning, Managing Director of Sarama Resources On the National Skills Agreement: The increase in funding under the National Skills Agreement will hopefully flow through to developing the labour pool, and anything that increases workforce skills and participation rates is positive for industry and business in general. However this initiative is unlikely to address immediate needs. The industry is suffering from a dearth of quality tradespeople and skilled participants which is having a detrimental impact on costs and quality of output. The mining industry and society in general desperately need a significant increase in skilled and quality labour and a much broader pool of skilled individuals from which to recruit....