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DESPITE differences, mines and civil contractors have the same needs when it comes to monitoring fuel. They need a robust, reliable and fully customisable system purpose built for Australian industry. For more than 30 years, Datafuel has been designing and manufacturing fuel management system components that today define the benchmark for such systems in Australia. The Datafuel system automates the supply of reliable and precise operational data on fuel usage, fleet consumption, tank levels and more. Amongst wider uses, such information is essential for accurate diesel fuel rebate claims. Fuel can be accessed with PINs, security cards or both, as well as acquiring odometer values and job numbers as required. Usage limits can be placed on both users and fleet...

IT’S full steam ahead for Rio Tinto’s $2.6b Amrun bauxite mine on the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. The mine and associated processing and port facilities will replace production from Rio Tinto’s depleting East Weipa mine, and increase annual bauxite export capacity by around 10mt, at a time when higher-grade bauxite is becoming scarcer globally. It’s a major milestone for the operations, which were approved in 2015, with its March commissioning this year well in advance of the target starting date. Rio Tinto made Amrun’s first shipment in December 2018, six weeks ahead of schedule, and at full production, Amrun is expected to dispatch 22.8mt a year, with options to expand. At the peak of construction, 1200 people worked on...

A LEADER in a highly specialised steel product manufacturing field, Bisalloy Steels owes its success in the Australian mining industry to the benefits of local knowledge, along with the right combination of resilience and formability. Established in 1980, Bisalloy Steels is Australia's only manufacturer of high-tensile and abrasion-resistant quenched and tempered steel plate. With its heritage firmly grounded in the critical mining and manufacturing sectors, the company also now provides its highly sort-after products to a range of markets including defence, energy, mineral processing, structural engineering, and transport. Within the mining sector, the company’s BISALLOY Wear steel plates find use in a broad range of products, including demolition tools, ground engaging tools, earthmoving buckets, drag line buckets, wear plates, chutes,...

POOR lighting conditions and heavy machinery in the same space can be a recipe for disaster. It can cause project work to stop, it can jeopardise worker safety, and can result in costly downtime and undue stress when working to tight project deadlines. Site Light Rentals is more than just a hire company: it refines, designs, engineers and manufactures the majority of its own lighting products. This means that the company has the knowledge and skill set grounded in an end-to-end understanding of the state-of-the-art solar and diesel LED light towers it designs, builds, manufactures sells and hires. The company manufactures the smaller four-metre concrete block street-mounted for carpark/ pedestrian lighting, all the way up to the 24-metre, 4200 watt...

CONFIDENCE in the integrity and safety of the new seawall design for Koolan Island was crucial to ensure a collapse would not happen again, according to Mount Gibson Iron chief executive Peter Kerr. “The new design has a higher factor of safety and is fundamentally different to the original seawall, incorporating an impermeable cement-bentonite seepage barrier within the embankment,” he said. “This in-ground barrier, which is more than 430m long, 1.2m thick, and extends down to bedrock (over 40m at its deepest point), was installed by a specialist contractor (Keller) and protects the pit from tidal water flows, ensuring the structural integrity of the seawall embankment. “The structure also incorporates extensive monitoring instrumentation, including more than 150 sensors that enable...

IT’S been a hectic 2019 for emerging Australian lithium developer Core Lithium (ASX: CXO), and it’s not even the second half of the year. Core has taken major steps forward in its goal toward becoming Australia’s next lithium producer, focusing on high quality lithium spodumene concentrate through the mining and processing of high grade spodumene pegmatites located at its wholly-owned Finniss Lithium Project, in the Bynoe pegmatite field in the Northern Territory. Core’s flagship asset is also conveniently within one hour’s drive of Darwin Port, Australia’s closest harbour facility to Asia. The company is initially developing one of Australia’s highest-grade lithium resources at the Grants Deposit and is actively assessing the additional development potential of a number of recently discovered...

LASERBOND is an Australian-based, Australian-founded and ASX-listed company specialising in surface engineering technology, manipulating surfaces to enhance their properties, to either repair them by cladding with a superior materials to the original components, or to extend the life of component by enhancing the material properties of the part. In mining equipment, there are many wearing components that are production-critical. On very large equipment like drag lines, there are large shafts which can take up to a year to get made overseas and transported to Australia, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and while the majority of components may be serviceable, relatively small numbers of parts are worn and need to be repaired or replaced. LaserBond National Sales and Marketing Manager...

ENERFLOW Mining Services moved into a 3000sqm state-of-the-art warehouse in Neerabup in December 2018 – a move which allowed the company to increase production capacity. The new premises includes two overhead cranes, five haul truck-sized work bays, plus areas for the fabrication of loader buckets, mechanical and electrical workstations, and a dedicated spare parts area. Enerflow general manager David Smith said the workshop had been very busy. “There has been a variety of work completed that includes the rebuilding of several drill rigs that have gone back to work,” he said. The scope of the drill rebuilds was a ground-up refurbishment with all components removed and rebuilt in-house, with all wearing components brought back to OEM specifications, full rehose, rewiring...

KIRKLAND Lake Gold’s Fosterville gold mine in Bendigo, Victoria, has been at the vanguard of Victoria’s resurgent gold industry since the discovery of the Eagle zone in 2015. With production for 2018 reaching 356,230oz, and Q1 of 2019 recorded as the most successful quarter of the mine’s history, Fosterville has established itself as a heavy-hitter  outside of the WA dominated gold sector, and one of the country’s most profitable mines. Victoria’s waning gold industry was kick-started when, in 2015, Kirkland Lake discovered exceptionally high-grade gold from deep drilling bellow the Fosterville mine near Bendigo. Since the discovery of the Eagle zone, which contained high-grade visible-gold bearing mineralisation, the mine has improved its overall mineral reserve grade significantly. In 2016, the...

FROM humble beginnings 60 years ago, Mario Giacci started a small business specialising in transport and logistics, and in 2014 Mr Giacci established MGM Bulk with his daughter Giudi and son Michael. MGM Bulk’s goal was to establish business relationships with clients that were seeking long-term continuous haulage and logistics contracts with a reliable, safe and cost-effective service provider. MGM Bulk commercial manager Fransco Barnard said currently, the company has secured contracts with several major mining companies all over WA and grown the fleet to nearly 100 trucks, with various trailer combinations suited for each individual task. “We pride ourselves on our strong safety culture with the motto that “Safety is our choice”,” he said. “We believe in maintaining a...

THE most valuable result emerging out of the data age is the ability to extract deficiencies in a mining operation. When it comes to haulage, it’s become pretty clear there are some serious gains to be made with the right maintenance regime. Tyre destruction, high fuel usage and premature wear of haul truck suspension have all popped up on the radar in this big data era. Now we know the problem, how do we fix it? Comprehensive studies into haulage profitability point back to haul road integrity, surface conditions and an obstruction-free working surface. These are all areas that South Australian company Broons has been specialising in for close to 50 years. The company’s unique towed rollers have been maintaining...