THIS year marks 85-years of business for CIMIC mining services contractor, Thiess. With an order book brimming with new contracts and extensions, 2019 looks set to be another successful year.
Thiess’ history dates back to 1934 – when five Thiess brothers began work as road contractors in Darling Downs, and forged a reputation for excellence in construction.
In the 1940s the brothers pioneered large-scale open cut coal mining activities in QLD and NSW in response to an energy crisis, and in 1958 nabbed one of the most sought after Australian construction contracts at the time – the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme.
Flash forward to 1961; the company went global, winning its first civil engineering contract outside of Australia for the NZ Hydro Scheme.
After launching itself on the international stage, in 1962 Thiess Peabody Mitsui formed to operate the Kianga and Moura mines and exported QLD’s first metallurgical coal to Japan.
In 1979, Thiess was responsible for building the famous Loy Yang Power Station chimneys, and in 1996 became the first contractor to operate an established mine on behalf of a mine owner, through its contract win at Collinsville coal mine in QLD’s Bowen Basin.
Today, Thiess delivers a full suite of mining services, from development, extraction, processing to remediation, asset management and maintenance, and enabling services.
In fact, in 2015 it became the world’s largest contract miner responsible for top tier companies.
In its 2018 full-year results released in February, CIMIC Group executive chairman Marcelino Fernandez Verdes said the year was another positive one, which was attributed to a line-up of contract awards for its Thiess business.
“In 2018, we focussed on enhancing the capability of our operating companies to provide integrated solutions, ensuring we deliver enduring value for our clients across the lifecycle of their assets, infrastructure and resources projects,” Mr Fernandez Verdes said.
“Our pipeline of work has further increased and we have a positive outlook for 2019 and beyond.
“This is led by the strong performance of the mining sector, an increasing level of infrastructure opportunities in Australia, and the trends towards more outsourcing of services and for greater investment in PPPs.”
Contract Wins
The 2018 calendar year already saw a pick-up in mining activity through Thiess’ many contract wins, including a lucrative $1.2 billion five-year contract extension at BHP’s Mt Arthur coal mine in the Hunter Valley.
The contract, awarded in October, was the third successive contract Thiess had secured with BHP at Mt Arthur Coal, which would include additional services as mine operator of the southern end of the Mt Arthur Coal operations (the Ayredale and Roxburgh pits).
Thiess would also perform mine design, planning and scheduling services, drill and blast operations, overburden removal and coal mining, with about 300 permanent jobs up for grabs.
CIMIC Mining and Mineral Processing group executive and Thiess managing director Douglas Thompson said the team had a “proud history in the region and working with BHP”.
Thiess currently provided mining services at three locations in the Hunter Valley, as well as two maintenance workshops.
“We’re pleased to continue our work at Mt Arthur Coal’s southern operations and support local jobs, suppliers and businesses,” Mr Thompson said.
“We look forward to contributing to the success of the Mt Arthur Coal operation.”
Another coal contract win was its $160 million extension at Coronado’s Curragh coal mine in QLD, awarded in June, where Thiess had been providing services since 2004.
The work package included mining about 45 million bank cubic metres of waste and coal at the Curragh north pit until June 2019, and delivery of existing scope of works under its current $1.1 billion contract until 2021.
Moving West, Thiess also picked up a $225 million contract in June at BHP Nickel West’s Rocky’s Reward project.
The 34-month contract comprised a further cutback at the pit and works on a satellite pit, such as mine planning and engineering, drilling and blasting, mining of overburden and ore and rehandling services to the Leinster processing facility.
In September, BHP Nickel West awarded Thiess a supplementary contract at the Leinster underground mine, which extended 24 months, and was valued at about $190 million.
Weeks later a $420 million four-year extension was announced to continue operations at Antofagasta Minerals’ Encuentro open pit located in northern Chile.
Thiess’ contract streak continued in November, when it was tasked with installing autonomous haulage system technology across Fortescue Metals Group’s (FMG) fleet of 65 haul trucks at its Christmas Creek operations in the Pilbara, WA.
The 18-month contract included the installation of the system onto FMG’s Komatsu 930E and Caterpillar 789D trucks.
Rounding off a successful year, in December Thiess’ also announced it had won a $150 million contract extension with BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance’s Caval Ridge coal mine in the Bowen Basin, QLD.
2019: A Strong Start
Moving into the New Year, further contracts were secured at Bayan Resources’ Melak mine expansion in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, and Debswana Diamond Company’s Jwaneng mine Cut 9 project in Botswana.
The $172 million, 12-month extension in Indonesia would take Thiess’ contract out to 2023, and would see it increase coal production and overburden removal, and continue its existing mining services.
In Botswana, the $1.7 billion contract through its JV Majwe (Thiess owns 70 per cent) with Bothakga Burrow Botswana would span nine years, and include drill and on-bench services, mine planning, equipment maintenance, load and haul and mining operations.
“I am pleased to be extending our long-term relationship with Debswana Diamond Company and Majwe, delivering scalable and innovative solutions that are tailored to our client’s production and expansion needs,” Mr Thompson said.
“This contract extends our compliance with Botswana’s Citizen Economic Empowerment Policy and to delivering sustainable mining.”
Technology in Focus
Beyond its recent contract wins, Thiess was also advancing automation across its projects.
Technology was a primary focus for the business, which was highlighted in CIMIC’s recently released 2018 annual report.
One such initiative was its aim of making scissor lift elevating work platforms safer to use for operators.
Thiess – alongside EIC Activities, CPB Contractors, and UGL – had taken up the challenge and were currently trialling a new technology to protect users.
“Scissor lifts are mechanical devices that provide temporary access to work areas at height,” CIMIC stated.
“To make scissor lifts safer, the Group has partnered with a technology company to design and test a new type of safety device that provides a hard engineering control when using these platforms in complex construction and mining environments.”
CIMIC said with LiDAR (light detection) sensors, the solution could detect and prevent the machine from impacting obstacles, or entrapping the operator, therefore improving the safety of the operator and other workers on the platform.
“The Group has acquired 10 LiDAR sensor units and trialled these on CPB Contractors and Thiess sites during the year,” it stated.
“Trials have been staggered so as to incorporate improvements and lessons learned from each site as they progress.
“Our goal is to develop the solution to the point where it could be successfully manufactured and improve safety for our sites and the wider industry.”
Digital technologies such as virtual reality (VR) were also being deployed across projects as well as in the workshop, according to CIMIC.
It added companies that implement automation technologies were “gaining a significant increase in productivity and a decrease in expenditures”.
“Some companies have seen productivity rise by 15-20 percent as they adopted new technologies,” CIMIC stated.
“Thiess’ contract with Fortescue strengthens its position as a leading provider of autonomous services and is an acknowledgment of where the mining industry is headed.”
Looking ahead, CIMIC said the Group was committed to bringing this innovative approach to the successful delivery of its projects.
“In 2019, we plan to scale the Thiess Innovation framework to provide transparency of ideas for collaboration across geographical boundaries; and unlock the value of innovation through the delivery of the Innovation and Technology road map to define Thiess’ digital landscape for our business strategy,” it stated.
