From Reactive to Predictive: How Maintenance Strategies Are Evolving Across Australian Mining

Rio Tinto to become Australia’s biggest industrial buyer of renewable power  Rio Tinto has signed Australia’s largest renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) to date to supply its Gladstone operations in Queensland, agreeing to buy the majority of electricity from Windlab’s planned 1.4GW Bungaban wind energy project.  The latest agreement, which follows last month’s announcement of a PPA for the Upper Calliope solar farm in Queensland, will make Rio Tinto the biggest industrial buyer of renewable power in Australia.  Under the new PPA with Windlab, Rio Tinto will buy 80% of all power generated from the Bungaban wind energy project over 25 years.   The project, which...

Andrew Forrest has expanded his extensive commodities portfolio, investing millions into a developing uranium company just days after purchasing WA beef exporter Harvey Beef. In a $12 million deal signed in early May, Mr Forrest made his first foray into uranium, becoming a majority shareholder in junior developer Energy and Minerals Australia (EMA). Mr Forrest’s holding company Forrest Family Investments reportedly bought 400 million EMA shares at $0.03 per share, with the funds to go towards the development of Mulga Rock uranium and base metal deposits Ambassador, Emperor, Shogun and Princess, 240km northeast of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. The pending sale included one unlisted option for each share a an exercise price of $0.05, with an expiry date of 30 June 2016. When...

THE Japanese Government has signed off on a new Basic Energy Plan that pledges to restart the nuclear reactors mothballed following the 2011 Fukushima meltdowns. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has moved away from the previous government’s zero-nuclear policy, which pledged to abolish all nuclear power plants by the 2030s. The new Basic Energy Plan, which is revised every three years, said Japan would “reduce” the use of nuclear power to a level “as low as possible” by increasing the percentage of renewable energy. However, no specific targets were given. The plan also described nuclear power as one of the key “base-load electricity sources”, and stated that the government would “promote reactivation of nuclear reactors” if they cleared safety tests prepared...

 Geoscientist unemployment and under-employment in Australia between June 2009 and September 2016.   By Reuben Adams   EMPLOYMENT prospects are gradually improving for Australia’s professional geoscientists, who were laid off in large numbers during the commodity downturn. The latest quarterly survey by the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG) found that the unemployment rate amongst Australian geoscientists was 13.9 per cent and the under-employment rate was 18.9 per cent – an improvement of 2 per cent and 1.8 per cent from the previous quarter, respectively. South Australia recorded the highest combined rate of unemployment and underemployment; at the other end of the scale Queensland unemployment and under-employment rates fell by 5.5 per cent and 3.2 per cent, respectively. More than 88...