REMOTE SITES airstrip itself. Australia’ s Cobham Aviation Services continues to deliver cost efficiencies which in late December 2015 contributed to the company being awarded two new contracts to provide fly-in, fly-out( FIFO) services to new and existing clients. Cobham ' s President, Peter Nottage said the new contracts demonstrated opportunities that exist in the closed charter aviation market for innovation, safety and a compelling value proposition.
" We continue to look for ways to reduce costs, improve travel times and provide more comfortable aircraft for our customers," Nottage said. A major new contract with Karara Mining was awarded providing eight flights a week in support of their iron ore operations in mid-west Western Australia. A reduced cabin service is offered for the short 30 minute flight reducing the weight of the aircraft and therefore lowering costs.
" The Karara contract in particular is significant for us, especially in the current market environment, demonstrating our ability to offer innovative proposals."
An extra flight was also added to the Gold Fields, Granny Smith mine, making it the 4th new contract since June 2015 using more efficient jet aircraft. These sites have gravel runways and Cobham is using aircraft equipped with unique gravel kit capability, to provide these services. Cobham is the only aviation provider in Australia that operates jet aircraft to gravel runways.
Most recently in July 2016, Cobham announced that its Regional Services business has been awarded a 12 month contract by gold mining company, Doray Minerals Ltd to provide fly-in, flyout( FIFO) services to its Andy Well Gold Project mining site in Western Australia. Cobham commenced operating two services a week using an 81 seat BAE 146-200 jet aircraft from August 2, 2016.
Nottage commented: " The Cobham Regional Services team has worked hard to establish a reputation for providing safe, cost effective, flexible and innovative services for top tier resource companies that operate in regional and remote areas across Australia. Doray is a new client for Cobham and we ' re delighted to be providing services between Perth and Meekatharra for them. This award demonstrates our competitive offering and unique value proposition, despite current challenging market conditions "
Adelaide-based charter operator Rossair also recently announced it has won a new FIFO contract from WPG Resources to serve the Challenger gold mine site in central South Australia. Under the contract Rossair, a sister company to Air South – will operate up to four flights a week from Adelaide to the Challenger mine site’ s dirt strip( a distance of approximately 390 nautical miles) using a 30-seat Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia turboprop. WPG is recommissioning the underground Challenger gold mine after acquiring it in March.
“ The WPG contract is a significant one and is of a scope that will allow Rossair to build a partnership over the long-term with this welcome new SA mining venture,” said Rossair Director Mark Lindh.“ Critically, our focus will be on safety, on-time delivery and a comfortable operating environment while in the air for the Challenger FIFO workforce, as the restart of mining and processing at this remote site is a fillip for the state’ s resources sector.”
Rossair is also actively pursuing other resources-based work in both Western Australia and South Australia, it says“ with a fresh approach to dealing with FIFO operations.”
Meeting Africa’ s challenges
Limited infrastructure and volatile commodity markets lead mining companies and their logistics and transport partners in Africa to improve via innovation.
Specialist logistics company Bollore Logistics states:“ Rapid changes are afoot in Africa’ s bustling mining sector – a major engine of the continent’ s economic growth, but which now faces challenges that include infrastructure limitations and volatile global commodity prices. In response, mining companies are moving to find new ways to adapt flows to and from remote extraction centres in phase with demand, and are seeking improved speed and quality of service from compliancy-reliable logistic and transport partners.”
The company adds:“ Africa boasts one of the world’ s largest reserves of diamonds, minerals and precious metals like gold, cobalt, bauxite, uranium and platinum. Top producers include South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Botswana and Namibia, whose mining sectors powered Africa’ s 5 % average annual economic growth over the past decade. That supply found strong demand in recent years, especially from booming economic growth in China requiring enormous imports of industrial and infrastructure materials like steel, copper and aluminum.”
The company adds:“ A major focus in that has been limited national infrastructure and transport assets, whose degree and rate of development differ drastically across borders. The far-flung locations of extraction sites – and absence of trans-African transportation networks – have further complicated efforts to efficiently move goods in and out of mining centres, and modulate those flows as demand fluctuates.”
“ The rate of infrastructure development, the huge volume of material transported over long distances, and the fragmentation of the region imposes detailed planning to respect deadlines, and makes rapidly changing plans very hard,” explains Helle Rasmussen, Director for Bollore Logistics’ mining unit in Johannesburg.“ But all that’ s starting to improve.”
Indeed, recent advances have permitted mining groups and their logistics and transport providers to start increasing the speed, quality and control of African operations. That has come about in part by considerable development of several ports and road systems, reducing maritime and surface transport time and distances between mines, clients, and suppliers.
A greater degree of intra-African networking is also aiding end-to-end commodity storage and transport. Facilities in Zambia’ s Copperbelt city Chingola, for example, are being used as a collective logistics hub for large extraction
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SEPTEMBER 2016 | International Mining 149