CONTRACT MINING
More than moving tonnes
Technology is starting to hold sway in the
mining contractor market. Dan Gleeson looks at
some of the innovations being developed, as
well as recent M&A and contract award activity
here was an evident trend in the mining
contractor space in the most recent
downturn. As commodity prices plunged,
mining companies – big and small – laid off
service providers and tried to bring all
operations under their owners’ team.
This not only stretched their in-house team, it
also led to many contract specialists leaving the
industry.
While miners are now coming back around to
the idea of outsourcing work – in favour of
exploring to try and fill the future market
deficits in many commodities – contractors are,
rightly, wary of the same thing happening again
in the face of another move south on the LME.
T
Long-term thinking
Contractors are going down different routes to
safeguard their future work; with technology
one particularly fruitful avenue.
An example of this comes from Australia
where Barminco Holdings (now Ausdrill),
recently extended its relationship with mining
company Independence Group by setting up a
Technology Development Committee (TDC).
The committee, announced as Barminco was
awarded a four-year contract extension at
Independence’s Nova nickel-copper operation in
Western Australia, was devised to identify and
implement innovative methods and
technologies to advance safety and productivity
in underground mining.
According to Barminco Chief Executive Officer,
Paul Muller, the TPC’s initial projects would
target early-stage development of electric
vehicles, enhanced mine control systems,
machine vision and proximity detection.
This is quite a move for a contractor – taking
on some of the technology development mining
companies would normally expect of OEMs.
Yet, in some ways, it could end up protecting
36 International Mining | DECEMBER 2018
Barminco’s contract at Nova. If the mining
company were to, in the future, cut short the
agreement, the contractor could take its electric
fleet and technology with it, leaving
Independence in the difficult position of having
to find a replacement at short notice.
These types of technology developments are
becoming more common in the contracting
space.
Byrnecut has incorporated an innovation
group of its own that could end up benefitting
its offering in the underground mine haulage
space, with the company reportedly working on
a diesel-electric drive option for haul trucks.
Related to this, OZ Minerals said the
contractor would trial an underground diesel-
electric hybrid production loader at its
Prominent Hill copper-gold mine, in South
Australia. This trial was set for the June quarter
of this year.
Thiess, in October, won a A$1.2 billion, five-
year contract with BHP at the Mt Arthur coal
operation in the Hunter Valley of Australia
The trial was to test production efficiencies,
diesel savings and overall costs associated with
this equipment, with the machine being one of
two Joy 22HD hybrid LHDs supplied by Komatsu
Mining to Byrnecut.
As far afield as Brazil, there is a contractor
making automation waves to potentially attract
new business and retain existing contracts.
Luiza Bartels of mining contractor U&M said
the company, last year, developed its own in-
house hardware and software to perform “a
step-by-step implementation and testing” of
automation on a retrofitted haul truck within its
fleet.
From January to June, the company
performed tests on this truck in a quarry close
to U&M’s offices in Matias Barbosa and the
prototype was able to drive autonomously,
detect obstacles and apply the brake when
needed, Bartels said.
Ironbark Zinc said Byrnecut’s knowledge of the skills necessary to overcome remote location logistics,
language barriers and upskilling the national workforce were key considerations for selecting it as a
service provider for the Citronen zinc-lead project in northern Greenland (Credit: Government of
Greenland)