HEAVY ENGINEERING
There is a perception in the mining
investment community that having a major
OEM supply contract in the bag is a way of
de-risking a greenfield project, helping ensure
timelines are met and budgets are kept to.
While this perception is not without merit, it
tends to discount the excellent work subcontractors
do behind the scenes to meet the
goals set by OEMs and project owners.
These companies are often the unsung heroes
when it comes to project fulfilment, providing
vital pieces of the mine construction puzzle at
just the right time to complete the build.
Australia made
One, if not the biggest, market for mining heavy
engineering in recent years has been Australia,
thanks to several large projects that are currently
in construction or development.
New iron ore developments like Koodaideri,
South Flank, Eliwana and Iron Bridge have led to
a plethora of contracts being tendered for
delivery in Western Australia. This has been
complemented by the expansion of the
Greenbushes lithium operation and the Tianqi
Lithium plant, also in WA.
In South Australia, meanwhile, the building of
OZ Minerals’ Carrapateena 4.25 Mt/y
underground block cave operation saw many
engineering companies throw their hat in the ring
for contracts.
Add to this smaller-scale gold developments
across Western Australia and New South Wales,
and it has made Australia a mining engineering
marketplace like no other on the globe right now.
This is good news for homegrown
manufacturers, who are starting to benefit from
Austin Engineering has
invested heavily in advanced
software to match loading
tools to truck bodies
Engineering an opening
Dan Gleeson speaks to some of the largest engineering
companies on the market to find out how they are leveraging
new technology to customise solutions and distinguish
themselves from their peers
project owners’ sustainability focus; a trend that
has seen more work awarded to local companies.
Aware of this trend, many major global OEMs
have ensured their contract bids include the use
of local manufacturers, or, where possible,
leverage in-country facilities.
What will become the world’s largest rail
mounted stackers and reclaimer for South Flank,
for example, are being built by Western Australiaheadquartered
Primero Group, as part of a
contract award from thyssenkrupp.
WA-based Civmec is also playing a role in the
delivery of BHP’s South Flank project –
fabricating and modularising key components for
the build – while helping Rio Tinto and Fortescue
with the Robe Valley and Eliwana projects,
respectively.
At the same time as this, Siemens’ Flender has
announced plans to expand in Australia. When
complete, its new premises in Western Australia
will be the only OEM facility on the West Coast of
the country with a 1.5 MW test bench capable of
testing complete drive systems up to a voltage of
6.6 kV, it says.
On the East Coast, thyssenkrupp Industrial
Solutions’ new service centre in Brisbane comes
with 1,000 sq.m of warehouse and workshop
space allowing mining clients on this side of
Australia to “benefit from an integrated project
lifecycle approach, incorporating the latest
products and technologies”, Andrew Howie, CEO
of thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions Australia,
says.
One Australia-headquartered company that
has seen this ‘Australia made’ trend grow – and
expects it to continue to grow – is Hofmann
Engineering.
Renowned for its expertise in designing and
delivering large girth gears for grinding mills and
mill shells, Hofmann is gaining an increasing
share in the Australia marketplace for heavy
engineering, according to General Manager of
Engineering and Director, Jarrod Hofmann.
“Our customers, in general, want to have an
overall solution as an alternative to going to
legacy supply options,” he told IM. “We’re setting
up our company to tailor for that more and more,
rather than just being a standalone parts
manufacturer.”
This has seen Hofmann take on many young
engineers in the last year to help develop and
deliver these customised solutions for miners, as
well as invest in the machinery and design
elements to facilitate their manufacture.
“We’re picking the value-added side of the
market where we can differentiate ourselves from
not only our local competitors, but also the big
international ones,” Jarrod Hofmann said.
Hydraulic excavators, rope shovels and haul
trucks are just some of the mobile machines
where Hofmann ‘value-added’ solutions have
come into play, he explained.
“As there is a high volume of machines on the
market, you can develop and create an
improvement, market that, and manufacture it
multiple times,” Jarrod Hofmann said. This
enables the company to effectively leverage the
investment it has made in developing this
customised solution and, on some occasions,
undercut the competition with a cost-effective
product.
The ‘Australia made’ mandates of project
owners are benefitting the business when miners
insist on the whole solution coming from local
sources, according to Jarrod Hofmann.
He sees such mandates growing in a post-
COVID-19 marketplace, as companies try to avoid
potential project delays and cost increases by
keeping their supply chains as close as possible
to the assets in question.
OEMs without facilities or in-country ties in
Australia could end up losing out on contracts
should such a situation occur, which may make
companies like Hofmann even more valuable.
Jarrod Hofmann says the company is
increasingly working with end users whether that
is a mine site, defence direct, or through an OEM.
It is those large girth gears for grinding mills
where Hofmann works in concert with the OEMs,
with the likes of thyssenkrupp, FLSmidth, Metso
and Outotec all sub-contracting out work to the
company. “In the Western World for these products,
there is only two other competitors in that space,
both in Europe,” Jarrod Hofmann explains.
On a case-by-case basis, the company may
also carry out work on behalf of an OEM when
building mill shells, as well as other components,
he added.
34 International Mining | JUNE 2020