MINING CONSULTANTS
“ Our ability to bring together deep domain mining knowledge and pragmatic and practical mining-focused ESG advice to the market has significantly shifted our value proposition to miners and their financiers ,” Baudry said of these acquisitions and the dedicated ESG mining team that followed shortly after .
This has seen the company take a fresh , engineering-led approach to rising industry challenges , such as mine decarbonisation opportunities and mine closure . All of which has been helped by its existing software solutions .
“ For example , our advisory team completed a project investigating opportunities to reduce diesel usage , in line with the company ' s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and operating sustainably ,” Baudry said . “ By harnessing RPM ’ s software , including our Open Pit Metals Solution ( OPMS ) and HAULSIM , the team could model many haul routes in a wide range of mine layouts to quantify the impact of alternative haulage options .”
RPM ’ s mine haulage simulation solution , HAULSIM , has recently been updated to model technologies aimed at reducing reliance on diesel as a source of energy – incorporating planning for trolley assist , hydrogen haulage and batteryelectric options . Adding the scheduling oversight of OPMS determines what is practically possible to achieve across one or multiple mining operations .
RPM is displaying these complementary skills in lender engineering support work for several commercial and export credit lending agencies working on development projects around the world .
“ Our ability to bring together , as an integrated team , all facets of technical , environmental and social saves the client time and money during pre-financing and construction monitoring work ,” Baudry said . “ It also ensures that recommendations are not made in isolation from other vital aspects of a project during the critical development phase , as our team works together closely with a joint project manager across all capabilities .”
In recent years , RPM has been lending this expertise to the battery mineral and rare earth element processing value chain – a move driven by long-term repeat clients investing in the industry out of North Asia .
Growing its team of in-house processing expertise and associates to support the review of numerous projects in these sectors has seen the company also carry out work on behalf of some of the government-backed critical mineral funds in countries like Australia , USA and Canada .
RPM , for example , was the lender engineer for both technical and ESG aspects on the A $ 1.2 billion ($ 821 million ) financing of Iluka ’ s Eneabba integrated rare earths refinery in early 2022 .
Just some of the ways RPM ’ s advisory division is looking to help clients navigate the evolving ESG backdrop in the mining space include : n Development of carbon literacy , low energy mining and low carbon haulage courses ; n Providing planning tools for decarbonisation strategies ; n Helping customers quantify their current baseline and historical GHG emissions profile , energy usage and impacts across the entire portfolio of assets and processes ; and n Carrying out carbon monitoring , guided by Science-Based Targets , to support mining organisations in securing their policy and strategy for a low-carbon future .
AFRY ’ s core of understanding
With global mining companies having decreased the sizes of their project offices prior to the onset of COVID , and metal and minerals demand having shot up in the past year , AFRY is being called on more often to bulk up owners ’ engineering teams , according to Janne Tikka , Head of Mining & Metals at AFRY .
The engineeringfocused company has seen demand for all project management and project controlrelated tasks , site services as well as engineering disciplines , soar on projects it is involved in , providing the Nordic-based company with many opportunities .
“ AFRY has always been strong in owners ’ engineering and local project services ,” Tikka told IM . “ This is obviously partly due to
With the mining industry set to play a significant role in the transition to a low-carbon future , AFRY ’ s understanding of the whole value chain stands it in good stead to win more work , according to Janne Tikka
continuous competence development within AFRY ’ s organisation , but also due to the approach for industrial investment projects in the Nordic countries .”
In the Nordic region , it is typical to carry out investment projects with integrated project team organisations consisting of members from both the client and various engineering supplier representatives , rather than contract the whole industrial investment to a separate company .
AFRY believes it will continue to differentiate itself from peers chasing such work due to its specific process technology competence across the entire mining and metallurgical industrial sectors .
“ AFRY has a long history in working together with the global top technology suppliers within
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Sponsored by : Zeiss , Bruker , Promet101 , Capstone Copper , Tescan , Minerals Engineering & International Mining
COMMINUTION ‘ 23
April 17-20 , 2023 | Cape Town , South Africa
Sponsored by : King ’ s Ceramics & Chemicals , Russell Mineral Equipment , Keramos , Starkey & Associates , Grinding Solutions , Glencore Technology , ME Elecmetal , Derrick Corp ., ZEISS , Hudbay Minerals , Magotteaux , Metso Outotec , Sino Grinding International , Dakot , Maelgwyn Mineral Services , Bradken , Capstone Copper , Eracles - - Ceramiche Tecniche , Minerals Engineering , International Mining , �������������������������������������������������������������� Minerals Association
BIOMINING ‘ 23
June 5-6 , 2023 | Falmouth , UK
Sponsored by : International Mining & Minerals Engineering
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June 7-9 , 2023 | Falmouth , UK
Sponsored by : International Mining & Minerals Engineering
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OCTOBER 2022 | International Mining 61