Industry intelligence
GRANT SECURED FOR NICKEL PLANT Metals and energy company Thakadu Battery Materials has secured a R50-million black industrialist grant from the South African Department of Trade and Industry( dti) for the construction of its pure nickel sulphate plant in the North West Province of South Africa.
The Thakadu plant will produce 25 000 tonnes( t) of high-purity battery-grade nickel sulphate from the crude nickel sulphate stream of platinum group metals producer Lonmin. However, installed capacity is about 31 000t, so there is considerable potential to increase capacity utilisation and enhance project net present value( NPV). Two other saleable streams will be produced by the plant, namely cobalt hydroxide and a relatively pure sodium sulphate. Commercial production is set to get underway in 2019.
Wescoal steams ahead
DRA EXPANDS FOOTPRINT Global engineering, project delivery, and asset management group DRA has acquired Minnovo, an Australian company based in Perth. Minnovo will expand DRA’ s growing Australian footprint and add further depth to DRA’ s metallurgical, engineering, procurement, project management, construction, and commissioning capabilities in Australia, as well as enhance on-the-ground resources to clients in the Asia-Pacific region.
Waheed Sulaiman, CEO of Wescoal.
Junior coal mining company Wescoal recently issued a strategic update on the integration of Keaton Energy assets. Wescoal acquired certain Keaton assets last year.
According to Waheed Sulaiman, CEO at Wescoal, the enlarged business now has coal resources of more than 300 million tonnes, four operating mines, three processing plants, and significant interests in coal supply chain infrastructure.
Sulaiman says that the integration programme is at an advanced stage and progressing according to plan.“ Identified personnel redeployments and overhead reductions are complete, while mining operations at Vanggatfontein, formerly Keaton’ s flagship mine, are progressing well,” adds Sulaiman.
Wescoal
IoT essential to gain edge
Businesses in the mining industry are backing the Internet of things( IoT) to help them retain their market share. As competition in the sector intensifies, the quality of seams decreases and profit margins are put under pressure.
According to the latest research from Inmarsat, the IoT will play a critical role in helping mining businesses to increase the level of automation and improve production efficiency, enabling them to compete with rivals operating in lowercost markets.
Market research specialist Vanson Bourne interviewed respondents from 100 large mining companies across the globe for Inmarsat’ s The Future of IoT in Enterprise report, and found that 70 % of mining businesses agreed that the IoT would give them a significant edge against their competitors.
Mining operators further identified how the IoT would help them to bolster this competitive edge, with 41 % reporting that they would use the IoT to increase the automation of business processes, and 44 % saying that it would help them to identify cost saving and efficiency opportunities.
According to Joe Carr, director of Mining at Inmarsat, mining companies across the world are under constant pressure to produce the same product at a lower price than their rivals. He adds that it is becoming harder to find high-quality deposits in lower sovereign risk countries.
This pressure, says Carr, is amplified in developed economies, such as Canada and Australia, where labour costs are much higher than in emerging markets, leaving operators in these territories at a significant competitive disadvantage.“ These businesses must drive down operating costs and improve productivity to remain competitive, and the most effective way to do this is the adoption of IoT and automation,” he says.
“ Using automation to reduce labour requirements can make a significant difference to an operator’ s bottom line. For example, an Australian open-pit mine might employ 100 truck drivers each earning more than AUD200 000 per annum, which is then replicated on staff working on the trains, and the maintenance personnel. IoT will be critical in enabling mine operators to reduce the amount of manual extraction and transportation of raw materials, as it will allow for the introduction of more autonomous infrastructure, such as fleets of unmanned trucks and trains. Autonomous technology can also enable an around-the-clock, 365 days-a-year operation, removing the need for shift change and improving safety by removing the person from the environment, further increasing productivity,” Carr concludes.
[ 4 ] MINING MIRROR MARCH 2018