Resources

Rio Tinto approves $749 million investment in Pilbara iron ore mine

Rio Tinto has approved a $749 million (A$1 billion) investment in its existing Greater Tom Price operations (100% owned) to help sustain the production capacity of its world-class iron ore business in the Pilbara of Western Australia. The investment in the Western Turner Syncline Phase 2 (WTS2) mine will facilitate mining of existing and new deposits and includes construction of a new crusher as well as a 13-kilometre conveyor. The new conveyor system will help lower greenhouse gas emissions from the mine by 3.5 per cent compared to road haulage and the business is continuing to assess additional options to reduce emissions including renewable energy solutions. Pending final government approvals, construction will start in the first quarter of 2020 with first ore from the crusher expected in 2021. Production of high-quality Brockman ore will support the company’s flagship Pilbara Blend, which continues to be the preferred baseload product for China’s steel mills. The project is expected to deliver an attractive internal rate of return with a capital intensity of about $25 per tonne of production capacity. The investment is included in Rio Tinto’s existing guidance for Pilbara replacement capital for 2020 to 2022. As part of the investment, the haul truck fleet at the mine will be fitted with Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) technology to enable autonomous haulage at WTS2 from 2021. The ongoing deployment of autonomous haulage at the company’s Pilbara operations is delivering significant safety benefits as well as enhancing productivity and reducing costs. Approximately 50% of the company’s haul truck fleet will be capable of operating autonomously by the end of the year with plans being assessed to expand this in the years ahead. Consistent with its proven track record, the company is continuing to reskill, redeploy and retrain as automation technology is implemented. Rio Tinto Iron […]

Enough ambition (and hydrogen) could get Australia to 200% renewable energy

Scott HamiltonStrategic Advisory Panel Member, Australian-German Energy Transition Hub, University of Melbourne Changlong WangResearcher, The Energy Transition Hub, University of Melbourne Falko UeckerdtPotsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Roger DargavilleSenior lecturer, Monash University The possibilities presented by hydrogen are the subject of excited discussion across the world – and across Australia’s political divide, notoriously at war over energy policy. On Friday Australia’s chief scientist Alan Finkel will present a national strategy on hydrogen to state, territory and federal energy ministers. Finkel is expected to outline a plan that prioritises hydrogen exports as a profitable way to reduce emissions. It is to be hoped the strategy is aggressive, rather than timid. Ambition is key in lowering the cost of energy. Australia would do better aiming for 200% renewable energy or more. It’s likely the national strategy will feature demonstration projects to test the feasibility of new technology, reduce costs, and find ways to share the risk of infrastructure investment between government and industry. There are still a number of barriers. Existing gas pipelines could be used to transport hydrogen to end-users but current laws are prohibitive, mechanisms like “certificates of origin” are required, and there are still key technology issues, particularly the cost of electrolysis. These issues raise questions of what a major hydrogen economy really looks like. It may prompt suspicions this is just the a latest energy pipe dream. But our research at the Australian-German Energy Transition Hub argues that an ambitious approach is better than a cautious one. Aggressively pursing hydrogen exports will reduce costs of domestic energy supply and provide a basis for new export industries, such as greens steel, in a carbon-constrained world. Optimal systems cost less We used optimisation modelling to examine how a major hydrogen industry might roll out in Australia. We wanted to identify where major plants […]

Australian-first qualification in automation receives accreditation

Current and future workers in the resources industry will be able to gain formal qualifications in remote operations for the first time following a partnership between Rio Tinto, the Western Australian Government and South Metropolitan TAFE. A Certificate IV in Autonomous Control and Remote Operations has now been approved by the Training Accreditation Council (WA), providing students with the knowledge and skills needed to work at facilities such as Rio Tinto’s Remote Operations Centre in Perth. The course is the highest-level accreditation approved to date in a partnership struck between Rio Tinto, the Western Australia Government and South Metropolitan TAFE in 2017. It follows accreditation earlier this year of a Certificate II in Autonomous Workplace Operations and a micro-credential course for trade-qualified, apprentices and technicians. About 30 Rio Tinto employees will take part in the initial pilot of the Certificate IV course which will be delivered by South Metropolitan TAFE in 2020. The course work combines work integrated learning giving our participants the opportunity to apply the new learning and knowledge to work related scenarios in the Control Centre. Pending successful completion of the pilot, the first Certificate IV course may start in 2021. Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Chris Salisbury said “The key to any technology is our people and that’s why training and development is so important. These qualifications will provide employees, both current and future, with the skills and training needed to thrive in our evolving industry. “These courses give Western Australian workers the opportunity to gain modern, portable qualifications, with skills that can be used right across the resources industry. “Rio Tinto has committed A$2 million to the development of these qualifications which come at a critical time for the industry as we look to ensure vocational education and training programmes keep pace with the […]

Renewables still setting strong pace in South Australia

The April shelving of a major solar thermal plant has done little to slow the pace of renewable energy projects being proposed in South Australia. Andrew Spence In the past three months, applications for almost 1.7 gigawatts of renewable energy generation across six projects have been assessed by the South Australian Government’s State Planning Commission. Of these, the 280MW Cultana Solar Farm – the first large scale project in billionaire industrialist Sanjeev Gupta’s plan to generate one gigawatt of dispatchable renewable energy in South Australia – was approved by State Planning Minister Stephan Knoll last month. The other five projects still awaiting ministerial consent include: RES Australia 176MW solar farm and 66MW battery storage facility near Murray Bridge; Neoen Australia(Crystal Brook Energy Park) 125MW windfarm, 150MW Solar Farm and 130MW lithium-ion battery near Crystal Brook; Energy Projects Solar (Bungama Solar) 280 MW solar PV and 140MW battery storage plant to integrate into the National Electricity Market through a 275 kV connection to ElectraNet’s Bungama Substation near Port Pirie; Energy Projects Solar staged development of a 500MW solar farm with 250MW storage near Robertstown, and; RES Australia (Twin Creek Wind Farm Project) 183MW wind and 50MW battery storage near Kapunda. Two other South Australian projects – the 95MW Tailem Bend Solar Project and stage one of the 220MW Bungala Solar Farm near Port Augusta started exporting power to the national grid earlier this year. There are also dozens of micro solar farms up to 5MW being constructed across the state. South Australia is home to Tesla’s 100MW/129MWh battery, which became the “world’s largest lithium-ion battery” when it was installed at Neoen’s Hornsdale Wind Farm in December 2017. South Australia already leads the nation in the uptake of wind energy and roof-top solar with renewable sources accounting for more than 50 per cent of the electricity generated in the state. However, […]

Iron ore dollars repurposed to keep the economy afloat in Budget 2019

The budget points to weaker times ahead unless wages and spending pick up. A weaker domestic economy has cost the budget A$15 billion over the next four years, but booming international commodity markets are more than offsetting this. The net result is a budget that will remain comfortably in surplus for the next four years, assuming the economic situation improves rather than disappoints. Much lower payments on a range of different programs have also given the government some extra money to play with. Lower spending on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, a big drop in debt servicing costs and lower pension income support payments are just a few of the expenditure surprises that paint a very healthy picture of federal government finances right now. But weaker domestic economic numbers have come at a considerable cost to the budget in an ominous warning about how vulnerable the government’s finances would be to a domestic economic recession. Since the release of the mid-year economic outlook last December, economic data have generally disappointed expectations, culminating in a much-weaker-than-expected GDP report for the December quarter of 2018. This has forced the Treasury to reset the government’s baseline for the economy and its revenues. This has been quite small in the scheme of things, with economic variables such as consumption, GDP and wages down by about 0.25% to 0.5% for this year and next. But these otherwise small changes to the economic baseline have had a big impact on government finances. Revisions to the outlook for wages have cost the budget $800 million in 2019-20 and a total of $8.1 billion over the four years to 2022-23. Weaker-than-forecast consumption has knocked $1.7 billion out of GST receipts for 2019-20. It’s not a problem for the feds, but another sign that state government budgets are about […]

Predicting the future of maintenance

In 1927, Thomas Parnell set up the pitch drop experiment, which examines the viscosity of a tar-like substance by the speed at which it flows from a funnel into a jar. The test has seen just eight drops fall in as many decades and, despite the experiment being displayed in the University of Queensland’s physics department, no one has ever seen a drop fall. Just like this test, the need for factory maintenance often goes unnoticed. Here Gernut van Laak, group automation solutions leader of ABB’s Food and Beverage Program, explains how plant managers can budget for maintenance and ensure optimum efficiency for all processes. Paper to glass In terms of research and development, food and beverage is a leading industry because of its use of new, innovative technology. However, when it comes to maintenance, many companies find themselves keeping paper records. While regulation and compliance requirements historically drove these companies to work with paper, advancements in digital tools mean this is no longer the case. Unfortunately, once paper-based systems are in place, they can be difficult to eradicate. Companies become stuck in their ways, which leads them to ignore the significant cost savings, efficiencies and competitive advantages electronic systems can provide. The most important driving force for a company’s success is its employees. Today’s maintenance engineers have the computing knowledge to make the switch to digital. Providing them with a familiar interface that quickly connects employees across the organization allows staff to work faster and smarter, increasing productivity. Electronic records also eliminate time-consuming and error-prone data entries that are necessary with paper-based systems. While staff are the most important factor of any company’s success, the biggest cost of manual maintenance comes from people. Human errors that occur during manual record-keeping can result in redundant actions, rework and audits. Electronic […]

Remote detection of oil & gas infrastructure corrosion

Corrosion and it’s degradation of oil and gas infrastructure-pipelines, rigs, towers and refineries-represents an annual cost of many millions of dollars to the industry. There are thousands of kilometres of pipelines operating in more than 50 countries around the world. They form the gathering systems joining wells to process facilities and the distribution system delivering product to refineries and markets. The overwhelming majority of petroleum pipelines are constructed from metal and, whether buried or on the surface, they are all exposed to a range of physical, climatic and chemical environments that can cause corrosion. The corrosion of steel is accelerated in harsh environments, especially coastal, tropical or desert, where high salt levels or extreme temperatures can accelerate the rate of decay. It is important that owners of high-value assets understand the cost implications of ignoring the effects of corrosion. There are many advantages of planning for corrosion control and mitigation, two of which are that the life of an asset can be extended and maintenance time and costs are reduced. As part of the regular technical program, the Australasian Corrosion Association (ACA) is hosting a one-day technical event in Melbourne on 21 May where the latest challenges and developments in the materials engineering and corrosion control for both onshore and offshore environments will be discussed. Sessions will focus on the remote inspection and the identification of hidden corrosion within oil and gas infrastructure. Speakers and participants will have the opportunity to share their work experiences, case studies, best practices, engineering guidelines, and failure analysis in a technical exchange open forum, aiming to look at new technologies and methodologies to fill the gaps in these industries. The events are aimed at oil and gas industry personnel, such as Asset Managers, Structural, Process and Maintenance Engineers, Specialist Contractors and Asset Condition Inspectors, […]