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Sustainability

State of the art

State of the art electrical upgrades boost mine uptime

Sustainability, employee protection and operational insights are the drivers of a cutting-edge electrification upgrade at BHP BMA’s Goonyella Riverside Mine in Queensland. At the BHP-Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) conjoined metallurgical coal mines Goonyella and Riverside in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, Subra Nedunuri is responsible for delivering capital electrical projects without compromising environment, safety, quality, or mining schedules. When a 43-year-old section of Goonyella Riverside’s power infrastructure became unreliable, Nedunuri began designing an upgrade with ABB state-of-the-art capabilities which protect employees, equipment and the environment, and enables predictive maintenance of 16 pumps critical to the mine’s operation. Subra brings a wealth of business and engineering qualifications to the role of Senior Project Manager at Goonyella Riverside Mines (GRM). He says these are complex projects as their complexity and value to the mines are disproportionate to their cost of implementation compared to other projects. “A rehabilitation project to move earth from one side of the mine to the other may cost $20 million, but in contrast this $3 million electrical upgrade can save lives and hundreds of millions of dollars in downtime.” To power the coal wash treatment plant, pumps are used to direct water for reuse or into tailing dams, without them the plant can’t operate. In the past, the now obsolete electrical system communicated only three states of condition for the pumps operation – “On”, “Off” or “Fault”. The system had no protection against arc flash incidents (explosive releases of energy when an electrical arc travels through ionized air to ground or another part of the electrical system), which endanger the lives of service technicians and nearby workers. For the upgrade, BMA had a wishlist of not only the safest switchgear to protect its employees, but a human-machine interface (HMI) that would enable remote and onsite monitoring and control of the electrical […]

Amokabel

Amokabel doubles production capacity for special cable in Sydney

Investment will enable Australian engineers in the defence, mining, rail, telecoms, power grids and supermarket industries to benefit from short lead times and flexible order quantities. Amokabel has doubled production capacity at its cable factory in Sydney. The upgrade has boosted the manufacturer’s ability to deliver specialist cable for the defence, mining, rail, telecoms and frozen food industries. In turn Australian engineers will benefit from short lead times and greater flexibility in terms of minimum order size. Specialised cables are essential to meeting specific performance criteria in many industries. Engineers often need special arrangements when it comes to the conducting and communication cores that carry power and signals inside the cable, as well as insulation and protection layers, and other elements such as identification features. These non-standard details mean that cables must be specially manufactured. As a specialist producer in Australia, Amokabel can deliver orders of as little as 500 metres in just 1- 2 weeks. This enables customers to control cashflow improve flexibility by enabling them to keep small stocks of cable. That compares with large cable producers in Asia , which typically have a minimum order quantity (MOQ) of 5,000 metres or more and several months lead time. “Time is money in industry – so when an engineer can source the product they need within weeks and in small batches, they can deliver their projects faster and more cost-effectively,” says Steve Rutland, Managing Director for Amokabel in Australia. “By investing in additional capacity at our plant in Sydney, we’re establishing a strong manufacturing base and showing engineers that we’re committed to the local Australian market .” Amokabel acquired its production facility in Sydney from Euro-Tech Cable in December 2022. Building the business as a supplier of niche specialist cables will enable it to grow its special cable business […]

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