Sandvik's big haul
September 22 - 28, 2011
AUTOMATED 17.2-tonne loaders for Newcrest Mining’s major new Cadia East panel cave gold mine – 14 of them – are on their way to the central New South Wales site.
Records tumble at Loulo, Mt Wright
September 8 - 14, 2011
THE transfer of Australian underground mining prowess to parts of Africa seems to be going nicely for Barminco and Ausdrill at Loulo in Mali, though it’s taken a while for their jointly-owned African Underground Mining Services to hit its straps in the landlocked country.
ABB hoists Ernest Henry order
September 15 - 21, 2011
A 5000KW hoist system running at speeds of 16m a second, allowing it to raise about 1000 tonnes of ore an hour from depths to 950m, will be a central feature of the new Ernest Henry underground copper-gold mine in Queensland.
Training to fill the gaps
July 14 - 20, 2011
WITH so many mining jobs needing to be filled it’s no surprise that there’s been an influx of green recruits to the industry. For Andrew Knight and his colleagues at Underground Training Services, it was clear there was a huge lack of knowledge in new workers looking to get onto the mining gravy train.
Monitor slashes tyre losses
June 23 - 29, 2011
ENHANCED safety and production, as well as longer tyre life, are being promoted as the key benefits of an underground mine production vehicle monitoring device developed by equipment manufacturer Sandvik.
Deep mines will stress current systems
June 9 - 15, 2011
AS AUSTRALIA’S underground mines get deeper, dangerous rock stresses will increase the risks to workers and mining equipment from rock failures. And according to Western Australian School of Mines chair of rock mechanics Ernesto Villaescusa the mining industry cannot hope to retain a licence to operate if serious rock collapses underground are not prevented.
Sun shines after the big wet
May 12 - 18, 2011
ANGLOGOLD Ashanti has a second major ‘new generation’ Western Australian gold project on its hands and could pursue an unconventional production path for a multi-million-tonne-per-annum underground operation at Sunrise Dam, where it has put a five-million-ounce target resource on the Vogue discovery.
Western Areas digs deep
April 14 - 20, 2011
AS Australia’s most successful independent nickel miner Western Areas finds more nickel at depth, the question will become how low it can go at its Flying Fox and Spotted Quoll mines. So far, the ground conditions are looking good.
Following the leaver
March 24 - 30, 2011
NEWCREST Mining boss Ian Smith would have been pleased to see that, during days two and three of the AusIMM Underground Operators Conference, the big conference audience stayed inside the auditorium and the machines were left outside in Canberra’s fickle weather.
Under pressure
March 24 - 30, 2011
THIS was no cosy fireside chat! If his 400-odd industry colleagues expected Australia's mining man of the year Ian Smith to tell them they were all in Canberra to throw rocks – big ones – at the federal pollies sitting just across the lake, well, they were pretty much mistaken. Pretty much.
Deep and meaningful
March 24 - 30, 2011
AUSTRALIA’S underground miners can take a decade of real mine safety progress and a positive mindset into an era of deeper, more technically challenging mining, according to an international geomechanics expert. And that message has only been reinforced by Mincor Resources’ decision in the past week to close the Otter Juan nickel mine at Kambalda.
Questions only half-asked at Kanowna Belle
March 24 - 30, 2011
ARE underground mines other than big new block caves and longwall coal mines really going to tap into the benefits evidently on offer from automation technologies? Mines such as Cannington, Rosebery and Jundee offer a clearer answer than the one that emerged from a Barrick Gold study at Kanowna Belle in Western Australia.
On the rise
March 17 - 23, 2011
SEVENTY-five years young and Rosebery in Tasmania is employing all means available to stave off old-age decline.
Focus mounts underground push
March 17 - 23, 2011
MARCH 14: WESTERN Australian gold junior Focus Minerals is still seen as a company offering good upside as an explorer despite now producing gold at a 80,000-100,000oz-per-year run rate at Coolgardie. That identity ‘problem’ is neatly encapsulated in The Mount, a new mine 80km south of Coolgardie.
Poseidon confident about start-up plans
March 2 - 8, 2011
WITH funding in its pocket and the nickel price shining ahead of it, Poseidon has restarted its Windarra nickel mine underground renovation this week.
New Hellyer era underway
February 16 - 22, 2011
AFTER a short and profitable stint mining down the road at Que River, and supplying ore to MMG’s nearby 75-year-old Rosebery plant, Bass Metals has transferred its partnership with contractor Mancala to the new Fossey underground and is now busily refining its approach to optimising mine/mill recovery of its own ore.
$US3 billion earmarked for Grasberg underground
January 26 - February 1, 2011
COPPER giant Freeport-McMoRan will spend nearly $US500 million a year on underground development for the next five years at the giant Grasberg block cave project in Indonesia, slated to make a complete transition from mega-openpit to world’s largest underground mining complex in 2016.
Western Areas selects mining approach, looks at contractors
December 15 - 21, 2010
WESTERN Areas’ second underground mine, Spotted Quoll, will be a vital part of the company’s strategy of maintaining nickel production rates from its Forrestania project at 25,000 tonnes per annum, and it should be a relatively simple development for the miner.
Terramin digs in on Tala Hamza plans
December 8 - 14, 2010
TERRAMIN Zinc’s proposed Tala Hamza development will be, if it is successful, the world’s first zinc-lead block cave operation. While it is on the small side for a block cave, the challenges in developing the Algerian project are the same as any other.
Golden Grove back on growth track
November 24 - 30, 2010
GOLDEN Grove has been the quiet achiever of Western Australia’s mining industry, logging 20 years of continuous operations this year and proving itself as one of the world’s top five volcanic massive sulphide deposits in metal content. Its latest owners, Minerals and Metals Group, are now on the verge of deciding whether or not to re-open the Scuddles underground operation and start a brand new, large openpit operation.
