Talking heads: the issues that matter to miners in 2010
February 9 - 15, 2010
AFTER the extended summer break the mining industry feels like it is just getting back into the swing of things. But 2010 is already shaping as another interesting year with key concerns like the Henry tax review and the carbon pollution reduction scheme already grabbing the headlines against a backdrop of renewed market volatility.
Chile mining's hot new technology spot?
February 2 - 8, 2010
BHP Billiton has joined Rio Tinto in throwing its weight behind efforts to make Chile’s mining technology and services (MTS) sector a world leader. Australia, once called home by Rio and BHP, has been held up as a template for Chile. So could the South American country become a major competitor for Australia’s burgeoning MTS sector in international markets?
The search for a new business class
October 19 - 25, 2009
WANTED: Australia’s own Pierre Lassonde. Bring your class, charisma and, oh, don’t forget your five million bucks, to a big mining school near you. Your reward: the eternal admiration and gratitude of mining industry alumni, minerals educators ... your country.
Wal digs in over contract mining
August 24 - 30, 2009
AUGUST 17: WHAT’S a core capability for a miner? Exploration, sales, marketing – but not necessarily mining, according to Leighton Holdings boss Wal King. That’s our job, says the head of one of the world’s biggest contract miners, who has dismissed suggestions Australian mining companies are turning their back on contractors.
Mining innovation at crossroads
July 20 - 26, 2009
JULY 13: AUSTRALIA has entered a golden age of industry innovation despite the world economic debacle, with funding and support from the federal government firing the flames of invention, according to innovation minister Kim Carr. But there is a view that the country’s mining technology and services (MTS) sector, touted in some quarters as a potential export gold mine, is not getting the attention and support it deserves.
OHS reform a safer bet
May 4 - 10, 2009
APRIL 27: HERE’S a good idea 1000 (or perhaps many more) of Australia’s best and brightest have been trying to turn into something more tangible since earlier this decade: uniform national mine safety laws that eliminate tens of millions of dollars a year of wasted compliance costs, duplication and productivity loss, and which allow the industry to focus on safety rather than conformity. Could it happen anytime soon?
The contracting conundrum
April 13 - 19, 2009
MARCH 30: MINE owners have been vacillating over the owner mining versus contracting decision since the emergence of contract mining as a strategy alternative in the 1970s. The pendulum used to oscillate regularly. Despite this, the Australian mining industry developed into a force to be reckoned with internationally. Now the pendulum seems stuck in middle ground, the clock of progress has stopped and the contracting industry is running out of time.
Getting to grips with steel’s carbon footprint
March 16 - 22, 2009
THE steel industry is a major producer of greenhouse gases, but most governments have still to decide how these emissions will be curbed. Europe is further forward than most, but if it acts in isolation its efforts will be wasted. Insight explains the scale of the problem, and possible solutions.
After the smoke clears
February 16 - 22, 2009
FROM MAY 19, 2008: WITH Chinese tentacles spreading world wide, should the children of Australia’s miners and explorers – and those of other countries – have any concerns about the current generation selling the family farm to another sovereign state to make a quick buck? Melodramatic, or a legitimate concern?
The critical path to automated underground mining
December 1 - 7, 2008
DESPITE significant advances in the platform technologies that could form part of a system of mine automation, the goal of full automation in most underground mining applications remains distant.
Direct reduced iron sees changing supply, demand and trade
October 20 - 26, 2008
DIRECT reduced iron plays a key role in raising steel quality while encouraging capacity growth in certain parts of the world. Supply sources are gradually shifting and demand patterns are changing, but the focus now is on price and margins as scrap costs continue to slide.
Steel growing, but not as strongly
September 29 - October 5, 2008
THE rapid growth in China’s steel output has surprised and shaken the world steel industry. Eight years ago the country was just another player; today it dominates global production, consumption and trade – and is likely to continue to do so for several years to come. Steel Business Briefing takes this opportunity to stand back and review the emergence, structure, priorities and direction of this industry giant.
Britain's lame duck takes a new charge
September 22 - 28, 2008
RECORD coal prices have breathed some life into a UK coal industry that has been in steady decline since the 1980s coal strikes and privatisation. The industry will never return to its previous heights, reached in the first half of the 20th century, but as international coal prices climb past $US175 per tonne mothballed underground mines are being re-opened and new surface mines are being developed. Could this herald a resurgence in one of the nation’s most celebrated yet condemned businesses?
Balloch for more
August 18 - 24, 2008
THE core messages delivered by BHP Billiton chief Marius Kloppers with the resource giant’s record 2008 fiscal-year profit echoed those conveyed by former Canadian high ambassador to China and now Beijing-based investment banker and advisor, Howard Balloch, on his recent return to Australia after a four year absence.
Australians idle?
June 23 - 29, 2008
AUSTRALIAN mining technology and service companies: are they followers and imitators, as suggested by veteran industry observer Peter McCarthy of AMC Consultants, or are they world leaders and innovators? That question, predictably, has got a few people stirred up.
A peak into the future
May 5 - 11, 2008
WHILE the prospect of oil at $US200 per barrel undoubtedly causes a sharp pain to the brain of executives in the mining game, it isn’t set to send them to the asylum because many believe that metal prices will invariably have to reflect the cost of a key input. Which isn’t to say there’s not plenty of thought being given to alternative measures.
The beginning of the end
March 31 - April 6, 2008
AT A time of surging demand for artisanal mining skills in Australia, it is ironic that some of the profession’s experienced practitioners can see the end of the road for their kind. A lack of training, bureaucracy and its cousin, cost, and changing mining laws are forcing them out of existence. The industry might be losing more than it knows.
A new bargaining pattern
March 10 - 16, 2008
THE mining industry hasn’t found a silver bullet for reducing worryingly high staff turnover rates, nor has it been particularly successful at articulating bright new career paths for young people no longer drawn to “jobs for life” or dated training and personal development models. That may now be changing.
Future is here: Codelco
November 12 - 18, 2007
CHILE’S state copper company Codelco hopes to produce the first cathode from its Gaby openpit mine and heap leach SX-EW operation in Region II in March 2008 after fast-tracking the $US907 million development of what executive president Jose Pablo Arellano calls “the first project of the 21st century using the vanguard of technology”.
Deep under cover
October 8 - 14, 2007
GREENFIELD exploration is back in fashion in Australia; belatedly, according to some industry people. But back nonetheless.
Extracting value, slashing waste
September 17 - 23, 2007
MONITORING and recording production data on the cheap at mine sites is a thing of the past for many operators, who are now spending millions of dollars on mining fleet and product monitoring, and plant maintenance management tools. Data, naturally, is flowing thick and fast. Now there are signs it might be used more effectively.
Tyres: bumpy road ahead
June 25 - July 1, 2007
THE first authoritative independent report on the global earthmover tyre market since mid-2004 has highlighted growing safety concerns and production risks associated with a huge market influx of lower quality tyres which began as it became apparent the mining industry was facing a worsening supply crisis three years ago.
Generation X
March 26 - April 1, 2007
CAN the male-dominated mining industry leap to the front line of progressive vocational fields for women? The notion seems far-fetched. This is an industry tagged only five years ago as outdated and an “old (man’s)” business among “new-age” sectors such as IT, communications and bioengineering. But the mining industry is under increasing pressure to attract and retain skilled people, find solutions to issues that have restricted its appeal to women in the past, and renew its image – particularly among youngsters. It may just need women’s views more than any other industry.
The mine of the future
March 1 - 7, 2007
GLOBAL mining giant Rio Tinto is advertising for key personnel for its $A200 million “mine of the future” - the E48 underground block cave project at Northparkes in New South Wales. It says E48 personnel will be part of “the future of underground mining”. In the current boom there is no doubt the world’s big miners are preoccupied with present challenges. Yet they are not blind to fast appearing portents of the future. The signs include scarcity of resources and skilled people, more acute environmental and regulatory pressures, and the use of technology to not only sell the industry but also achieve efficiencies with high-cost plant and equipment that are on par with other capital intensive industries. In the first of our HighGrade Insight series reports, we spoke this week with 10 people who are directly or indirectly helping to shape the mines of the future.
The mine of the future (Part II)
March 1 - 7, 2007
THE NEED for resource owners to develop and operate mines in compliance with a global set of rules, and to compete for capital and other resources in an international market against emerging and other industries, will continue to level the playing field for industry participants and arguably make successful application of advanced technology more important than ever before. The rock factories envisaged in the latter part of last century are unlikely to be adequate. The industry will need to build smarter rock factories in future otherwise people won’t work in them. How to increase control of the dynamic elements of these factories - which makes them inherently different to most other factories - remains a major challenge, particularly for the deeper, large-scale operations (surface and underground) increasingly coming into view.
A new dynasty?
March 1 - 7, 2007
JONATHAN Oppenheimer, whose great-grandfather Ernest Oppenheimer founded global mining giant Anglo American, described as an “unbelievable experience” his first ride in an automated mining truck at 45%-owned De Beers’ Finsch mine in South Africa.
