Austrade and Shenhua Group form mining initiative
Published by Stephanie Roker,
Editor
Global Mining Review,
Austrade is pleased to provide the following opportunities to suitable METS companies across Australia as part of its Mining Supplier Access Initiative.
Over the last 12 months Austrade has been building relationships at the senior level with the Shenhua Group Corporation Ltd (also known as CHN ENERGY), the largest coal producer in China. This initiative forms part of Austrade’s Accessing Global Value Chains trade strategy; a five year plan targeting major foreign companies and multinationals to increase the access of Australian companies to international supply chains.
A series of ongoing discussions between Austrade and senior company executives of international mining organisations on current challenges and issues in their mining operations has identified opportunities where Australian METS capabilities would be of benefit. This unique approach provides a new avenue through which where Australian METS companies with proven capability can gain increased direct exposure to senior executives responsible for improving productivity, profitability, safety and sustainability.
As part of the Mining Supplier Access Initiative, in 2017 a mine scoping study was conducted at Shenhua’s Zhungeer Energy mines. Austrade, with input from METS industry expertise, identified a number of specific areas of opportunity suited to the Australian METS industry and of significant interest to Shenhua. Five priority projects have been agreed to progress as part of Stage 1.
In co-operation with Shenhua Group, Austrade is seeking METS expertise in the following areas:
Dust suppression
Zhungeer Energy has difficulty complying with site license requirements and meeting community expectations for dust when drilling. Dust also represents WHS issues, in particular there are problems with high levels of dust entering the cabins of drill rig operators. They are looking for Australian technologies in dust suppression in the areas of drilling, blasting, loading and transporting.
Coal preparation and wash plants
Zhungeer’s coal preparation and wash plants are equipped with fundamental control modules such as alarming/auto stop in line with bin level, and over temperature protection on motors. Zhungeer are interested in Australian capability constructing best practice coal handling and preparation plants (CHPP) and/or providing advice on retrofitting integrated systems from multiple sensor and software suppliers.
Extend tyre lifecycle
Zhungeer use a large number of haul truck tyres each year. This is a dual problem – the high total cost of tyres and disposal of old tyres. Zhungeer are interested in Australian technologies to renovate and re-tread flat tyres.
Zhungeer are currently in discussions with major tyre suppliers, all of which include tyre pressure and temperature monitoring systems as part of their offering with the aim of increasing tyre life. This is a new direction and Zhungeer are yet to work out what they will do with the data. They are interested to identify complementary technologies that they could benefit from once the tyres with sensors are in use.
Fast flow fuel management and fuel tracking
A major concern of Zhungeer Energy is efficiency improvements in haulage truck operation. Fuel is a major operational cost. Existing Zhungeer systems for recording vehicle-based consumption do not provide detailed analysis of usage patterns or benchmarking to determine opportunities for improvement. Zhungeer is interested in smart high flow rate fuel management systems to reduce diesel consumption. Addition considerations are high variability in driver performance combined with the relatively low truck utilisation. The fuel delivery systems have the potential to spill fuel during the refuelling process.
Mining data analysis
Zhungeer Energy are interested in how to utilise leading edge data analytics to manage mine operations. A major consideration is to standardise and improve the efficiency of entire system with comprehensive coverage of data storage, processing, authentication and analysis.
Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/30072018/austrade-and-shenhua-group-form-mining-initiative/
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