ICAA’s Board* takes 1st step in establishing an Asia Regional Board with visit to Northparkes Copper Mine says John Fennell.
Last week I had the privilege of leading my ICAA Board members on a tour of the North Parkes Mine in NSW, now owned and operated by China Molybdenum Co Ltd or CMOC for short.
The ICAA Board is working with Asia to develop an Asian Regional Board so members of various centres across the region can meet to discuss new technologies and trends in the copper markets.
In late March we took the first step in this initiative and invited Asian members to join our Australian Board in a tour of Northparkes Mines in central NSW.
Our Northparkes guides were Jacques Labuschagne and Rob Cunningham who have been working at Northparkes since the beginning of the mine in 1994. It’s a great sign when a company has 8 employees celebrating 20 years with the company, and Northparkes mines is a stellar example of a great team culture.
But company culture is also clearly focused on creating an exceptionally efficient and productive mine. Their mine extracts copper ore and gold through a sophisticated block caving method that is high in capital cost to set up, but very low in operating costs once the mine is commissioned.
Northparkes has also achieved 100% underground automation in the E48 shaft to makes it the most automated underground mining environment in the world. All trucks and equipment are now being autonomously and automatically controlled from the surface of the mine, which has led to production being increased by 23% and operating costs reduced to 76% of previous levels.
The mine life has now been extended past 2040 and the team continue to look at ways to improve the mine operations. Everywhere we went we met enthusiastic bright young people committed to making the mine work better.
The success of this tour has led to ICAA to support a similar event in Shanghai around 16th November this year to coincide with Asia Copper week. It’s proposed that Australian, Indian, East Asian and Chinese members will be invited to tour a major copper smelter close to Shanghai and hold their own conference in parallel to the Copper week events.
*ICA Australia represents most of the copper miners in Australia producing roughly 1 million tonnes of copper per year. Asia represents over 60% of the global market for copper and consumes more than 14 million tonnes out of a global market of 23 million tonnes per year.
Take a look at Northparkes yourself: http://www.northparkes.com