HOISTING: ABB wins A$24M contract for Australia mine expansion

[caption id="attachment_1003740961" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Tanami mine Credit: ABB[/caption] AUSTRALIA – ABB has won a A$24-million contract with Newmont to provide mine hoist systems towards an expansion at the major’s Tanami underground gold mine in the Northern Territory. ABB will design, supply, install and provide long-term service for the hoist mechanical and electrical systems servicing the mine production shaft at Tanami. Over a 90-week period, the company will deliver two complete mine hoist systems: a double drum personnel-riding hoist and a friction hoist. The A$24-million (US$17 million) contract is part of Newmont's Tanami Expansion 2 (TE2) project, expected to increase the capacity of the processing site to 3.5 million tonnes annually, from 2.6 million tonnes currently, and extend its life beyond 2040. As part of the TE2 project, ABB’s solutions package also includes digital applications covering functional safety, a programmable logic controllers (PLC) control system, remote operations, shaft communication and the latest drive systems technology. The Tanami mine is located in the Tanami desert, 949 km southwest of Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory. Currently, ore mined is trucked from the Tanami underground to the surface via a system of declines, which presents logistical, ventilation and cooling requirement challenges in light of a planned expansion. “The Tanami Expansion project includes construction of a 5.4-meter shaft that can reach 1,460 meters below surface depth to enable recovery of ore at a depth. This provides a viable solution to extend the mine, and with an additional investment in processing is expected to increase production to 3.5 million tonnes per year,” Neil Steyn, regional project director at Newmont, said in a release. “ABB’s in-house mechanical hoist design capability will help deliver a tailor-made solution in a cost effective way.” “This contract highlights ABB's capability to offer end-to-end mine hoist system solutions. As sole supplier, we are designing and delivering equipment, providing service and spare parts, which will help lower life cycle costs and reduce project execution time at Tanami, while ensuring reliability and system availability,” added Ralf Eckert, manager for sales - mining, aluminum and cement systems at ABB Australia. ABB is a leading global technology company that energizes the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future.  For more information, visit www.ABB.com.