Suppliers Roundup (June 14, 2004)

Aker Kvaerner wins contract

Barrick Gold has awarded the engineering contract to build the Cowal gold mine in New South Wales to the Australian subsidiary of Norway-based Aker Kvaerner.

The contractor will build the facilities (including tailing dam and leach circuit) over 22 months. The cost of the contract was not disclosed.

Lake Cowal is the largest body of water in the area, and Barrick had to reach a settlement with local Aboriginals in order to secure permits.

Cowal contains roughly 2.5 million oz. gold (proven and probable) and is expected to produce 220,000-235,000 oz. per year. Startup is slated for early 2006.

Aker Kvaerner employs about 29,000 people in more than 30 countries.

Henry Walker Eltin picks Terex

Contract miner Henry Walker Eltin has placed an order with Westport, Conn.-based Terex for 15 trucks and six excavators for use at coal mines in Indonesia. The deal is worth more than US$55 million.

The order consists of five MT3300AC 150-ton capacity haul trucks, 10 MT4400AC 240-ton capacity haul trucks, one RH120E backhoe excavator, two RH200 backhoe excavators, and three RH340 backhoe excavators.

The AC model trucks are being manufactured by Terex and its suppliers in North America, whereas the excavators are being built at a Terex factory in Dortmund, Germany. Most of the equipment should arrive before the end of 2004, at which time Terex will provide on-site support.

Henry Walker Eltin is based in Australia and has mining, engineering and environmental divisions.

Terex generated US$3.9 billion in revenue in 2003, mostly as a result of manufacturing and selling equipment for use in surface mining, quarrying, construction and transportation.

Major bigger Down Under

Major Drilling Group International, through its wholly owned Aussie subsidiary, Major Pontil, has bought the assets of Raematt Drilling for A$5 million. Raematt is a contractor based in Victoria state, Australia.

The deal provides Major Pontil with a number of specialized deep-hole underground rigs, as well as crews and support equipment to run them.

At the time of the deal, Raematt had drilling contracts worth A$14 million; these will be taken over by Major Pontil.

Major Drilling has offices in North America, South and Central America, Australia, Indonesia, Turkey, Tanzania and Mongolia.

Caterpillar reaches milestone

Heavy machinery manufacturer Caterpillar has built its 5,000th mining truck.

The vehicle, a 797B, is slated to join a fleet of 797s at the Escondida copper mine in northern Chile. Escondida, owned 57.5% by BHP Billiton, produces roughly 1 million tonnes of contained copper annually, or roughly 8% of the world’s supply of the red metal.

The 797B weighs 1.4 million lbs. and travels at a top speed of 42 miles per hour using a 24-cylinder diesel engine and generating 3,550 horsepower.

The company’s first mining truck, the 785, with a 130-ton capacity, was introduced in 1984. Two years later, building on the success of the first launch, Caterpillar introduced the 170-to-195-ton 789 model. By 1996, sales of these trucks accounted for half the global market.

Caterpillar was founded 75 years ago and is based in Peoria, Ill.

Nind named CEO of LRS

The new CEO of the LaCoste & Romberg-Scintrex Group (LRS) is Christopher Nind, formerly regional manager in the Americas for Fugro Airborne Surveys.

Nind replaces Roland Horst, who served as CEO for four years. He has held various management positions with airborne survey specialists Geoterrex and Geoterrex-Dighem.

Nind rose through the ranks of Fugro, and served as non-executive director on the LRS board of directors for the past three years.

Nind holds a bachelor of science degree in mathematics from Queen’s University.

The LRS group of companies includes Scintrex, based in Concord, Ont., Texas-based law firm LaCoste & Romberg, Micro-g Solutions of Colorado, and Auslog in Australia.

Software predicts blast results

A new version of blasting software claims is designed to predetermine average fragmentation size and the distribution of blasted rock.

Ohio-based Precision Blasting Services says its Breaker 5.0 software calculates the percentage, weight and volume of material produced in various size ranges, then displays charts in the form of line or bar graphs.

A scientific method of determining the effects of rock strength and geologic structure is also provided. The software can be used with any Windows-based operating system.

New spectrometer line launched

California-based Varian has launched a new line of spectrometers for use in small labs.

The AA140-AA240 series offers many of the features found in previous models but at a lower cost.

AA spectrometry determines trace metals, toxic elements, and contaminants in a wide range of applications. For example, a chemist uses this form of spectrometry to determine key nutrients in soil. If there are too much, or too few, specific elements in the soil, crops could be affected.

Varian’s new spectrometers are designed for labs that do not have enough volume to justify upgrading to inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy.

Palo Alto-based Varian manufactures a range of scientific instruments.