Rio Tinto undertakes further expansion of Yandicoogina iron ore mine, located 90 KM north-west of Neman, it’s a single open pit mine with dry crushing and screening.
Expansion of the Yandicoogina mine will increase its capacity from 36 Million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) to 52Mtpa.
Civmec awarded Diamond Industries the contract for the mechanical services to the heavy vehicle workshop and warehouse.
The new facilities consist of a six (6) bay heavy vehicle workshop, with reticulated lubricants, grease and compressed air serving three hose reel stations.
A new tank farm and oil separation plant is being provided as part of the works, with interconnection pipework from the existing bulk tank farm. A PLC based control system is used to control the transfer of lubricants and pressure control of the lubricants, coolants and grease services. Air conditioning and ventilation services have also been provided to the administration facility adjacent to the new heavy vehicle workshop.
Also added is a 1500M2 Warehouse with air conditioning to the office and special storage areas and two (2) cool rooms complete with refrigeration equipment and room structures.
Opened in 1973, and located just south of Kalgoorlie, the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter uses a flash smelting method. Dry concentrate is transported from Kambalda and Leinster to the smelter which produces granulated nickel matte, containing about 68 per cent nickel, 2-3 per cent copper and 1 per cent cobalt. The matte is railed to the Kwinana Nickel Refinery or bagged for sale to overseas markets).The Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter is capable of producing 105 000 - 100 000 tonnes of nickel in matte.
To improve the working conditions inside the Tapping Room, which gets to unbearable temperatures, the current cooling unit needed to be increased in capacity.
The new unit was installed in a new location so that the corrosive atmosphere of the furnace can not corrode the new unit and was provided with a ducted outside air intake to further facilitate this. New chilled water pipe work was run to the new unit to provide the additional cooling capacity.
There was only a five day period to install the new unit, ductwork and to commissioning the system, during a furnace closedown period, so preparation and project management was of the upmost importance on the project, resulting in Diamond Industries completing in only four days.