Energy Resources of Australia
Energy Resources of Australia Ltd is a public company based in Australia. It is a subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group; the remainder is publicly traded on the Australian Securities Exchange. The chairman is Peter McMahon and Chief Executive is Andrea Sutton. ERA is one of the largest uranium producers in the world, through the Ranger Uranium Mine in the Northern Territory. Ranger mine is located near 260 km from Darwin in the Northern Territory. ERA sells its product to electric utilities in Asia and North America through an arrangement with Rio Tinto Uranium, which provides expertise in global uranium sales and marketing activities. Australia exports of uranium oxide are subject to strict safeguards and non-proliferation conditions to ensure that Australian uranium is only used for peaceful purposes. After more than 31 years of operations and the production of more than 110,000 tonnes of uranium oxide, open pit mining at Ranger mine ceased, with the closure of Pit 3 in November 2012. In August 2011, ERA approved $120 million for construction of an exploration decline to conduct close spaced underground exploration drilling and to explore areas adjacent to the Ranger 3 Deeps resource.
The Ranger 3 Deeps mineralised zone is estimated to contain over 34,761 tonnes of uranium oxide, is recognised as a significant resource by world standards. ERA is undertaking a $57 million Prefeasibility Study into the potential development of a Ranger 3 Deeps underground mine; the Prefeasibility Study will determine the economic viability of the proposed Ranger 3 Deeps underground mine, optimise mining methods and confirm metallurgical performance and production rates. ERA is targeting late 2015 for commencement of production if the underground mine proves viable and all Board and regulatory approvals are obtained. Ranger mine is surrounded by, but separate from, Kakadu National Park, the Mirarr Aboriginal people are the traditional owners of the land on which ERA operates. ERA holds title to the nearby Jabiluka ore body 20 km further north, under a long term care and maintenance agreement and will not be developed without the agreement of the Mirarr traditional owners. There have been a range of environmental incidents at the Ranger Uranium Mine with over 200 incidents documented, including major incidents in 1995, 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2013.
Uranium mining controversy in Kakadu National Park Uranium in the environment Yvonne Margarula Jacqui Katona Energy Resources of Australia official website Supervising Scientist Division Uranium mining and the question of corporate social responsibility
Pilbara
The Pilbara is a large, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples. At least two important but differing definitions of the region exist, it is one of nine regions of the Regional Development Commissions Act 1993, is the name of a bioregion under the Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia. The region, as defined by the Regional Development Commissions Act 1993, has an estimated population of 48,610 as of June 2010; the Pilbara covers an area of 502,000 km2. It includes landscapes of coastal plains and mountain ranges with gorges; the major settlements of the region are Port Hedland and Newman. The three main ports in this region are Port Hedland and Port Walcott; the area is known for its petroleum, natural gas and iron ore deposits, which contribute to Australia's economy. Other than mining, pastoral activities as well as fishing and tourism are the main industries; the Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre Wangka Maya says that the name for the Pilbara region derives from the Aboriginal word bilybara, meaning'dry' in the Nyamal and Banyjima languages.
Alternatively, The Western Australia Gas Industry claims that the region takes its name from pilbarra, an Aboriginal word for the mullet. The Pilbara Creek is a tributary of a significant river in the region. Pilbarra and barramundi can still be caught in the Yule River today; this Pilbara Creek lent its name to the Pilbara Goldfield, discovered in 1885, after which time the name was used to refer to the region. The first European to explore the area was Francis Thomas Gregory in 1861. Settlements along the coast at Cossack and Shellborough were established over ensuing decades as agricultural and pastoral centres. However, after c. 1900, these went into decline with the growth of other, more productive agricultural areas of the state. Mining in the area started in 1937 in Wittenoom Gorge, following the discovery of iron ore in the Hamersley Ranges in the 1960s, the area became pivotal to the state's economy and towns built to accommodate mining and allied services boomed. On 3 October 1952, the British conducted their first atomic bomb tests on the Montebello Islands as part of Operation Hurricane.
The Aboriginal population of the Pilbara predates, by 30–40,000 years, the European colonisation of the region. Archaeological evidence indicates that people were living in the Pilbara during the harsh climatic conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum; the early history of the first peoples is held within an oral tradition, archeological evidence and petroglyphs. Near the town of Dampier is a peninsula known as Murujuga, which contains a large collection of world heritage listed petroglyphs, dating back thousands of years. Rock art in the Pilbara appears to have been etched into the hard rock surfaces, compared to predominantly paintings on the softer sandstone in the Kimberley; this does not preclude that painting is not performed in the Pilbara. In 2006, it was estimated that 15% of the population of the Pilbara was of Indigenous background 6,000 people. Working conditions in the pearling and pastoral industries for Aboriginals in the Pilbara region around 1900 have been described as slavery with no wages paid, kidnapping as well as severe and cruel punishments for misbehaviour and absconding all common practices.
The first strike by Indigenous people in Australia took place in 1946 in the Pilbara, when Aboriginal pastoral workers walked off the stations in protest at low pay and bad working conditions, a strike that lasted for over three years. Family clans in the Pilbara who were supported by mining prospector, Don McLeod, developed skills for mining and the concentration of rare metals. For a short period money accumulated, which according to Aboriginal law was to be used for traditional ways; the funds were used to establish an independent Aboriginal-controlled school. The concept has expanded into a movement with around 20 similar schools established in northern Western Australia by the mid 1990s. Many Pilbara communities face the many complex effects of colonisation, lack adequate access to housing and education. A 1971 survey of 1,000 Aboriginal people conducted by Pat McPherson found that most had one or more serious diseases. At the McClelland Royal Commission into British nuclear testing, Aboriginals from the Pilbara provided evidence regarding the explosion on the Montebello Islands.
Aboriginal communities are sited over a number of different places. Many have poor infrastructure. Relations between police and aboriginals are often tense. Under the Regional Development Commissions Act Pilbara is situated south of the Kimberley, is made up of the local government areas of Ashburton, East Pilbara and Port Hedland; the Pilbara region covers an area of 507,896 km2 the combined land area of the US States of California and Indiana. It has a population of more than 45,000, most of whom live in the western third of the region, in towns such as Port Hedland, Wickham and Marble Bar. A substantial number of people work in the region on a fly-in/fly-out basis. There are 10 major/medium population centres and more than 25 smaller ones The Pilbara consists of three distinct geographic areas; the western third is the Roebourne coastal sandplain, which supports most of the region's populatio
Fortescue Metals Group
Fortescue Metals Group Ltd is an Australian iron ore company. Fortescue is the fourth largest iron ore producer in the world after BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Vale; the company has holdings of more than 87,000 km² in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, making it the largest tenement holder in the state, larger than both BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. The group has two main areas of operation located within the Pilbara region of Western Australia, the Chichester Hub and Solomon Hub. Plans to develop a third, Western Hub are in developmental stage. In 2017 Fortescue started exploration of possible mining tenements in South America and other parts of Australia. Located in the heart of the Pilbara, the Chichester Hub is made up of Fortescue's flagship minesite Cloudbreak and the second minesite Christmas Creek; the total Chichester Hub produces 90 million tonnes per annum of iron ore plus an additional five mtpa from a joint venture with BC Iron. Fortescue's first minesite Cloudbreak mines 40 million tonnes of iron ore a year.
The horizontal nature of the deposits at Cloudbreak called for a new mining approach to those used at other mines which operate on vertical deposits of ore. Overburden removal is done using conventional blast and shovel methods while specially designed surface miners cut and load the ore into trucks for transport to the run of mine stockpiles. Screening and desand plants at the Cloudbreak ore processing facility prepare and refine the product before the ore is stockpiled ahead of transport to port; the train loadout facility at Cloudbreak is capable of feeding 16,000 tonnes of ore per hour on the 2.7 kilometre long trains ready for the journey along the 256 kilometre heavy haul railway to the facilities at Herb Elliott Port. Mining began at Christmas Creek, 50-kilometre to the east of Cloudbreak, in May 2009. Subsequent expansion projects have lifted production capacity to 50 million tonnes per annum; the operations at Christmas Creek are undergoing expansion and in late 2010 a 50-kilometre extension to the existing Port Hedland to Cloudbreak rail line was completed to transport the ore to Cloudbreak.
The first Ore Processing Facility was commissioned at Christmas Creek in April 2011 with a second OPF commissioned in 2012. As part of the second expansion, a number of additional infrastructure projects were completed, including a 6.3 km overland conveyor, a new airstrip, an expansion of the power plant and increasing capacity at the operations village to 1600 rooms. In January 2013, Fortescue awarded Macmahon Holdings a $1.8 billion mining services contract for its Christmas Creek mine expansion. The Christmas Creek expansion increases the capacity of the Chichester operations to 95 million ton-a-year, was a key component of the company's 155 million ton-a-year expansion plans. Located in the middle of Fortescue's 87,000 km2 Pilbara tenement area, the Solomon Hub is Fortescue's next major project, it has twice the resource and less than half the strip ratio of the Chichester Hub. Fortescue's Exploration team has delineated more than 2.86 billion tonnes of resource at the Solomon Hub and there are identified exploration prospects targeting up to 5 billion tonnes.
In May 2013, Fortescue opened its 20 million tonnes per annum Firetail mine at Solomon. In December 2013, the company announced; the Train Load Out facility at Firetail was commissioned in November 2012 and the first ore was transported on the Fortescue Hamersley Rail Line in December 2012. In December 2012 Fortescue opened the 129 kilometre Solomon Railway that connects Solomon to Fortescue's mainline to its port operations. In May 2018 Fortescue announced a US$1.28 billion development of a new mine in the Pilbara at the Eliwana site. This expansion will include an additional 143 km of railway and a dry ore processing plant capable of processing 30 million tonnes a year; the new mine is expected to have an 18-year will funded from the company's cash flow. The project is expected create 1900 construction jobs and 500 permanent full-time positions with production expected to commence in 2020; the Eliwana mine is part of Fortescue's strategy to move to a 60 per cent iron grade product. BC Iron is a much smaller mining company with iron ore deposits at Nullagine.
In 2009, the two companies entered into a 50:50 joint venture in which BC Iron manages mining and screening, trucking while Fortescue is contracted to provide haulage and port services to the JV. In December 2012 Fortescue sold a 25% stake to BC Iron Ore for A$190 million and agreed to increase the available capacity to the NJV on Fortescue's rail and port infrastructure from the existing 5 million tonnes per annum, to 6mtpa for the life of the joint venture. In June 2018 Fortescue announced the purchase of 15% of junior iron ore miner Atlas Iron; this will bring Fortescue's ownership stakes up to nearly 20%. The acquisition of a controlling interest in Atlas Iron could give Fortescue access to greater port capacity as well as additional higher grade iron ore tenements; this potentially allows a move towards lithium production. This move will potentially give Fortescue access to the North West Infrastructure joint venture; this venture is a collaboration between Brockman Mining and FerrAus. In 2017 Fortescue announced they were looking to diversify their portfolio by exploring for metals and minerals in South America and other parts of Australia.
Gold and lithium were highlighted as commodities of interest. We continue to undertake early stage, low cost exploration on copper gold prospective tenements in So
ALCO Century 628
The ALCO Century 628 was a six-axle, 2,750 hp roadswitcher diesel-electric locomotive. A total of 186 C628s were built between December 1963 and December 1968. There were 135 C628s built for U. S. railroads, 46 C628s were built for Mexican railroads and five C628s for Australia. The C628 replaced the C624 as a part of ALCO's'Century' line of locomotives; the C624 was never built. The C628 was offered instead in August 1963. Hamersley Iron purchased five to haul iron ore services in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Two were built in three by AE Goodwin in Sydney. All had been retired by 1982 with one preserved on a plinth in Dampier; the Southern Pacific purchased the four demonstrators in 1964 and an additional 25 C628s were delivered in 1965. No. 2000 preserved by the Pilbara Railways Historical Society Nacionales de Mexico 610 Delaware and Hudson 610, preserved at the Yucatán Railway Museum in Mexico Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico 606 Ferrocarril de Pacifico 606, preserved at the Yucatán Railway museum in Mexico Alco Century 628 Study by Win Cuisnier Extra 2200 South Issue #54 Oct-Dec 1975 p.21.
Alco Century Spec-Profile by Don Dover Extra 2200 South Issue #54 Oct-Dec 1975 p.22 Media related to ALCO C628 locomotives at Wikimedia Commons Sarberenyi, Robert. Alco C628 Original Owners
Iluka Resources
Iluka Resources is an Australian-based resources company, specialising in mineral sands exploration, project development and marketing. Iluka is the largest producer of zircon and titanium dioxide-derived rutile and synthetic rutile globally. Iluka mines heavy mineral sands and separates the concentrate into its individual mineral constituents rutile and zircon; some of the ilmenite is processed into synthetic rutile. Iluka has operations in the Australian states of Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales, the United States and Sierra Leone. Iluka Resources was formed in July 1998 in a merger between Westralian Sands and the titanium mineral business of RGC. Westralian Sands was established in 1954 but commenced operations in 1959 when it started mining and processing the Yoganup deposit near Capel in Western Australia. By 1999, the company sold off or closed many parts of its business including Westlime Limited, Koba Tin, RGC Thalanga Copper, RGC South Capel operation and its share of the Narama Coal mine in New South Wales.
In September 2008 the company signing a multi-million deal with rail freight operator El Zorro to carry containerised mineral sands from Portland in the south-west of Victoria to Melbourne, with Iluka saying rail transport was cheaper than road. David Robb was appointed Managing Director and CEO of Iluka Resources Limited on 18 October 2006. Company profits were $61.7 million in 2008 three times the size of the forecast amount, this was a result of higher Zircon prices and a devaluation of the Australian dollar. In March 2009, Iluka announced that it would bring forward the closure of one of the Synthetic Rutile kilns at the Narngulu operations and that 23 jobs would be lost; the move came in response to falling demand as a result of the Global Economic Crisis. As a result of demand from China, the 2011 net year profit increased fifteen times the 2010 result; the 2011 profit was reported as $542 million, compared to $36 million in 2010. The companies profit was driven by higher production with 158,000 tonnes of mineral sands.
On 18 December 2013, Greg Martin was appointed Chairman of Iluka Resources. Greg Martin has previous had over 30 years’ experience in the energy and infrastructure sectors, having spent 25 years with AGL Energy, including five years as CEO and managing director. Greg Martin is Chairman of Prostar Investments Pty Ltd, a non-executive Director of Santos, Energy Developments Limited and the industry-funded Australian Energy Market Operator. Iluka established an initial 18.3 per cent interest in the UK technology company, seeking to commercialise technology to convert metals into powder, including titanium powder. Iluka increased its interest to 28 percent in 2016 with additional investment. Iluka commenced work in 2014 with Vale S. A in relation to the potential commercialisation of a large titanium ore body, with rare earth elements, in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Iluka conducts international exploration, including for selected non-mineral sands opportunities on its Australian tenements; the 2015 full-year profit was $53.5 million, up from a $62.5 million loss in the previous corresponding period.
The mineral sands sales increased 1.9% to $950.8 million up from $932.8 million in the previous year. The dividen increased the annual payout to 25c a share. Tom O'Leary was appointed chief executive officer of Iluka Resources Limited on 5 September 2016, he was managing director of Wesfarmers Chemicals and Fertilisers division, having been appointed to the role in 2010. Mr O'Leary joined Wesfarmers in 2000 in a Business Development role and was appointed to managing director, Wesfarmers Energy in 2009. Prior to joining Wesfarmers, Tom O'Leary worked in London for 10 years in finance law, investment banking and private equity. Tom O'Leary holds a law degree from the University of Western Australia and has attended the six-week Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School, he is a director of the Clontarf Foundation, having been appointed in 2006, a member of the Edith Cowan University Council. In August 2016, Iluka announced its intention to acquire Sierra Leone-based and London Stock Exchange-listed miner Sierra Rutile Limited.
The sale was finalised in December 2016 for A$393 million. As part of the acquisition, Iluka intends to invest A$290 million to expand production, improve operation and safety facilities and streamline operations; the Sierra Rutile mine has an extensive, long-life rutile deposit which complements existing assets in titanium oxide. Sierra Rutile will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary. Douglas Mine, located in Western Victoria
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state occupying the entire western third of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, South Australia to the south-east. Western Australia is Australia's largest state, with a total land area of 2,529,875 square kilometres, the second-largest country subdivision in the world, surpassed only by Russia's Sakha Republic; the state has about 2.6 million inhabitants – around 11 percent of the national total – of whom the vast majority live in the south-west corner, 79 per cent of the population living in the Perth area, leaving the remainder of the state sparsely populated. The first European visitor to Western Australia was the Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog, who visited the Western Australian coast in 1616; the first European settlement of Western Australia occurred following the landing by Major Edmund Lockyer on 26 December 1826 of an expedition on behalf of the New South Wales colonial government.
He established a convict-supported military garrison at King George III Sound, at present-day Albany, on 21 January 1827 formally took possession of the western third of the continent for the British Crown. This was followed by the establishment of the Swan River Colony in 1829, including the site of the present-day capital, Perth. York was the first inland settlement in Western Australia. Situated 97 kilometres east of Perth, it was settled on 16 September 1831. Western Australia achieved responsible government in 1890 and federated with the other British colonies in Australia in 1901. Today, its economy relies on mining, agriculture and tourism; the state produces 46 per cent of Australia's exports. Western Australia is the second-largest iron ore producer in the world. Western Australia is bounded to the east by longitude 129°E, the meridian 129 degrees east of Greenwich, which defines the border with South Australia and the Northern Territory, bounded by the Indian Ocean to the west and north.
The International Hydrographic Organization designates the body of water south of the continent as part of the Indian Ocean. The total length of the state's eastern border is 1,862 km. There are 20,781 km including 7,892 km of island coastline; the total land area occupied by the state is 2.5 million km2. The bulk of Western Australia consists of the old Yilgarn craton and Pilbara craton which merged with the Deccan Plateau of India and the Karoo and Zimbabwe cratons of Southern Africa, in the Archean Eon to form Ur, one of the oldest supercontinents on Earth. In May 2017, evidence of the earliest known life on land may have been found in 3.48-billion-year-old geyserite and other related mineral deposits uncovered in the Pilbara craton. Because the only mountain-building since has been of the Stirling Range with the rifting from Antarctica, the land is eroded and ancient, with no part of the state above 1,245 metres AHD. Most of the state is a low plateau with an average elevation of about 400 metres low relief, no surface runoff.
This descends sharply to the coastal plains, in some cases forming a sharp escarpment. The extreme age of the landscape has meant that the soils are remarkably infertile and laterised. Soils derived from granitic bedrock contain an order of magnitude less available phosphorus and only half as much nitrogen as soils in comparable climates in other continents. Soils derived from extensive sandplains or ironstone are less fertile, nearly devoid of soluble phosphate and deficient in zinc, copper and sometimes potassium and calcium; the infertility of most of the soils has required heavy application by farmers of fertilizers. These have resulted in damage to bacterial populations; the grazing and use of hoofed mammals and heavy machinery through the years have resulted in compaction of soils and great damage to the fragile soils. Large-scale land clearing for agriculture has damaged habitats for native fauna; as a result, the South West region of the state has a higher concentration of rare, threatened or endangered flora and fauna than many areas of Australia, making it one of the world's biodiversity "hot spots".
Large areas of the state's wheatbelt region have problems with dryland salinity and the loss of fresh water. The southwest coastal area has a Mediterranean climate, it was heavily forested, including large stands of karri, one of the tallest trees in the world. This agricultural region is one of the nine most bio-diverse terrestrial habitats, with a higher proportion of endemic species than most other equivalent regions. Thanks to the offshore Leeuwin Current, the area is one of the top six regions for marine biodiversity and contains the most southerly coral reefs in the world. Average annual rainfall varies from 300 millimetres at the edge of the Wheatbelt region to 1,400 millimetres in the wettest areas near Northcliffe, but from November to March, evaporation exceeds rainfall, it is very dry. Plants are adapted to this as well as the extreme poverty of all soils; the central two-thirds of the state is sparsely inhabited. The only significant economic activity is mining. Annual rainfall averages less than 300 millimetres, most of which occurs in sporadic torrential falls related to cyclone events in summer.
An exception to this is
