Archived News for Industry Professionals - July, 2012

Western Australian Environment Minister, Bill Marmion, has received legal advice from the State’s Solicitor’s Office regarding the Environmental Protection Authority’s (EPA) assessment of the Browse LNG Precinct at James Price Point in the state’s Kimberly region.

Australian gas markets are expected to undergo significant change over the short and long term, particularly in eastern Australia via a rapid increase in LNG exports from the middle of this decade according to the recently released BREE Gas Market Report.

The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE) has released a report that predicts national exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) could more than triple to 63 million tonnes per annum by 2016-17.

The Queensland and Federal Governments have committed funding of $800,000 for an Industry Workforce Connect coordinator program designed to maximise opportunities arising from the mining and resources industry boom in Queensland.

Mining giant Rio Tinto has announced a series of changes to its senior management team after chief financial officer (CFO) Guy Elliot announced he will retire at the end of 2013, while remaining on the company’s board.

The University of Queensland (UQ) and Rio Tinto have signed a five-year, $2.5 million Corporate Education Agreement that will focus on developing academic leadership, building skills and capability for the mining industry, and increasing diversity levels by targeting female and Indigenous students.

The agreement is part of a Rio Tinto programme that is establishing a network of leading education providers to generate and foster an appropriate expertise base for the resources industries.

The partnership features education initiatives including 39 scholarships, two post-doctoral fellowships, the creation of a new bachelor's degree in geotechnical engineering, and initiatives to increase female engineering enrolments by 15 per cent.

UQ Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Terry, said the agreement would build on a strong and long-standing connection with Rio Tinto, and would provide a broad range of benefits.

“UQ applauds Rio Tinto's support for future academic leaders, because it will give recent PhD graduates career paths that encourage them to educate and mentor coming generations of scientists and engineers.”

Rio Tinto Energy Chief Executive, Doug Ritchie, said the agreement brought a strong focus to integrated and practical learning, collaboration on curriculum, improving equity and access to university for a diverse range of students, and would ultimately build a sustainable talent pipeline.

“This initiative is aimed at building skills and capability for the mining industry both now and into the future,” Mr Ritchie said.

“The 39 scholarships, the first of which will be available from semester one 2013, will provide financial support to students throughout their university degrees, access to mining related education, field trips and internships.

“We look forward to helping increase the number of students in hard to fill disciplines such as engineering and earth sciences, as well as increasing the diversity of student intakes.

“This agreement will help provide a healthy talent pipeline into our two-year Rio Tinto global graduate development programme.”

It's the third such agreement for Rio Tinto, which has also set up education agreements with The University of Western Australia and Imperial College London.

The South Australian and Northern Territory governments have joined forces to welcome delegates at the Australia China Resources Symposium, in a bid to show off their rapidly expanding minerals and energy sectors.

Mineral sands miner Iluka Resources Limited has issued an update predicting lower sales volumes and deteriorating economic outlooks.

In the revised guidance, Iluka  said that “a marked deterioration in major regional economies, more pessimistic official forward outlooks and commentary and the absence of anticipated or effective policy responses since the company’s previous disclosure in early May, have had a flow on impact on mineral sands customer confidence levels and future business performance expectations, which is likely to influence sales volumes materially over the remainder of 2012”.

The statement follows an initial downgrade in May, which it tempered with the hope of improved sales in the second half.

However, Managing Director, David Robb, said that the revised forcast “reflects the fact that we are considerably more pessimistic about the performance of major global economies and their future trajectories than we were at the beginning of the year, or indeed two months ago”.

Iluka is now predicting sales of 200,000 – 300,000 tonnes of zircon, down from the 400,000 tonnes forecasted in May and 450,000 tonnes in the previous forecast, with total sales of zircon, rutile and synthetic rutile in the range of 510 – 720 thousand tonnes, down from 965,000 tonnes forecast in May, and total sales of 1,036 thousand tonnes in 2011.

Leighton Contracts has announced it has been awarded a three and a half year contract extension for the provision of mining services at Sonoma Mine in Queensland’s northern Bowen Basin.

The Queensland Government has announced Cocaktoo Coal has been given the go ahead to prepare an environmental impact statement for its North Surat-Taroom coal project.

Rail freight specialist QR National has announced it has signed a new long-term haulage contract with Jellinbah Group for the transport of coal from the :ale Vermont mine.

The Queensland Government has announced it will intervene in the ongoing High Court Challenge to the Mineral Resources Rent Tax (MRRT) lodged by Fortescue Metals.

The Western Australian Government has announced a multi-million dollar drilling program to establish if the Western Canning Basin in the Pilbara region can support industrial use water supply will begin this week.

The Federal $200 million Clean Technology Innovation Program has been launched and is now open for applications.

Australia Pacific LNG has announced plans to develop a second 4.5 million per annum production train for the coal seam gas to liquefied natural gas project on Curtis Island off Gladstone in Queensland.

Adani and QR National have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will see the companies jointly evaluate an integrated rail proposal for the Carmichael Coal Mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.

Delta Energy has announced the imminent closure of its New South Wales Munmorah Power Station after 45 years of operation. The station has been maintained on standby since late 2010.

OHS recruitment specialist National Safety Recruitment (NSR) has conducted a major annual salary survey of the occupational health and safety workforce, finding that the sector attracts salaries of up to 90 per cent above the average national salary.

A new report published by the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE) confirms that the increasingly strong demand for commodities has confirmed the massive infrastructure demand in Australia’s regions.

Australia's bulk commodity (coal, iron ore and LNG) export volumes are projected to more than double in between 2012 and 2025, according to a report released by the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE).