Case Study – Ad-hoc Research
FUEL CONSUMPTION IN AUSTRALIAN MINING INDUSTRY
Description
An Australian consulting firm wanted us to research on fuel consumption trends in the Mining Industry
Duration
6 to 8 hours of research
Impact
The firm was able to benchmark fuel-related costs and advise the client on the improvement areas
- Explore
- Company Profiling
FUEL CONSUMPTION IN AUSTRALIAN MINING INDUSTRY
Fuel consumption in the Australian mining sector has been increasing more rapidly than in any other sector. Loading, hauling and dumping operations consume up to 26% of the energy in underground mines.
The mining sector accounts for roughly 10% of Australia’s total energy use. Its energy is mainly supplied by diesel (41%), natural gas (33%), and grid electricity (21%). Energy is primarily consumed as electricity for beneficiation operations and as diesel for vehicles and machinery.
The Australian Mining Sector’s energy consumption by source
In the above graph ‘Other’ includes petrol, coal, LNG, renewables, and biofuels
Fuel supply to mine sites without fixed pipeline infrastructure relies on heavy vehicle road transport – a fuel road train only provides sufficient energy to mine 7,900 tonnes of coal, 7,300 tonnes of metals, and 37,400 tonnes of minerals.
Consumption & Expenditure on Electricity, Natural Gas and other energy inputs, by selected industries, Australia 2014-15
Australian businesses consumed 666m GJ of diesel in 2014–15. The Mining and Transport, Postal and Warehousing industries combined accounted for 70% of the total consumption.
New Zealand
Fossil fuel energy consumption (% of total) in New Zealand was reported at 59.37 % in 2015, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources.
Energy Supply and Demand balance of New Zealand calendar year 2015
Revenue of hard coal mining, New Zealand, 2008 - 2018 (USD Mn)
Fuel management system
When it comes to large vehicles they quite easily consume fuel, for instance a mining haul truck’s average consumption rate, on the normal gradients of ten per cent found a on a mine haul road, with a typical payload of 182 tonnes goes through approximately 350 litre of diesel fuel an hour which goes up dramatically if drivers speed or put the vehicle under undue stress.
The key to ensuring these losses due to ineffective driving aren’t occurring for your businesses is to have accurate fuel management systems in place which monitor usage and delivery.
Along with this there are many advantaged of having a proper fuel management system:
- Data that can be collected generically by these systems include trucks’ odometers, engine hours, user ID, vehicle ID, and pin
- Fuel management systems can also be integrated with automatic tank gauging systems (ATG) to provide a fully integrated
- These electronic systems also allow for the production of reports, such as vehicle fuel transaction reports; site fuel usage reports; tank inventory reports; and fuel stock reconciliation
- This knowledge is crucial to operators in the current economic and cost-conscious
- An added bonus is a reduced environmental footprint, as the electronic systems are also able to monitor fuel loss through leakage, and aid operators in recognizing the potential problem and halting the leak before both fuel is lost and damage to the environment is
- The electronic system, which can be limited to keys and pin numbers, also helps monitor theft, which is a growing issue on
- An automated fuel management system not only ensures vehicles are using fuel in the most efficient manner possible, but also ensure operators peace of mind that their fuel is secure
Examples of companies that provide fuel management devices are:
Datafuel: Datafuel designs and manufactures a range of electronic consoles and software that provide security and management control over bulk fuel facilities. It has worked with all Australia’s major oil companies on a wide range of fuel management projects across a number of industries including mining, transport, manufacturing and government. Datafuel assist customers by providing bulk fuel equipment, turnkey solutions, undertaking special projects and providing value added services.
FluidIntel: 10Adapt Fuel Management System (AdaptFMS) represents the benchmark in hydrocarbon management solutions. AdaptFMS provides the mining enterprise with comprehensive fuel and oil management by monitoring and controlling deliveries, transfers, storage and dispensing from a central web application, AdaptIQ.
Overview of mineral mining industry in Australia
In recent years, the Australian minerals industry has accounted directly for up to 8 per cent of GDP (significantly more when account is taken of related activity), upwards of 20% of business investment and around 50% of national exports. The rise in global demand for mineral commodities over the last decade has helped to propel growth in living standards with benefits spread broadly across Australian society. (Minerals Council of Australia 2012-13)
Overview of mineral mining industry in New Zealand
Despite having a variety of mineral resources, the production of the country’s mineral industry is lesser than that of its neighbour Australia. New Zealand’s mineral resources were dominated by aggregates and gold, which together accounted for 80% of the total value of New Zealand’s mineral resources. Excluding the petroleum industry, the value of New Zealand’s mineral sector accounted for less than 1% of the GDP. The total value of New Zealand’s minerals and mineral fuel production accounted for about 2% of the GDP (Statistics New Zealand, 2014b, p. 2).
Overview of non-metallic mineral mining industry in Australia
Contraction of the Mining industry has led to a fall in demand for construction materials from the Heavy and civil engineering construction industry. This has flowed through to falling demand in the Non-metallic mineral mining and quarrying industry with most key indicators for the Non-metallic mineral mining and quarrying industry declining in 2014-15; sales and service income fell 3.2% and industry value added declined by 2.3%. During 2014-15 total capital expenditure for the Non-metallic mineral mining and quarrying industry was $598m.
Overview of non-metallic mineral mining industry in New Zealand
Gas is currently produced from 14 fields, with the majority coming from two offshore fields: the recent Pohokura development and the mature Maui field. The two newest offshore oil fields, Tui and Maari, have boosted oil production in recent years. Together they contributed 49% of New Zealand’s oil production in 2010, while Pohokura contributed a further 22% (Ministry of Economic Development, 2011a). In total, 16 fields in the Taranaki region produced 19.3 million barrels of crude oil (116 Petajoules (PJ)) and 0.157 trillion cubic feet of gas (173 PJ) in 2010 (Ministry of Economic Development, 2011a).
The mining sector contracted 2.5 percent in the June quarter, due to lower production of oil and gas, and coal, and 6.6 percent for the year in 2016.
Mining and petroleum: contribution to GDP of New Zealand 2001–2009
List of Mining Companies in Australia
- Adani Mining
- Bechtel (Csg-Lng Project Management)
- Bhp Billiton
- Cuesta Coal
- Fortescue Metals Group
- Gloucester Coal (Middlemount)
- Gvk
- Hancock Prospecting
- International Coal
- Rio Tinto
- Tinkler Group Pty Ltd
- Newmount
- Ozminerals
- Xstrata
- Yancoal
- New Talisman Gold Mines Limited
List of mining companies in New Zealand
- Fieldwork Group
- Black Lion Limited
- Birchfield Minerals Ltd
- Newmont Waihi Gold
- Koiterangi Lime Co
- Heaphy Mining
- New Zealand Steel Mining Ltd
- Doug Hood Mining Ltd
- Ron King Mining & Industry Services
- Aotea Minerals LTD – A W Tattersfield Heritage Gold NZ Ltd
- Mining Permit Solutions
- Stracon Mining Limited
- Geotech Limited
- Westmere Drilling Ltd
- Centago Mining Ltd
- First Break SG Metals Ltd
- Black Lion Limited
- SGS Mining
- New Talisman Gold Mines Limited
Trends of mining industry
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- Ensuring innovation: preparing for change: Below are the game changing technologies
- Networks: This is the interconnectivity brought about Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and feeds into the Big Data movement. As machinery sensors become more prevalent miners now have greater oversight of how their equipment truly operates, giving them more flexibility in their usage and
- Machine learning: As automation becomes more widespread, the potential for machines to perform increasing complex tasks grow, lifting safety and productivity on According to Deloitte, an end game for this is the continued growth of centralizedremote operating hubs, such as Rio Tinto’s Mine of the Future remote operations hub or its Processing Centre of Excellence, as well as similar remote control hubs run by Roy Hill, Fortescue, and BHP from Perth.
- Ensuring innovation: preparing for change: Below are the game changing technologies
Sources