Delivering Plantwide Control for Arrium’s Iron Knob Mine

Background

Arrium Mining is an exporter of hematite iron ore and also supplies iron ore feed to Arrium’s integrated steelworks at Whyalla. The business currently exports approximately 9-10 million tonnes per annum of hematite ore, primarily to China.

Iron Knob is located in the Middleback ranges approximately 60 kilometres north west of Whyalla, South Australia. It is said to be the birthplace of Australian steel with commercial mining dating back to the 1890s.

The site is an entire pit to port operation, including mines, crushing and beneficiation facilities, rail, trucking and port facilities.

Arrium engaged Striker Australia to prepare infrastructure to access the ore reserves in the Iron Knob mine. Striker provides quality, reliable and tough crushing, screening and materials handling equipment to the mining and related industries.

The task at hand was to design, supply, assemble, install and commission modular crushing and screening equipment to process hematite iron ore sourced from the Iron Knob Mining Area for rail transport to Arrium’s port facilities with minimum ground works and in a short on-site construction timeframe.

To achieve this, Striker Australia contracted SAGE Automation, a Solution Partner of Rockwell Automation and leading provider of industrial automation and control systems.

The company is committed to deliver the highest technical solution and customer service, leading with Rockwell Automation technologies and this project was no exemption.

SAGE Automation was contracted to supply the control system and visualization together with the complete electrical design, construction and installation works for the new crushing and screening plant.