Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr
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O P E R AT I N G S T R AT E G I E S down to cost, delivery time, fitness-for-purpose, and partitioned work access so that on-site modular part replacement is simplified with the minimum staff certifications." The company claims its DataBlox technology allows mining exploration camps, for example, to commission site data and telecommunications quickly with confidence that the systems are ruggedized and easily maintainable, and the assets are redeployable. In the case of existing mine sites, the Meshbox units can also provide drop-in data center housing for process control systems—if necessary, in close proximity to plant sites, while other units provide mobile data and voice coverage. Containerized Data/Telecom Packages Offer Quick Setup MeshBlox, a Queeensland, Australia-based engineering company, specializes in providing prefabricated, ready-to-deploy data and communications infrastructure for rapid commissioning in harsh or remote environments. The company recently announced a new unit shipment into Rio Tinto's Hail Creek surface mine in Queensland's Bowen Basin coal district. "Overnight, Hail Creek now has a full data center with seven racks of ICT and process control systems, power autonomy, and heating ventilation and cooling (HVAC) with redundant cooling units in 60-kw capacity," said MeshBlox Vice President of Engineering Matt Heysen. "All that [is] mounted less than 20 meters from the coal preparation plant of an active 10 year old coal mine—it's one of the more hostile environments on earth for housing precision engineering and data systems." Heysen said the most attractive feature Meshblox offers to the mining industry is the confidence its IP65 (NEMA 4) rated container provides along with its triple airlock clean-room and MilSpec cooling systems. "This wasn't our fastest delivery by a long shot, taking nearly eight weeks from build order to delivery due to the complexity of the various systems required," Heysen said. "But the mining industry has unique challenges, which we tailor to meet. For example, [Hail Creek's] unit has partitioned WGC Releases Conflict-Free Gold Standard for Producers Hail Creek's DataBlox prefabricated data/telecom units can be configured to the needs of the client—and the site, according to developer MeshBlox. work areas so that on-site personnel with different certifications can access different compartments independently." MeshBlox Vice President of Marketing Miles Gillham, said, "We developed this product range in close consultation with mining companies for their needs. We didn't lecture them on how ICT works or how long they would have to wait, instead we asked how they wanted it to work and built to that specification. It really boils Featuring airlock-based contamination prevention and military-spec construction, the MeshBlox units can be installed in harsh environments, such as in close proximity to this coal prep plant. 84 E&MJ; • DECEMBER 2012 The World Gold Council (WGC) published its Conflict-Free Gold Standard in midOctober 2012 as an industry-led approach to combat the potential misuse of mined gold to fund unlawful armed conflict. WGC developed the standard with its member companies, comprising the world's leading gold mining companies, and with extensive input from governments, civil society, and supply chain participants. The standard, said WGC, is designed to allow gold miners to "assess their operations and provide assurance that they do not cause, support, or benefit unlawful armed conflict, nor contribute to serious human rights abuses or breaches of international humanitarian law. It is designed to increase trust and transparency in the gold supply chain. It provides further confidence that responsibly undertaken, gold mining is an important source of social and economic development." Companies will be required to publicly report on their conformance with the standard, and external assurance will be required on this disclosure. The standard is open and available for use by any party involved in the extraction of gold. It takes the form of a decision tree split into five sections: Conflict Assessment, Company Assessment, Commodity Assessment, External Sources of Gold Assessment and Statement of Conformance Documentation. Each section represents key decisions that will determine whether gold produced by a company is in conformance with the standard. Criteria are established, along with publicly available reference points against which any decision may be tested and a process by which the decision can be made to assess conformance, according to the council. www.e-mj.com