Modern treasure hunters

Coal and iron, zinc and lead, gold and silver, oil and gas, diamonds and opals Australia boasts a wealth of treasures. Raw materials account for more than half of the countrys exports. With its devices, technology and service, Endress+Hauser is helping to develop the rich mineral deposits.

It is as if the door of an oven had been opened. Sweltering dry heat embraces the people leaving the plane on the landing strip of the Cannington mine right in the middle of the outback of eastern Australia, 800 kilometres west of the coastal town of Townsville. The distance to the nearest settlement is 83 kilometres: McKinlay, a hamlet with a population of 17; one of the locations where Crocodile Dundee was filmed. Temperatures are already above 30C shortly after eight in the morning. The air is shimmering. Flies are obtrusively buzzing around the women and men who were flown in by a turbo-prop plane. There is no tower and no airport building. The passengers from the plane wait under a metal roof for the bus which will take them to the mine. The airport is bustling this morning. Shifts are changing at Cannington. Some

people are facing nine days of work, others return home for five days off. A town on borrowed time The silver, lead and zinc deposit of Cannington was discovered in 1990. BHP Billiton Cannington began underground mining activities in 1997. The company built a small village for the workers in the middle of the desert, complete with a sports centre, a swimming pool and a gym, a store and a medical centre. A lot of trouble but its worth it even though the orebody will be exhausted in 20 years: nowhere else in the world is more silver and lead being mined at present than here. The ore extracted is processed further on-site. The material is first milled from about 180 millimetres in

Treasures from the ground: Australias mines process most of their ore on site (above). The hot briquetted iron plant near Port Hedland towers like a giant over the desert (centre). The Cannington plant extracts lead, zinc and silver out of the rock using mechanical and chemical processes (below).

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diameter down to fines with a diameter of 20 micrometers. Then the material is washed out in a flotation process: chemicals help to separate the silver, lead and zinc from the rock and yield a 72 percent lead concentrate and a 50 percent zinc concentrate which both contain silver. High-tech endurance test The split flotation processes are controlled by approximately 140 Endress+Hauser instruments. To control this area of the plant, BHP Billiton Cannington uses Profibus PA unusual for the industry, says John Immelman, Managing Director of Endress+Hauser Australia. Profibus technology is still not used extensively in Australia. For this reason, Immelman speaks of a brave decision. A decision that has proved its worth, since BHP Billiton Cannington has made Profibus PA the standard for future expansions. Profibus technology helps to save costs. The plant can be operated with half the staff that would usually be neces-

sary. The technicians and engineers are full of praise for the training given in Sydney and for the support provided in the initial phase. The Endress+Hauser devices have a good reputation. Above all the robustness and reliability of the instruments make a lasting impression. Ships in the middle of the desert The huge freighters silhouette the horizon like a mirage. In the dazzling heat of the airport at Port Hedland, they appear to be at anchor in the middle of the desert. Who would suspect this isolated spot in the north-west of the country to be the busiest port in all of Australia? More than 500 ships, each up to 230 metres in length and with a loading capacity of up to 250,000 tons of freight, are loaded here with iron ore each year. BHP Billiton operates six iron ore mines in the region.

The largest is located at Mount Whaleback. The huge hole mined here in search of ferriferous rock is five and a half kilometres long and one and a half kilometres wide, making it one of the largest open-cast iron mines in the world. Freight trains with up to 336 carriages transport the ore for 420 kilometres to Port Hedland where the material is taken from stockpiles to the docks by conveyor belts which stretch for kilometres. Just a few minutes drive from the airport, a steel monster rises out of the barren grassland. The reactor towers of the hot briquetted iron plant reach 119 metres into the sky. The iron ore is converted to metallic iron granulate in a chemical reduction process where heat is applied and hydrogen and carbon monoxide are added, resulting in an increase in the iron content from around 65 to more than 90 percent.

High-tech in the desert: The BHP Billiton Cannington flotation plant is constantly under attack from the sun, dust and wind. Everything is coated in a fine layer of dust an endurance test for every measuring device. A Profibus system forms the backbone of the process control system. The technicians monitor the processes from the air-conditioned control room.

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BHP Billiton has invested 2.6 billion Australian dollars (approximately 1.6 billion euros) in the plant, which has been in operation since 1999. But its an investment with a future the soap-shaped iron briquettes landing at the end of the process on the conveyor belt with a loud bang net far more money on the commodities market than raw iron ore. This plant is unique world-wide BHP Billiton developed the technology for the plant itself. A haze of red dust everywhere The wind blows rust-coloured dust over Port Hedland. It penetrates every crevice and settles on windows and floors and even on the legs of office chairs. The tap runs with lukewarm water since the sun heats up the tank of the Port Hedland water tower like a boiler. Air conditioning units make sure temperatures are bearable inside. But outside, where the ore-bearing rock is processed, searing heat prevails. No other region in Australia experiences so many cyclones.

Trusting partnership Imported ore is also processed in Australia. Queensland Nickel (QNI), another subsidiary of BHP Billiton, is the international leader in nickel processing. The company produces high-quality nickel and cobalt products in the Yabulu refinery, 25 kilometres to the north-west of Townsville. The ore is shipped in from New Caledonia, Indonesia and the Philippines and railed to the refinery. QNI and Endress+Hauser have a relationship of a special kind in the area of services for two years, Endress+ Hauser has been training tradesmen and apprentices in instrumentation and process automation. We are investing jointly in a new generation of specialists, says Managing Director John Immelman. In automation technology it is crucial to select the right instrument for the right application. For this reason, Endress+Hauser experts keep QNI technicians and engineers informed about new trends in the industry important in a country where there is no single course of studies for instrumentation and process automation and

In brief
With its headquarters in Melbourne, BHP Billiton is the worlds largest diversified resources company. Its portfolio includes aluminium, energy coal and metallurgical coal, copper, ferro-alloys, iron ore and titanium minerals, and substantial interests in oil, gas, liquefied natural gas, nickel, diamonds and silver. The company has approximately 35,000 employees working in more than 100 operations in 20 countries. In 2003, BHP Billiton achieved a turnover of US$ 17.5 billion with earnings before interest and taxes of US$ 3.5 billion.

Hundreds of instruments help to control processes in a typical iron mine. Climatic conditions alone constitute a severe test for each one of them. In addition, processed materials have a highly abrasive effect. Wear and tear is so extreme that some instruments have to be replaced every month. Endress+Hausers market share in the mining industry is growing not by chance. Robust design, excellent quality and a high degree of reliability ensure increasing attractiveness.

where specialists are in short supply. John Immelman is convinced that the Endress+Hauser training courses increase the awareness of how important the area of process technology actually is.

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