Resource World Magazine

46 www.resourceworld.com D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 5 MININGWORLD AUSENCo [AAX-ASX] began operations in 1991 when a small team of engineers opened an office in Brisbane, Australia. Since then, the business has grown to employ 2,250 individuals in 31 offices and 18 countries around the world. Ausenco provides engineering and project manage- ment services that range across the entire life of a project to the global resource and energy sectors – from initial concept through to commissioning and mainte- nance and transportation infrastructure to get product to the market. The company specializes in the Pit to Port engineering, procurement, construc- tion management, program management, commissioning and operations of resource projects. The services they offer in this area include: design audits, optimiza- tion studies, feasibility studies, basic and detailed engineering, pipeline system design, operation and maintenance, site and route selection, construction support, start-up and commissioning, operator training and operations support. Ausenco can design systems that process, treat and handle the full range of commodities including rare, precious, heavy and base metals, phosphate, bauxite, coal and fer- rous metals. Beyond the mine site, Ausenco designs and manages the construction of the infra- structure necessary to ship product to market: rail systems, pipelines, energy systems, port facilities, roads and bridges. Many minerals deposits are located in remote areas with little to no infrastructure. It doesn't matter how rich a deposit is if there is no way to get it to market. This is a challenge that many mineral projects face when transitioning to production. The first questions a potential investor asks when deciding if a development stage project is worth investing in, after researching the quality of the deposit, are – Are there roads, water and power nearby? From where and how will the product be shipped? Ausenco incorporates the technology, people and history of the former Sandwell and Swan Wooster Engineering and brings over 85 years of designing ports ranging from small vessel harbours to major bulk terminals. Their services range from green- field site selection and conceptual designs to design, construction management and ongoing optimizations and support. Chihong Canada Mining's [Private] Selwyn Project, in Yukon, Canada is a big zinc project that will produce 2,500 tpd zinc concentrate and 600 tpd lead con- centrate for an initial mine life of 10 years. Currently, the company is spending $13 million upgrading roads and building five bridges to transport concentrate to Port Stewart. Chihong has retained Ausenco to expand northern British Columbia's Port of Stewart's facilities to handle their concen- trate shipments. Proposed upgrades to the Stewart Bulk Terminals (SBT) include construction of a sheet-piled wall dock immediately adja- cent, and aligned with, the existing ship loading. SBT was permitted in 2002 to con- struct the dock and though it has not been constructed yet, the SBT has carried out ausenco: from concept to market by Kathrine Moore

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