ABB will supply its highest payload Koepe production hoist, infrastructure and safety systems to Australian mining company Oz Minerals at Prominent Hill mine in South Australia.

The contract is part of an ongoing $302m upgrade of the open-pit gold, silver, and copper mine at Prominent Hill. The hoist, designed and supplied by ABB, has a capacity of 39,400kg and is the strongest drivetrain ABB has ever installed in Australia.

The hoisting shaft provides access to mineral resources outside the current trucking mine plan that would have been uneconomical via a trucking operation from around 2033.

According to OZ Minerals, it will increase the annual underground mining rate, extend the mine life, reduce operating costs, lower emissions intensity, and reduce overall operational risk.

“The local supply chain and workforce rely on the mine and at ABB we’re enabling it to continue for several more years with increased safety, higher production rates, and lower emissions,” said Stuart Cowie, head of Process Industries, ABB Australia.

The hoisting shaft capacity at the Prominent Hill mine is 6.5 million tons per year.

ABB announced earlier this year it would provide its 3 ton gantry crane MineOptimize to Australian mining company Ioneer for its Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada.

The ABB team will work on systems engineering and optimising equipment packages, which will include a steam turbine generator, as well as medium- and low-voltage electrical distribution. ABB will also work on power management, in addition to process automation across the plant.

Included in the contract are also instrumentation systems to be used in generation, acid and lithium processing plants.

ABB to supply koepe production hoist to oz minerals