ABB Wins $18 Million Mining Order in Australia


Comprehensive automation and electrical solution will optimize energy efficiency and performance of six mine site conveyors at Australia's largest underground mining project

Houston, TX - ABB recently won an order worth $18 million to provide the complete electrical and automation system for six underground mine incline conveyors for Newcrest Mining's Cadia East gold and copper project, located in southeastern Australia.

Newcrest is a leading international gold company and one of the worlds lowest cost gold producers. The company is Australia's largest gold producer and a global top 10 gold mining company.

Once completed in 2013, the Cadia East project will be Australia's largest underground mine.

ABB's scope of supply for the project includes a state-of-the-art conveyor control system that will optimize the overall performance, reliability, energy efficiency, and operational flexibility of the conveyor system over its lifetime. ABB will design, engineer and supply a full electrical solution with modular switchrooms, transformers, 33 kV (kilovolt) ring main units, water chiller systems, motor control centers (MCC) and mine conveyor control program (MCCP) to manage ABB's ACS 6000 multi-drives and motors. Delivery is scheduled for the first quarter of 2011.

"ABB's global engineering resources and mining industry expertise, combined with our proven technology, provide a technically robust and energy efficient system that will optimize performance over the entire productive life of this mine," said Veli-Matti Reinikkala, head of ABB's Process Automation division.

The Cadia East orebody is one of the world's largest gold deposits, comprising a total mineral resource of 2,347 million tonnes containing 33.2 million ounces of gold and 6.59 million tonnes of copper. The mine is expected to be in operation for at least 30 years.

ABB's Process Automation division delivers integrated automation solutions for control, plant optimization, and industry-specific application knowledge and services to help process industry customers worldwide improve their energy efficiency and meet their critical business needs in the areas of operational profitability, capital productivity, risk management and global responsibility. These industries include oil and gas, power, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, metals, minerals, cement, marine and turbocharging.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 117,000 people.

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