Australia’s Copper Market Booms

The urgency of increasing the supply of copper in response to escalating global demand cannot be overstated. This critical mineral is fundamental to the clean energy transition and an essential element of green technologies. However, demand is far outstripping supply – to the point that there are concerns the world’s climate goals may not be met if this widening gap is left unaddressed.

The reasons for the growing demand/supply gap are multifaceted: new mines are delayed, existing ones disrupted or downright cancelled. The December 2023 announcement from First Quantum Minerals confirming the shutdown of their Cobre Panama operations is a clear example. And whilst these delays and disruptions are grounded on valid concerns that demand attention and solutions, the need to produce large amounts of copper remains critical.

“Copper is arguably the most important mineral we need to secure a greener future,” says Steven Cohen, Sales and Marketing Manager at engineering company, Mipac.

“At Mipac, we’re really proud to have a long history of successful projects within the copper industry both domestically and internationally. The most recent example of this is our role as Main Automation Contractor for BHP’s West Musgrave project in Western Australia.”

This project, which is set to be one of Australia’s largest, lowest cost and lowest emissions copper nickel projects, is set to produce 13.5 Mt/y, with average production over its 24-year life cycle yielding circa 35,000 t/y of copper.

“We began working on the West Musgrave project in December 2020,” explains Virgilio Bay, Mipac Senior Project Manager.

“As part of the project’s pre-feasibility stage, OZ Minerals [former owner] identified an opportunity to merge the site’s digital technologies – information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) – to develop a fully integrated ‘digital’ mine.”

“We initially created a high-level control system architecture design and OT/control network design criteria for the site, and have since been involved in the vendor selection, early works, early detail and now main automation contractor (MAC) stages of the project,” said Bay.

“Mipac was chosen as the MAC for this project because of our history in developing highly integrated OT systems for complex operations all around the world,” explained Cohen.

Acting as MAC, Mipac is responsible for delivering a complete integrated process control system across the process and non-process areas of the West Musgrave plant. This plantwide control system will monitor, control and manage plant operations, ensure plant and asset safety and support BHP in achieving their business objectives.

Once completed, the site will have fully integrated operational processes and systems, enabling more efficient and dynamic energy management as well as integrated operations, reducing its green footprint as well as the requirement for personnel to be on site.

This work is expected to take two years and engage up to sixteen staff.

For more than 26 years, Mipac’s expert engineering team has been working with Australian copper producers across the mining value chain to increase production, reduce costs and minimise variability. Sites include:

• Mount Isa Mines
• Telfer Mine
• Mount Carlton
• Prominent Hill
• West Musgrave
• Olympic Dam
• Northparkes
• CSA Mine
• Ernest Henry