Cyclone? Rio Tinto’s OC wins the game with Australian bauxite mines' record capacity

Australia Pacific bauxite operations of Rio Tinto achieved a significant milestone during the last cyclone season, as it has not faced any ‘stack outs’  or any ship diversions at the Port of Weipa. This port is located on the far north coast of Queensland in a high weather-exposed part of the Western Cape Peninsula. 

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Rio Tinto exceeded its overall capacity of 22.8 million tonnes per year for the first time since its operations began in 2018, achieving almost 23.3 million tonnes in 2024. A major part of the contribution to the ongoing refinement process of Rio Tinto is managed remotely by the Operations Centre (OC) in Brisbane.

Rio Tinto’s operations are being effectively maintained by the Safe Production System (SPS). The SPS is a production system that believes in the philosophical aspect that great teams that bring their best every day would surely realise the value of the company’s assets. 

Rio Tinto explains: “It (SPS) guides us on how we look after our people and our assets, how we prioritise and improve, and how we solve problems so they don’t reoccur.”

Continuation of operation

The  Manager of the OC in Brisbane, Vanessa Thorley, said that SPS played a significant role in achieving the bauxite milestones. Adding to this, she said to a media platform on visiting OC, “Amrun is one of the most exposed ports.” That part of Queensland suffers from both cyclones and swell conditions on a seasonal basis, which often impacts our ability to ship product from there. Up until the most recent cyclone season, we had never been able to navigate a whole year without shutting down production due to a stockpile stack-out or the need to divert ships to the less-exposed Weipa port.”

The port operation is in a position to hold six days’ worth of material in stockpile and is able to set out a six-week stockpile forecast. Rio Tinto owns this on the Western Cape Peninsula, whereas the other one is located on Weipa. Thorley said, “The Port 365 Kaizen within the SPS was devised to maximise operational hours and port efficiency during the wet season months at the Amrun port.” 

Some of the significant actions within this project include putting up more ships in the water that ensure operational flexibility, and maintaining an accurate time frame for it based on expected weather events. The OC’s Dynamic Scheduling and Weipa’s Marine team is very experienced in refining the process. The team mainly focus on the time window available for loading and the average loading time of the ship while loading the ships. The efficiency of the team in the day-to-day work has become its part and parcel of daily work.

Amrun acceleration

At Amrun, effective performance was driven by the combined efforts of the Safe Production System (SPS), Asset Management (AM) Uplift programs, and the concept of stable plant feed by the Operations Centre (OC).

The Amrun team mainly used Kaizen to enhance the overall material handling, while the AM team focus on shutdown and formulating maintenance strategies. The Asset Health (AH) team is mainly associated with improving real-time monitoring. It focuses mainly on tyre health for over 90 trucks using Rimex’s TyreSense. The use of this technique prevents overheating and blowouts during the long-haul cycles.

Another focus area of the AH team is to reduce the overall interaction between the heavy and light vehicles for enhancing the safety arrival and departure of the vehicles operating within the workshop. 

According to Rio Tinto, the best practice events of Kaizen help to improve the plant flow by 6 per cent and to strategically shut down losses since March 2024. By focusing on turnaround time it also has the potential to improve the port capacity by 10 per cent. 

Integrated thinking and streamlined operation

Rio Tinto’s Operations Centre (OC) in Brisbane, opened in the year 2019, runs 24*7 with four shifts around the 365 days of the year. The team members of OC remotely manage the dispatch mechanism, effectively monitor, and control the Weipa (Amrun and Andoom) and Gove bauxite mine, which is located 2,500 km away.

The OC handles every step of the operation, starting from pit operations to scheduling of the port, and maintaining asset health. The Gove’s systems of scheduling, ports function and stockyards were added to the centre in the year 2020. However, the entire team moved its operation base to a new location in Brisbane in 2021.

With the introduction and use of cloud-based tools and Motorola’s backup communication, OC receives all the real-time updates from all sites. It also connects it with the Rio Tinto’s commercial team in Singapore by using virtual desktops, radios and interactive screens. Two years ago, a Smelter Team also joined the OC, which helps to enhance the overall performance.

Thorley is proud of her team's activities; however, she has also listed some of the incremental improvement projects that are closed or are about to begin their work. The Amrun team have broken the record by actively achieving a run rate of 6,000 t/h, over and above the nameplate 5,600 tonnes per hour since 2024.

The introduction of the Smelter Team in the OC and the potential introduction of a Refinery team would help to streamline the entire supply chain decision-making. The improvement lies in the field of optimising the dry scrubbing process, explained by Thorley. Moreover, the introduction of the energy team is also on the queue as the refineries and smelters of Rio Tinto require a new approach. 

After the visit of IM, Rio Tinto has announced its plan to begin early work and the introduction of engineering studies to increase its overall production at Amrun, aiming for its first output by 2029. The new Kangwinan Project would involve new mines and also expanding its existing port of Rio Tinto’s Weipa to double its bauxite production. 

The Kangwinan project would replace the production from Andoom and Gove mines in the Northern Territory, which is expected to close by the end of this decade.

Moreover, the Operations Centre (OC) is working on upskilling the current staff to work in a diverse environment. They're also encouraging the workers of Brisbane to visit various mine sites so that they will be able to understand the workflow.