On Wednesday the 16th of July the WA Mining Club facilitated a visit to Fortescue’s Christmas Creek Operations hosted by Fortescue.
Students were nominated from selected schools and included;
In total there were 18 students and one Career Advisor Julie Gray from Pinjarra. Barry Upton, Vice President and Lead Education Engagement represented the WA Mining Club
Melanie Atkinson, Manager Careers and Pathways accompanied the group throughout the day and Vanya Cutler, Personal Assistant to the General Manager was our on-site host.
The day started very early with a 5:25am flight to site. All attendees arrived early and well prepared in appropriate clothing for the mine site visit. Upon arrival we were greeted by Vanya and loaded on to a hydrogen fuel cell battery electric bus which set the tone for our exploration of the Christmas Creek site and the cutting-edge technology on display in Fortescue’s pursuit of Real Zero.
We were greeted at the site Village by Stephen Cole Director Mining Operations and Darren Potter Manager Chichester Water Management who gave us an overview of the operations and as well their stories.
After our warm welcome we were off to the Mess for some breakfast served up by the on-site catering staff. It was great to see the attendees enjoying a hearty meal after their early start including generous servings of ice cream! Kirsty the Village Manger then provided a tour of the village taking in the impressive facilities to cater for every need of the residents.
From here we were off to the mine site and were greeted by Scott Elson Mining Superintendent who caught up with one of his footy players skipping training to attend the camp. The highlight of the operations is clearly the autonomous truck fleet as well as the electric excavator. Rebecca Roper, Manager Mining provided an insight into her motivation for studying Mining Engineering which has at least one convert from the trip.
Next stop was the crushing and train loading facility which is at the confluence of three conveyors feeding ore from the many open pits being mined at Christmas Creek. Our luck was in as a train was being loaded at the time of our visit, one of six from this site every day.
Lunch at the mine offices and a chat to Sam Venn, Acting General Manager and we were refreshed for the afternoon. A quick look at the remote operations centre and a sneak peek into the daily production meeting room where all of the daily statistics were on show and then we were off to the Hydrogen Refuelling Station where Isaac provided an enthusiastic and informative briefing on how to make Hydrogen from water. He also had a chance reconnection with Mrs Gray, one of his former teachers from Pinjarra SHS.
This facility is adjacent to the under-construction Green Metal Project. Once fully operational, this plant will use green hydrogen produced at Fortescue’s gaseous and liquid hydrogen facility, together with an electric smelting furnace, to produce high purity green iron metal.
Finally, a trip to the Mobile Maintenance truck workshop where the team provided us with an insight into trade pathways available which was great and then we got to climb all over a 793 autonomous truck in for service creating some excellent photo opportunities.
With minutes to spare we arrived back at the airport for our flight home and a chance to wind down after an exciting and informative day. The welcome everyone extended was very humbling, and the time taken to inform our student cohort as well as the older members of the team was highly appreciated. The passion that was clearly on display cannot be overstated and is a strong endorsement of the culture that Fortescue has grown and cultivated.
