Jacobs Engineering

Jacobs already had niche market experience in

mining and minerals prior to the Aker

acquisition, providing FEED, and EPC/EPCM

services to mining customers in the USA, South

America, North Africa, India and elsewhere.

Jacobs also has a premier global position in

phosphates with in-house technology, as well

as specific process minerals processing

expertise including copper and uranium.

With the recent acquisition and integration

of the complete mining and minerals

operations from Aker Solutions, Jacobs now

has significantly expanded its capability and

depth of mining and minerals processing

resources worldwide. Jacobs now provides the

full life cycle of services to the non-ferrous

minerals and iron and steel industries. The

group provides project planning and studies, as

well as EPC/EPCM, completions,

commissioning and start-up, and full life cycle

maintenance and operations support services

for operating mining and minerals processing

plants. This capability – based in the USA,

South America, Europe, South Africa and

Australia - has the ability to service projects

worldwide.

Jacobs is now able to draw upon more than

150 years’ experience servicing the mining and

minerals processing industry, and states that it

possesses strong capabilities in fast-growing

segments like copper, zinc, silver, gold, nickel,

uranium, iron ore and steel-making. Key

experience includes gold and silver processing;

soda ash and potash processing; nickel laterite

processing; concentrator processing; leach-SXEW

processing;

sulphuric acid

technology; uranium;

iron and steel; and

base metal

smelting/refining.

In Australia, for example, Jacobs’ 1,000-

strong professional resources operation has

been providing project management, EP and

EPCM services to the mining and minerals

processing industries for over 40 years, and

has worked (and continues to work) with some

of Australia’s largest and most successful

resources companies, including Barrick,

Ivanhoe, Kazakhmys, Lihir, Newmont,

Queensland Nickel and Rio Tinto.

Current project experience includes:

■ Toromocho, Peru (Minera Chinalco Peru) –

EPCM: EP in progress, pre-construction

activities have begun at site (infrastructure)

■ Kennecott, USA (Rio Tinto) molybdenum

autoclave process (MAP) – EPCM

■ Mindoro Nickel, Philippines (Intex Resources)

– feasibility study complete

■ Palmarejo, Mexico (Coeur D’Alene) –

construction management – completed 2009

■ Antamina, Peru (BHPB, Xstrata, Teck,

Mitsubishi)) – EPCM, in progress

■ Nui Phao Minerals Processing Facility,

Vietnam (Masan Resources) – EP in progress

■ Bozshakol Copper, Kazakhstan (Kazakhmys)

– FS/FEED in progress

■ Northland Resources, iron ore, Sweden –

feasibility study complete.

Jacobs is currently working on two “mega”

projects: Toromocho, developed by China’s

largest diversified mining company Chinalco;

and Antamina, developed by BHP Billiton,

Xstrata, Teck Resources and Mitsubishi. Both of

these EPCM projects are remote and at very

high altitudes of more than 4,000 m above sea

level.

Toromocho is a mining and minerals

processing ore facility located approximately

140 km east of Lima, in the Morococha district

of central Peru. The $2.2 billion (total installed

cost) project requires the development of a

large open pit mine followed by ore processing

at a rate of 117,200 t/d to produce copper

concentrate. As Chinalco’s biggest project in

South America, Toromocho is expected to

produce 225,000 t of copper annually. In

addition, silver will be recovered from the

copper concentrate and molybdenum trioxide

will be produced as a valuable by-product of

the processing. Jacobs was also responsible for

the feasibility study and basic engineering for

Toromocho.

Antamina is the largest copper, zinc, silver

molybdenum and bismuth minerals processing

facility in the world. Jacobs’ scope for

expanding Antamina’s processing capacity

includes expanding the truck shop; upgrading

the crushing and ore conveying infrastructure;

a second SAG milling system; other new

equipment for the concentrator plant; a new

55 km 220 kV transmission line; and upgraded

port facilities. Jacobs is also responsible for precommissioning

the new Antamina facilities and

previously completed the pre-feasibility and

feasibility studies for the expansion program.

This is expected to increase Antamina’s

minerals processing capacity to an average of

130,000 t/d.

In Australia, Jacobs is actively involved in a

number of major resources projects as well as

assisting some mining customers in their early

phase development of their “mega” projects.

The Nui Phao project comprises a poly-metallic

(tungsten, bismuth, fluorspar, copper and gold)

deposit located in northern Vietnam, which

will be mined using conventional open-pit

methods and equipment. The ore reserve is

55.7 Mt, sufficient for a life of more than 16

years.