Pilbara mine jobs boost
The Roy Hill project may need to import mine workers according to Gina Rinehart, but this is not the view of Fortescue Metals Group boss Andrew Forrest.
Mr Forrest said that, unlike Ms Rinehart and the Roy Hill iron ore mining project, that recently got the green light from the Federal Government to import 1715 foreign workers, Fortescue did not need to import its mining workers.
“We`re not about to go rushing out to other countries . . . to import labour.”� he said.
Instead, the mining billionaire and Fortescue Metals Group founder said the company was constantly inundated with mining job applications from “really great people”� who were “qualified”�.
Although not speaking for other companies, Mr Forrest said that FMG was faced only with the problem of not having enough mining jobs to offer.
Mr Forrest told reporters in Perth he would not be drawn on the comments made by Australia`s richest woman Gina Rinehart, that there was `no monopoly on becoming a millionaire`.
�”If you’re jealous of those with more money, don’t just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself – spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working,”� she wrote.
10,000 mining jobs with Fortescue
Fortescue Metals Group, the world`s fourth-largest iron ore producer from its two mines, a 300km railway network and a deep water, multi-user port is located in the heart of WA`s Pilbara region.
In 2011 FMG started a massive expansion program to triple their iron ore production over the next three years. Plans involve growth at port and rail operations, upgrades of existing mines and creation of a new mining precinct, the Solomon Hub.
Mining IT jobs created by automation processes
Ramping up their rail network to move iron ore from the mines direct to port in the most efficient way possible has seen Fortescue Metals Group invest heavily in IT systems as well as a push towards automated systems. One of the initiatives is to deploy a radio-based signalling system to track train movements on a 294-kilometre stretch of rail line. The state-of-the-art system will be supplied by engineering firm Norfolk Group under a $56 million subcontract with GE Transportation.
Satellite positioning technology and will be installed on Fortescue’s multi-billion dollar track duplication project between Port Hedland and the Christmas Creek iron ore mine. Work has started and is expected to be completed by the end of 2012. More than 150 Norfolk staff have been assembled to drive the project which includes train tracking and signal control from the Fortescue ICT operations in Perth and Port Hedland. The company has invested heavily in fibre communications “� and hasn`t relied on Australia`s traditional carriers to do it.� Instead, Fortescue ran fibre alongside its expansive rail network.
The fibre optic network will also connect two unique data centres. As more mine, train and port operations are managed from Perth, the pod data centres will be necessary to ensure operations can keep on operating even if links between Perth and the Pilbara are interrupted or are disconnected by adverse weather or technical issues.
Fortescue has ordered two self-contained 20-foot HP pod data centres, one to sit at Port Hedland and another at the Cloudbreak mine, again in the name of resiliency.
Fortescue has laid hundreds of kilometres of fibre and ordered two HP container data centres for deployment in Australia`s rugged northwest in an effort to minimise potential disruptions to its ever-escalating mining operations. The mining company intends to increase its iron ore export capacity from 70 million tonnes to 355 million tonnes per year by 2017 to help supply the billion-plus tonnes China alone will need every year by 2020.� To achieve these targets FMG estimates it will require an additional 10,000 staff to fill IT jobs as well as traditional mine jobs to drive productivity further.
Current mining job opportunities can be found here: Fortescue Mining Jobs
Pilbara mining jobs
