Operations & financial report
2007 operating performance
Health, Safety and Environment
The HSE Centre ensures that strategies and standards are in place to minimise HSE risk and drive performance. Activities support their implementation in the businesses and report results and performance trends to the board.
Specific activities during 2007 included embedding the environmental standards and metrics within business units, to complement the health and safety standards. The safety strategy was reviewed to concentrate on safety leadership, culture and measurement, and recognition of performance. This places Rio Tinto as an industry leader in terms of performance in these areas. Implementing the product stewardship strategy via business systems has benefited market access and competitive advantage. Continued development of the HSEQ management systems and the integration of the Alcan business were also priorities for HSE.
Innovation
The Innovation Centre is designed to drive step change innovation for Rio Tinto in the five to ten year time frame. The relevant technologies are in mining, processing and energy.
The activities in 2007 continued to focus on the block cave mining method of particular relevance to the large copper orebodies currently under development, remote monitoring in underground mining, in pit material sizing and conveying, data fusion in surface mining, process advances in ore sorting and comminution and modelling of heap leaching processes to enhance metal extraction.
A significant commitment by Rio Tinto to automation has culminated in a strategic partnership with the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) at the University of Sydney. This exclusive partnership leverages an early mover advantage with Komatsu on driverless haul trucks and is a natural extension of other activity which will see the first fully integrated, autonomous mine in operation in the Pilbara in 2010.
Mining
The Mining Technology Centre addresses the core mine production processes. Specific activities in this area during 2007 focused on continuing to establish and disseminate leading practice in orebody knowledge, payload management in surface mining and reconciliation processes across the operations. Attention was also given to further improving Rio Tinto's technical capability in rapid underground development and block cave design.
Processing
The Processing Technology Centre focuses on core metallurgical capability and delivery of processing operations. Specific activities in this area during 2007 focused on the implementation of a structured methodology designed to identify specific points of loss (throughput, recovery, and grade), understanding underlying causes behind the losses, and the development of projects to reduce or eliminate those losses across the Group's processing operations. A key enabling activity around the use of Processing Global Metrics for
fixed plants was introduced.
Asset Management
The Asset Management Centre focuses on the effective choice and deployment of the Group's asset base in mining and processing. Activities in 2007 focused on the continued reliability and performance of physical assets across the Group, including the implementation of standards and internal "league tables" for maintenance of heavy mobile equipment such as trucks and shovels. This led to continued significant improvement in areas such as tyre life (a further five per cent added to the success of previous years), truck utilisation and economic extension of engine and component life. The centre also extended the range of its influence in 2007 to the reliability and performance of fixed plant assets across the
Group.
Strategic Production Planning
The Strategic Production Planning Centre focuses mainly on a Group wide methodology to ensure orebodies are developed in the optimum sequence for the generation of maximum value. Specific attention is directed to the enhancement of the functional skill of planning staff and to regular review of the life of mine plans for all the Group's mining operations.
Project Development and Evaluation
The Project Development and Evaluation Centre is the proponent of standards and guidelines for all aspects of capital projects, from prefeasibility through to execution and commissioning. This covers major projects as well as minor projects implemented within business units. It holds a body of expertise to ensure the lessons from previous project developments are a resource to the project directors for the next generation of development.
With its staff deliberately excluded from involvement in the formulation of major investment proposals, the Evaluation team provides independent review and advice on the adequacy of risk identification and mitigation at key points in the approvals process. The team is also responsible for overseeing the resource and reserve estimation within the Group.
Energy and climate change
The Group Chief Scientist monitors emerging global technology trends and identifies opportunities which could significantly enhance the Group's operations. Particular attention is given towards technologies with the potential for step change reductions in the Group's energy and greenhouse gas footprint. The Group Chief Scientist also assists product groups in positioning new and existing operations for reduced energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs.
Production Technology Services
Production Technology Services is the core team of technology professionals deployed across five global offices who provide the breadth of experience and multi disciplinary approach to support existing business activity and pursuit of new, profitable growth. They are deployed at the request of business units and the technology centres within T&I. Their offices are in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Salt Lake City and Montreal. In addition, some staff reside in London to be readily accessible to the UK headquarters.
