Australia and NZ

Inside BCI Minerals’ plan to turn Australia’s largest solar salt operation into a multi-generational export platform
 

There is a point in every infrastructure project when the language changes.

For years, BCI Minerals’ Mardie Salt Operation and Potash Project could be described through approvals, finance, dredging plans, pond earthworks, marine structures, procurement packages and forecast production numbers. It was a project being advanced. A project being financed. A project being de-risked.

BHP is not building Western Ridge to announce a new iron ore era. It is building it to protect one.

One Morning in October 2018

Somewhere in Darwin Harbour, on a cool October morning in 2018, a tanker pulled away from the Bladin Point marine terminal loaded with liquefied natural gas. To anyone watching from the shore, it looked unremarkable — one more cargo ship heading north toward Asia.

The pipeline burst in late 2023, and for a moment, the future looked uncertain.

Melbourne’s long-planned orbital road network is edging closer to completion as the North East Link progresses through its most visible phase — the excavation of Victoria’s longest road tunnels. The $26.1 billion program represents the state’s largest road investment to date, aimed at closing the long-identified gap between the M80 Ring Road at Greensborough and the Eastern Freeway at Bulleen.

Australia is no stranger to ambitious national projects. We’ve spanned deserts with rail, powered cities with hydro schemes, and helped build global prosperity from the ports of the Pilbara. But the infrastructure challenge now confronting the country does not look like a traditional megaproject. It is quieter. It is closer to home. And it underpins almost every part of our future growth. It is the challenge of building enough places for Australians to actually live.
 

In the race to unlock the deeper ore bodies powering the world’s energy transition, Australia’s underground mines are pushing further beneath the surface than ever before. Achieving this safely, efficiently, and with technical certainty requires a contractor with the skills and systems to meet geology on its own terms. Redpath Australia has steadily positioned itself as one of the country’s most capable underground mining partners, delivering sophisticated vertical and lateral infrastructure in some of the most demanding conditions.
 

Australian engineering group, Monadelphous, secures key contracts worth A$160 million in Western Australia.

Botswana is home to one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Despite being a landlocked country with a miniscule population of a little over 2 million people, Botswana is an undoubted Sub-Saharan success story. Academics argue about the reasons for this success, but two reasons are mentioned again and again. The first is good institutions. The second, has been the country’s ability to exploit and market its outstanding mining resources.

The Australian government is on-course to boost spending in infrastructure in 2021. The move comes as the government looks to embark on a robust response to the economic damage of the COVID-19 pandemic.