Archie Fabian

My name is Archie Fabian, and I am the Operations Supervisor – Fixed Plant, at Whyalla in South Australia. I am responsible for plant crusher maintenance and day-to-day operations at site. My day ranges from working closely with our customer, delivering toolboxes to our team, contractor management, and solving any issues that may arise within the hematite export stream. 

I have always been a mechanic, but I was interested in exploring the heavier side of things. This is the second time I have worked at Bis; previously I spent five years working my way to the role of Supervisor, after originally starting as a mechanic. This time I have been with Bis for seven years. 

During my career with Bis, I can confidently say that we have become a much leaner and more efficient business. We are a customer-orientated and solutions-focussed business; when we see a challenge, we look for a way to fix it. Bis people are problem solvers that like to think outside of the box. It was that way of thinking that led the Bis team on site to really understand our customer’s needs and deliver Fusion to improve their supply chain and deliver cost efficiencies.

Put simply, Fusion is a low-cost substitute for iron rich magnetite, which allows the client to reduce the cost of feed to manufacturing, whilst increasing the grade of iron ore for export.

In the hematite production stream we were able to export material by using Fusion to substitute magnetite, which is high-grade material. By using Fusion Ore instead of magnetite, our customer can export the magnetite and use the Fusion ore, which is lower cost alternative.

Every tonne that we produce of Fusion Ore is a tonne of magnetite that our customer now has the opportunity to export.

We were able to deliver an innovative solution that provided improvements in our customer’s supply chain, which enable them to process material at a lower cost, and with greater reliability.

I am proud to have delivered a solution in this area, that is unmatched by our competitors. One thing that Bis is great at is providing solutions that improve our customers’ supply chain as well as continually reviewing our technology to provide continuous improvement. That is the stage that we are at now.

Delivering a successful solution for our customer was a team effort, and was only made possible because of the people that I work with. Without their hard work, and the support and backing from our local management team, we would not have had the success that we have had.