Mr Craig Garlick

The worlds steel industry is challenged to decarbonise in the face of climate change.  New ways to make iron and steel without carbon will rely increasingly on renewable electricity and hydrogen.  Australia is well placed to continue the supply of iron ores from the Pilbara region.  Research is focused on understanding the requirements and characteristics of material behavior in new iron and steelmaking processes.  Process modelling for heat and mass balance and material characterisation are key components of the work performed at the Centre for Ironmaking and Materials Research.     

Process improvement and upgrade of equipment at the Mt Thorley CHPP.  Replacement and commissioning of product discharge circuit, dense medium cyclones primary and secondary, removal of secondary dilute circuit and install new magnetic  separators, design commission and optimise mid size circuit (reconfigure plant for multislope desliming screens, spirals, desliming sumps, variable speed pumps, cyclones).  Reject circuit sampling and plant circuit yield optimisation.  Thickener improvement and control.  Plant water balance optimisation.    

Process control and improvement for coal ash.  Gravity, dense medium and flotation separation processes.  Thickener operations and plant water circuit management.  

Process improvement for transition of bloom to billet feed to Newcastles rolling mills to achieve steel quality requirements for special bar quality and wire products.  Inclusion Engineering for ladle refining and casting operations.  Acquisition of Smorgon Steel.  Closure of number 2 merchant mill and transfer of products to Waratah rolling mill.  Hydrogen diffusion of rolled bar for grinding ball manufacture.  Yield optimisation.  Certified six sigma black belt.  Seconded to Whyalla for process improvement at the iron Duke magnetite concentrator.   

Fundamental research and knowledge acquisition for alternate technologies in iron and steelmaking.  Rate of reduction in molten slags.  Slag/metal reactions far from equilibrium (refer double fatality at Newcastle BOS).  Inclusion Engineering and development of calcium treatment ladle practices at Whyalla.  Transition of rolling mill feed from  Newcastle bloom to Whyalla billet. 

New Zealand Steel process improvement and optimisation.  Vanadium recovery from hot metal, KOBM steel refining, ladle metallurgy, slab casting, EAF scrap melting, melting of direct reduced iron, value chain optimisation.  

Pyrometallurgical research of slag/metal reactions supporting BHP's Steel divisions at Newcastle, Port Kembla and Whyalla.  Research Masters degree completed on the Vaporisation of Lead Sulfide from Zinc Concentrates.  

Operations experience in various roles including, sintering, oxygen steelmaking and casting, quality control and hot rolling.