Core Resources was engaged by an Australian-owned international mining operation to provide on-site consultancy services aimed at optimising their processing plant. Leveraging the extensive experience of Core’s senior professionals in commissioning, operating, and optimising process plants, the collaboration led to significant performance improvements, culminating in record production within three months.
Development of Remote Monitoring and Management Systems
A notable aspect of this project was the development of remote monitoring and management systems, utilising existing process data systems on-site. This innovation enabled high-level management of an African operation from Australia. The operation employed the OSISoft PI process data collection and analysis system, comprising a back-end database and a front-end interface developed using PI ProcessBook.
Enhancing Data Utilisation
Although the system actively collected data, its potential was underutilised due to limited on-site expertise. Core Resources addressed this by developing user-friendly front-end solutions, allowing stakeholders—including operators, managers, and consultants—to easily access plant performance data both locally and remotely.
SCADA-Type Interface and Data Analysis
Using PI ProcessBook, Core Resources built SCADA-type (supervisory control and data acquisition) flowsheet screens that displayed relevant process trends and values for various plant areas. While current, live-updating values were shown as per any SCADA system, the real power of a system such as PI lies in the access users have to the full history of plant performance. By allowing engineers to view performance data on any time-scale (from minutes to months), it becomes possible to spot elusive patterns and to truly optimise an operation.
Automated Logsheets for Enhanced Monitoring
An additional feature developed by Core Resources was the ability to generate daily and monthly logsheets for any process area. These logsheets were in ready-to-print Excel spreadsheet format, presenting all data as hourly-average values. The quality of each data point was monitored, and warnings were issued if a value appeared unreliable. Logsheets were generated by selecting dates and clicking a button on a ProcessBook screen, eliminating the need for separate Excel-based solutions. Accessible to anyone on-site with network access, these logsheets became invaluable tools for area metallurgists in monitoring, mass balancing, and reporting within their areas of responsibility.
Outcome
The combination of these tools developed by Core Resources, along with the metallurgical expertise of their senior process staff, yielded dramatic benefits for the efficiency and returns of the operation.
