Assmang is a joint venture mining company that operates in South Africa. In total it excavates and produces 3,6 million tons of iron and manganese ore per year across its three separate mine shafts. The Khumani and Beeshoek Mines are located in the Northern Cape province and excavate primarily iron ore; while the Black Rock Mining complex (BRMO), situated 80 km northwest of the town of Kuruman in the Kalahari, focuses its efforts toward highly sought manganese ore.
As much as 90% of manganese consumption is accounted for by the steel industry. The ore is blended with steel to fortify its strength and durability, which is essential in the manufacturing of construction materials. Manganese is also used with aluminum alloys, helping to reduce corrosion in common items, such as beverage cans.
“The Black Rock Project had two objectives. One was to replace and upgrade the existing infrastructure, and the second was to install additional capacity for us to be able to expand our production from jt 3 million to 4.6 million tons in three years time,” said Pierre Bekker, senior general manager of BRMO Operations.
Fixing a fragmented approach
Before partnering with AVEVA, each of Assmang’s three shafts managed its own operations independently from one another. Its control philosophy was largely decentralised, which worked adequately for monitoring and controlling each plant, but ultimately the system had little regard for holistic business objectives.
Additionally, its process control environment consisted of legacy systems and infrastructure with multiple data sources, resulting in a complex integration process. To remain competitive, its system had to change.
“The road to modernisation and technologies that we’ve applied at BRMO had a number of enablers, and one of them was the visualisation, video wall and the OMI. A place that’s easily accessible and speaks one version of the truth,” explains Jaco van Heerden, C&I; project engineer at African Rainbow Minerals.
Creating a central control room
Driven by a 10 metre video wall in a centrally controlled environment, BRMO’s progress toward digital transformation provides both mine management and the operational team with an integrated and situationally aware dashboard. The central control room ultimately enables enhanced decision making, affording operators the opportunity to address challenges proactively rather than reactively, as had been done in the past.
“What we ended up needing was a total view of our value chain, from the face through to our train loading. As a result of that, we needed everything to be brought under one umbrella that would allow us then to get the full view of all of our infrastructure, all our different plants and mining operations, to enable us to manage the entire process far more efficiently,” adds Yogesh Ramjattan, business improvement manager at BRMO Operations
The power of AVEVA
BRMO’s new system is powered by a suite of AVEVA solutions, including System Platform with Historian and OMI visualisation for the video wall. With its current AVEVA solution in place, BRMO has improved data quality significantly, with some sources improving more than fivefold. Establishing the central control room was also instrumental in BRMO’s change process by improving in-shift reporting from less than 50% to a sustained 90%. Additionally, BRMO has seen a significant increase in uptime, improvement in safety and nearly double-digit growth in overall productivity; but it appears to have only scratched the surface of its digital transformation.
As new challenges arise, BRMO won’t hesitate to address them with AVEVA. Because of the visualisation technology and the software its deployed thus far, BRMO’s cost of expansion moving forward will be low and implementation will be hassle-free.
“At Black Rock Mine Operations, we’re excited by what we’ve achieved up to now, and we’re equally optimistic about the future to deliver on our vision as a team to become the best underground mine in the world,” concludes Pierre Baker, senior general manager of BRMO Operations.’
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