Black Rock Mine Operations

Centralizing Mining Operations with AVEVA

Before partnering with AVEVA, each of Assmang Limited’s three shafts managed its own operations independently from one another. Its control philosophy was largely decentralized, 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. Driven by a 10-meter video wall in a centrally controlled environment, Black Rock Mine Operations strides toward digital transformation provide 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.”

Key Features and Benefits

• Nearly double-digit growth in productivity.
• The CCR environment has improved Black Rock Mine Operations data quality significantly, with some sources improving more than five-fold.
• The establishment of the CCR and supporting services was instrumental in the change process by improving in-shift reporting, from less than 50 percent to a sustained 90 percent.