Plant Operating Practice Review
METS were engaged to undertake a plant operating practice review of the Carosue Dam Gold Project. This involved travelling to site and liaising with site personnel to review metallurgical and operating practices within the processing and metallurgy department.
Auditing was used to independently identify problems and the systems causing them. The ultimate purpose was to provide management with factual information about the plant, based on benchmarking with what the auditor believes is ‘the industry standard’ in each area. To improve the operation, METS set up a corrective continuous improvement plan with accountability and commitment of resources.
The review conducted was a peer review by a competent person of operating practices, safety and management culture. The whole focus on improvement is based on the belief that no plant has ever achieved perfection, and any improvement should result in improved safety and environment, maximising production and minimising the associated cost. METS applied a comprehensive list of elements to audit and review the current operating practice and procedures.
Project Brief
Outcome
A report was compiled which allowed senior managment to benchmark Carosue Dam against wider industry operating practices.
Background
The Carosue Dam Operation (CDO) is located 120 km North East of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The processing plant was constructed and commissioned in 2000, and operated continuously through to June 2005 when it was put on care and maintenance.
In February 2006 Saracen acquired the CDO processing plant from St Barbara Limited. A refurbishment program planned to reinstate the mill to its full nameplate capacity of 2.4 Mtpa. The project had been in operation approximately 13 months when the review was conducted.
Project Objectives
- Review of operating practices for the CIL/CIP circuit
- Discussions with site personnel
- Report outlining observations and areas for improvement in plant practices
- Observational report and recommendations on a number of organisational factors including culture of work force from a safety perspective and culture of management as compared to other operations
Challenges
Care was taken to obtain factual information of how process units were being operated in the plant by asking the same question to several people, seeking to avoid what is essentially misinformation and resisting offering solutions and neither confirming or denying whether the current situation was acceptable. Viewing of documented evidence of systems and procedures were requested during the plant review.
The review was conducted in sufficient detail to provide a solid reference tool so that Saracen management could benchmark their operation with others in the gold mining industry.
Our Approach
Auditing was used to independently identify problems and the systems causing them. The ultimate purpose was to provide management with factual information about the plant, based on benchmarking with what the auditor believes is ‘the industry standard’ in each area, and set up a corrective continuous improvement plan with accountability and commitment of resources to improve the operation.
The review conducted was a peer review by a competent person of operating practices, safety and management culture. The whole focus on improvement is based on the belief that no plant has ever achieved perfection, and any improvement should result in improved safety and environment, maximising production and minimising the associated cost. METS applied a comprehensive list of elements to audit and review the current operating practice and procedures.