The maintenance of your plant is a substantial cost factor. But even though it accounts for up to 40% of ongoing operating costs, it is the only alternative to unplanned downtime. That makes it even more crucial to optimize maintenance processes – for the performance of your equipment and your mine. With the SIMINE product family, we offer a comprehensive plan covering consulting and implementation, technical support, the assumption of maintenance processes, and plant modernization and optimization packages – all tailored to the needs of your plant.
In the Los Pelambres copper mine in Chile a conveyor system about 13 kilometers (8 miles) long with eight 2.5-MW motors links an ore crushing plant with a treatment plant. The conveyor belts transport up to 8,700 metric tons of ore every hour at a speed of six meters per second. The contract for the complete maintenance of the entire conveyor system including maintenance planning and spare parts management was awarded to Siemens in 1999. After successful cooperation, this contract was extended at the customer’s wish.
An optical fiber network (OTN) connects all parts of the plant, and sensors detect important parameters indicating the state of all components. As a result, we are able at any time to monitor the conveyor system and its peripheral equipment outside the mine as well, and to identify potential malfunctions in advance and/or rectify them directly online in some cases.