Endress+Hauser South Africa has designed and built a portable calibration hub, the first of its kind, bringing its world-class process calibration technology to Mutanda Mine SARL (Mumi mine), an open-pit copper mine located within a remote area of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Ghislain Mbayo, process control superintendent at Mumi, says that the project began when the mine urgently required a state-of-the art calibration and maintenance facility to ensure quality and production uptime and reduce unplanned shutdowns and cost. However, it did not want to build a facility due to the time it took to obtain building rights.
“Because we are situated so remotely, there had been no daily assistance with proper calibration at our process plant, something that we knew posed a great threat to our production target,” adds Mbayo.
Thinking out of the box resulted in a solution in the box, and the mine commissioned the Endress+Hauser South African office to design, build and supply its calibration and maintenance needs in one 3m x 6m container.
The completed customised calibration container, which has since been transported by road from Johannesburg to its destination in the DRC’s Katanga Province, had to fulfil the mine’s objectives to obtain accurate measurements via advanced calibration and verification technology, conduct training on specific instruments and calibration methods, and enable both testing and fault finding.
“The best process plants must be able to identify their own performance strengths and weaknesses, then take that information and learn from those mistakes,” explains Mbayo. “We decided that if we wanted to learn from a workstation, the best solution was a container workstation. We could then look for and seize opportunities for the metallurgic ratio to be corrected and not use average values. This will ensure balancing between production budget versus loss production due to none correct input values.”
Wouter Carstens, head of the service department at Endress+Hauser South Africa led the project. He continues, “Our primary aim was to meet the needs of the customer and ensure that what we designed would optimise the mine and work in an efficient and safe manner when placed in a remote site – a must for any mining operation.”
Carstens points out that the entire solution was customised to fit the purpose, as set out by the customer to:
- Minimise process value errors;
- Keep to the production target, with a minimum efficiency loss by reading instruments accurately;
- Archive data of all devices on our plant coming from the field;
- Have the correct testing, calibration materials and procedures onsite; and
- Ensure that instruments coming from Endress+Hauser, their calibration certificates and values are correct and aligned.
“We also wanted to check that the instrument will respond in a certain time to attend our span of zero calibration; values taken before field installation or during plant shutdown,” says Mbayo.
The internal and external layout of the container was key to fulfilling all requirements. “This means that everything – from the grids to the desks, plug points, windows and door was fitted” highlights Carstens. “The container we chose is also resistant to corrosion. This, together with its low maintenance and high quality, makes it an ideal product in the often harsh African territory and climate.”
Enquiries: Wouter Carstens wouter.carstens@za.endress.com
