The Moberly Silica Mine is a high-grade silica deposit owned and operated by Northern Silica located near Golden, British Columbia. Their processing facility produces premium quality frac sand and other high-grade silica products.
Northern Silica contracted an EPCM company to develop and install their commercial frac sand operation. However, the plant experienced several shortcomings with design and construction quality.
On April 2018, Ausenco was retained to provide remedial engineering and construction services that would overcome the deficiencies in the initial design, prepare an operational readiness plan for the plant, and execute the commissioning of the project.
Following the completion of these services in August 2018, Northern Silica identified the need for operational support and retained Ausenco to assist with ramping up production.
Ausenco provided operations, & maintenance management services for the plant. These services included the full responsibility for the operations and reliability of the plant, as well as training and developing its operations and tradespersons.
Our operations and management services achieved the following:
- Enabled production to commence while implementing long-term/sustainable technical solutions
- Upskilled operational staff through intensive training programs that addressed limited mining experience
- Supported inventory management to ensure spares/consumable inventory aligned with the plant's requirements
- Implemented production forecast and reporting tools
- Developed a process and culture of continuous improvement through analysis using variation management tools.