Newcrest Mining has operations exploring for gold and gold copper deposits in Australia, Indonesia, PNG, Fiji and Cote d’Ivorie.
Outages at Newcrest’s sites are an expensive endeavour and cost hundreds of millions of dollars each year. In addition to each outage’s direct costs there is also a loss of revenue from reduced production. Due to the costs involved and impact on revenue a systematic approach to managing outages can have a significant impact on profits.
Savings are derived when a consistent and robust process is used to ensure good planning of outages, mitigation of risks, preparation for contingencies and overall effective coordination.
Ausenco Rylson developed a corporate level outage management system to align outage management across all Newcrest sites. The system enables a more coordinated and comprehensive approach to planning, scheduling and inventory management in preparation for an outage.
An audit and reporting process has been developed which enables continuous improvement of the program. This program was coordinated at the corporate level to support all Newcrest sites.
Achievements
Preliminary results have been positive with the outage management system trialed at the Orange outage in early December 2011. This was a complex outage involving construction tie-ins and a unique SAG mill control system upgrade. The outage was delivered on schedule and within budget. The positive outcome from the implementation of the system prompted an immediate partial rollout of the system for the PNG Lihir major outage scheduled for 2012.