Off-Site Management and Technical Support

It is important for Sedgman to be able to provide an ongoing mine site support service which is made possible through our off-site management and technical support team. Sedgman possesses a stable and experienced suite of technical professionals who can engineer and deliver mineral processing projects as well as optimise operations for our client’s sites.

The Sedgman Operations team harnesses experience from our new projects and existing Sedgman operational sites to develop our specialists and provide technical support to our network of sites. Our engineers can ensure continual improvement and ongoing efficiency of your minerals processing facility.

Our support engineers are experienced operations engineers who support all facets of full operations, delivering safety, availability, throughput, and efficiency outcomes. The work by the operations engineers focuses on:

Securing the process – efficiency, throughput, and minerals processing facility availability
Securing the cost – consumable optimisation, manning levels, and maintenance.

The Sedgman operational team includes personnel in the following disciplines:

Metallurgy

Performing model simulations of predicted concentrator feed material to establish resultant processing performance
Minerals recovery and resource analysis
Facility process performance review and optimisation activities
Process system troubleshooting and rectification
Processing facility upgrade scoping and reporting
Operator training.

Maintenance Specialists

Assembly of facility maintenance life cycle models for cost and performance prediction
Failure analysis and reporting for equipment failures
Assembly of facility maintenance plans and documentation
Facility maintenance performance review and reporting (reliability and availability)
Maintenance system reviews, audits, and reporting
Lubrication and condition monitoring services.

Electrical and Controls Engineers

Optimisation of facility automated operating systems
Remote troubleshooting and technical support for electrical and controls issues
Scoping of electrical component and automation system upgrades.

Project Management

Management of facility debottlenecking and upgrade projects
Project cost versus benefit economic evaluation.

Mechanical and Materials Handling Engineering

Review and improvement of materials handling system operations
Rectification of materials handling systems to eliminate spillage or blockages.

Safety Specialists

Second party auditing functions against statutory, Sedgman or site-specific standards
Facilitation of risk assessment processes
Facilitation of incident cause analysis method (ICAM) incident investigation processes
Development of training materials to national competency standards
Training and assessing activities
Facilitation of change management activities.

Off-Site Metallurgical and Process Engineering support

Our metallurgical and process engineering team can routinely monitor the data collected from sites. To support the operations team at site, the team utilises its skill set to review laboratory analysis and production trends. A week-day supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) data review of the operation of the minerals process plant circuits are compared against industry best practice and the guidelines from the metallurgists. This enables the process engineering team to give feedback to the operations management team regarding facility performance.

Off-Site Electrical and Control Engineering Support

Our electrical and control engineers can log in to the site SCADA systems operator interface, programmable logic controller (PLC) and communication networks from anywhere in the world where there is a computer with an internet connection. We also provide remote access and monitoring with smart phones upon request. There is a range of support that the electrical and control engineer team offers to the sites including:

SCADA and PLC maintenance and backups
Remote SCADA and PLC modifications, optimisation, and improvements
Optimisation of plant sequencing to reduce start-up and downtime
PLC control loop tuning
Assist site with remote configuration of variable voltage variable frequency (VVVF) drives and instrumentation
Optimisation of instrumentation
Troubleshoot electrical and control system issues remotely
Control system audits
Pump loading investigations
Data collection and analysis (trends, alarm review, analysis, and optimisation)
Operator coaching (while demonstrating in real time on the operator interface)
Remote electrical and control engineer control support while running performance tests.

Off-Site Maintenance and Reliability Support

Sedgman employs a team of maintenance professionals to service our operational site and provides consulting services for offsite maintenance and reliability support.

Our maintenance engineering support group can provide the following services:

Establishment of tailor-made computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS) and regimes for fixed process and mobile plants. This includes activity description, activity frequency, safety requirements, work method, tooling requirements, parts, and consumables.
The maintenance systems are loaded into the sites preferred software and on/off site training can be provided
Equipment and spares criticality analysis
Evaluation and benchmarking of existing maintenance practices
Equipment life cycle cost analysis
Maintenance strategy review and/or development
Structural integrity audits
Lubrication system audits
Equipment failure investigations and root cause analysis (fixed and mobile plant)
Condition monitoring
- Thermography surveys
- Screen motion analysis
- Vibration analysis (mechanical / structure)