Solutions, Butterfly valves, Bianca, Mining

How to guarantee a maximum plant availability for mining plants

Gregor Hopton

Jan. 4, 2021 | 6 min read

You are in the planning process of a new mining plant and the budget is set. During the project phase you realise that you must save money to keep within the budget. The proposal is to choose less expensive valves. What is the impact on the entire process and what needs to be considered?

Valves portion on a project

In a typical mining plant, the on-off valves make up an average of 5% of the project spend. Inferior quality valves are usually 30% less expensive than their quality counterparts. This gives the project an overall saving of 30% of the 5% valve spend, which equates to a saving of roughly 1.5% of total project spend. However, by saving 1.5% of project spend, the entire plant availability can be compromised.

Unpleasant surprise

In addition to the fact that products must be designed for the specific application and readily available, there is the question of what happens in the event of breakdowns. Not all the suppliers have the time or the intention of visiting the site to troubleshoot and solve post-installation and commissioning problems. Additionally, once guarantee periods are fulfilled, plant owner and operator are fully responsible for the occurring expenses caused by production interruptions, reordering replacement valves when needed and removing and replacement costs by the maintenance team. This is often forgotten.

5 value adds to consider assuring maximum plant availability:

1. Do all stakeholders understand your plant, process and needs?
2. 2. Does your supplier have a track record, or reference in your field?
3. 3. Is your supplier a financially stable company which will ensure long term continuity and accountability?
4. 4. Is replacement stock readily and locally available, for both commissioning and day to day operations?
5. 5. Do your suppliers have local backup to provide on-site technical advice?

Don’t reflect the cost, reflect the value

In the case of valves, it is not the cost that is important, it is the value that the valve offers to the application or process that is important. Maintaining plant availability to maximize profit is the value add sought where the right product, service and supplier play a decisive role. Customer-focused valve production companies with deep mining know-how such as InterApp assure value adds. As Henry Royce says, “The quality will remain after the price is forgotten” and quality adds value which in turn contributes to maximizing “plant availability”, thus increasing profit.