In January this year, Mipac was awarded a contract for works which will facilitate the replacement of ageing control systems for the thickeners and hyperbaric filter (HBF) plant.
"Mipac's role is to carry out detailed electrical engineering design, to supply specified design deliverables and to convert and factory test the DCS application software, ready for installation to the new control system," Mipac Project Manager John Gowlett says.
"We have completed the as-building phase and our engineers are currently designing how the new system should be integrated and cutover, with configuration to come."
Gowlett says that with this project Xstrata is continuing an established programme of control system upgrades around the site to overcome reliability and spare parts availability issues.
Obsolete Yokogawa MicroXL DCS and PLC systems are being replaced with latest-generation Yokogawa CS3000 DCS equipment, utilising PC-based operator interfaces.
The design phase is scheduled for completion during July this year and commissioning, to be undertaken in-house, is expected to be complete by the last quarter of 2012.
