Resources

Denver Mergers IT & OT Infrastructure for Resource Leader

Denver is working with our resources client to deliver cutting edge operations and merge its corporate and OT infrastructure for processing, as part of an essential upgrade to their Process Control System (PCS). With mining activity spread over a large geographical location and far from any major cities, reaching the mine when there is an outage for essential maintenance, can take several days and cause extended downtime. The infrastructure of the locations (mine and port) is merging as part of its PCS upgrade to create greater efficiency and reduce critical business risk.

In the mining world, processing and corporate IT infrastructures rarely merge, so this represents an extraordinarily strategic and smart move to integrate the two together to not only reduce costs but also complexity,” said the miners Manager, Technology Operations and Governance.

The PCS upgrade project was instigated by the miner to mitigate the risk of downtime due to there being no clear strategy and plan for the end of life and out of warranty hardware and software that formed part of its Process Control System. There were also compatibility issues when trying to connect any new equipment to the existing PCS system, which required duplication of systems with different version causing duplication and errors.

“To meet increased capacity targets, improve reliability of equipment and to streamline processes, our client has fully embraced digitalisation and automation, they needed its PCS to be compatible with its automated plant equipment and this was a key driver for them appointing us to manage this project, in order to optimise its operations, improve safety and to manage maintenance requirements.” said Josh Marshall, CEO, Denver. 

According to the Manager, Technology Operations and Governance, Rockwell Automation is the miner's industrial automation platform provider that manages the plant and incorporates sensors, tools, and a large variety of industrial mining equipment. “We are a Rockwell shop and therefore require their full involvement in this project to ensure that we can rely on their full support during and after the upgrade is completed,” he said.

“Denver’s extensive mining industry expertise meant that they can be fully involved in what is happening on the ground at our mine and make the appropriate recommendations. Whilst we had the high-level vision of what was required in terms of upgrading our PCS, we needed a specialist partner to drive the implementation and Denver was the perfect choice for us,” said the miner's Specialist Engineer - Control Systems.