Some of the top business risks faced by mining and metals companies were a technical skills shortage, cost inflation and capital project execution, and automation companies could play a role in mitigating or reducing these risks, said industrial auto-mation company Rockwell Automation sub-Saharan Africa MD Barry Elliott at the 2013 Automation University Classic South Africa event, held in Johannesburg last week.

These risks were highlighted by advisory firm Ernst & Young’s 2012/13 business risk report, which focused on mining and metals companies.
Elliot said that despite these risks, including resource nationalism and infrastructure access, automation companies could significantly reduce skills, cost and project execution risks with a most effective product portfolio for a process control system and a suitable approach and method for the implementation of a predictable and consistent control system.

He stated that a technical skills shortage was acute worldwide and noted that cost infla- tion was expected to spiral in the coming years and warned that this would put project imple-mentations at risk.

While there was a massive pipeline of mining projects to 2015, with regard to capital project execution, project controls needed to be enhanced.

Meanwhile, Rockwell Automation global solutions division South Africa business manager Hein Hiestermann cautioned that the challenges involving the lack of skills and cost inflation would result in capital risk for mining companies.

“In a typical bulk-ore mining project, with a capital value of about $1-billion, the cost of the control system would be about 1% to 2%, or $10-million to $20-million. If there is a failure or below-par performance of the control system, the capital risk associated with the control system is the full $1-billion capital value,” he explains.

The main causes of a process control system failure that can shift the 1% to 2% cost to the capital risk for the entire project can be attributed to technical issues, such as a system failure, which would result in project delays, cost increases, production losses and investor concerns.

Control systems are also not predictably and accurately implemented, owing to the lack of technical skills required. Hiestermann said that poorly engineered systems were evident only after commissioning and that the cost and time needed to rectify the problem were high.

Executing of the project to plan and specification with a low number of adequately and correctly skilled people resulted in a small delivery capacity.

Procurement, as well as maintainability, in terms of skills, original-equipment manufacturer support and the application of software cycles, can result in capital risk for mining projects.

Hiestermann stated that most risks mani-fested themselves in the implementation and life of projects every day and that, to mitigate these risks, automation suppliers needed to understand and, therefore, have a mitigation strategy for the business risks that mining companies face.

“We need to find a way to concentrate a system so that fewer skilled people are needed for operation and this will alleviate the skills problem,” he suggested.

To help mitigate these risks, Rockwell Auto-mation offers the mining industry its fully integrated Mining Solution, with its PlantPAX Process Automation System, which can predict the outcome of a control system.

The solution is based on standardised and reusable control modules and is controller centric, adding reliability to the system without complexity.