Condition monitoring specialist WearCheck hopes to discuss with the Kibali gold mine’s engineering management team whether there is an opportunity to roll out its reliability services at the developing mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where it opened its eleventh laboratory last year.

The company currently focuses on fluid analysis – oil, coolant, diesel and transformer oils on its automotive fleets – and the more crucial gold stopper areas of the 7.2-million-ton-a-year processing plant at Kibali.

WearCheck MD Neil Robinson tells Mining Weekly that the company’s reliability services complement its oil analysis programme and the company might propose working with the Kibali laboratory to offer a ‘one-stop-shop’ preventive maintenance programme.

Kibali is jointly owned by gold producers Randgold Resources (45%) and AngloGold Ashanti (45%), and the DRC’s State-owned gold mining company, Société Miniere de Kilo-Moto (10%).

The condition monitoring laboratory at the Kibali gold mine, located in Kivu, in western DRC, is part of WearCheck’s expansive network that is strategically positioned to support large industry clusters around Africa, says Robinson.

The laboratory was conceptualised towards the end of 2014 and officially opened in July 2016.

In November, Mining Weekly reported that Kibali was in a position to produce more than 600 000 oz/y of gold for the next ten years.

In October, Randgold Resources CEO Dr Mark Bristow said, after a slow start to 2016, Kibali was picking up speed, with the substantial performance improvement forecast for the second half of the year already manifesting itself, with a step change in production expected in the third and fourth quarters of 2016.

He further noted that the mine was capable of funding the continued capital required for the completion of its development, with full commissioning of the underground operation scheduled for the second half of 2017.

“While the Kibali mine is still a work in progress as an operating mine and is a development project, when the mine poured its first gold in 2013, it produced 88 200 oz of gold between September and December, generating a profit of $68.3-million,” adds Robinson.

According to Randgold Resources, with a reserve base of 11.6-million ounces that is still growing, Kibali ranks as one of the largest gold mines in Africa.

Scientific Analysis, Proactive Maintenance

All mines can certainly benefit from the services of a condition monitoring company in terms of saving money on maintenance costs and keeping their mining fleets and production lines operating at the most efficient level, says Robinson.

The scientific analysis of oil used in mining machinery is used to assess the condition of machinery components and the degradation in the oil, as well as to detect contaminants and wear metals.

Combining the resultant data with historical analyses of the same components also enables WearCheck’s team to recommend preventive measures to avoid the failure of machinery, extending its useful life, he adds.

“Our goal, which we are achieving, is having a turnaround time of eight working hours for normal samples. However, if there are emergency samples, these can be processed within a couple of hours. Generating results of more specialist tests may take longer.”

Using either in-house laboratories or those based at a commercial facility depends on cost, the location of the mining project relevant to the laboratory and the quality of the logistical infrastructure at the disposal of the mine, Robinson notes.

“Using a commercial company should always be the first choice. However, where this is not practical, an in-house solution should definitely be the next option.”

WearCheck follows international guidelines regarding instrument calibration and accuracy of reporting, and, in terms of the instrumentation supplied and the testing capability of the laboratory, applies the same test profiles used in other advanced commercial oil laboratories, Robinson concludes.