New year, new plant
Resolve to optimize your minerals concentrator in 2019
As individuals, we often look at the coming new year as an opportunity to take stock of our lives and set goals, but how often do we apply that same focus to our business? For mining companies, making new year’s resolutions can significantly impact the success of their operations. Here are a few of our favorite new year’s resolutions for your minerals concentrator plant in 2019.
Make meetings meaningful
Most plants start their days with an operations meeting, but we have discovered that many of those meetings are not as effective as they could be. Here are some tips to improving the efficacy of your daily stand-ups and making your whole team work better together:
Set a goal for the day: Safe production of daily quota for example.
Highlight safety: Is there anything that operators have observed that needs attention? What have Supervisors seen that could be improved?
Review production over last 24 hours/week: What were the accomplishments? What were the setbacks? What should the team focus on during that day’s production?
Discuss targets for continued improvement and righting setbacks.
These meetings are also great times to discuss maintenance projects. Make sure everyone knows what their focus will be while the plant is down for maintenance.
Increase uptime by decreasing unplanned down time
One of the biggest hits a mine can take financially is a plant down unexpectedly. Minerals concentrators have a lot of wear parts and are pushed at higher and higher tonnages year after year. It is inevitable that parts will fail, but that does not have to mean a massive stop to production! Equipment manufactures often have a list of recommended spare parts to keep on hand at all times. By stocking up ahead of time, and having a well-planned maintenance and inspection plan, you will be prepared to replace worn out parts before they become a problem. Some additional reasons for keeping spares on hand include:
Some insurance companies require plants to have an inventory of operational spares or may offer discounts to policy holders for having an on-site inventory.
Often, necessary spare parts are long lead-time items. Not having them readily available to trade out can cause significant loss of production while waiting for the parts to arrive.
IMSC Group not only provides warranty backed, genuine OEM parts, but also offers services to aid your maintenance and procurement specialists in maintaining adequate inventories of spares to keep you up and running without a hitch.
Increase plant capacity
At the end of the day, the more product you can produce the greater your overall success as an organization. There are many ways to optimize an existing circuit for increased yield and greater recovery. One of the best options is to have a fresh pair of eyes take a look over your concentrator. What will they look for? Our services team generally focuses on the following areas when looking to help our clients optimize their processing plant:
Through laboratory and pilot scale testing, IMSC Group works to identify areas for process improvement.
We also perform plant audits where our team members walk thorough your concentrator step-by-step. We itemize your plants equipment and offer expert recommendations for plant optimization through equipment repair, process enhancements, and equipment modernizations.
Check your trash for treasure
We have visited enough operations to know that many tailings piles are rife with riches. When we inspect operations, we often find valuable minerals in the tailings stream and accumulation of valuable materials in the tailings piles. Keep in mind, while a product may not be valuable to your company, it may be valuable to others! This year resolve to check your tailings for remaining high grade and high value materials that can be used by your company or sold to another.
Prevent future losses
If you found your tailings piles had an excessive amount of lost valuable materials, it is a great time to improve your processing circuit so that you prevent those losses on the first pass. Laboratory testing is the simplest method for determining if more recovery of valuable minerals could be achieved by optimizing your current processes or adding a scavenger circuit of separation units. Want to send a sample to our laboratory for evaluation? Download our Sample Shipping Guide to make it super easy.
Resolving to improve your business is the first step in ensuring your greatest success for 2019. If you are not sure where to start, contact the IMSC Group team of service experts who will be happy to work with you on your path to greater yields, speed and efficiency.
Contact us to learn more or for help getting your plant in prime operating condition!