PROFIBUS-PA

Application Palabora Mining

Palabora South Africa

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Application Palabora Mining
THE DECISION TO GO UNDERGROUND
When open pit copper minig commenced at Palabora in 1966, the mine was planned to operate for 20 years only. H owever, increases in the production rate and the resulting economies of scale led to the cutoff grade being decreased. This in turn allowed a total of five extensions of the mine life. Open pit operations are now sheduled to the end of the year 2002

S tudies show that the orebody continues below the bottom of the final open pit shell and is open at depth. Over one kilometre of this orebody is calssified as proven reserves and studies to assess the economic feasability of extracting the ore have been underway since as early as 1979. After over a decade of investigation by a team of international specialists renowned for their expertise in this field, the following conclusion was reached: An underground mine, utilising block caving to extract 30 000 tons of ore per day, provided an economically viable way to obtain maximum utilisation of exsisting ore deposits.This will extend the life of Palabora Mining Company by at least another 20 years.

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Application Palabora Underground Mining Project

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Application Palabora Underground Mining Project Auxiliaries: 1st Phase Refrigeration Plant

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Application Palabora Underground Mining Project Auxiliaries: 1st Phase Refrigeration Plant

The Palabora surface refrigeration system comprises of a precooling tower system cooling 210 l/s of make up water which is supplied to three mechanical refrigeration plans of 18 MW refrigeration capacity. The refrigeration is utilised to cool 516 m/s of ambient air to 14,6 C, and to supply 60 l/s 24 hour average 1C water to the mine for service water use.

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Application Palabora Underground Mining Project
Siemens Control System PCS 7 Visualisation WinCC fibre optical Industrial Ethernet Control SIMATIC S7 PROFIBUS-DP Fibre Optical Segment coupler Brkert Solenoid Valves Engineering COMMUWIN II Siemens ET 200 Remote I/O Danfoss AC Motor Speed Controller Switches
I AS

1st Phase: Refrigeration Plant and Conveyor Belts

DP/ASI-Link

TMD 834 Deltapilot S

PROFIBUS-PA IEC 1158-2

Samson Control Valve

Cerabar S

Deltabar

Promag 33 Mycom L

3 Ammonia Refrigerators

Conveyor Belts

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Application Palabora Underground Mining Project Endress+Hauser Transmitters
Level 18x Deltapilot S 8x Prosonic Pressure 13x Cerabar S 28x Deltabar S Temperature 61x TMD 834 Flow 17x Promag 33 3x Promass 63 Analysis 2x Mycom L

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Application Palabora Underground Mining Project Other instruments
Control Valves Solenoid Valves Proximity Switches Position Switches Pressure Switches Flow Switches Level Switches

Flow control with Samson Control Valves and E+H Coriolis Massflowmeter Promass 63

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Application Palabora Underground Mining Project

Distributed Control

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Application Palabora Underground Mining Project
Why Palabora chose PROFIBUS: Tremendous cost savings on installation Online accesss to the whole installation (inc. Sensors and Actuators) from control room Drastically reduced documentation and planning efforts Johan Venter, Project Manager and responable for the whole electronical installations (including Measurement and Control): "The whole project will be finalized in 2002. Then the mine life is expected for another 20 years until 2023. it is obvious that we have to rely on todays latest technology to have a modern plant also in 2023. On the other hand the technology must be proven and reliable. PROFIBUS, established since 1990, meets perfectly all these requirements. So that all our instruments in the field will be able to 'talk to us' via PROFIBUS."