Engineering and Mining Journal - Whether the market is copper, gold, nickel, iron ore, lead/zinc, PGM, diamonds or other commodities, E&MJ takes the lead in projecting trends, following development and reporting on the most efficient operating pr
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ture," he explained. "The structure itself is a beam and bent plate design with stairways and large walkways/platforms for easy access to all the machines. The modular plant is tailored toward stability, ease of maintenance and most importantly, safety. "Capital costs, including installation costs of foundations, erection and electri- cal are very competitive overall, and include the advantage of complete instal- lation at an accelerated rate," he went on. "To summarize: comparable capital costs, while modular allows for greater flexibility, substantially lower engineering costs and a reduced installation period." Maximum Modularization E&MJ; asked the respondents for their views on whether there are limits in terms of the size and weight of individual com- ponents that have a bearing on whether a new processing facility can benefit from having off-site modules built. Grigg said,"Yes, definitely. Having mul- tiple modular units is not always the answer as it could increase capex and add complexity to the flowsheet. One of Gekko's key design processes is to compare the economic trade-offs when the plant throughput becomes too large and requires multiple units." Cobbett pointed out that mining mod- ules typically weigh up to 600 mt whereas in the oil and gas industry, they can weigh more than 50,000 mt. Modules this size can be accommodated at Fluor's jointly owned 2-million-m 2 Zhuhai fabrication yard in China, with the company having four other fabrication yards around the world. "While modularization is not new, the level of achievable offsite work has signifi- cantly increased using the Edison Awards- winning 3 rd Gen Modular Execution strate- gy—which splits the project into process blocks and moves into designing modules that then drive the plot plan. When fully implemented, this approach can achieve new levels of cost, schedule and execution certainty," Cobbett claimed. "Clients bene- fit through reduced procurement quanti- ties, productivity gains for work shifted to shop, and reduced costs for field labor, thereby saving time and money." Kossl commented, "Freight costs will vary depending on where a project is to be installed, and there is always a differ- ential in shipping a module vs. building a traditional stick plant on-site. Telsmith does work with local fabricators around the world to build the modular structures more locally to minimize transport costs to customers." Becoming More Mainstream Lastly, we asked whether the respondents see modular plant construction now being "mainstream," and where the concept is likely to develop going forward. According to Kossl, Telsmith developed its modular concept in the mid-1990s, and it has become more relevant today. "The modular plant is not a concept any more, it is a reality," he said. Modular plants are not only competitive in the marketplace, they are easily understood in that a cus- tomer will know they are getting a top-of- the-line product, and that it will perform day-in, day-out." Kossl also added that Telsmith is devel- oping smaller-scale modular plants that are completely containerized to ship world- wide, thus minimizing shipping costs. Flexibility is a key consideration, Grigg stated. "I'm not sure if modularization is mainstream yet, but in this economic cli- mate and considering the location of some mine sites, it is important to demonstrate how companies can further reduce capital costs while still having a 'movable asset.' Having an asset that can be relocated once a mine is exhausted is one of the main advantages of Gekko's modular sys- tems," he said. Cobbett said, "Modular design has been a mainstream execution method in the oil and gas industry for many years, but large- scale modular design in the mining indus- try only became typical during the recent commodity super-cycle. It started in the iron ore business in the Pilbara region of Western Australia where, due to manpower shortages, a Fluor-led joint venture— FASTJV—pioneered a large-scale modular- ization initiative for a major client there. "Across a number of projects, more than 30,000 mt of pre-assembled and modularized structures were transported over 400 km inland. Fluor self-performed the fabrication and assembly of a large por- tion of these in China. "Since those projects, the mining industry has progressed, with the trend now becoming a mainstream initiative," he said. "The iron-ore industry has led the way for large-scale, long distance haulage mod- ularization in mining, and it should flow seamlessly into the coal industry due to its similarity. Other commodities that have increased their use of modularization are predominantly those situated by open water—a project on the coast with water access is always easier to modularize than those inland. "The natural progression of the modu- larization effort is into standardization and replication. The iron-ore industry is leading the way, and initial steps are also being taken for large-scale, more remote mining operations for commodities such as gold and copper." JANUARY 2016 • E&MJ; 29 www.e-mj.com M O D U L A R P L A N T S Plant modules for Vale's Long Harbour project were shipped to site on barges from as far away as the U.S. Gulf Coast. (Photo: Mammoet)