Client

Tronox

Location

Murray Basin, New South Wales

Industry

Mining

Overview

Tronox Atlas-Campaspe project develops the greenfields deposit of mineral sands, located approximately 90km northwest of Balranald in NSW. The project is the next major development for Tronox to maintain feedstock to their Kwinana Pigment Plant operations.

There are two deposits on the Atlas-Campaspe site that will be mined sequentially. The Atlas mine will be commissioned first with an anticipated life of three years. Once the Atlas deposit has been exhausted, mining operations will be transferred to the adjacent Campaspe deposit which has an estimated life of seven years.

Scope

Tronox engaged Intellect Systems to design, manufacture, inspect, test and deliver to site a transportable switchroom complete with:

  •  Single-sided arc fault contained MCC (415v, 50kA, 1s)
  •  Lighting and small power distribution board
  •  Remote switching panel to operate incomers
  •  10kVA uninterruptable power supply (UPS) with 20 minutes backup and external bypass switch
  •  VESDA Fire System with sample points in the busbar section and cable zones
  •  19in communications rack
  • PLC programming and configuration

Smarter Solutions

The project was competitively tendered, with Intellect Systems selected as the preferred supplier due to our experience in the mining sector. Once completed, the switchroom would need to journey from our Canning Vale manufacturing facility in Western Australia to the mine site in Balranald, New South Wales. Due to the transport distance, a committed deadline needed to be met, leaving little room for schedule extensions.

The client’s project engineering team provided Intellect Systems with a single-line diagram which we expanded on to produce a fully functional switchroom layout. As the client’s requirements evolved, our engineering team’s expertise was also called upon to incorporate the changes into the project’s design.

The switchroom was constructed of prefabricated structural steel and designed to withstand high ambient temperatures at the site. The air conditioning system incorporated N+1 redundancy to account for heat loads and expected degradation over the switchroom’s design life.

Not only would the switchroom be making the long journey across the country, but it would also be transferred from Atlas to Campaspe when operations relocate. The original design saw the room dimensions at 5.2m wide. However, with the transport level at 4.5m, the client’s requirements had to be accommodated within a more limited footprint, including air-conditioning overhangs.

Intellect Systems’ rigorous quality control measures helped to closely manage our deliverables and those of subcontracting partners. Efficient supply chain management achieved the project’s tight schedule by quickly identifying supply issues and sourcing fit-for-purpose available alternatives.

Intellect System’s conducted a comprehensive FAT in the presence of the client and engineer to ensure that the switchroom met and exceeded expectations. The switchroom’s journey to New South Wales went smoothly, and the installation and commissioning were completed to the client’s satisfaction.

Intellect Systems overcame the challenges relating to transportation, design ambiguity and supply chain issues. The project was executed efficiently within the schedule, providing the client with a quality, fit-for-purpose product to last the length of the Atlas-Campaspe mines.