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Santa Elena Silver Mine SCADA System

Remotely located gold and silver mine fully automates on-site processing with Vertech’s help.
Challenge First Majestic Silver Corporation needed to fully automate the on-site processing of gold and silver ore under tight schedule requirements.
Solution Vertech’s SCADA system provided monitoring and control for all mine processes including primary and secondary crushers, conveyance, ball mills, thickeners, and a variety of other ancillary systems.
Client First Majestic owns 100% of three producing silver mines in Mexico; the San Dimas Silver & Gold Mine, the Santa Elena Silver & Gold Mine, and the La Encantada Silver Mine.
REQUIREMENTS

This project required the system to operate in a remote location with limited local resources, had tight schedule requirements, and required work with a multi-national, multi-lingual team spanning 4 countries. 

PROJECT OVERVIEW

This gold and silver mine in Northern Mexico was in a remote location with extremely limited local resources. The client needed to fully automate the on-site processing of gold and silver ore under tight schedule requirements. Because of the remote location, the client required a modular process control design along with pre-wiring and testing before arrival on site.

This project was truly multi-national as well with Australian engineering, Canadian project management, American construction management and automation, and Mexican construction and operation. Language barriers during installation and commissioning posed a significant challenge.

PROJECT STATS

6 Modular Control Centers
1,592 I/O
162 Motors

TECHNOLOGY USED

  • Allen-Bradley CompactLogix
  • Prosoft Modbus TCP Module
  • Allen-Bradley Micro820
  • FactoryTalk View SE Servers/Clients
  • FactoryTalk Historian
  • Moxa MGate Modbus TCP – Modbus
  • RTU Gateway
  • Bonfiglioli Inverters
  • NexTracker Trackers
  • Campbell Scientific CR1000 Data Loggers
  • Schweitzer RTAC
  • Cisco 2960-X and IE2000 Ethernet Switches

RESULTS

A completely modular design was developed around GE iFix and Rx3i Process Automation Controllers. Distributed I/O was installed and wired by our technicians into six modular enclosures housing motor control for the entire facility. These enclosures were factory tested and then shipped to the site in Mexico for electrical installation. Vertech’s commissioning team included a Spanish speaker to bridge the communication barrier.

The resulting SCADA system provided monitoring and control for all mine processes including primary and secondary crushers, conveyance, ball mills, thickeners, leaching, tailings stacking, chemical pumps, water distribution, and a variety of other ancillary systems.

Careful planning, preparation, and pre-testing of the modular process control design facilitated on-time system commissioning, enabling the client to take advantage of strong commodities pricing. The client was left with a reliable control system to run their facility for the life of the mine. The detailed documentation set provided will be a great benefit to maintenance and operations teams moving forward.

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