S A F E T Y
SAFETY INSPECTIONS
AND EFFICIENT CRANES
SLASH DOWNTIME
Konecranes safety inspections and its
latest crane technology have helped
BHP Billiton cut downtime and minimise
production losses as they replace aging cranes
at their Olympic Dam poly-metallic mine in South
Australia.
The Olympic Dam mine, which is the fourth largest
copper deposit and the largest known single
deposit of uranium in the world, relies on overhead
cranes for lifting different reagents as part of their
production process, as well as performing vital
maintenance tasks.
Cranes are vital for production processes at
Olympic Dam, which is set to benefit from BHP’s
investment of more than A$600 million over
FY2018 on a range of important programme of
work.
According to BHP’s asset president, Olympic
Dam, Jacqui McGill, this is the most significant
investment BHP has ever made in South Australia
and it will help build the foundations for long term,
safe, stable and sustainable growth at Olympic
Dam.
“The investment will ensure the operation is more
modern, reliable and can support processing of
additional tonnes in coming financial years,” she
says.
Scott Montgomerie, BHP supervisor, floats
maintenance execution, Olympic Dam, minerals
Australia, says “The Konecranes team was
fantastic to deal with. We had four cranes
approaching end-of-life and they gave us several
good options with quick turnaround times.
“The old cranes were getting near their end-oflife
– about 25 years old – so they were breaking
down frequently and causing us downtime and
production losses. Konecranes provided us
with some great replacement options, and were
flexible in their approach as well as always having
the technical expertise to solve any unique
challenges that arose,” he says.
Konecranes is providing BHP Billiton with five new
cranes, ranging from 1t to 3.5t lifting capacity.
They were a mixture of CLX chain hoists and CXT
wire rope hoists, designed to optimise efficiency,
safety and reliability at Olympic Dam.
“Konecranes was very thorough with Standards
compliance. They provided excellent reporting
and great communication throughout the whole
process, which really put my mind at ease,” says
Mr Montgomerie.
“For us, safety is of the utmost importance, and it
was a positive experience working with the highly
experienced Konecranes team, because I knew
they have a strong global focus on safety. The
new cranes have a range of advanced features to
increase productivity, efficiency and safety, which
will help us further reduce downtime and keep
operations running smoothly.”
SAFETY INSPECTIONS
Konecranes safety inspections are designed
to assess the remaining life of cranes, and
determine whether it is safer and more costeffective
to replace a crane, repair it, or perform a
modernisation.
New Konecranes overhead
cranes are being installed at
BHP’s Olympic Dam mine in
South Australia, which is the
fourth largest Copper deposit
and largest single deposit of
uranium in the world