Contract
FIELD Engineers was approached by Newcrest to perform a site-wide crane audit and develop a maintenance strategy for the crane fleet on Lihir Island in Papua New Guinea. This was to include repair plans and plant overhaul and retirement plans for the entire crane fleet at the mine.
International Project
Entire fleet compliance
Improved crane availability
Cost Savings
Considerations
- Comprehensive audit of existing crane fleet was essential.
- Retirement vs overhaul advice required for an ageing fleet of 40+ cranes.
- Geographically isolated site brought in logistical challenges.
- Onsite maintenance capability constraints.
Challenges & Approaches
In order to approach this job, all of the cranes in the fleet were inspected and then the maintenance plan was developed based off the site considerations, the condition of the machinery and the size of the mine. This ensured that the program was able to function perfectly when initially implemented and in future years when managed by the employees at the Lihir Gold mine.
SUCCESS:
Crane availability has improved 23% while significant capital savings have been made with a reduced fleet size.
Outcomes
A risk-based prioritised action-list of faults needing repair was developed and a recommendation for the right-sized crane fleet to match mine/plant was made.
Transition plan for crane retirements and overhauls was created along with a maintewnance strategy for retained cranes. Also a scope-of-work and costing system for crane overhauls and major inspections was created.
Since inception of this program in 2010, the Lihir crane fleet has modernised and is compliant with Australian Standards.
Recent case studies
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