Pre-Operational Verification & Commissioning – Vale Voisey’s Bay

In 2015 Vale was announced the expansion phase of Voisey’s Bay Mine (VBME) to increase the life expectancy of mine till 2032. This expansion would provide an opportunity to transition from Open Pit to underground mining. The final CAPEX approved was approximately 3-billion-dollar (CAD) and the basic scope was to secure the future of mining in Voisey’s Bay by constructing infrastructure for two underground mines (Reid Brook and Eastern Deeps) with all required surface facilities such as extra power houses and ventilation systems to support safe and efficient production. This expansion also provided an opportunity to increase production capacity to approximately 45,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of nickel, with additional outputs of 20,000 tpy of copper and 2,600 tpy of cobalt as by-products. This project is the largest underground mine construction in East of Canada.

Progesys was mandated to provide Commissioning Management, Operational Readiness Management and Planning & Control Support to the Voisey’s Bay Project:

SERVICES OFFERED:

• Commissioning Management:
  • Led Commissioning activities for the project
  • Provided a clear path forward and a commissioning schedule to the construction group with milestone dates.
  • Opened different commissioning working areas to be used for the mitigation plan if stopped on the main commissioning Workfront.
  • Developed Plans (A, B, C, n….) to best utilize resources.
  • Ensured alignment with the critical path of the project schedule.
  • Demonstrated proactivity by helping construction team to achieve their milestones.
  • Provided resources and expertise in parallel to commissioning.
  • Took ownership of partial subsystems.
  • Conducted early walk downs and transfers.
  • Sourced parts if there were any gains for the schedule.
  • Combined teams and activities to perform construction and pre-commissioning works simultaneously.
  • Created a supporting team (SWAT concept) to complete outstanding construction works and maximize pre-commissioning resources.
  • Developed / Improved the QA documentation process to be more aligned with the contractor’s administrative capability and efficiency.
  • Maintained flexibility and an open mind, always having an escape route to push forward in case of delays.
• Cost and Planning Support:
  • Support Plan & Control activities, considering different subcontractors and some already established general agreements for workforces.
  • Review of Plan & Control services aiming for Completion before construction reached the end of work.
  • Support and engage Vale Quality group more at different stages of construction.
  • Worked with different reporting tools, such as Skylines and Power BI, to show all areas that required attention.
  • Continued optimizing the commissioning schedule and engaged all creative ideas from the commissioning group team.
  • Maintained transparent and open dialogue with vendors for planning their availabilities and synchronize their deliveries with Projects needs (specially for commissioning phase).
  • Involved other groups, such as procurement and upper management, to assist.
  • Used a supporting team (concept of SWAT team) in parallel with the commissioning team to fix and implement all required changes.
• Operational Readiness Support:
  • Provided a clear path forward and the Operational Readiness schedule to the construction group with milestone dates.
  • Developed / Improved the QA documentation process to be more aligned with the contractor’s administrative capability and efficiency.
  • Developed different plans to better use resources and improve productivity.
  • Worked in PSSR’s, POV’s and handover processes as well as all documents related to ensure using of best market practices.