MAINTENANCE
Barrick’s Asset Health tool will allow
maintenance teams to digitally monitor the
condition of equipment, such as haul trucks and
their components
Late last year, the Cortez open pit mine
experienced a planned to unplanned work ratio
of about 50/50 (ie about half of the work rolling
into the shop was an unplanned breakdown).
With this tool, along with the accompanying
software, Barrick hopes to dramatically decrease
this ratio, improving the overall availability of
mine equipment. If the pilot project proves
successful, other Barrick sites and other
equipment types will be added to the system.
Lubricants and oils
Oil analysis is a condition monitoring tool that
involves taking approximately 100 millilitres of oil
taken from an oil wetted compartment while it is
in use and subjecting it to a variety of chemical
and physical tests. In the case of used oil, these
tests provide a snap shot as to the current health
of the asset, the general health of the oil and any
contamination issues that may exist. The practice
has proven to be a very successful and cost-
effective condition monitoring technique for
companies that operate large intensive capital
equipment such as mining. Total states: “Oil
analysis as a conditioning monitoring tool has
one foot each in predictive and proactive
maintenance strategies. The results from the oil
analysis can be used as a predictive tool for
identifying adverse wear trends and their likely
causes such as coolant leaks, fuel dilution or
environmental dust entry issues etc. The
information from the oil analysis results can then
be used to aid in planning and performing
appropriate maintenance activities that will
reduce the total operating costs arising from
premature equipment failures,