At the beginning of 2018, Compañía de Minas Buenaventura assigned PIPER Solutions to carry out the analysis, design and implementation of the AVEVA PI System in its main mining units in Peru, the scope included the mining operations of Uchucchacua, Tambomayo, Orcopampa, Coimolache and the Rio Seco plant. PIPER's specialized engineers carried out the information and requirements gathering, identifying all the data sources of the Mine, Plant, Maintenance and Laboratory operations of each of the mining units. In this first survey, control systems of various brands, isolated and non-Historized signals, and the different communication protocols for each data source were identified, among which we can mention: Siemens (Wincc, Pcs7), Schneider (PME), Wonderware, ABB, Rockwell, PLC, SQL, Kepserver, among the most important. The AVEVA PI System architecture was designed by our team of specialists considering the communication requirements of Minas Buenaventura for each of the units. The integration of all the identified information sources and the type of OSIsoft interface used in each of them were considered. For example, Modbus-type interfaces to AVEVA PI System for the Mine area, OPC DA-type interfaces for the Plant area, RDBMS-type interface to PI for the Laboratory and Energy area. The main AVEVA PI System servers such as PI Data Archive, PI Asset Framework and PI Vision were installed and configured in each of the mining units in order to have faster responses and reduce information latency, considering hardware resources for the storage of information for a period of 5 years. A total of 28 interfaces (API Nodes) required to collect information from data sources were configured. Hierarchical Models were developed in PI AF for the management of Plant assets, following the structure defined in the SAP PM system, in addition to calculations using PI Analytics and notifications to users of critical signals using PI Notifications.

Mine

Need

• Have the visualization of mine operations signals that allows monitoring mineral production from any location. Previously, visualization was only possible in the Control Room on an HMI interface that connected to the PLC and was limited to signals.
• Have automatic production calculations. Previously, counting was done manually on paper.

Solution

• Calculations were developed for production in underground mines such as the amount of mineral extraction from the shafts, counting the Skips x Hour, likewise, the monitoring of signals from lifting winches was carried out, showing indicators of bearing temperature, lubrication motors, states reset, hour meters, etc. to teams that were isolated without records of information for many years.
• In the visualization part, Dashboards were built-in PI Vision showing in real-time the location of the Skips, the amount of ore and waste produced, the energy and hourmeters of the equipment. Viewing the processes in real-time from anywhere through multiple devices.
• Operations reports were made in PI Datalink for main mineral extraction and reports of skips per hour.

Plant

Need

• Relate the plant signals with those of the tree in PI AF to handle the same standard with the SAP PM structure.
• Development of automatic report in PI DataLink of plant production, combining operational signals and laws.
• Design of deployments in PI Vision for the operational monitoring of plant circuits, development of calculations and notifications that allow obtaining the production of the plants.

Solution

• The signals of the crushing, milling, flotation, tailings processes were mapped in the AF model and tonnage production calculations were performed by shifts and totalized by day.
• A report was developed in PI Datalink of the Daily Part, obtaining the tonnage and grades of the AVEVA PI System.
• Displays were designed in PI Vision for the visualization of the crushing, grinding, flotation and Tailings circuit.
• Displays were made to monitor the temperature of the bearing, lubrication engines, status of each engine, hours of operation, and display of different operating signals of the Assets.
• The main ION energy meters were integrated into the AVEVA PI System and then included in the hierarchical PI AF model.
• The creation and development of the General Dashboard for Plant Operations was carried out, in order to visualize integrated information on Mine production, laboratory laws, energy, and their respective trends.

Lima

Need

Another important requirement was to have the relevant operational information of each of the units centralized in a Corporate Server located in the city of Lima, that the generation of metallurgical balances, for which the implementation of interfaces type PI to PI was defined, which Allow the sending of production information from the plants to the Corporate PI Server and from this, the information on laws to each of the units, considering that the application that Minas Buenaventura uses to store its laws is on the Lima network.

Solution

• The main operational signals were integrated into the infrastructure of the Corporate PI Server in Lima, which was used to carry out the metallurgical balance. An HTML-type interface was implemented in the corporate PI Server that allows communication with the main metal prices web pages.
• The AVEVA PI System also helped fix automated signals that were displaying bad and unused data.
• Finally, AVEVA PI System training was carried out in each one of the mining units, with the visualization tool courses, in PI DataLink and PI Vision, so that the same users could continue developing the AVEVA PI System.
• In this way, the Buenaventura mining company began to join in the world of digitalization, monitoring its operations in real-time for better decision-making.