Failure management in a gold mill tailings treatment process

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite various existing asset management methodologies, there are still many areas where they are yet to be implemented. This is mainly because they are not customized methodologies and their implementation, in many cases, generates several theoretical-practical gaps and inconsistencies, which hinder their application. Therefore, we must continue to deepen our understanding of these methodologies’ application within several contexts, especially in the circumstances wherein machinery plays an important role in achieving machinery-intensive process deliverables. Accordingly, this study discusses a failure management case focusing on the machinery employed in the gold mill tailing treatment process at a gold mining process plant. This study was conducted using three of the most renowned asset management methodologies, i.e., reliability-centered maintenance (RCM), total productive maintenance (TPM), and prognostics and health management for maintenance (PHM), to produce a methodological failure management process specifically adapted to the plant situation. Through this process, the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) increased from 31% to 87%, thus contributing to broadening the practical understanding of these methodologies.