Carrapateena Underground Works Control System

Carrapateena is a copper-gold mine located approximately 160km north of Port Augusta in the eastern margin of the Gawler Craton. Carrapateena is a new mine for OZ Minerals and it produced first concentrate in December 2019 following a three-year construction period. It is targeting a 12 month ramp up period to achieve a production rate of 4.25 Mtpa, provided the cave propagates as expected.

GPA was engaged by OZ Minerals to provide the Control System component of the project for the underground works which included the underground crushing, ore handling, conveying, ventilation and settling ponds. The selected control system is based around Rockwell ControlLogix PLC and PlantPax SCADA systems and uses distributed control and I/O over a fibre optic ethernet network.

GPA was responsible for the preparation of Functional Descriptions and operating philosophies, PLC and SCADA development, programming and testing, site installation, commissioning and handover support.