Port Pirie Lead Smelter Works

Nyrstar Port Pirie (NPP) is an integrated multi-metals recovery plant processing a wide range of lead rich concentrates and smelting industry by-products. NPP is one of the world’s largest primary lead smelting facilities and the third largest silver producer. NPP has a 45 MW network and more than 20 substations on-site.

Over 20 years, GPA has consistently remained the NPP’s preferred engineering services provider for HV services. In that time, we have executed various power system (6.6 kV to 33 kV) projects to support the site smelting activities from design and installation of new infrastructure, through to upgrades of the existing plant.

We have assisted NPP with a range of services including:

• preparing project documentation comprising project justification, capital applications, total installed costs estimates & contingency planning
• completing the engineering analysis of protection design, fault levels, power quality & network stability
• modelling load flow in the HV network, auditing & verifying the existing systems, & preparing condition reports following audits of existing assets
• overseeing and managing the installation of power transformers, HV & LV switchgear, HV power factor correction and upgrading substation earthing, bunding and fencing
• planning & executing the shutdown and providing support during construction and commissioning and network planning.

At all times GPA has ensured that constructability, maintainability, ease of operation and safety in design have formed the foundations of the solutions and designs prepared for Nyrstar. This consistent focus has been key to ensuring the best outcomes are identified and developed on every GPA project.