Fieldbus Interface Infrastructure for BHP Billiton Nickel/Cobalt Mine in Ravensthorpe, Western Australia [Reference]

Customer | BHP Billiton

Project | Nickel / Cobalt Mine in Greenfield

Location | Ravensthorpe, Western Australia

Completion | 2005

Mannheim, Germany (November 14th, 2005) – Pepperl+Fuchs GmbH has won the contract to be the exclusive fieldbus interface supplier, partnering with Emerson Process Management, for the minerals processing plant at the BHP Billiton nickel/cobalt mine and treatment facility under construction near Ravensthorpe, Western Australia.

The new open-pit mine and minerals processing plant is part of a $1.4 billion project that will annually produce up to 50,000 tons of nickel and 1,400 tons of cobalt.

Emerson will install the Pepperl+Fuchs fieldbus installation system FieldConnex®, a range of FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus interface solutions which includes the Power Hub, the novel highly reliable fully redundant passive power supply system, as well as field trunk/spur protection by means of segment protectors mounted in field junction boxes.

Pepperl+Fuchs FieldConnex will tie the field measurement instrumentation to Emerson’s DeltaV™ digital automation system with AMS™ Suite predictive maintenance software. These key components of the company’s PlantWeb™ digital plant architecture are at the core of the innovative digital approach that will include more than 2,000 smart digital field devices, making it the largest FOUNDATION™ Fieldbus installation in Australia, and the largest application for mineral processing in the world.