Corporate Profile
Achievements / Testimonies
 Compañia Minera Antamina (Peru)
The Antamina Project is located approximately 350 kilometres northeast of Lima in the department of Ancash, Peru, at an elevation of 4,300 meters. The deposit is one of the largest copper-zinc ore bodies in the world. It is estimated to contain an in-pit resource of 500 million tonnes of ore grading 1.2% copper, 1.0% zinc, 12 gpt silver and 0.03% molybdenum.
The project consisted in implementing the Metallurgical Accountant™ automated data reconciliation solution at the mine concentrator.
- Each ore type (6 or more) is tracked both separately and on an overall production basis.
- The concentrator is divided into four sections: grinding, copper flotation, zinc flotation and bismuth/molybdenum flotation.
- For process monitoring purposes, mass balances are computed every 15 minutes.
- For production accounting, mass balances are computed every 24 hours.
- Assays, tonnages and flow rates are taken from a PI and a LIMS archive database.
- Current process configuration is detected on line and the mass conservation equations are developed accordingly.
 Suncor Energy Inc. (Alberta, Canada)
Established in 1967, Suncor Oil Sands Operation was the world’s first commercial-scale oil sands processing facility. It is located in Fort McMurray, Alberta, and upgrades crude oil from the vast oil sands deposits of northern Alberta. Estimated to contain more than 13 billion barrels of recoverable bitumen, the reserves are sufficient to sustain production for 50 years. Oil sand is mined using shovels with buckets that hold 100 tonnes, and transported by heavy hauler trucks with a capacity of 240 to 400 tonnes to bitumen extraction facilities.
The project consisted in implementing the Production Accountant™ automated data reconciliation solution at the extraction plant.
- Reconciliation of tonnages and stream compositions (bitumen, minerals, water and naphtha mass fractions);
- Several possible configurations for operating the extraction plant;
- Plant configuration is dictated by operation requirements and may change several times a day;
- All the plant configurations are complex and include many recycling streams;
- Each stream composition is completely defined. Thus, the mass fractions of bitumen, minerals, water and naphtha must be reconciled to total 1;
- Stream compositions are highly variable;
- Accuracy in measurements varies from stream to stream.
 Xstrata Nickel - Mine Raglan (Québec, Canada)
The Raglan mine is located in the Nunavik territory of Northern Québec. The operation, which is part of the Integrated Nickel Operations (INO), consists of open pits, underground mines, a concentrator, a power plant, accommodation and administration buildings, fresh water supply and fuel storage tanks.
The property stretches 55 kilometers from east to west, with a series of many high-grade ore deposits scattered along its length. Nickel and copper are the primary metals but significant quantities of palladium, platinum and cobalt are also produced.
The project consisted in implementing the Metallurgical Accountant™ automated data reconciliation solution at the mine concentrator. The system has been fully integrated to the operation’s current information management system.
 IAMGOLD - Division Niobec (Québec, canada)
The mine is located 15 kilometres northwest of Chicoutimi, Québec. For more than 25 years, Niobec has supplied approximately 12-14% of the world supply of niobium, which is added to steel as a micro-alloy element to improve its mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. At the current production rate, the mine life is expected to be at least 18 years. Niobec is the only niobium producer in North America and the third largest in the world, with a steady cash flow of $16 million per year and sales of niobium in the range of $45 to $55 million a year.
The project consisted in implementing the DynAxiom™ automated PID tuning and loop management solution at the mine concentrator.
Objectives of the DynAxiom™ implementation:
- Optimization of control loop tunings and performances;
- Reduction in intervention time;
- Easy and secured tuning process;
- Centralization and standardization of tuning intervention information;
- Process stabilization;
- Reduction of premature equipment wear and unplanned shutdowns.
 Laval University - Energy Power Plant
Laval University’s energy power plant is considered to be amongst the best and most modern heating and air conditioning plants in North America. Equipped with 4 boilers, with a capacity of 300,000 pounds per hour, it is the soul energy supplier for the entire campus, covering all 35 buildings. As for air conditioning, its 4 compressors can generate up to 5500 tons.
Having recently modernised the boilers’ control system in order to improve performance and effectiveness, the administrators and managers deemed it important to ensure that obtained performance gains be maintained in order to guarantee projected reliabilities and monetary turn out.
Aware of this reality, Algosys’ representatives approached the plant managers in order to propose the use of their new performance management tool « Control Loop Attendant » (CLA). The proposed solution answered specifically to the manager’s different preoccupations, which were to:
- Maintain optimal performance;
- Avoid unplanned shut downs;
- Optimise the use of resources without increasing supervision and maintenance costs.
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