ABB has won an order for a three-year service agreement from Codelco (Corporacion Nacional del Cobre de Chile). ABB will maintain and optimize the installed gearless mill drive system and related equipment at Codelco’s Andina copper mine in northern Chile. The order was booked in March 2012.
Codelco is the world’s largest copper producer, with an annual production capacity of 1.76 million metric tons (mt) of copper. With this enormous output, any unplanned plant downtime or equipment failure can result in high costs and production losses. Codelco decided to invest in a sustainable service plan by signing a three-year term service agreement with ABB. This will keep production running at an optimal level and reduce the risk of unscheduled downtime.
“Customers in all industries are looking at ways to reduce overall life cycle costs and make these costs more predictable, while continuing to improve equipment performance,” said Veli-Matti Reinikkala, head of ABB’s Process Automation division. “Our skilled service teams provide our customers with a long-term maintenance strategy that will keep production running efficiently well into the future.”
The agreement with Codelco includes life cycle management, scheduled maintenance services, as well as remote diagnostic services for a gearless mill drive system supplied by ABB in 2010.
