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Mineral Resources Leads Innovation with Autodesk

Mineral Resources Leads Innovation with Autodesk

Customer challenge

All engineering disciplines are involved in these mega-sized projects where visualising the project in its entirety is a feat in itself, even more so with interconnecting disciplines. One of Mineral Resources Limited's (MRL’s) most complex mining projects was the design, commission and operation of the Mt. Marion lithium mine site. The main challenges involved the mobilization, processing of a large number of rocks and development of the site to cater for human resources or on-site workers. Machinery designed for particular processes and the rapid deployment of them into the field requires intensive design, planning and stress-testing to ensure designs can withstand the intense and heavy workloads for which they are subject.

Project goals

To increase the production capability at the Mt. Marion, key non-process infrastructure had to be developed, including long-term water security solutions, LNG power stations and mine-site communications. Machinery designed for particular processes and the rapid deployment of them into the field requires intensive design, planning and stress-testing to ensure designs can withstand the intense and heavy workloads for which they are subject. MRL required software that was interoperable between different engineering workflows and roles, as it was difficult to collaborate across disciplines using various software platforms that were not integrated with each other.

Solution

Autodesk Navisworks provided MRL with the ability to visually communicate and coordinate the area’s design, layout intent and constructability. Data across multiple disciplines and platforms (i.e. structural, piping, equipment) were combined into a single integrated model within Navisworks which helped MRL engineers to anticipate potential arrangement collision and minimize problems during construction. To ensure the equipment layout installs within the space constraints without delays, the collaboration between different Autodesk software (i.e. Advance Steel, Revit, Navisworks) is vital where changes made within the design are fully captured within the combined models. The integration between the PDM Collection app's allowed MRL to design construction equipment parts and study the feasibility of part functionalities. Autodesk Inventor (part of the PDM Collection) was used to designs shafts, chutes and pulleys for MRL's processing machinery, which experience heavy load stressors.

Business outcome

Mineral Resources has realized significant savings each year by utilizing Autodesk Solutions. Why? Autodesk solutions provide faster workflows through app interconnectivity and access to other solutions in the Autodesk ecosystem. This in turn allows the MRL Design team to leverage meta data and information from within files easier than what is possible with alternative solutions. Back in 2018-2019, there was a major upgrade to the lithium site to increase the capacity of the Mt. Marion lithium mine to 450,000 tonnes per annum. The incorporation of Autodesk software was a key factor in ensuring the upgrade process ran smoothly. 3D graphical representations and walkthroughs fully aided understanding of designs, which facilitated faster approvals and avoided mistakes downstream. With improved machinery design as well, MRL was able to extract a higher value product at 6% lithium content.

Conclusion

Simulation capabilities within the PDM Collection offer direct study to be done on the design model itself, permitting the engineer to restructure parts precisely where strengthening is needed. The capability of having an enhanced part registry with version history provides a level of document control when working with Autodesk Vault (also included within the PDM Collection) in parallel with Inventor. The comparison ability from different model versions guarantees no loss of idealistic information, providing MRL engineers more flexibility in their designs. MRL also took advantage of the cloud capabilities of Autodesk Fusion 360 within the PDM Collection where different stakeholders were able to access and comment on the part designs as long as they were connected to the internet.

Project summary

    Duration & delivery

  • 180
  • 2021-06-01

    Autodesk solutions

  • 3ds Max
  • A360
  • Advance Steel
  • Architecture
  • Engineering & Construction Collection
  • AutoCAD
  • AutoCAD MEP
  • Civil 3D
  • Product Design & Manufacturing Collection
  • Vault Professional
  • Inventor
  • Fusion 360
  • Navisworks Manage
  • AutoCAD Plant 3D
  • Fusion 360 Manage
  • ReCap Pro
  • Revit

    Services provided

  • Custom Application Development
  • System Implementation
  • Configuration & Deployment
  • Product Training
  • Customer Success Management

    Customer industry

  • Other Engineering Industries
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