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Pan American Silver Corporation is one of the largest producers of silver in the world, as well as producing gold, copper, zinc and lead. The company has more than 30 years of experience in mineral extraction in Latin America and Canada, as well as being involved in exploration, mine development, processing, refining and reclamation.
- Previously implemented SCADA system was removed from the generation plant.
- The electrical generation area did not have a SCADA for monitoring, control and visualization
- The new control system for the electrical area had to be capable of communicating with the overall distributed control system (DCS) in the process plant.
- There was little documentation; the communication network was connected to electrical equipment using different protocols.
- FactoryTalk® View Site EditionPlatform
- ControlLogix®Control System
- PlantPAx® Distributed Control System
- FactoryTalk® Historian Software
- Complete and total supervision of the control process in the electrical area.
- Solution integration into overall distributed control system of the plant.
- Ability to interpret data with small amount of existing documentation.
- Created interconnectivity with the rest of the electrical protection systems.
- Achieved local support.
Pan American Silver Corp. is the owner of the Minero Escobal project in Guatemala, a silver mine with more than US$500 million invested in development and infrastructure. The project was inaugurated in 2014. The mine had three consecutive years of production of 20 million ounces of silver a year.
An electrical jumble with multiple protocols
Escobal is not currently in operation and its activities are in a care and maintenance phase awaiting the completion of the consulting process with the town of Xinka in accordance with Agreement 169 of the OIT (which covers the protection of people, institutions, property, work, culture and the environment of indigenous peoples). A date has not been determined for the completion of the consulting process nor the resumption of operations at the mine.
A few years ago the company completed a project in the electrical generation area and had to install several diesel generators to power the plant due to the inability to connect to the national power grid because of the aforementioned situation. To simplify management of the electrical system, the same supplier of the generators integrated an electrical SCADA platform in order to supervise and control the operational state of the various network components.
As a result, the electrical generation area didn’t have any type of visualization, monitoring or control in the units, and it wasn’t possible to change parameters or make any sort of adjustments to SCADA.
As a result, Pan American decided to contract the services of Rockwell Automation, with whom they had already successfully collaborated previously, in order not only to properly relaunch the control system, but also to update it to a new FactoryTalk® View platform capable of communicating with the overall distributed control system (DCS) of the process plant.
This was all quite a challenge since there was very little documentation available and the communication network was connected to electrical equipment using various protocols (DNP3, IEC 61850, ModBus and EtherNet).
An easy integration solution
This initiative, which was carried out by Rockwell Automation’s Project Division (LifecycleIQ™ Services), consisted of migrating the SCADA system to the HMI FactoryTalk® View software and, in particular for the electrical area, PlantPAx® Distributed Control System libraries were implemented, with reference to templates, surveys and electrical protection, which basically minimized time.
In addition, a ControlLogix® PLC was installed that integrated into the mining plant’s DCS, and a data historization was completed with the FactoryTalk® Historiansoftware, which was loaded with more variables.
One of the primary features of this project is that the solution allows for the connection to various industrial and electrical protocols. Furthermore, FactoryTalk® View contains tools, libraries and profiles of electrical equipment, which makes for easier integration. This feature allows for better integration in engineering and implementation hours.
It also provides the client with the ability to know in real time what the actual status of the external devices is. “Rockwell Automation equipment is robust and reliable; we are very satisfied with the system,” says Peinado.
This solution offers greater ease of integration of the operation variables, i.e. it is the same alternative from the operation itself and to the database, which results in a more transparent process.
“The plant was characterized by the fact that all the elements used ModBus communication, so Rockwell Automation carried out the conversion in order to be able to read all the PLC signals,” explains Pacheco.
Since a general control system had already existed in the plant, another advantage was gained in that it was easier to complete the integration with the new, integrated PlantPAx® platform.
Rockwell Automation supplied the equipment, engineering, installation of the ControlLogix® PLC in an existing panel, and related network wiring to carry out this update.
“It is important to point out that all the screens were configured in accordance with the required ISA-101.01, year 2015, standard, which is a default protocol required for the design of HMI interfaces in the industry.
The ease of use for the operators is noteworthy; the different indicators can be viewed very easily through user-friendly and intuitive interaction,” says Cuc.
Complete, plant-wide visibility
One of the key advantages of today’s plant is that by implementing a DCS PlantPAx®, the person managing FactoryTalk® View in the energy area can also supervise the operation of the entire plant because it is the same tool.
“This solution allows us complete visualization of the operation since we have real-time monitoring of each element that we enter into SCADA, from the fuel system and generator operation to the electrical variables. In addition, we have the ability to visualize everything related to the general process plant,” explains Pacheco.
Pan American Silver has high confidence in Rockwell Automation as they supported them previously in deploying the mining plant and also supplied technical support for the installed base, which resolved various issues and incidents. “This process was done during the pandemic and presented a lot of challenges, but Rockwell Automation was always there to help us and support us in the best way possible,” says Cuc.
It warrants mention that the primary client demands were satisfied by Rockwell Automation: Integration of the DCS to the overall plant control system; Ability to interpret data with little existing data; Generation of interconnectivity with the rest of the electrical protection systems; And the ability to achieve local support. Also, the deadlines required by the client were met on time.
“With regard to safety, it can also be pointed out that, thanks to the system implementation, we can currently operate the switches remotely using the medium voltage switch. As for engineering control, it’s a great success since our people are not as exposed to operating directly in front of the dashboards,” comments Peinado.
One of the main goals of the technology update with regard to the distributed control system carried out by the company is to properly prepare for the full resumption of mine activity once the Agreement 169 consultation is finalized.
“All the implementation that we have done is squarely focused on a fully functioning operation scenario; in the end, the goal is to have the capability to monitor all conditions that may arise in the plant,” concludes Pacheco.
Published April 29, 2025