Increase the reliability
and validity of your
metal accounting data
Increase the reliability and validity
of your metal accounting data
Increased demand for corporate governance and more stringent
regulatory requirements have created a need to improve processes
and practices. More than ever before, organisations need to reduce
the risk in the numbers they report.
Many metals and minerals organisations continue
to rely on non-transparent and un-auditable
manual systems to report on grade, metal content
and production data used in financial reporting.
The process to report on metal content can be
complex and time-consuming. There are monthly
and quarterly reporting timeframes to be met.
Data needs to be collected across the plant from
stockpiled inventory, processes such as flotation
and content in tailings, as well as many other
data sources. Even with relatively low commodity
prices, the value of metals in production is often
significant.
The minerals industry has realised the
importance of improving regulatory reporting by
collaborating with AMIRA to form the P754 Code.
Organisations are aligning their metal accounting
reporting to be compliant with this standard.
The information collected by an AMIRA P754
compliant system is of suitable quality to be also
beneficial for ongoing operational improvement
such as identifying inefficiencies, reducing
operating costs and optimising production.
The importance of metal accounting and reporting
extends across the plant from operations,
metallurgy to accounting. These areas all have a
vested interest in accessing the same data and
working from one version of the truth.
Automated and
Integrated Processes
Historian
Regulatory Compliance
and Processes
Financial
Reporting and
Statutory Due
Diligence
LIMS
ERP
Scales
SCADA
Mass
Balance
Collect Data, Perform Mathematical Exact Balance and Create Information
Act
Plan
Check
Do
Continuous
Improvement
Analysing Information
How Plant Metal Accounting is
used across an organisation
Crushing
Grinding
Laboratory
Flotation
To Refinery
and Smelter
Concentrate
Tailings
Plant Metal Accounting
for Metallurgists
Plant Metal Accounting
for Production/Operations
Metallurgists are concerned about the percentage
of metals contained in tonnage and they are
required to predict the quality of recovery. They
have a high expectation on the type of security
available around the storage of data, including
who can access the information and the audit trail.
They are required to account for discrepancies
between actual and estimated production and
mineral reserves and resources. They need this
information to be easily available.
Plant and Operational Managers are required to
provide data that helps identify discrepancies
in the recovery. This information is often readily
available from manufacturing operation software
and reports. Discrepancy data is also used to
identify problems such as bottlenecks and slow
running machines.
Plant Metal Accounting
for IT
Corporate IT teams are required to find solutions
that address users’ requirements and fit holistically
within the enterprise architecture. They need
solutions that reduce integration, are scalable, and
productised in order to deliver a low TCO.
Plant Metal Accounting
for Executives
Executive officers of mining companies are
accountable for the numbers produced and
reported in financial and other reports. They need
reliability, accuracy but above all transparency and
auditability of reported numbers.
Ampla Plant
Metal Accounting
Reduce data
overlap
by up to
70%
Solutions that identify cost savings
and increase data reliability
>
Ampla’s solution has been designed to address growing requirements for
transparency, auditability, accuracy and timeliness of production data in the
metals and minerals industry.
Reduce data
overlap
by up to
70%
Ampla’s Plant Metal
Accounting solution is part
of its broader operations
management offering.
By combining the two
solutions, around 70%
of the data required for
metal accounting reporting
is collected by the
operations management
function. This delivers
significant cost savings,
reduces software integration
and increases data reliability.
>
Ampla’s
Plant Metal
Accounting
solution is
based on:
• Data Management
• Measuring Saleable
Product
• Metal Balancing
• Reporting
Ampla’s Plant Metal Accounting solution focuses on both the metal and mass
content, by collecting analytical data to meet requirements for Metallurgists,
Operations, IT and Executive Officers.
Ampla’s explicit process model provides functionality to collect production
inputs and outputs across the entire minerals and metals process. Using
standard functionality, Ampla collects production and quality data at all stages
from crushing, grinding, flotation, leaching, smelting and refining.
Whilst concentrating on the quality and grade of the metal content, as well as
stockpiled inventory and work-in-progress, Ampla provides a range of data
that can be used for regulatory compliance and financial reporting.
Ampla’s strength in security and auditing means the quality of data produced
is credible, transparent, validated and auditable.
Ampla’s Plant Metal Accounting reports are used for reconciliation and
financial reporting requirements. Ampla delivers such data and reports to
ERP and other systems using standard connectivity options. Ampla’s master
data synchronisation functionality also ensures data quality, by delivering clear
and defined naming conventions across multiple applications.
Data Management:
The quality of data is paramount to metal accounting reporting, which is why
Ampla collects its data in an efficient, secure and reliable way. Production data
(used for mass measurement) and laboratory data (for example, analyses) is
collected and integrated into a single user interface. Using its native connector
architecture, Ampla acquires data from various plant systems such as SCADA,
Plant Historians, LIMS systems or other third-party databases.
Measuring Saleable Product
Building upon AMIRA p754’s principles of a “Check in-Check out System”
(where all streams, into and out of the process, are measured, sampled and
analysed), Ampla automatically and accurately establishes the mass of the
material or component present at a specific time; and the mass flow of that
component over a defined time period.
Ampla then breaks down the measurement of materials into two components:
ò Its mass, Ampla automatically captures data from its Inventory
functionality which allows for manual adjustments, stock takes, transient
inventory and long-term process inventories;
ò Its metal content, by using the Quality functionality, Ampla automatically
captures data from in-line analysers and laboratory information systems.
It also caters for default values, partial analysis and re-analysis.
Metal Balancing
With a requirement to produce metal accounting to an “accounting
standard” there is a need to apply accuracy, integrity, security and auditability on the information relating
to the flow and transfer of materials and their contained metals.
Ampla achieves this requirement by ensuring all source data is traceable and changes to data must be
authorised and recorded. Ampla’s role-based security focuses on defined roles and permissions to
allow the right people, the right access, to the right data.
Reporting
After collecting all the required mass and metal
data, Ampla’s reporting functionality generates
standard reports over various time frames and
accounting periods.
As not all data is final and is likely to change,
Ampla receives updated data from the laboratory
system and makes the required adjustments,
keeping a history of all changes. It never deletes
the data, so it is possible to review all values that
a sample ever had.
Ampla’s Plant Metal Accounting Solution was
designed to handle the month-end reporting
process, including managing provisional and final
data. Ampla locks data at the end of the reporting
period. Any changes that occur after such point,
appear in the next accounting period as carry-over
adjustments. Operators and users can still view
the most up-to-date data.
Ampla reports deliver a summary of information
of material, broken down into saleable product, at
the end of the last accounting period and covers:
Reconciliation
ò Opening Balance
Within the process there will be uncertainties
with measurements, samplings and analytics.
Ampla manages the differences, between the net
input and output of the process, by treating the
imbalance as an unaccounted gain or loss.
ò Inputs
To manage the imbalances, Ampla provides
both manual and automatic reconciliation. For
automatic reconciliation, performing adjustments
on a mathematical exact balance, Ampla
seamlessly integrates with specialist third-party
vendors who perform the statistical analysis from
the raw measurements Ampla provides. In return,
Ampla receives the corrected values.
Manual adjustments can only be made by those
granted access using Ampla’s security model.
ò Outputs
ò Closing Balance
The reports highlight inconsistencies and
problem areas in the reported data and includes
tonnage and analysis figures for all Plant Metal
Accounting streams. It also reports comparison
of performance figures against key performance
indicators and variance from the operating budget
or business plan.
In addition to accounting requirements, the reports
contain information used for diagnosing plant
operating problems and for future production
planning and project evaluation.
Schneider Electric Industries S.A.S
Head Office
35 rue Joseph Monier
92500 Rueil-Malmaison
www.schneider-electric.com
Ref. AmplaPMA032009
As standards, specifications and designs change from time to time, please ask for confirmation
of the information given in this publication.
Design: Schneider Electric Industries S.A.S
Photos:Schneider Electric Industries S.A.S
03/2009