Outage Surveys — Rosebery

TL;DR: A shutdown survey Rosebery engagement is precision measurement delivered inside the fixed window when MMG's Rosebery concentrator or a critical circuit is taken offline for maintenance. Because the whole West Coast operation runs through a single on-site concentrator, every hour of overrun costs real concentrate production — so Industrial Spatial Solutions scopes the outage survey to the hour, holds mill and machine references to sub-millimetre tolerances, and keeps survey off the critical path. This page covers what an outage survey involves at Rosebery, the local applications, the methods and kit, the standards, and how ISS delivers it across Bass Strait.

Key takeaways

• A shutdown survey Rosebery engagement is an outage survey scoped to MMG's concentrator maintenance window — SAG/ball mill relines, girth-gear and pinion alignment, flotation-cell and conveyor work — where every offline hour stops the only processing line on site.
• Because Rosebery feeds a single concentrator, a misaligned mill or drifting main conveyor affects the entire operation's throughput; an unplanned mill stoppage at a single-line operation runs well into six figures per day in lost concentrate.
• ISS achieves ±0.3-1.0 mm rotating-equipment alignment, ±0.02-0.05 mm coaxiality with a laser tracker, and 2-6 mm at 50 m laser-scan accuracy, all calibrated to ISO 17025 and referenced to GDA2020/AHD.
• The isolated West Coast location and the Bass Strait crossing make first-trip completeness the binding constraint — scope discovered mid-shutdown means parts, contractors and the surveyor are all hours or days away by road and ferry.
• Work sits under Tasmania's Mineral Resources Development Act 1995 and the Work Health and Safety (Mines) framework, with crane and structural geometry assessed against AS 1418 and AS 4100, and CASA CASR Part 101 governing any drone capture.

Table of contents

• The shutdown survey at Rosebery
• Local applications: the concentrator and its outage windows
• Method, sequence and equipment
• Accuracy, standards and compliance
• Why ISS for a Rosebery shutdown survey
• Frequently asked questions
• Request a quote

The shutdown survey at Rosebery

MMG's Rosebery mine has produced zinc, lead, copper, gold and silver continuously since 1936, working a steep volcanogenic massive sulphide orebody through decline and shaft access in the Mount Read Volcanics. Ore is hauled to a single on-site concentrator that crushes, grinds and uses differential flotation to produce separate zinc, lead and copper concentrates, which are then trucked north to the Port of Burnie for export. That centralised processing chain is exactly what makes a Rosebery shutdown survey a different proposition to one at a multi-line mainland plant: there is no parallel circuit to carry the load while a mill is rebuilt. When the concentrator is down, the operation is down.

An outage survey is the dimensional control, alignment and as-built measurement carried out while that plant — or a critical circuit within it — is deliberately offline. The maintenance crew strips worn components, relines a mill, rebuilds a drive train, then puts everything back inside tolerance, and they need independent measurement to prove each step before the next one starts. Without survey support, alignment gets checked by feeler gauge and tape, fit-up problems surface when the crane is already holding a girth gear, and the as-built record is reconstructed from memory after restart. The shutdown survey replaces that with a stable control network that survives the whole outage and verified numbers the mechanical team signs against.

The defining constraint is the window, not the accuracy alone. At Rosebery that window is sharpened by isolation — roughly 300 km from Hobart and 130 km of winding road south of Burnie, with Bass Strait between the site and most mainland suppliers. A method that is marginally more accurate but two hours slower can cost more than it saves when the line is losing concentrate every hour it stays cold.

Key point: A shutdown survey Rosebery campaign is engineered around the outage schedule and the West Coast logistics together. Methodology, crew size and instrument selection are chosen to fit the window and to capture the complete scope on one mobilisation — there is no cheap second trip across the strait.

Local applications: the concentrator and its outage windows

The concentrator is where shutdown survey value concentrates at Rosebery, because alignment work on the mills and main conveyors carries outsized importance when the whole site depends on one processing train. ISS supports the recurring outage tasks that sit on the critical path.

Mill relines and drive alignment

SAG, ball and regrind mill relines are the classic Rosebery shutdown event. ISS captures girth-gear and pinion meshing, trunnion bearing elevations and shell ovality against pre-outage baseline, then verifies alignment after rebuild — typically to within 0.1 mm on critical references. A misaligned girth gear and pinion accelerate wear and drop throughput, and at a single-concentrator operation that loss compounds across every downstream circuit.

Flotation, pumps and rotating equipment

Differential flotation drives the zinc-lead-copper separation, so flotation-cell levelling, pump and motor coupling alignment, thickener verticality and crusher gaping are routine in-outage tasks. Each is measured as the area becomes accessible and reported on the spot so the mechanical sequence is never held waiting for a survey result.

Conveyor and transfer-point geometry

Crushing, grinding and stockpile conveyors are surveyed for belt drift, pulley and idler alignment and transfer-point geometry. A drifting main conveyor means spillage and downtime, and on an isolated site that downtime is expensive to recover from.

Structural and crane checks during the outage

The outage is often the only time headframes, bins, conveyor galleries and the concentrator crane rail are cold and accessible. ISS uses the window to verify crane rail gauge, span and elevation to AS 1418 expectations and to capture structural references for reassembly — the kind of work that can only happen when the unit is open.

As-built scanning for the next overhaul

Comprehensive laser scanning during the outage — even of equipment not being worked on — builds an as-built record that becomes the design basis for the next tie-in, retrofit or clash check. The scan captured in this shutdown is what the engineers design the next one against, which matters enormously when re-measuring means another Bass Strait mobilisation.

Watch out: The most common cause of survey-driven outage overrun at a remote site is not measurement error — it is scope discovered too late. Treating the surveyor as a day-of call-out rather than a planned, scheduled resource almost guarantees lost hours waiting for control, access or line of sight, and at Rosebery those lost hours cannot be bought back with a quick extra visit.

Method, sequence and equipment

ISS runs the Rosebery outage survey to a five-phase protocol refined across power, refining and mineral-processing turnarounds, compressed or expanded to suit the shutdown length but holding the sequence.

1. Scope and methodology (4-6 weeks out) — review the outage work list, isolate every survey-dependent task, and map a measurement plan against the schedule. A pre-outage site visit confirms access, hazards, control and line of sight. Critical-path survey tasks are identified so they are resourced, not discovered.
2. Control network (pre-outage) — a stable 3D control network is established around the work area with monumented or semi-permanent references positioned to survive scaffold, crane movement and demolition. Setting control before the area is congested is the single biggest in-outage time-saver.
3. Pre-outage baseline (hour zero) — as-found centrelines, tyre and roller positions, bearing elevations and removal clearances are captured while the plant is still running or immediately after stop. This baseline is the reference all post-work measurement is judged against.
4. In-outage execution — measurement runs in step with mechanical activity: dimensional verification after removal, alignment setting during rebuild, fit-check before installation, and level/flatness on cleaned foundations. Reflectorless and tracker work keeps technicians clear of live lifting; results are reported immediately.
5. Post-outage verification and reporting — a final pass confirms every adjusted component is in tolerance and captures the as-built. A short-form recommissioning compliance summary is issued before restart; the full report follows within 5-10 business days.

Equipment is matched to the task and the schedule, not chosen by default. The Leica TS16 robotic total station (±1 mm + 1.5 ppm, 1" angle) and Leica MS60 MultiStation handle control, alignment and set-out, with Automatic Target Recognition keeping the surveyor out of exclusion zones around active lifts. The Leica RTC360 scanner captures dense as-built point clouds at 2-6 mm at 50 m with sub-two-minute setups — the fastest route to fit-check of replacement modules and clash detection on tie-ins. A FARO laser tracker delivers ±0.015-0.025 mm for the tightest coupling, bore and machined-face work where a total station's accuracy is insufficient. Deliverables are issued in your formats — AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Surpac, Deswik or 12d Model, with point clouds in E57, RCP or native.

Key point: Scanning and total-station work are complementary on a Rosebery outage. The scanner captures the whole condition for as-built and fit-check; the total station and tracker deliver the sub-millimetre alignment numbers the mechanical team signs against. Using one where the other belongs either wastes window time or undershoots the tolerance.

Accuracy, standards and compliance

Outage survey accuracy is matched to the engineering tolerance of each task, then verified against the relevant standard.

All instruments are calibrated to ISO 17025 and traceable to national standards, with measurement uncertainty statements supplied alongside alignment deliverables. Mining at Rosebery operates under Tasmania's Mineral Resources Development Act 1995, administered by Mineral Resources Tasmania, together with the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (Tas) and the associated mines safety framework under WorkSafe Tasmania — which requires monitoring of structures and ground conditions where failure is a credible risk. Crane and lifting structures are assessed against AS 1418.18, steelwork against AS 4100, and any drone capture of stockpiles or TSF surfaces is conducted under CASA CASR Part 101 with the relevant RePL and ReOC certifications. Survey deliverables are produced to ICSM and Tasmanian survey standards and referenced to GDA2020 and AHD, so they drop into your compliance and engineering workflows without rework.

As an indicative guide only, a limited-scope Rosebery shutdown survey — a focused one-to-two-day mill or conveyor alignment task inclusive of travel and the Bass Strait equipment crossing — typically runs from around AUD $7,000-$13,000, while a multi-day concentrator turnaround with continuous attendance and full scanning can exceed AUD $25,000. Set against six-figure-per-day lost concentrate at a single-line operation, the survey program is recovered the moment it prevents one re-lift or one schedule slip. Every job is quoted against a defined scope, accuracy specification and deliverable schedule.

Why ISS for a Rosebery shutdown survey

Rosebery rewards a surveyor who understands both concentrator alignment and remote West Coast logistics, and treats the two as one problem. ISS services Rosebery — see our Rosebery surveying hub for the full operating context — on a mobilised, project-by-project basis built around making each trip across Bass Strait count.

• Scoped, complete mobilisations — every alignment reference, scan position, control point and deliverable is defined before travel, so the full outage scope is captured in one visit rather than discovered as missing after demobilisation.
• Shutdown and turnaround focus — we schedule into the concentrator's maintenance window, working day and night shifts to compress survey time on the critical path so survey is never the activity that extends the outage.
• Off the critical path — control is established before the area is congested and measurement is ready the moment an area is, never before, never after.
• Independent of any OEM — we align and verify mills, drives and rotating equipment from any manufacturer to consistent methodology, with redundant instrumentation so a single equipment failure never stops the line.
• Site-ready — surveyors hold current generic and site-specific mine inductions and the tickets to work on Rosebery underground and processing operations, plus confined space and working-at-heights certification.

For operators running recurring outage programmes, ISS offers service agreements that bundle multiple Rosebery tasks into planned mobilisations, sharing travel cost across the scope and giving you a survey partner who already knows the concentrator.

Frequently asked questions

What is a shutdown survey at Rosebery and when do we need one?

A shutdown survey Rosebery engagement is dimensional control, alignment and as-built measurement delivered inside MMG's concentrator outage window — typically during mill relines, girth-gear and pinion alignment, flotation or conveyor work. You need one whenever measurement sits on the critical path of a time-bound shutdown, or whenever recommissioning depends on verified geometry rather than tape-and-feeler-gauge checks.

How does the single-concentrator setup change the survey?

It raises the stakes on completeness and speed. With no parallel processing line to carry the load, every offline hour stops the whole operation, so ISS scopes the entire campaign up front, establishes control before the area is congested, and reports critical results on the spot so the mechanical sequence never waits. A misaligned mill or drifting main conveyor affects total site throughput, not one circuit among many.

What accuracy can ISS achieve in the outage window?

Rotating-equipment alignment is ±0.3-1.0 mm with total station and MultiStation, coupling coaxiality and concentricity ±0.02-0.05 mm with a laser tracker, and as-built scanning 2-6 mm at 50 m. All instruments are ISO 17025 calibrated and every deliverable is verified against the agreed accuracy specification.

How does the Bass Strait crossing affect timing and cost?

Equipment crosses by sea freight or vehicle ferry, so a little lead time lets us plan one efficient mobilisation rather than a rushed partial trip. We coordinate ferry and freight schedules against your shutdown window and induction lead times, and we scope completely up front because a survey gap discovered mid-outage cannot be fixed with a quick extra visit. That logistics overhead is reflected transparently in the quote.

Request a quote

If you have a Rosebery concentrator shutdown, mill reline or circuit outage coming up, talk to ISS early so the survey protects your window instead of derailing it.

1. Call 0407 057 015 — speak with a surveyor who understands concentrator alignment, outage scheduling and remote West Coast logistics.
2. Receive a detailed proposal — we scope methodology, accuracy specification, schedule, safety and deliverables against your outage work list.
3. Mobilise to site — we coordinate inductions, ferry, freight and equipment to hit your shutdown window in one efficient visit.

For recurring programmes we offer service agreements that bundle multiple Rosebery tasks into planned mobilisations. Contact Industrial Spatial Solutions to scope your outage survey and request a fixed-price quote.

Industrial Spatial Solutions — West Coast ready, mobilised, data-driven.