What we do
We listen to and understand our clients and their engineering needs to develop solutions that deliver the best possible project outcomes for the future in the chemicals, energy and minerals processing industries.
Process Development & Commercialisation
Got a processing challenge, poor performance, or a great idea or resource but no process route to deliver value?
Our process team have the chemistry and process engineering know-how to model capabilities and narrow the options. We’ll help with defining laboratory and pilot plant testwork plans to provide confidence for your stakeholders that we are on the right path. Short of capability, experience or the right people: we can roll up the sleeves and do the testwork for you.
Optimisation & Debottlenecking
Need to reduce emissions, improve recoveries or improve product quality?
We cut to the chase quickly working hard to understand your project drivers, where this fits into your operations and look for the low hanging fruit that can be implemented quickly and easily. We investigate to understand the root cause of issues. Practical experience, process modelling, plant data analysis, new replacement plant or simply improved methods of working: we’ll work with you to implement the recommendations and assure success.
Feasibility Studies
While working to develop and validate the optimal flowsheet for your process, we are conscious of the need for the project to be economically viable: understanding the CAPEX and OPEX of various unit operations is critical to success.
We mitigate risk via testwork and modelling; develop project execution strategies specific to the project; produce CAPEX and OPEX estimates and identify value improvement opportunities consistent with the study phase (concept, pre-feasibility, definitive or bankable) to support the engineering packages.
We can also provide due diligence services to review existing studies.
Multidiscipline Engineering & Design
Our engineering team work closely to deliver complete engineering designs for all project phases for our clients, using their specifications, codes of practice and both Australian and International standards.
These designs incorporate input from our process safety, functional safety and hazardous areas qualified engineers to ensure risks are assessed and adequately mitigated through the design review assurance process.
We are not catalogue engineers: where a job requires something that is not ‘off-the-shelf’ we’ll design it rather than say it can’t be done.
Project Management
Our core values of Delivery and Sustainability are driven from our leaders: project outcomes are to be delivered safely and sustainably while minimising impacts to the community.
Our project management team are strong technical, practical engineers, ensuring that they are able to drive projects forward no matter the size. Each project requires a subtly different approach to assure success: our project managers work hard at the outset with our clients to understand key project drivers (cost, quality and schedule) and develop an execution strategy to suit. Once schedule and budget are defined you can be assured they will work proactively, engaging with all stakeholders to deliver.
Commissioning & Operations Readiness
We are hands-on problem solvers and have expertise in commissioning and operations readiness.
We want to help our clients to assure the success of the project through the construction, commissioning and early operations phases. Whether its answering queries from constructors, developing commissioning plans, standard operating procedures or doing the commissioning: our engineers want to work with you to deliver a successful outcome.
Owners Team Support
Short of key resources? We’ll step in to help support your business in critical areas when you need.
Project too big or you need someone with the hands on practical experience to ensure your selected engineer delivers for you ? We’ll be your owner’s engineer to assure success and support your technical team and do our best to ensure the project objectives are met.
Asset Integrity Support
We can work with you to extend the life of your plant operations providing condition assessment reports on concrete and steel structures and equipment and propose rectification activities to support the extension.
Fitness for service assessments are routinely performed on pressure equipment, tanks and structures to support life extension or verify suitability for revised operating conditions.
Advanced Process Control
Increasingly our clients are looking for quick wins that yield measurable benefits with minimal investments.
Advanced and Model Predictive Control systems offer viable ways to reduce process variability which can lead to production increases and improvements in recovery and efficiency. We have a team who can help you to realise the potential of these products.
Modular and Pilot Plants
To support the commercialisation of concepts and technologies, we’ve built a reputation for cost effectively delivering pilot and skid mounted plants.
Finding the balance between cost, design life, compliance with site standards, but still ensuring that the key design criteria and parameters are obtained to support future design phases are critical success factors that we’ve become accustomed to working with our clients and their technology providers.
Advise
Value is best created in the early phase of projects where our engineers can deploy their creativity and practical knowledge to optimise a project.
In this phase we identify the most appropriate technologies and solutions to meet the project objectives considering the impacts of all phases of the project life cycle. Brownfield and greenfield projects require different approaches in this phase and our ‘agile’ project delivery model ensures that effort is expended appropriately to focus on what is critical for success for that project, whether that be to reduce cost or schedule, mitigate risk or simplify the outcome.
Define
Developing the engineering solution requires a clear understanding of the problem. We will evaluate and define the problem then recommend our solution. The feasibility of projects is critically tested at this stage: it is where our practical experience shines as the design and layout matures to ensure that what we deliver is easy to construct, commission, operate and maintain.
We mature the project execution strategy in consultation with our clients considering the key risks and value drivers identified in the previous phase. Working with the client and vendors we ensure the optimal practical solutions are incorporated in the design outcome.
Execute
This is where our focus on delivery comes to the fore. The time for optioneering has finished and the team is focused on delivering the engineering work scope to the desired budget and schedule. We work actively with the client procurement team to ensure that vendor deliverables and processes are integrated with our own to minimise interfaces. Risk, design, operability and constructability reviews ensure that all parties have an opportunity to review the design for an optimal outcome. Final work packages have the end game in mind: construction work packs consistent with the execution strategy and for handover to Operations.
Assure
A successful project is not just a detailed design package to us. We work with your Operations Readiness and Commissioning Teams to ensure that the design intent is translated into reality.
We are happy being out there in the field with you commissioning and performance testing the equipment and where issues arise, working proactively to rectify and deliver a successful outcome. These relationships, plant knowledge and site understanding are fed back into the design process through these engineers for the next wave of projects we deliver for you.
Why us
We run a relationship based business model where we have long term repeat clients that we work with who trust us to deliver optimal, practical solutions.
We are focused on what is required to achieve the end result, by when and for how much.
Our experienced people bring cross commodity, operations and commissioning learnings to ensure our design meets the requirements of all stakeholders.
Chemicals
Our process engineering DNA opens up opportunities to work with clients looking to develop new products or commercialise an idea that has the potential to disrupt an industry.
We look at where your competitive advantage is in the supply chain and our broad industry exposure allows us to work with you to customise where the ideal location might be to maximise synergies on your project.
For established fertiliser producers, we have a great team with ammonia / urea / phosphate and ammonium nitrate operations and design experience that is rare in the Australian market.
Mineral Processing
Since our inception, we’ve worked closely with copper, nickel, silver, tungsten, magnesium, gold and uranium producers to optimise and debottleneck their plants.
We’ve studied alternative ways to operate their plant; increase capacity of plant areas by replacing or adding new equipment; or looked at new flowsheet options to support changes to ore bodies across the project life.
When delivering sustaining capital projects, we listen to what our clients need; understand the requirements of the project and the plant; and deliver an optimal, practical design through their gated process. Where required, our team has developed a reputation for effectively delivering fast-track projects to meet the urgent needs of the business.
Critical Minerals
We have been at the forefront of this fast developing sector in Australia helping clients customise processes and products for this sector.
Our hands on approach, working with our clients to derisk their project through laboratory work and pilot plant development allows us to clearly understand the scale up fundamentals of their process. Purity is king with battery metals, we have detailed experience with high purity processes and especially assay analysis. We are technology neutral and our combined hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical capabilities are brought together seamlessly to optimise the design. We are scalable to work on projects of all sizes and complexity and the technical background to develop new equipment designs if it doesn’t appear in the catalogue.
From nickel, cobalt, lithium, high purity alumina through to heavy and light rare earths, we have the experience and capability to support you.
Decarbonisation
Across all industries, legislated decarbonisation requirements are driving a massive shift in the way our clients operate, evaluate projects and in the development of new products required to support that shift.
Our target is to remain at the forefront of companies supporting our clients to achieve the common goals of reducing their environmental footprint whether this be through reducing energy, chemicals or water consumption; increase use of ‘green’ electricity or chemicals; reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and reducing waste water or solid waste volumes that must be treated and disposed of.
OUR CLIENTS
Our extensive client base ranges from junior explorer’s and companies looking to commercialise a process through to established Tier 1 and 2 operators.
BHP
Santos
Ampol
Rio Tinto
Beach Energy
OzMinereals
AlphaHPA