Delivering plantwide control for Arrium’s Iron Knob mine

Arrium's Iron Knob mine required a complete crushing and screening plant capable of processing hematite iron ore at scale, with the added constraint that equipment had to be modular and mobile to minimize capital expenditure and deployment time. The core engineering challenge was delivering plantwide control and safety across a complex array of feeders, conveyors, and crushers — all while keeping downtime to an absolute minimum during commissioning. Without an integrated control architecture, managing 75 individual drive systems and maintaining functional safety across the entire facility would have been operationally unworkable and a significant liability risk.

Delivering engaged Rockwell Automation's integrated control and safety platform to meet the mine's operational requirements. Allen-Bradley ControlLogix programmable automation controllers provided the core process control logic, while GuardLogix safety controllers delivered integrated functional safety across the plant — eliminating the need for a separate safety PLC layer. Seventy-five Allen-Bradley PowerFlex variable frequency drives were deployed to manage feeders, conveyors, and crushers with precise speed and torque control. FactoryTalk View SE provided plantwide HMI and supervisory monitoring from a single interface. Network reliability was addressed through a Device Level Ring (DLR) topology using Stratix managed switches, providing fault-tolerant Ethernet connectivity across all plant nodes.

The integrated Rockwell Automation platform delivered measurable operational and financial outcomes:

• 50% reduction in plant costs through the use of mobile and modular equipment rather than fixed infrastructure
• The plant now processes approximately 5 million tonnes of ore per annum at sustained throughput
• Minimal unplanned downtime attributable directly to the high availability of the ControlLogix/GuardLogix control architecture

The unified control and safety system eliminated the engineering complexity of managing disparate systems, and the DLR network topology ensured that single-point network failures did not propagate into production stoppages.

• Integrate control and safety on a single platform — combining ControlLogix and GuardLogix removes the complexity of separate safety PLC programming and reduces commissioning time.
• Mobile and modular equipment can cut capital costs significantly — a 50% cost reduction was achieved here by avoiding fixed infrastructure; this approach suits greenfield and remote mine sites.
• Network topology is not an afterthought — DLR with managed switches provides the redundancy needed to sustain high availability in high-throughput processing environments.
• Standardized drive platforms simplify maintenance — deploying a single drive family across all motion axes reduces spare parts inventory and technician training requirements.