Lay out Analysis As Part of Facility Siting Study (FSS) in a Mining Operation

The main purpose of this article is to present the use of layout analysis as part of facility siting studies developed at Vale. Considering the importance of conducting a facility siting study acceptably, the first idea to consider is that the conduction of this study identifies the best way to arrange the layout in the site. On the other hand, its absence can result in potential spendings to pay for repairs, lawsuits, or even damages.

Vale has developed the standards to establish company guidelines and minimum safety and integrity requirements. One of them is the standard for Plants – Safe Layout Criteria which establishes minimum requirements for the facilities, regarding safety aspects, identifying areas with assets whose proximity exposes people to unsafe situations. Due to the risk of escalation in an emergency, they can be relocated or safety barriers appropriate to a safe operation can be installed where these assets do not have a safe distance. The expected results of it are to obtain the continuous improvement of Safety and Integrity of Vale’s Assets throughout their life cycle as well as to minimize the probability and consequence of events having material, personal, environmental and/or production impacts.