Feature Project: Cerro Verde Sulfide
Malcolm Muir - Project Leader

In March 2005, we began work on the Cerro Verde Sulfide Project, which is located in Peru; this project was designed by Fluor, in Vancouver, and the steel fabrication was managed by Schuff Steel in Phoenix. The detailing, of course was done by Dowco, and our connection design was handled by Structural Consultants Incorporated, located in Denver

The estimated tonnage at the outset was just less than 14,000 metric tons; the final actual tonnage came in at approximately 12,500 tons, which was broken into 14 separate structures ranging in size from a few metric tons to 2000 metric tons, along with 13 separate conveyor systems comprising overland tables, trusses, bents, take-up towers and transfer towers.

The team at Fluor, responsible for providing Dowco with the information necessary to enable us to complete our part, has been a pleasure to work with throughout the entire course of this job; they have provided timely answers to our questions and been flexible enough to accept our suggestions where it was helpful to both us and the project.

The scheduled duration for Dowco to detail this material was approximately 32 weeks, but this grew to more than 52 weeks due to delays in information release and revisions resulting from equipment selection and procurement. Extra time was also added due to some additional scope being included in our contract.

The project was originally broken into 65 sequences over 21 different Dowco Job numbers; the final count was closer to 85 sequences over 23 job numbers. We had as many as 10 different Project Managers directing 75 people working on up to 48 different sequences at the one time.

The challenge, as can be imagined, was in directing and tracking all of the sequences that were active simultaneously. Obviously, with 48 sequences underway at the same time our project managers had more than one sequence to deal with. I’m very pleased to say that they all did a remarkable job and kept control of everything that was asked of them.

Ultimately, Dowco produced almost 32,000 detail drawings (not counting parts sheets) and over 800 Erection Diagrams, along with all of the associated ABM lists, shop and field bolt lists and downloads required for CNC equipment; all of this being slightly complicated by the fact that some of the fabrication was being done in America, which required dimensions to be in Imperial Units while the remainder was being fabricated in Peru, where of course they work with Metric Units.

The original plan called for Schuff to sub-contract and manage all of the fabrication using this mix of American and Peruvian fabricators; they were not intending to fabricate any of the steel themselves, but as they say; the best laid plans…

Ultimately, due to scheduling difficulties with sub fabricators and other logistical problems involving material procurement and delivery, they were obliged to undertake some of the more difficult and challenging fabrication in some of their own shops.

I can only guess at the complexity of the problems faced by the staff at Schuff during the past 12 months. I do know that they were under a huge amount of pressure and had to increase their manpower on the project just to manage all of the disparate elements involved in this huge undertaking. They not only had to manage all the drawings we had to manage, they also had to order the material, the bolts, the decking, the grating, the stair treads, the paint and anything else that would be required for each and every sequence; they then had to track the delivery of all this, and it’s not always a one stop shop. Some of the material came from the mills and some came from the warehouse (again not always from just the one). Bolts came from different places, as did the grating etc, and all of this material is going to different places to arrive at different times, but on time. Throw in the odd truck breakdown or hurricane and you can imagine the nightmare.

Throughout all of this they managed to keep a sense of humor and that made my job very much more pleasant, and as far as I'm concerned they are truly a bunch of "heroes".